Ten Years After Fukushima
by Yoko Tawada TRANSIT Vol. 13, No. 1 Translated by Elizabeth Sun Download PDF What is the half-life of Caesium? 30 years? How long does it take Plutonium to decay in half? 24,000 years? Uranium takes as long as 4.5 billion years. I cannot bear this idea. I close my eyes, defiantly telling myself that […]
Fostering Transnational, Multilingual Collaboration: The Berlin-based Artists’ Initiative WeiterSchreiben.jetzt
TRANSIT Vol. 13, No. 1 by Friederike Eigler Download PDF Abstract The Berlin-based initiative Weiter Schreiben was founded in 2017 by the writer Annika Reich and responds to the daunting refugee situation in contemporary Europe by encouraging collaboration between established and displaced writers living in Germany. The initiative’s objective is to foster multidirectional networks instead of […]
Weltstadt — Erinnerung und Zukunft von Geflüchteten im Modell (WORLD CITY: Refugees’ Memories and Futures as Models)
About the Project: From September 2016 to March 2017, S27 – Art and Education held eight xed and mobile model-making workshops in different Berlin districts as well as in Genshagen (Brandenburg). The residents of nearby refugee homes and pupils from a “welcome class” (a German language class for refugees) attended the workshops to make their […]
Between Victim and Perpetrator Imaginary: The Implicated Subject in Works by Rachel Seiffert and Cate Shortland
TRANSIT vol. 10, no. 2 Susanne Baackmann Download PDF Abstract The future of Germany’s murderous past is now being reconsidered by a new generation of artists who have to navigate an increasing distance to the Third Reich and its remaining witnesses. Thus it is not surprising that recent postmemory work registers shifts, both with respect […]
Generation Mini-Series: Contemporary German Historical Event-Television and the Implications of its Interactive Elements
TRANSIT vol. 10, no. 2 Sara F. Hall Download PDF Abstract The controversial 2012 ZDF mini-series Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter/Generation War epitomizes German “historical event television,” a broadcasting trend aligned with the recent tendency to normalize the nation’s relationship with its past. Reaching beyond the borders of the narrative drama, the series’ producers created and […]
“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 Class: Week 6, Religion
This post is part of a series in which students reflect on their discussions in the UC Berkeley undergraduate seminar “Multicultural Germany.” This week’s summary is by Victoria Brinkerhoff: This week’s Multicultural Germany class readings and discussions delved into religious variation, contention, and representation within Germany today. We focused on questions and debates surrounding secularism, […]
Multicultural Germany Class: Week 5, Collective Memory
This post is part of a series in which students reflect on their discussions in the UC Berkeley undergraduate seminar “Multicultural Germany.” This week’s summary is by Ann Huang: As the discussion of a multicultural Germany progresses, the conversation naturally gravitates towards an analysis of the contemporary situation of ‘migrants’ and the persistent underlying difficulties to […]
Perspectives on Cultural Memory: Aleida Assmann’s Berkeley Visit
Aleida Assmann’s recent visit to the University of California, Berkeley, October 28-29, 2013, brought local and academic communities together to participate in discussion on cultural memory and dealing with the past. Chair of English Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Konstanz and a leading scholar in cultural memory studies, Assmann began her two […]
Moving Europe Workshop: Migrant Archives (March 7, Berkeley)
You are invited to participate in the workshop Moving Europe: Migrant Archives Thursday, March 7, 12-2 pm, 201 Moses, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley