Second Biennial DDGC Conference

March 1-3, 2019 (arrival Feb. 28)
St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN 

Organizers:
Amanda Randall, St. Olaf College
Kathryn Sederberg, Kalamazoo College

In 2017, the inaugural conference “Diversity, Decolonialization, and the German Curriculum” (DDGC) brought together German Studies faculty and graduate students to discuss pedagogical approaches, course design, and instructional materials for our field in a world in which “culture” is being re-conceived as trans-, multi-, and interculturalism. The conference included presentations on teaching feminist, queer, gender, black, and/or ethnic studies, as well as break-out sessions and workshops in which participants developed action plans, mission statements, and lessons suited to their home institutions. Participants began an ongoing conversation about our changing field and how to make our classrooms more inclusive and reflective of the diversity of our students. 

For the second biennial DDGC conference, we seek to continue our conversations about diversity and decolonialization in the German curriculum as part of a long-term initiative in our field as German Studies evolves in response to critical social and cultural issues in the United States, Europe, and globally. As in 2017, the focus will be on connecting our field to social justice issues and initiatives at our home institutions and beyond in response to pressing political debates about ethno-nationalism, refugee rights and migration, transgender rights, and racism, as well as gender equality, disability access, and economic justice. The goal of this conference and its initiatives is to help to further shape German Studies as more inclusive and socially critical, and in so doing, to highlight the field’s relevance to our students, to our colleagues across campus, and to a wider public.

We invite applications from German Studies faculty and graduate students who are interested in presenting research, classroom work, or curriculum design in a series of interactive panels and roundtables. The conference will include a keynote lecture by Priscilla Layne of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. As in 2017, we also encourage individuals interested in attending, but not necessarily presenting, to apply to participate and contribute to the discussions and workshops.

Among the presentation and panel topics we hope to offer are:
  • Student engagement and recruitment strategies to diversify our classrooms
  • Social justice pedagogy in lower-division German language courses
  • Intersections of language/power/identity across the full German curriculum
  • Theoretical interventions to help focus how/what we teach
  • Rethinking departmental models: German Studies, German Area Studies, and German as a part of Global Studies
  • Redefining and problematizing the canon
  • Politicization of class content and strategies for dealing with U.S. politics in the German classroom
  • Failed pedagogical experiments and what we learn from them
  • Doing critical work as a contingent faculty member or graduate student
  • Articulating long-term goals for German Studies in the United States
  • Debates surrounding English-language and German-language instruction especially as related to issues of diversity and inclusion
  • Innovative models for theme-based courses or units that connect texts from German Studies with other traditions

Seeking panel participants for the following proposed topics:
  • Recognizing and teaching about racism in Germany today
  • What image of "German" to use for marketing German studies to prospective students?
  • How to teach content-based language while maintaining awareness and sensitivity for vulnerable and oppressed populations that produced or are represented in texts 

Registration fees are $150 full-time faculty; $50 for part-time/contingent faculty and graduate students. The organizers are currently seeking funding to offset travel and lodging costs for participants.

St. Olaf College is located in Northfield, MN, 40 miles south of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Organizers will be helping to coordinate transportation to and from the airport as well as lodging for participants. 
 
To apply to participate, please submit a 300-word abstract detailing your projected contribution to the conference along with a CV to Amanda Randall (randal2@stolaf.edu) and Kathryn Sederberg (ksederbe@kzoo.edu) by September 14, 2018.

The application period is now CLOSED. 
Due to limited space we are unable to accommodate further requests for auditors.