Transcultural Approaches to Europe

As a recent, widely-circulated open letter by the Diversity, Decolonization, and the German Curriculum (DDGC) collective reminds us, the future that was announced in 1992 by the special “Focus on Diversity” issue of Die Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German remains to be enacted. As the collective writes, that moment “appeared to herald a future in which Scholars of Color, women, LGBT people, Jewish people, refugees, immigrants, non-native speakers, and low-income learners would meaningfully count—not as peripheral topics to be discussed and included, but as core makers of the consciousness of German Studies.” If the present moment is defined by a growing awareness of the extent to which that commitment to justice and critical consciousness attested to in 1992 has continued to be marginalized and underacknowleged in the field and its institutions, it also involves recognizing that this very awareness is part of a paradigmatic shift in across language and literature departments.

This lecture series will explore these issues throughout the 2019-20 academic year.