University of Pennsylvania THINKING URBAN SPACE February 15, 2008 Home Call for Papers Conference Program Paper Abstracts Directions and Information about Traveling to Philadelphia The University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia	CALL FOR PAPERS Hinter alledem aber stand Newyork und sah Karl mit den hunderttausenden Fenstern seiner Wolkenkratzer an. Ja in diesem Zimmer wußte man, wo man war. - Franz Kafka, Der Verschollene A fictional Metropolis for Fritz Lang. New York for Kafka’s Karl Roßmann. Dresden for Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. From the fin de siècle to the Wende, urban spaces have played and continue to play a fundamental role in modern German literary and visual culture. This conference seeks to illuminate the alleys and shadows of the metonymic “city” in German society. How do we construct space in an urban landscape and, more specifically, how do we perceive it through, for example, literature, film, and photography? How have urban spaces formally affected various media, and reciprocally, how have various media affected the city? How exactly do we see (or sometimes even choose to ignore) the city? Or conversely, as Kafka’s Roßmann observes, how does urban space perceive us? We welcome submissions in the fields of German culture, literature, film, photography, architecture, art history, history, philosophy, or from scholars engaging with any of the following or other topics relating to urban space: Urban vs. suburban or rural space Past, present, and future of cities Land and water Mobility, transportation Migration, immigration Cultural, racial, or class conflict in the city Threats of/to urban space Construction, evolution, destruction of space Effects of religion and ideologies Urban sprawl Eastern vs. Western spaces Origins of the German city The city in artistic movements Gendered spaces; gender in the city Characteristics of “German” space Urban space under National Socialism Public art, graffiti City parks, concealment of the urban Cosmopolitan culture Spatial dimensions Deadline for submission of abstracts (one page, in English): December 31, 2007 Submit abstracts to: malczyk@sas.upenn.edu