Mar 12, 2027 - Mar 13, 2027
Workshop at the University of California, Berkeley | Conveners: Sheer Ganor (University of California, Berkeley), Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (University of California, Berkeley), Stefan Laffin (University of California, Berkeley), and Isabel Richter (German Historical Institute Washington | Pacific Office Berkeley), in conjunction with the Townsend Working Group in German History and Culture
In his 1981 essay, “What is German History?,” James J. Sheehan argued that German history cannot be confined to the German Empire and its successor states. German history unfolded inside and outside the territorial boundaries of the nation-state, locally and globally, from borderlands to port cities. In fact, few questions are more uncertain and contested in German history than borders and belonging. Where does Germany begin and end? How useful is the category “German” when referring to German-speaking people in Central and Eastern Europe and the Americas, or to places and people colonized by the German Empire? What is the relationship of “German history” to the histories and memories of migrants to and from Germany, then and now?
Recent historiography in global and transnational history has focused precisely on transcending these boundaries, emphasizing the circulation of people, ideas, and commodities. Yet moving beyond national histories doesn’t seem to provide an answer to the question of what defines German history and culture as an object of study—especially in the aftermath of colonial violence, world wars, and genocide.
The 2027 West Coast Germanists’ Workshop aims to address this theme from a variety of perspectives and methodological approaches. Presentations might explore questions such as:
- How do we conceptualize German history in relation to other nations or places in the age of globalization?
- What can be learned from historical or contemporary efforts to uphold or dismantle borders and their functions?
- How do borderlands figure into discourses of belonging and allegiance?
- How was Germanness performed inside and outside the territory of the German nation-state?
- What, if any, role have borders and belonging played in historiography?
- How do the converging political crises of the present shape approaches to understanding the place of borders and belonging in German history and culture?
- What, if anything, remains distinct about the German story?
We invite applications from graduate students, postdocs, and faculty at all career stages who work in German history, Global Germany, or German Studies, from the medieval period until the present, and who are based in the western United States, the western provinces of Canada, or Mexico. The workshop offers a supporting environment for discussions, and we encourage submissions of works in progress.
The program will include paper presentations, a roundtable discussion on a topic of your choice (for example, teaching, the job market, or funding), lightning talks on current research, and informal conversations to exchange ideas and strengthen connections among the scholars based in the region. We aim to address the conditions for Germanists working in the West, including geographic challenges – our distance from Europe and from each other – as well as the opportunities and possibilities for pursuing German history and German Studies in places with abundant resources from German émigrés and thriving German immigrant communities in the arts, business, and technology.
Submission guidelines and deadline:
Please register via our online portal by November 22, 2026. Individuals interested in presenting a paper or in contributing to the roundtable need to include a short proposal of around 300 words, including the topic, main sources, and the research question or argument.
Please contact Heike Friedman (friedman@ghi-dc.org) if you have problems submitting your information online.
Subsidies for travel and hotel expenses are available upon request.