The Pasts and Futures of Queer German Studies

University of British Columbia

Unceded Musqueam Territory

Organizers: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj

Tweet or join the discussion with #queergermanstudies.

Friday, April 24, 2020

Land Acknowledgment

3:30 pm (PDT)

Ziegler Lecture Keynote: Katie Sutton (Australian National University): Cultivating an Ethical Gaze: Thinking with and beyond Identity in Queer and Trans German Pasts and Presents

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Land Acknowledgment and Welcome

8:50 am–9:00 am (PDT)

Panel 1

9:00 am–10:45 am (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Ben Miller (Schwules Museum/Freie Universität Berlin): Raging Pegasus: Hans Heinrich von Twardowski and the Transnational History of Gay Liberation
2. Simone Stirner (University of California, Berkeley): Queering German Memory Culture; or, Why do Elio and Oliver read Paul Celan?
3. Braden Russell (University of Victoria): ‘Pink’ Monuments and ‘Pink’ Archives: Agents and Actors of Remembering Homosexual Victims of National Socialism in Vienna, Austria

Panel 2

11:00 am–12:45 pm (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Sophie Emilia Seidler (University of Washington, Seattle): Lesbian, hetero, asexual, queer? Sappho’s fluidity of desire in Franz Grillparzer (1818) and Christine Brückner (1983)
2. Domenic DeSocio (University of Michigan): Plato, an Orphan, and Everlasting Love: Continuity and Rupture in Queer Studies, or, the Example of Klaus Mann’s Der fromme Tanz
3. Erin Gizewski (University of Illinois, Chicago): Relations and Queer Becomings: Affectual Form and Body without Organs in Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Klavierspielerin

Panel 3

2:00 pm–3:45 pm (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Thomas Love (Northwestern University): The Ethnographic Roots of Queer Exoticism in Germany
2. Valerie Weinstein (University of Cincinnati): Queer German Studies and Jewish Difference: The Case of Anders als die Andern
3. Priscilla Layne (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill): The Politics of Belonging in Home?

Panel 4

4:00 pm–5:45 pm (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Sara Friedman (University of California, Berkeley): The Afterlives of Anders als die Andern: Media Archeology and Queer Weimar
2. Andrew Keegan (Independent Scholar): Outside the City: A Case for Excavating the Rural and Non-Urban in Queer German Studies
3. Elizabeth Keith (Ohio State University): “We enjoy the transient world together”: Creating and Performing the Lesbian Identity Through Print Media in Weimar’s Golden Years (1924–1929)
4. Robert Tobin (Clark University): The Queer Roots of the Far Right

Panel 5

6:00 pm–7:00 pm (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Heidi Schlipphacke (University of Illinois, Chicago): German Queer Studies and the Frankfurt School: Adorno and Queer Aesthetics
2. Simone Pfleger (University of Alberta): Queer German Studies or German Queer Studies? Reflections on Disciplinary Situatedness through Relationality

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Panel 6

9:00 am–10:45 am (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Jill Suzanne Smith (Bowdoin College): Beware of Queer Branding: The Case of Babylon Berlin
2. Tom Smith (University of St Andrews): Postcritically Queer: Techno, Queer Sexuality and Queer German Futures
3. Rafael Balling (Stanford University): The Story of N.O. Body. A New Perspective on Aus eines Mannes Mädchenjahren

Wrap-Up Discussion and Plans for Future Work

11:00 am–12:00 pm (PDT) (open only to conference presenters)

Conference Sponsors

Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

UBC Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies

UBC Green College

UBC Department of History

UBC Department of Sociology

UBC Equity & Inclusion Office

UBC Institute for European Studies

UBC Social Justice Institute

The Pasts and Futures of Queer German Studies

University of British Columbia

Unceded Musqueam Territory

Organizers: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj

Thank you for joining us in this online conference experiment. We welcome public participation in the conference. Those who are not presenting at the conference will automatically join the session as a participant, which means that your audio and video will be muted. Participants are encouraged to submit questions to the presenters via the Chat feature in Collaborate Ultra. UBC aims to cultivate a respectful environment, and this conference will comport with that policy: https://wellbeing.ubc.ca/ubc-statement-respectful-environments. Disrespectful or denigrating behaviour will not be tolerated. 

Tweet or join the discussion with #queergermanstudies.

