TRANSIT BLOG

TRANSIT Blog was formerly part of the Multicultural Germany Project (MGP), which we are now merging with Transit Journal. Founded in 2001 by the German Department at UC Berkeley, MGP served as a research collaborative and continuously updated archive of migration, supported by the tireless energy and willpower of our very own Deniz Göktürk and UC Berkeley’s graduate students. Our blog includes reactions to current events and news, research materials, and teaching resources. Maintained mainly by students at Berkeley, the blog provides a window into our activities and campus discussions. We hope that TRANSIT Blog continues to serve as a resource and forum for both aspiring and continuing professionals in German Studies and its adjacent fields; we welcome contributions of short thought-pieces of ca. 1000-1500 words year-round. If you would like to contribute your own blog post or other materials (in English or German), please contact us at transitjournal@berkeley.edu.

  • Where Europe Continues… Translingual Writers & the Cosmopolitan Imagination

    Readings and a Roundtable with Yoko Tawada and Zafer Senocak moderated by Deniz Göktürk (UC Berkeley) Discussant: Homi K. Bhabha (Harvard University)  Friday | 18 April 2008 | 4-6 pm Townsend Center for the Humanities, Geballe Room

  • Fatih Akin’s Latest Film “Soul Kitchen”

    Reuters: “Fatih Akin’s “Soul Kitchen” offers tasty treat” Zeit Online: “Fatih Akin in seiner Heimatstadt gefeiert” CNN Türk: “Hamburg’un açılışı Fatih Akın’dan”

  • Refugee Camp in France Closed

    Spiegel Article: “Französische Polizei räumt Flüchtlingslager am Ärmelkanal“

  • “NPD’s Racist Election Campaign Flops”

    Spiegel Article : “NPD’s Racist Election Campaign Flops”

  • Alles auf Zucker! (Go for Zucker)

    With actors Henry Hübchen and Hannelore Elsner; available on DVD in Germany and U.S. Review by Jennifer Lau: Nothing brings an estranged family together like the death of a loved one and the subsequent promise of an inheritance. In Dani Levy’s 2004 comedy, Go for Zucker (Alles auf Zucker), two brothers are forced to overcome their animosity and reconcile…

  • Illona & Kurti

    Kurt Schneider, ein oberflächlicher, heiterer Typ, erschleicht, von seiner Mutter angestiftet, eine Erbschaft: Ein Haus und etwas Geld. Beide sind sich sicher, dass es keine gesetzlichen Erben gibt. Es ist verständlich, dass beide entsetzt reagieren, als eines Tages Ilona, die gesetzmäßige Erbin, aus einem abgelegenen Teil Jugoslawiens auftaucht. Um das erschlichene Erbe nicht zu verlieren,…

  • Schussangst (Gun-Shy)

    With actors Fabian Hinrichs and Lavinia Wilson “Gun-Shy” is a poetic thriller, depicting the desolation and disintegration of Lukas, a misfit. His life takes a strange turn for the worse when he becomes involved in an unrequited love affair with Isabella. Lukas is doing civil service, delivering “meals on wheels” to the old and sick.…

  • Grenzverkehr (Border Traffic)

    With actors Andreas Buntscheck , Joseph M’Barek, Ferdinand Schmidt-Modrow Available on DVD in Germany Three awkward 16-year-old boys from a small Bavarian village decide to lose their virginity in the nearby Czech Republic, a common spot for German sex-tourists. After they lose their borrowed mopeds to a couple of pimps, they get themselves and pregnant…

  • Omulaule Heißt Schwarz: A Documentary about Namibia, the GDR and the Search for Home

    Screening (in German with English subtitles) followed by discussion

  • Ursula Biemann in Conversation: A screening of Black Sea Files (2005) & Work in Progress

    The Strategic Working Group on Cultural Forms / Local Stakes / Global Circuits presents