Special Issue CFP: Race in German Culture and Pedagogy

Vasuki Shanmuganathan Announcement
Location
Ontario, Canada
Subject Fields
Film and Film History, German History / Studies, Humanities, Race Studies, Teaching and Learning

To examine race in German cultural studies is to often reference discourses of Bildung, colonialism, capitalism, and communism, which shaped much of today’s German-speaking diasporic spaces. In this journal issue, we wish to highlight the framing presence of race, be it as an expression of political engagement within canonical texts, current pedagogical approaches to German Studies, a connecting theme in contemporary culture, or as a structuring subject in film and art. We welcome abstract proposals that engage with German culture (literature, film, new media) and/or pedagogy through the lens of race in addressing some of the following questions or forming the basis of new ones we need to consider:

  • How can discussing the presence of race in texts help us understand German culture?
  • How do German literature, art, and film raise questions of intersectionality?  
  • Can we shift the dominant discussions in the field by changing which scholars we cite? Especially those who have engaged with race as part of their analysis?
  • How has the spread of the German language through colonialism, capitalism, and communism shaped the profile of learners and scholars of German?*
  • How has the representation of Germanness shifted over time?
  • Who is a heritage learner of German? Very often this term is used in a way that excludes those who have grown up with German, but are not of Germanic descent. How do such learners relate to the language community?
  • Who is being invited to be in the German classrooms at North American educational institutions?

The questions we have posed are for guidance and we welcome proposals that speak about race and German culture Please direct any questions and submissions to the special issue editors Hang-Sun Kim (University of Toronto) and Vasuki Shanmuganathan (York University).

 

200-300 Word Abstract due: May 1, 2019

Decisions by: May 10, 2019

Full essay due: August 10, 2019

Contact Information

Dr. Hang-Sun Kim (University of Toronto)

hangsun.kim@utoronto.ca

Dr. Vasuki Shanmuganathan (York University)

vasukis@yorku.ca

Contact Email
vasukis@yorku.ca