Wesleyan University is hosting a conference on Hannah Arendt on September 26-28, 2013. The conference is made possible by the generous support of David Rhodes, COL ’68. It is hosted by the Center for the Humanities and co-sponsored by the College of Letters; Jewish and Israel Studies; German Studies; Government; Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory; and the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).
Uli Plass is moderating the session on Judging Evil on September 27, 4:00-6:00 p.m. in Bechkam Hall.
Leo Lensing is introducing the the film Hannah Arendt, directed by Margarethe von Trotta on September 27, 8:00 p.m.
Location: German House, 45 Lawn Ave
Time: Friday, September 20th 4:30-6pm
Missed socializing in German in our cozy living room? We’re back with COOKIES!
This Kaffee und “Plätzchen” (coffee and cookies) will feature the director of Study Abroad, Carolyn Sorkin, Frau Bork, our very own German professor, and a couple of current Wes students who just came back from Germany.
Carolyn Sorkin and Frau Bork will be introducing the study abroad programs and the students will be sharing their experiences. There will be plenty of time to ask questions.
Come and join us this Friday afternoon to talk about studying abroad in Germany, converse in German, and eat cookies.
If you have any questions please contact house manager Kaito Abe. And you can join the German House on facebook.
Shemuel Garber ’13, a double major in German Studies and the College of Letters, wrote his thesis for COL, entitled, The Circular Cut: Problematizing the Longevity of Civilization’s Most Aggressively Defended Amputation.
He will spend this summer in Brooklyn before leaving for Germany with a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship to teach English at a high school in Mainz, Germany.
James Gardner ’13 is a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and a German Studies major. His Senior Honors Thesis explores Afro-German history from 1871 to 2013. He has been awarded the Prentice Prize for his excellent work in German, the Heidemann Award, for helping others in the Wesleyan community, and the Butterfield Prize for his leadership, intellectual commitment and concern for the Wesleyan community.
James will continue his work with the Afro-German social work organization, Joliba, in Berlin, where he worked while studying abroad in Berlin in 2012. At Joliba, James will coordinate initiatives, tours, and events in line with his Afro-German academic work. He also hopes to obtain the International Parliamentary Scholarship (IPS), which offers young people the opportunity to gain practical experience in parliamentary work during a 15-week internship under the auspices of a Member of the German Bundestag. James is planning to apply for a DAAD scholarship this fall in order to continue his studies at the Free University of Berlin.
Max Kaplan ’13 will be working at The Fund for the Public Interest in Philadelphia. This is a national non-profit organization that works to build support for progressive organizations across the country. They run campaigns for USPIRG, Environment America, the Human Rights Campaign, and Environmental Action.
Adam Rashkoff ’13, a double major in German Studies and the College of Letters wrote a senior essay for both departments on Freud’s theories of psychological repression to analyze Theodor Adorno’s appropriation of the German Idealist concept of Naturschöne, or natural beauty. He will spend the upcoming academic year teaching English at two secondary schools in Vorarlberg, Austria, under the auspices of USTA-Austria, a program administered by the Fulbright Commission and funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture. This summer, he will split his time between Stanford University, where he will work at a literature and arts summer camp for middle and high school students, and Brooklyn, NY. In New York, he will intern on a project to develop a humanities curriculum for a network of charter schools. Ultimately, he plans to pursue his interest in German Studies at the graduate level.
Avery Trufelman ’13, a double major in German Studies and the College of Letters, wrote a senior thesis in both departments. Avery translated the autobiography of Hans Rosenthal, an iconic German gameshow host and holocaust survivor. She received high honors for this work. Avery is also the recipient of the Scott Prize, awarded for excellence in foreign-language study. She will go on to intern for NPR Berlin (produced entirely in Washington, DC).
Mari Jarris ’14 This summer, Mari will conduct her thesis research on the Frankfurt School’s critique of German Idealist philosophy using the archives and libraries at the University of Frankfurt and the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. She received the DAAD Undergraduate Scholarship, the Davenport Grant, and the Blankenagel Prize to support her summer research.
Maddy Smith-Huemer ’14 She is a German Studies and History major who has been studying at the Free University of Berlin with the Duke in Berlin program since January 2013. She will continue her studies there until the end of July, while also conducting research for her senior year thesis on resistance movements in the former GDR.
Oscar Takabvirwa ’14, a double major in German Studies and Mathematics, hopes to be working for a consulting firm in New York City this summer. He will start research for his honors thesis for German, a translation of works by authors whose parents migrated to Germany and who grew up in a multi-cultural environment.
