Category: Education

Call for Papers for 2012 Conference Deadline Extended

admin
Jan 31 |14:51

Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey
2012 Annual Convention

Call For Proposals 2012

Building on the success of the inaugural 2011 conference, the second annual convention of the Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey (BGCSNJ) will be held at Barnard College in New York City on August 10-11, 2012.  This year’s convention will focus on the theme of “What Is the Black German Experience?” The conference will feature a keynote address by Yara Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria, screenings of the films “Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story” and “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984-1992,” and readings by Black German poet-performers Olumide Popoola and Philipp Kabo Köpsell.

In response to recent interest, the BGCSNJ Review Committee has expanded the scope of the conference and invites proposals for papers that engage the diverse histories, experiences and cultural productions of Blacks of German heritage and blackness in Germany and Europe more broadly. We welcome submissions for twenty-minute presentations on three academic panels. Additionally, two panels will be devoted to life writing, oral history and memoir. These two panels will provide a forum for the work of collecting individual accounts and reflections, as well as raising awareness on the overlooked life histories of blacks of Germany heritage and blackness in a wider European context.

We encourage submissions from both academics of all disciplines, as well as non-academics interested in sharing their work.. To participate please send a one-page abstract and a CV or short biographical statement to: bgcsinc@gmail.com. Deadline for proposals: April 15, 2012

 

Toxi: Film Now Available for Purchase

admin
Nov 26 |08:16

Synopsis:

Toxi

A five-year-old girl suddenly appears on the doorstep of a well-to-do Hamburg family. The members of the multi-generational, white household react differently to the arrival of Toxi, who is black, the daughter of an African-American G.I. and a white German woman who has died. Eventually Toxi works her way into the hearts of this German family, but then her father returns, hoping to take Toxi back to America with him.

At the time of the film’s release in 1952, there were between 3,000 and 5,000 children of Allied paternity born since WWII living in West Germany. Toxi was the first feature-length film to explore the subject of “black occupation children” in postwar Germany and premiered when the first generation of these children began entering German schools, creating a public awareness of this situation. Robert A. Stemmle, one of the most popular West German directors and known for his unique blend of social realism and melodrama, brought together an exceptionally renowned set of classic German actors with diverse experiences of the Nazi era, including Paul Bildt, Johanna Hofer and Elisabeth Flickenschildt.

PURCHASE ONLINE AT DEFA

 

GHI Fall Lecture Series 2011

admin
Oct 20 |21:06

German Colonialism and the Concept of Transnational History

Organized by Clelia Caruso (GHI) and Uwe Spiekermann (GHI)

Click to Enlarge Image

In 1897 Chancellor von Bülow claimed “einen Platz an der Sonne” (a place in the sun) attempting to justify the recent and, as it turned out, comparatively short-lived German imperial ambitions. By the end of World War I, Germans colonial endeavors were already a thing of the past. The former German colonies quickly merged into other European empires and German society was hardly influenced by the brief imperial episode – or so it seemed. Following the lead of recent scholarship on transnationalism the lecture series “The Aftermath of German Colonialism” reopens the case. Historians from Germany and the United States will explore whether and to what extent imperialism shaped Germany and its former colonies and possibly continues to do so.

All lectures begin at 6:30 pm (refreshments will be served from 6:00 to 6:30 pm) and will be held at the German Historical Institute, 1607 New Hampshire Avenue NW (Directions). Please RSVP (acceptances only) by Tel. 202.387.3355, Fax 202.387.6437 or E-mail.

CLICK FOR COMPLETE DETAILS

 

WeTV: Jugendliche gegen Diskriminierung

admin
Jun 16 |21:13

Link: WeTV: Jugendliche gegen Diskriminierung

 

Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960

admin
Mar 16 |19:52

Speaker: Carol Anderson (Emory University) – more about this lecture…
In 1993, shortly after his release from Robben Island, future President of South Africa Nelson Mandela addressed the NAACP annual convention. Mandela told the Association members, who “had contributed everything from $20 bills to $1,000 checks in a fund-raiser for the ANC”, that “‘We have come as a component part of the historic coalition of organizations, to which the NAACP and the ANC belong that has fought for the emancipation of black people everywhere.’”

Indeed, many of the strategies that brought about the collapse of apartheid – the isolation of South Africa in the UN, boycotts, divestment, and media attention focused on the brutality of white supremacy – were designed by a transnational team of activists in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

One of the first sustained skirmishes occurred when South Africa, swimming against the tide of colonial and racial history, attempted in 1946 to annex the adjacent international mandate of South West Africa (current-day Namibia). Pretoria was confident of UN approval for such an unprecedented move. Yet, into the breach -and into the United Nations – stepped an unlikely duo, the Reverend Michael Scott and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to stop the absorption of 350,000 Africans into a white supremacist state.

This seemingly odd couple, a maverick, communist-leaning Anglican minister and a staid, staunchly anti-communist bureaucratic organization, launched a skillful assault in the UN by linking the destructiveness of colonialism with white supremacist domestic rule. Within the span of five hard-fought years, the NAACP and Scott, wielding one human rights charter after the next, had carved out the political space in the UN for non-governmental organizations to debunk the myth of the white man’s burden and to challenge the legitimacy of apartheid.

In her talk, Professor Anderson will explore the intersection of domestic and international history, recapturing the vision and the actions of the black political center in the anti-colonial and global freedom movements.

Read Full Article Here…

Related Posts with Thumbnails