Call for Papers "Berlin, Divided City"

Second German Studies Symposium
University of Texas at Austin
28-29 March 2008

Berlin continues to be the subject of intense debates on architecture,
history, and memory, the future of the metropolis, and the new
configurations of space, place, and identity in post-Wall Europe. The
overdetermined role of architecture in these debates has shed new light on
the unique spatial configurations and social topographies of East and West
Berlin between 1945 and 1989. At the same time, the perspective of German
unification has brought into relief the similarities between East and West
Berlin, the strategic and symbolic function of the divided city during the
Cold War, and the extraterritorial qualities associated with West Berlin
with the culture of the Federal Republic. Reconstructing the central role
of Berlin within these postwar discourses of nation, modernity, and
postmodernity requires interdisciplinary readings of urban practices,
representations, and ideologies. This symposium will approach the history
and culture of the divided city from a wide range of disciplinary
perspectives, including architectural history, film studies, German
literature, art history, German history, and political science.

We are particularly interested in the following topics:
--subcultures, countercultures, and minorities in East and West Berlin
--Cold War discourse and international espionage
--the Four Allies in Berlin
--Wall images and stories
--Berlin in the political rhetoric of FRG and GDR
--city politics and urban planning in East and West Berlin
--architectural competitions and debates in the divided city
--East and West Berlin in photography and the visual arts
--feature films and documentaries about East and West Berlin
--nostalgia for the divided city in postunification literature, film, and
visual arts

Please send one-page abstract and one-page curriculum vitae to
Philip Broadbent (broadbentpmac.com) and
Sabine Hake (Hakemail.utexas.edu)

Deadline: 1 June 2007
Notification: 15 June 2007

The presentations will be published in an anthology.

For further information, please contact
Dr Sabine Hake
Professor and Texas Chair of German Literature and Culture
Department of Germanic Studies
E.P. Schoch Building 3.134
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-0304
phone: 512-232-6379
fax: 512-471-4025