Events items teaser

Anjeana Hans
2026-04-06 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Balsillie School of International Affairs 67 Erb Street West Waterloo ON Canada
FROM VIENNA TO HOLLYWOOD: INDEPENDENT FILMS, EXILE, AND THE SHAPING
OF HOLLYWOOD GENRE

When the Nazis rose to power in Germany in 1933, they instituted laws
that systematically excluded Jewish Germans from cultural and social
life and thus marked the start of a wave of forced immigration. Many
filmmakers, writers, and actors forced into exile initially went to
Austria, where they were able to produce independent films until the
_Anschluss_ of 1938. This talk focuses on director Henry Koster, who
began his career in Berlin, made several independent films while in
exile in Austria, and finally reached Hollywood, where he was one of a
fairly small number of exile directors to build a truly successful
career. By tracing continuities across his work, I will consider how
Koster’s Austrian independent films, which were marked indelibly by
the experience of exile, shaped his later work and contributed to the
development of Hollywood genres.

Part of The Diefenbaker Lectures
[/germanic-slavic-studies/node/1105], a series of talks by leading
scholars in German studies.

_Anjeana Hans is Professor and Chair of German Studies at Wellesley
College._

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_If you wish to attend, please register at Eventbrite
[https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-diefenbaker-lecture-series-anjeana-hans-tickets-1983384997920?aff=oddtdtcreator]
- there's a reception after the lecture, and we want to make sure
everyone gets something to eat and drink!_

Hannah Eldridge
2026-03-26 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Balsillie School of International Affairs 67 Erb Street West Waterloo ON Canada
THE (GERMANOPHONE) POEM AND THE (CONNECTED) WORLD

[Hannah Eldridge]
I bring discussions of lyric poetry and its affordances together with
thinking about race and identity, specifically through postcolonial
theory and poetics. Drawing on Édouard Glissant’s conception of
“Relation” as multidirectional and dynamic interconnection, I
trace paths from Rainer Maria Rilke in Paris to Algeria, Sudan, and
the Caribbean. In doing so, I aim to re-think the canon and the
margins of German poetry as porous and open to contestation. This
means both expanding definitions of “Germanness” and setting
Germanophone and other language texts into relation, tracking routes
of mutual strangeness and influence.

Part of The Diefenbaker Lectures
[/germanic-slavic-studies/node/1105], a series of talks by leading
scholars in German studies.

_Hannah Eldridge is Professor of German at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison where she also edits the scholarly journal
_Monatshefte_._

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_If you wish to attend, please register at Eventbrite
[https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-diefenbaker-lecture-series-hannah-eldridge-tickets-1983384908653?aff=oddtdtcreator]
- there's a reception after the lecture, and we want to make sure
everyone gets something to eat and drink!_

Priscilla Lane
2026-03-05 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Balsillie School of International Affairs 67 Erb Street West Waterloo ON Canada
SWISS POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE? READING MARTIN DEAN'S _MEINE
VÄTER_ (2003) THROUGH TRAUMA, MUTISM, AND THIRD SPACE

Martin Dean’s novel _Meine Väter_ (“My Fathers,” 2003)
follows Robert, a Swiss man of Indo-Trinidadian origin, whose
daughter’s birth triggers an existential crisis over his uncertain
identity. Raised by his Swiss mother and Indo-Trinidadian stepfather,
Robert seeks answers from his biological father, Ray. Yet when he
finally finds Ray in London, living in a nursing home and mute
following a racist attack, Robert’s search becomes an exploration of
absence rather than revelation. Robert and his father’s subsequent
journey to Trinidad unfolds as a quest for truth that remains
unresolved, fragmented across conflicting accounts from relatives,
friends, and cultural artefacts. I argue that Dean’s novel employs
psychoanalytic and postcolonial frameworks, in particularly trauma,
hybridity, dislocation, and Homi Bhabha’s “third space,” to
stage the impossibility of recovery and self-coherence. Ray’s
muteness functions as both the bodily trace of colonial violence and
an aesthetic “void,” positioning _Meine Väter_ as a compelling
example of Swiss postcolonial literature.

Part of The Diefenbaker Lectures
[/germanic-slavic-studies/node/1105], a series of talks by leading
scholars in German studies.

_Priscilla Layne is Professor of German and Director of the Center for
European Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill._

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_If you wish to attend, please register at Eventbrite
[https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-diefenbaker-lecture-series-priscilla-layne-tickets-1983384515477?aff=oddtdtcreator]
- there's a reception after the lecture, and we want to make sure
everyone gets something to eat and drink!_

Lecture and Workshop with Visiting Researcher Georg Marschnig
2022-06-28 15:00 (America/Toronto) | HH - J.G. Hagey Hall of the Humanities 200 University Avenue West 373 Waterloo ON N2L 3G1 Canada
LECTURE AND WORKSHOP WITH VISITING RESEARCHER GEORG MARSCHNIG

WCGS welcomes visiting researcher Georg Marschnig (Universität Graz)
on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 for a lecture and workshop. Join us in HH
373 for his lecture, the workshop, or both! Details below.

There is no registration for this event, all are welcome. Please note
that masks are mandatory.

Public Reading & Discussion on authorship & disability
2022-03-31 13:00 (America/Toronto)
DIS/ABILITY IN GERMAN LITERATURE - LECTURE SERIES (4)

A life worthy of living: Kolmar's Susanna
2022-03-17 13:00 (America/Toronto)
DIS/ABILITY IN GERMAN LITERATURE - LECTURE SERIES (3)

Disability Myths and Rhetorics
2022-02-03 13:00 (America/Toronto)
DIS/ABILITY IN GERMAN LITERATURE - LECTURE SERIES (2)

Critical Disability Studies: The Intersections of Theory and Lived Experience
2022-01-20 11:30 (America/Toronto)
DIS/ABILITY IN GERMAN LITERATURE - LECTURE SERIES (1)

Becoming Black: Film Screening with Director in Attendance
2021-11-17 12:30 - 14:30 (America/Toronto)
THIS EVENT HAS PASSED PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR A RECORDING.
[https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-german-studies/2021-diversity-inclusion-grants-recipients]

_This event is part of an ongoing series, All Black Lives Matter,
being run in cooperation with the Waterloo Centre for German
Studies, The University of Toronto, and Africana Studies at Rutgers
University-Camden._

“A German Board Game & the Need for New Stories," by Dr. Lars Richter
2021-10-15 13:00 (America/Vancouver)
THIS EVENT HAS PASSED TO WATCH THE RECORDING PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE.
[https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-german-studies/2021-diversity-inclusion-grants-recipients]
