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2026 University of Colorado Boulder

Eighth West Coast Germanists’ Workshop: German History at the Crossroads? New Narratives, Perspectives and Approaches

March 6 & 7, 2026 | Workshop at University of Colorado Boulder | Conveners: David Ciarlo (University of Colorado Boulder), Thomas Pegelow Kaplan (University of Colorado Boulder), Isabel Richter (GHI Washington | Pacific Office, Berkeley) Raphael Rössel (GHI Washington)

The call to re-center German history has taken several turns over the last three or four decades, including a shift towards histories from below, the inclusion of feminist and gender-based analysis, the deconstruction of race, and the broadening of identities with regard to definitions of “Germanness.” Most recently, the transnational turn has expanded the scope of German history globally (including efforts to incorporate knowledge, practices, and experience originating outside of the West). Meanwhile, approaches like visual history, queer history, and the history of emotions have not only added new topics, but in some cases, altered the very way we write history. These practices have not unfolded in a political vacuum, of course, but in response to rapid changes in transatlantic relations, and in response to new social movements and to profound challenges to the post-1945 global order. As part of this process, scholars on both sides of the Atlantic are revisiting the established narratives of German history.

The 2026 workshop will focus on narratives, on sources, and on methodological questions as they relate to scholarship on modern Germany history in the context of new approaches and shifting transatlantic and global relations. These include a wide range of questions, including a reassessment of how we work with primary sources, and how we might reconfigure the link between our case studies and overarching narratives.

Schedule

Friday, March 6, 2026

Meeting Location: The Center for Global British & Irish Studies Room (CGBIS Room), located on the fifth floor of CU’s Main Library (Norlin) (room M549)

9 – 9:15 a.m.

Welcome

9:15 – 10:45 a.m.

Panel 1: Frameworks of Global and Transnational History

Chair: Thomas Pegelow Kaplan

Stephen Kooshian, UC San Diego: Witnessing Genocide: German Pro-Armenian Activism Between the World Wars
James McSpadden, University of Nevada, Reno: Transatlantic Mobility and Changing Meanings of Nazi and Holocaust-Era Books from 1933 to Today
Kathleen Walsh, Washington University in St. Louis: History and Heimat for Sale: Andre Hofer Feigenkaffee and Stollwerck Schokolade Advertisements and Narratives of Identity, 1928-1938

10:45 – 11:15 a.m.

Break

11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.

Panel 2: Imagination, the Unconscious, and the History of Emotions

Chair: Glenn Penny

Viola Alianov-Rautenberg, GHI Pacific Office:
The Sound of German-Jewish History. How Amateur Songs Remember What Historiography Forgets

Claire Farnsworth, CU Boulder: Fulfilling Fatherly Responsibilities from Afar: Paul Freundlich’s Correspondence as Evidence for Maintained Parent-Child Relationships During the Kindertransports

Ariel Tang, Stanford University: “Diaries of the Night”: Animals Political and Unpolitical in Charlotte Beradt’s Dreamscape

12:45 – 2:00 p.m.

Lunch

2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Panel 3: Reading Against the Grain Revisited

Chair: Raphael Rössel

Elissa Watters, USC: Holding onto Archival Inconsistencies and Contradictions: Anarchist Strategies in the Interwar German Avant-Garde

Kara Ritzheimer, Oregon State University: The BDM is Nothing But Whores’: Rumor and Resistance in Gestapo Case Files

CJ Headley, UC San Diego: Local Lessons: ‘Native’ Teachers and the Politics of Colonial Education in German East Africa, 1884–1922″

3:30 – 4:00 p.m.

Break

6:15 – 9:00 p.m.

Dinner – Koenig Alumni Center 

Saturday, March 7, 2026

Meeting Location: University Memorial Center, Room: UMC 235

9:00 – 10:30 a.m.

Panel 4: Visual History: Interpretation of Images and Visual Narratives

Chair: David Ciarlo

Brett Van Hoesen, University of Nevada, Reno: Z is for Zebra: Bauhaus Visual Dynamism and Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism in Marianne Brandt’s “Untitled [mit Anna Mae Wong]”

Cheuk Him Ryan Sun, UBC Vancouver: Framing Colonial Exile in German Jewish Refugees’ Photograph Albums (1938-1948)

Eleanor Moseman, Colorado State University: Abstraction After Authoritarianism: Surrealist Art and Cultural Renewal in Post-War West Germany

10:10 – 11:00 a.m.

Break

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Thyssen Roundtable

Chair: Isabel Richter

Panelists: Mathew Greenlee, CU Boulder, Charlotte Gibbs, Alex Levine, UCLA, Sloane Nilsen UC Berkeley, Fernanda Sada, UC Berkeley

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Lunch

Hellems atrium (Hellems N253). Please note: keycard access is needed for entry, so stick close to hosts or call one of us to let you in if you get separated from the group

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Teaching Roundtable: Teaching and Learning in Universities under Political and Social Pressure

Chair: Stefan Laffin

Panelists: Grace Buhler, University of Wyoming, Paul Lerner, USC, Erika Schumacher, UC Davis, Jan Hansen, UC San Diego

2:00 – 2:30 p.m.

Closing Round