PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A PRELIMINARY PROGRAM AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. THE FINAL PROGRAM WILL BE PUBLISHED IN LATE MARCH.
THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2026
8:30-9:00 REFRESHMENTS AND WELCOME
9:00-10:30 SESSION 1
- Anna Citkowska-Kimla and Piotr Kimla (Jagiellonian University, Poland)
Individual crisis and Social Crisis. Juli Zeh on the State of Contemporary Democracy in her Novel Über Menschen - Carolin Gluchowski (Universität Hamburg, Germany)
Meritocracy as Democratic Imaginary: Scripts of Deservingness in Contemporary German Culture
11:00-12:30 SESSION 2
- Hester Baer (University of Maryland, USA)
Collaborative Representation and Individual Self-Determination: Queer-Feminist Film Collectives Imagine Democracy - Michel Mallet (Université de Moncton, Canada)
Weaving Democracy from Its Negation: Texts, Textures, Textiles in Herta Müller’s Oeuvre - Moderator: Brangwen Stone
12:00-1:00 LUNCH
1:30-3:00 SESSION 3
- Sabrina Huber (Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany)
Museums Narrating Democracy. Exhibitions as Narrative Agents in the Political Field - Lara-Marie Hägerling (Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany)
The Chancellor’s Memory: Angela Merkel’s Memoir and the Politics of East German Identity - Moderator: Maria Mayr
3:30-5:00 SESSION 4
- Jörg Esleben (University of Ottawa/Université d'Ottawa, Canada)
How Welcoming is Democracy? How Democratic is Welcome Culture? Theatre with and by Newcomers in the German-speaking World - Brangwen Stone (University of Sydney, Australia)
Zukunftsmusik: Imagining Democracy at the Maxim Gorki Theater
FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2026
9:00-11:00 SESSION 5
- Maria Mayr (Memorial University, Canada)
Between Littérature Engagée and Ideology: The Role of Literature in Fostering Demokratiefähigkeit - Daniela Roth (Dalhousie University, Canada)
Social Criticism, Political Satire, and Authorial Posture in Ingo Schulze, Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre and Juli Zeh - Christina Kraenzle (York University, Canada)
Time-Travel, Spectra Pasts and Political Futures in Laura Laabs' Rote Sterne überm Feld - Moderator: Michel Mallet
11:30-1:00 SESSION 6
- Katlyn Rozovics (University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, USA)
A Tale of Three Bellottos: Restitution in the Model Democracy - Florian Gassner (University of British Columbia, Canada)
German Discourses on Censorship: The Example of documenta - Moderator: Joerg Esleben
1:00-2:00: LUNCH
2:00-3:30 SESSION 7
- Maria Roca Lizarazu (University of Oxford, UK)
Writing and Righting – Literary Responses to Right-Wing Terrorism in Post-Unification Germany - Tilman Venzl (LMU Munich, Germany)
Toward a New Understanding of Democratic Literature in Contemporary Germany: Demokratie. Wofür es sich jetzt zu kämpfen lohnt and the Public Debate on Democracy - Moderator: Florian Gassner