The three-day research class “German Studies in Times of Globalization”, organised by Prof. Dr. Monika Schausten (German Language and Literature of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age) and Prof. Dr. Anja Lemke (Modern German Literature), focuses on German Studies as an intercultural research object in the context of a globalized and digitalized world. Building on older research in the history and criticism of science (Lämmert, Conrady), the question of the political and cultural dimensions, the scientific restrictions and limitations of the concept of ‘national philology’ is posed once again from a transatlantic perspective. In the context of the event, innovative approaches to transcultural German Studies in the global age will be discussed, considering both current US-American approaches to Diversity and Decolonisation in German Studies (Criser/Malakai 2020) and discussions on a ‘New (National) Philology’ and philological knowledge in changing medial practices (Krause/Pethes 2017) in the German-speaking world. All in all, the research class aims to prepare international co-publications in German Studies written by transatlantic tandems. The participants’ research will be supported by a three-day writing workshop on “Academic Writing” to be held in Cologne immediately following the research class.

With their three thematic (main) focuses – journalism, literature and science – the writing workshops, which are central to the GIP program, combine application-related exchange with academic debate on formats of writing. Their aim is to offer participants opportunities to practice literary, journalistic and scientific writing in a transatlantic context and develop new formats of presentation both in science communication and in science itself. In this way, professional and application-oriented elements of study and new academic formats are to be developed. The GIP’s first writing workshop on “Academic Writing” is specifically designed to prepare the participants of the research class “German Studies in Times of Globalization” for smaller scientific publications. Particular consideration will be given to the format of the book review. Furthermore, the Wikipedia entries on ‘Germanistik’ and ‘German Studies’ will be subject to a critical revision. Finally, the participants will be supported in finding their specific research topics and creating the respective co-publications on “German Studies in Times of Globalization”.

Im Rahmen der von Prof. Dr. Deniz Göktürk (UC Berkeley) und Michaela Predeick (Universität zu Köln) konzipierten journalistischen Schreibwerkstatt „Kritisch Kreativ“ werden die Studierenden zusammen mit dem Literaturwissenschaftler Prof. Dr. Moritz Baßler (Münster) und dem Autor Ilija Trojanow an eigenen kulturjournalistischen Artikeln bzw. Essays zur deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur arbeiten. Dabei sollen sowohl kritisch-analytische als auch schreibpraktische Aspekte kulturjournalistischer Arbeit vor dem Hintergrund einer voranschreitenden Digitalisierung und Internationalisierung in den Blick genommen werden. Ausgehend von Fragestellungen, die auf Bedingungen und Potenziale von Gegenwartsliteratur auf der einen Seite und nach Aufgaben von Kritik und Wissenschaft auf der anderen Seite abzielen, ginge es auch darum, Unterschiede und Resonanzen zwischen Literaturkritik und poetisch-kreativem Schreiben auszuloten und produktiv ins Gespräch zu bringen.
Eine Veröffentlichung der im Rahmen der Schreibwerkstatt ausgearbeiteten Texte ist angestrebt, möglicherweise in Transit, MGP Blog oder STELLWERK Magazin.

In the context of the block seminar "Kulturelle Identität(en): Perspektiven einer postkolonialen Literaturwissenschaft," organized by Prof. Obenewaa Oduro-Opuni (University of Arizona) and Prof. Christof Hamann (University of Cologne), literary texts from the 18th century to the present will be examined from an intersectional perspective.

Concepts of postcolonial studies, critical race theory, and gender theory will be reflected upon and applied to primary texts in order to examine how German-language literature depicts various forms of discrimination against people of color, refugees, and “foreign” constructed “others.” Theoretical approaches by Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Edward W. Said, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak as well as literary texts by May Ayim, Bertolt Brecht, Elisa Diallo, Barbara Köhler, August von Kotzebue, Sharon Dodua Otoo, and Sasha Marianna Salzmann will be discussed in detail. In addition, Zoom talks with selected authors are planned.

The three-day research class “German Studies in Times of Globalization”, organised by Prof. Dr. Monika Schausten (German Language and Literature of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age) and Prof. Dr. Anja Lemke (Modern German Literature), focuses on German Studies as an intercultural research object in the context of a globalized and digitalized world. Building on older research in the history and criticism of science (Lämmert, Conrady), the question of the political and cultural dimensions, the scientific restrictions and limitations of the concept of ‘national philology’ is posed once again from a transatlantic perspective. In the context of the event, innovative approaches to transcultural German Studies in the global age will be discussed, considering both current US-American approaches to Diversity and Decolonisation in German Studies (Criser/Malakai 2020) and discussions on a ‘New (National) Philology’ and philological knowledge in changing medial practices (Krause/Pethes 2017) in the German-speaking world. All in all, the research class aims to prepare international co-publications in German Studies written by transatlantic tandems.

In continuation of the block seminar "Plurilingualism“, organized by Prof. Nicole Marx (University of Cologne) and Prof. Peter Ecke (University of Arizona) and held in Tucson, Arizona, in the fall of 2022, more aspects of the investigation of individual multilingualism will be explored. The focus of the next cooperative workshop are current constructs of multilingualism and attempts to operationalize and investigate them though different research approaches, methods, and instruments. The objective of the seminar is it to learn about challenges related to the heterogeneous constructs of multilingualism and its investigation in specific research contexts in German-speaking countries, the United States, and elsewhere.

The three-day research class “German Studies in Times of Globalization”, organised by Prof. Dr. Monika Schausten (German Language and Literature of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age) and Prof. Dr. Anja Lemke (Modern German Literature), focuses on German Studies as an intercultural research object in the context of a globalized and digitalized world. Building on older research in the history and criticism of science (Lämmert, Conrady), the question of the political and cultural dimensions, the scientific restrictions and limitations of the concept of ‘national philology’ is posed once again from a transatlantic perspective. In the context of the event, innovative approaches to transcultural German Studies in the global age will be discussed, considering both current US-American approaches to Diversity and Decolonisation in German Studies (Criser/Malakai 2020) and discussions on a ‘New (National) Philology’ and philological knowledge in changing medial practices (Krause/Pethes 2017) in the German-speaking world. All in all, the research class aims to prepare international co-publications in German Studies written by transatlantic tandems.