For an Overview of the NCGS Program in 2023-24 Click here

Click here for a PDF of the Spring 2024 program overview

We will continue to hold the NCGS Seminars via Zoom in 2023-24.

We will communicate the Zoom URL for each NCGS seminar before the event via our NCGS list serve.

If you are not on this list serve please contact the NCGS graduate assistants KEVIN HOEPER (kjhoeper@live.unc.edu) ask him to be added the NCGS list serve or request the URL for a specific event in the weeks before the event. He and MADELINE JAMES (mljames6@live.unc.edu) will also take care of the technology of the Zoom Seminars. For our NCGS Online Seminars Etiquette see here.

We a have a no-recording policy for all our events to create an open space for discussion.

Friday, 12 April 2024

2:00 – 4:00 pm Zoom Seminar

FAREWELL NCGS—The Last Event after 17 Years

NCGS Challenging Conversations Series Roundtable:

A Decline of German Studies & German History in the United States?

The shrinking number of tenure-track jobs and the decline of undergraduate and graduate programs in German Studies and German History in recent years is alarming. Both developments threaten the future of the field. This development is part of two larger trends: on the one hand, changes in the field of history in the United States, mainly the move away from European/Western history towards global history; on the other hand, the increasing shift of resources at American colleges and universities away from the humanities and social sciences to the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) as well as professional schools (economics, law, medicine). This roundtable will address this development by discussion the following three questions with experts in the field: 1. What is the current situation in German Studies and German History? Is it the same for both fields? 2. How can we explain the developments? 3. Which consequences does it have for the future of the field and what can be done to change it?

Moderation:

KAREN HAGEMANN I James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of History and
TERESA WALCH I Assistant Professor of Modern European History, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of History

Roundtable Participants:

KONRAD H. JARAUSCH I Lurcy Professor of European Civilization, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of History
ADAM R. SEIPP I Professor of History, Texas A&M, Department of History and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies of the College of Arts and Sciences
JAMES CHAPPEL I Gilhuly Family Associate Professor of History, Duke University, Department of History
PHILIPP STELZEL I Associate Professor of History and Graduate Director, Ducquesne University, Department of History
DAMANI J. PARTRIDGE I Professor of Anthropology; Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Vice President of the German Studies Association
PRISILLA LAYNE I Professor of German; Adjunct Associate Professor of African and Afro-American Studies; Director of the Center for European Studies, UNC Chapel Hill

PDF of the Flyer

CALL FOR PROPOSALS:

The Konrad H. Jarausch Essay Prize for Advanced Graduate Students in Central European History 2024

The North Carolina German Studies Seminar and Workshop Series is pleased to announce the sixth annual Konrad Jarausch Essay Prize Competition for Advanced Graduate Students. In recognition of the longstanding commitment to graduate education of Konrad H. Jarausch, Lurcy Professor of European Civilization in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this prize serves to celebrate and cultivate outstanding new talent in the broadly defined field of modern Central European history.

The prize will award the best unpublished article manuscript, ideally based on the dissertation or a portion of it, by a current graduate student working in the field of modern Central European history. The recipient of this prize will receive an honorarium of $1,000 and an invitation to present the dissertation as a lecture on the campus of the University of North Carolina during the academic year 2024-25. This event will provide an opportunity for the winner to receive feedback from two commentators and a panel of leading scholars. The prizewinner will be encouraged but not required to submit the revised manuscript for publication.

The NCGS series was started in 2007 by an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional group of scholars in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, which is home to nationally and internationally recognized graduate programs in German Studies. The series has traditionally emphasized graduate education.

Eligibility requirements:

Applicants must be enrolled in a PhD program at a North American university.
They should be ABD and have finished the archival research for a dissertation in modern Central European history but must not have defended the dissertation before June 1, 2024.
Graduate students who applied unsuccessfully before can reapply if they have not defended the dissertation before the spring term of 2024.

