This past summer, Prof. Friederike Eigler attended the conference of the IVG (Internationale Vereinigung der Germanistik) in Graz, Austria and presented on her research on narratives of flight in a series of panels on this topic. As editor in chief of Gegenwartsliteratur, A German Studies Yearbook, Prof. Eigler finalized the 2025 volume together with Prof. Astrid Weigert (Assistant Editor) and PhD candidate Katie Lightfoot (editorial assistant). This fall, Gegenwartsliteratur appeared for the second time in open access with De Gruyter. The 2025 Yearbook features a cluster of seven articles on the genre of Graphic Novels plus other contributions on a range of topics, including an article by our own Prof. Katrin Sieg, titled “Theater of Ir/reconciliation: Empathy and Anger in Decolonial Theater.”
This semester, Prof. Verena Kick co-presented the keynote lecture “Adapting Kafka: Promise, Practice, Problems” with Dr. Carsten Strathausen (University of Missouri) at the 25th Annual German and Dutch Graduate Student Association Conference at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She also delivered a public lecture entitled “Montierte Wirklichkeiten. Politik und Fotografie bei Kurt Tucholsky” at the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, exploring Tucholsky’s reflections on photography’s political aesthetics.
This year, Prof. Mary Helen Dupree became President of the Lessing Society. Founded at the University of Cincinnati in 1966, the Lessing Society is committed to supporting research on the German Enlightenment author Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) as well as studies in the German 18th Century and its legacy more generally. Under Prof. Dupree’s leadership this year, the Society updated its website, co-hosted a reception at the GSA with the Goethe Society of North America, and organized panels for the GSA, MLA, and ASECS.
Prof. Peter C. Pfeiffer presented his research on Austrian literature at the German Studies Association annual conference. His talk was titled “Veza Canetti’s Die Gelbe Straße and the Embodiment of Knowledge.” The talk was stimulated in part by conversations with Prof. Pfeiffer’s most recent PhD student, Mel Hardy, who had completed their dissertation on non-normative bodies in early twentieth century German and Austrian literature.