German Studies Association Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon, October 3-6, 2019

CFP: Seminar #14. German-Speaking Women, Africa, and the African Diaspora

Conveners: Lisabeth Hock, Wayne State University, [log in to unmask]

Michelle S. James, Brigham Young University, [log in to unmask]

Priscilla Layne, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, [log in to unmask]

While connections between Germanic Europeans and African-descended peoples can be traced to the Middle Ages, the first known text about Africa by a German-speaking woman was Henrietta Herz’s 1799 translation of Mungo Park’s Journey to the Interior of Africa. Over the next 150 years, most women with the education and authority to produce accounts of Africa were white, although there were exceptions like Emily Ruete (1844-1924), author of Memoiren einer arabischen Prinzessin. Following WWII, increasing numbers of German-speaking women identifying as Black or Brown began to write and produce films, music, and art dealing with this topic. This seminar explores the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity in texts about Africa, Africans, and the African Diaspora by German-speaking women of all backgrounds. The organizers welcome submissions from researchers in different disciplines, in particular literary and cultural studies, history, and art history, representing diverse ideological and theoretical approaches.

Format: In February, we will circulate three articles that all participants will read. August 20 is the deadline for 10-12-page papers, which all participants will read prior to the conference. In the seminar, participants will present their projects, and we will then workshop the papers in anticipation of an edited volume.

Applications due on January 26 in the submission site:  https://www.xcdsystem.com/gsa. You will use your thegsa.org username and password to sign in. Submitters must be current (2019) members. If you are not yet a member, you will need to join in order to get your user name and password. Please apply to only one seminar at a time. For more information, visit our current conference page.