Friday, April 24, 2020

Land Acknowledgment

3:30 pm (PDT)

Keynote: Katie Sutton (Australian National University): Thinking with and beyond Identity in Queer and Trans German Studies
Taking place via Collaborate Ultra. Join at: https://ca.bbcollab.com/guest/d6407518d1234846ab04eb1f67abab31 

Saturday, April 25, 2020

To join the sessions on Saturday, please use this link: https://ca.bbcollab.com/guest/f21ff3f121884deea5298c588827cbaf 

Land Acknowledgment and Welcome

8:50 am–9:00 am (PDT)

Panel 1

9:00 am–10:45 am (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Ben Miller (Schwules Museum/Freie Universität Berlin): Raging Pegasus: Hans Heinrich von Twardowski and the Transnational History of Gay Liberation
2. Simone Stirner (University of California, Berkeley): Queering German Memory Culture; or, Why do Elio and Oliver read Paul Celan?
3. Braden Russell (University of Victoria): ‘Pink’ Monuments and ‘Pink’ Archives: Agents and Actors of Remembering Homosexual Victims of National Socialism in Vienna, Austria

Panel 2

11:00 am–12:45 pm (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Sophie Emilia Seidler (University of Washington, Seattle): Lesbian, hetero, asexual, queer? Sappho’s fluidity of desire in Franz Grillparzer (1818) and Christine Brückner (1983)
2. Domenic DeSocio (University of Michigan): Plato, an Orphan, and Everlasting Love: Continuity and Rupture in Queer Studies, or, the Example of Klaus Mann’s Der fromme Tanz
3. Erin Gizewski (University of Illinois, Chicago): Relations and Queer Becomings: Affectual Form and Body without Organs in Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Klavierspielerin

Panel 3

2:00 pm–3:45 pm (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Thomas Love (Northwestern University): The Ethnographic Roots of Queer Exoticism in Germany
2. Valerie Weinstein (University of Cincinnati): Queer German Studies and Jewish Difference: The Case of Anders als die Andern
3. Priscilla Layne (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill): The Politics of Belonging in Home?

Panel 4

4:00 pm–5:45 pm (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Sara Friedman (University of California, Berkeley): The Afterlives of Anders als die Andern: Media Archeology and Queer Weimar
2. Andrew Keegan (Independent Scholar): Outside the City: A Case for Excavating the Rural and Non-Urban in Queer German Studies
3. Elizabeth Keith (Ohio State University): “We enjoy the transient world together”: Creating and Performing the Lesbian Identity Through Print Media in Weimar’s Golden Years (1924–1929)
4. Robert Tobin (Clark University): Male-Male Desire and the Far Right

Panel 5

6:00 pm–7:00 pm (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Heidi Schlipphacke (University of Illinois, Chicago): German Queer Studies and the Frankfurt School: Adorno and Queer Aesthetics
2. Simone Pfleger (University of Alberta): Queer German Studies or German Queer Studies? Reflections on Disciplinary Situatedness through Relationality

Sunday, April 26, 2020

To join the sessions on Sunday, please use this link: https://ca.bbcollab.com/guest/f21ff3f121884deea5298c588827cbaf 

Panel 6

9:00 am–10:45 am (PDT) 

Moderators: Kyle Frackman & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)

1. Jill Suzanne Smith (Bowdoin College): Beware of Queer Branding: The Case of Babylon Berlin
2. Tom Smith (University of St Andrews): Postcritically Queer: Techno, Queer Sexuality and Queer German Futures
3. Rafael Balling (Stanford University): The Story of N.O. Body. A New Perspective on Aus eines Mannes Mädchenjahren 

Wrap-Up Discussion and Plans for Future Work

11:00 am–12:00 pm (PDT) (open only to conference presenters)

Conference Sponsors

Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

UBC Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies

UBC Green College

UBC Department of History

UBC Department of Sociology

UBC Equity & Inclusion Office

UBC Institute for European Studies

UBC Social Justice Institute

Due to the growing concerns about COVID-19 and travel, we will be moving “The Pasts and Futures of Queer German Studies” to a virtual/online format. More information will follow.

The program for The Pasts and Futures of Queer German Studies is now available as a Google Doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F1kr2BD-MnKbKEfUCOfd_ZavKnsuFd7tJmeRs2ry_vc/edit?usp=sharing

A tentative program for “The Pasts and Futures of Queer German Studies” is coming soon.

We have received generous funding in the form of a SSHRC Connection Grant.

We are grateful for the support of the following UBC units: Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies (CENES), Department of History, Institute for European Studies, Social Justice Institute, Department of Sociology, and the Office of Equity and Inclusion.