Jaqueline Heitkamp ‘15, Colin O’Connor ‘15 and Daniel Hurlbert ‘15 have been studying in Regensburg since January 2013 and will continue their studies there until the end of July.
In the photo below, Colin is joined by former Wesleyan students and Regensburg exchange students who visited the Regensburg Dult, an annual folk festival, in May 2013.
Our alumnus Philip Boehm ’80 has been awarded the Kurt and Helen Wolff Translation Prize for his translation of Gregor von Rezzori’s An Ermine in Czernopol, published in 2012 by the New York Review of Books. The award will be conferred by the German Consul General on June 3 in Chicago; Krishna Winston will be delivering the laudatio.
Earlier this year Philip Boehm has also been awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship to assist in his work as a dramatist and translator.
“I am continually struck by new overlaps between staging drama and translating prose. In both cases I first listen to the original voice or voices before attempting any re-creation, and my experience working with actors has taught me the importance of keeping a text alive, and of preserving its energy as it travels from one culture to another, whether on the page or in the theater. It is this fundamental awe of language that steers me from one project to the next.”
The third and last movie in our German film series for this semester is When We Leave (Die Fremde), Germany 2010, directed by Feo Aladag, 
with Sibel Kekilli, Nizam Schiller, Derya Alabora. 119 min.
A young German woman of Turkish descent flees a difficult marriage by moving to Berlin, but her fight for more freedom and independence causes strife within her family. Introduced by Katja Straub, Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies
The second movie in our film series in the crime thriller Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt), Germany 1998. Dir: Tom Tykwer, with Moritz Bleibtreu, Franka Potente. 81 min.
The film begins with Lola receiving a phone call from her distraught boyfriend Manni, a small-time criminal, who lost 100,000 marks belonging to his crime boss. Manni fears for his life. Can Lola help? Introduced by Leo Lensing, Professor of German Studies & Film Studies.
Eat and speak German
Faculty Dining Room
USDAN im dritten Stock
Mittwoch, den 27. März
12.15 – 13.30 Uhr
| Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland is the first movie in our spring film series. Hüseyin Yilmaz came to Germany from Turkey in 1964, and later brought his wife and children. With warmth and a sense of humor, his granddaughter recounts their family history during a family vacation back home in Turkey. An uplifting, funny film about heritage and intercultural family life. Directed by Yasemin Samdereli, 95 min., Germany 2011 Introduced by Iris Bork-Goldfield, Professor of German Studies.More Information and Trailor |
Join us for another Kaffeestunde
at the German House at 65 Lawn Avenue
Friday, February 22 from 5-6:30 p.m.
Talk German and learn more about living in the German House
while enjoying a cup of coffee and some cake.
Eat and speak German
Faculty Dining Room
USDAN im dritten Stock
Mittwoch, den 13. Februar
12.15 – 13.30 Uhr
Krishna Winston, the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, is the translator of Günter Grass’s From Germany to Germany, 
published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2012.
In January 1990, just months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Günter Grass made two New Year’s resolutions: the first was to travel extensively in the newly united Germany and the second was to keep a diary, to record his impressions of a historic time. Grass takes part in public debates, writes for newspapers, makes speeches, and meets emerging politicians. He talks to German citizens on both sides, listening to their bewilderment and their hopes for the future. Ideas for stories take root—his novels The Call of the Toad and Too Far Afield.
From Germany to Germany is also a personal record. Grass reflects on his family, remembers his boyhood, and comments on the books he is reading, the drawings he is making, and the sumptuous meals he cooks for family and friends. The picture that emerges—not only of the two Germanys struggling for a single identity but of a changed world after the end of the Cold War—is engrossing, passionate and essential for anyone who wants to understand Europe’s new leading nation.
Jan. 25, 2013 by David Low
Krishna Winston, the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, will attend a translators working meeting with Günter Grass Feb. 10-14 in Lübeck, Germany. Grass, 85, is novelist, poet, playwright, artist and sculptor. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999.
Prof. Winston has translated several of Grass’s works, including his 1990 diary, From Germany to Germany, which was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in November 2012.
“It’s a pretty special thing when translators can sit down with the author for several days and hear from him directly what they should pay attention to, what was in his mind when he wrote certain passages, and what historical, political, literary, or other background they may need in order to get the translation right,” Winston said.
Grass maintains an office in a historic building immediately adjacent to the GG Haus, a museum dedicated to literature and the visual arts, with a special emphasis on Grass’s work in both areas and on other artists with multiple talents.
Jan. 25, 2013 by Olivia Drake