Requirements for the proposal:

A statement of up to five pages that outlines the dissertation project and indicates its state of completion and a draft of the dissertation’s table of contents.
A CV that clearly indicates when the applicant intends to defend or has defended the dissertation and includes the names of the advisors.
An unpublished article manuscript, ideally based on the dissertation or a portion of it, of approx. 10,000 -12,000 words (excluding notes).

If you are interested, please send the application materials to Dr. Karen Hagemann (hagemann@unc.edu) by May 1, 2024, at the latest. Please do not hesitate to address any questions about the prize, the required material, and the selection process to her.

KHJ prize Website: https://ncgsws.web.unc.edu/konrad-h-jarausch-essay-prize/

The KHJ Prize Committee:

Dr. James Chappel (Duke University)
Dr. Karen Hagemann (Speaker, UNC-Chapel Hill, email: hagemann@unc.edu)
Dr. Donna Harsch (Carnegie Mellon University),
Dr. Thomas Pegelow Kaplan (University of Colorado Boulder)
Dr. Adam Seipp (Texas A&M University)
Dr. Andrea Sinn (Elon University) and
Dr. Teresa Walch (UNC-Greensboro).

PDF of the CfP

North Carolina German Studies Seminar Series

An Open Letter: in Solidarity against Racism

June 6, 2020

Dear Friends,

We hope that this message finds you safe and healthy in these turbulent times in which different crises currently combine to show us, once again, the systemic and institutionalized racism of politics, economy and society in the United States. Along with the rest of the world, we have been outraged and deeply affected by the recent events. The killing of George Floyd and the violent response of the police against mourning and protesting demonstrators are appalling and troubling. We are therefore reaffirming our commitment to support the struggle against racism and anti-Blackness here and elsewhere on the globe.

The NCGS Steering Committee is committed to countering racism, anti-Blackness, and violence at home, in Europe, particularly Germany, and across the world. We aim to foster dialogue on, and broaden the visibility of resources about the history of structural racism, anti-Black violence, and many related issues.

Germany’s twentieth century history has much to teach us about the rise of Nazism and more current populist right wing movements and their inherent racism, as well as about the persistence of structural racism and the difficulty of combating it. It shows that the only way forward is to address and study, without any hesitation, the dark past—discussing it in public, even if this courts controversy, in order to teach not only students but also the broader public. This was and is a painful process for the racially discriminated, suppressed, and killed minorities: in twentieth century German history mainly, but not only, Jewish people. It is also painful, and necessary, for the descendants of the discriminating, suppressing, and persecuting majority, who are not only forced to confront the history of their ancestors, but also their own prejudices and ongoing, often unwitting, racist thinking and behavior. German history also shows that a democratic civil society, including critical media and very active grassroots movements, are needed to foster change. In Germany, as in the United States, this work is not complete, as right-wing populism, xenophobia, racism, and antisemitism are rising again.

We therefore strongly support the current movement of the Black community and their interracial coalitions in the United States whose members have been trying to come to terms with their pain, anger, sadness, and frustration over a struggle against racism and inequality that has persisted on American soil since the seventeenth century. Everybody who stands behind this agenda needs to support this movement and listen and learn from its proponents. Its calls can and should not be ignored any longer.

Sincerely,

On behalf of the

The NCGS Steering Committee

Dr. James Chappel (Duke University)

Dr. Karen Hagemann (UNC Chapel Hill) (Speaker)

Dr. Konrad H. Jarausch (UNC Chapel Hill)

Dr. Priscilla Layne (UNC Chapel Hill)

Dr. Jakob Norberg (Duke University)

Dr. Thomas Pegelow-Kaplan (Appalachian State University)

Dr. Andrea Sinn (Elon University)

The open letter as a PDF

CONVENERS of the NCGS SERIES:
Carolina Seminars I Duke University: Department of German Studies I Department of History I The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages & Literatures I Department of History and

CONTACT:
Speaker: Karen Hagemann, James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of History, UNC-Chapel Hill, Department of History (hagemann@unc.edu)