Inaugural Issue: TRANSIT

The editors of TRANSIT at the University of California, Berkeley invite
submissions for the inaugural issue of the multidisciplinary, web-based
journal TRANSIT, to be published February 15, 2005.

OPEN CALL FOR PAPERS
We welcome submissions relating to the critical inquiry of travel,
migration, and multiculturalism in the German-speaking world spanning all
time periods and media. TRANSIT covers the work of all those who have
experienced the irresolvable tension between home and dislocation‹whether
explorers, adventurers, refugees, or exiles. We invite critical work, in
English or German, from all areas in which movement and transition are major
forces.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Topic: Migration, Culture, and the Nation State
In recent years mass migrations have challenged and dramatically changed
nation states around the globe. The German-speaking world in particular
epitomizes the tensions ascribed to immigration. Millions of immigrants,
³guest workers², and asylum seekers have become residents of German-speaking
countries in the last fifty years alone. Increasingly, their presence calls
into question the concept of a national community based on ancestral lineage
and cultural heritage. For some, the presence of so many foreign-born
residents spells the end of German culture. For others, a multiethnic nation
evokes a long tradition of cosmopolitan openness. Is multiculturalism the
key to resolving current issues of national identity in Europe?

TRANSIT invites English or German language submissions that explore the
following questions:

Why has multiculturalism become such a contested concept today? How are
political, social, and cultural borders negotiated in a rapidly changing
Europe? How can the extensive German debates surrounding nationalism,
ethnicity, and mobility contribute to current international debates?

Papers should be submitted as a Microsoft Word email attachment by Nov. 1,
2004.

Please send submissions and inquiries to transitberkeley.edu.

This issue is presented in conjunction with the international conference
Goodbye Germany? Migration, Culture, and the Nation State to be held 28-30
October 2004 at UC Berkeley.

For more information see: http://german.berkeley.edu/transit