Film Review: My name is not Ali – Ali im Paradies – Jannat Ali
Posted in conjunction with the course Multicultural Germany in fall semester 2015. Author: Tina Schlagenhaufer Film Review: Viola Shafik’s My name is not Ali – Ali im Paradies – Jannat Ali My Name Is Not Ali is a documentary by Viola Shafik[1] from the year 2011 about the actor El Hedi Ben Salem M’barek Mohammed Mustafa, who was […]
Film Review: The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
Posted in conjunction with the course Multicultural Germany in fall semester 2015. Author: Gradey Wang The 2006 German drama film The Lives of Others (German: Das Leben der Anderen) directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck follows the lives of playwright Georg Dreyman (played by Sebastian Koch) and his girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland (played by Martina Gedeck) in […]
Film Review: Head-On (Gegen die Wand)
Posted in conjunction with the course Multicultural Germany in fall semester 2015. Author: Andrew Christensen Gegen die Wand is a dark and dramatic romance directed and written by Fatih Akın. The film makes a powerful statement about the nature of love and family by exploring the unorthodox relationship between two initially broken individuals – Sibel […]
“Still Alive: Memory of Economic Contribution of the Korean Guest Workers” by Jung Woo Park
As the wave of immigrants continues to flood into Germany fleeing the war-torn countries such as Syria, the refugee crisis in Europe dominates the newspaper headlines around the world. Interestingly, however, not all of the newspapers seem to have the same focus. While major Western news sources mostly focus on the political implications of this […]
“Made in Germany: Identity and Memory” by Jung Woo Park
Last Tuesday, we had the opportunity to watch the film Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland, a German comedy film about a former Turkish guest worker. The film was very interesting, not only because it deftly wove comedy into the history of the Guest Worker Program, but also because it reminded me of another film about […]
Multicultural Germany Course: Week 6 Summary (Oct. 5 & 7)
Migration brings both culture and religion. This week in our course we focused on religion and secularism, acknowledging the complexity of the terms in context of past and current migrations related to Germany. Our discussion found its beginnings in questions such as: Does religion form part of collective memory? Which conflicts arise around differing religious […]
Multicultural Germany Course: Week 5 Summary (Sept. 28 & 30)
This last week in class, we discussed the idea of German collective memory and screened the film Almanya – Welcome to Germany. The week’s discussions started with how the term “melting pot” was used to describe US culture in the early 1900s. The picture found on the Wikipedia page for the term (The Melting Pot) […]
Multicultural Germany Course: Week 4 Summary (Sept. 21 & 23)
Who defines identity? Germany’s struggle with inclusivity. This last week in class, we discussed the limits of Germany’s capacity to take in immigrants and what it means to be German. Proponents of reducing the number of foreigners in Germany believe that the “boat” of Germany’s capacity for incorporation of foreigners is “full.” To these native-born […]
The End of Migration As We Knew It
On October 4, 2015, a panel on “Ethnography and the Study of Diversity in Germany” held in Washington, D.C., questioned paradigms of research on transnational migration and diversity, focusing on the impossibility of containing these categories within nation-based frameworks of analysis. As part of a series of five panels on “Ethnography and German Studies,” organized […]
True Stories of Being Black in Germany, Lakshmi Sarah
Lakshmi Sarah, one of the participants in the course Multicultural Germany, produced an article published in KQED entitled “True Stories of Being Black in Germany” in which she introduces a traveling exhibit from the Goethe Institut and its curator Victoria Toney-Robinson. Please click on this link to read the article in full: “True Stories of […]