Conferences

Friday, March 17, 2006
Picture This!
Symposium on Photography and Narrative in Contemporary Literature
Presented by the Penn Humanities Forum, Departments of German, English, Romance Languages, and History of Art, and Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory.
Time: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Penn Humanities Forum, 3619 Locust Walk
Event free. To pre-register (required):
http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/05-06/symposium.shtml or 215.573.8280

For complete symposium program, please click here: Program

Sunday, February 5, 2006
Beyond Memorials: New Perspectives in German-Jewish Culture
2006 Graduate Student Conference
Co-sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and Jewish Studies Program

For complete conference program, please click here: Program

Friday - Tuesday, September 23 - 27, 2005
"Elective Affinities" 7th International Conference on Word & Image Studies

IAWIS/AIERTI 7th International Conference on Word & Image Studies:
Elective Affinities
Philadelphia, 23-27 September, 2005

Is a picture really worth a thousand words? What is the role of words in a culture saturated with images? This international conference will explore the relations between word and image from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. Our title has been borrowed from Goethe's 1809 novel Elective Affinities . In the novel, the chemical term “elective affinities” extends to human relationships, both intimate and political. Like the alkalis and acids of which Goethe's characters speak, words and images, though apparently opposed, may have a remarkable affinity for one another.  At the same time, as one of the characters in the book objects, such affinities are problematic, and “are only really interesting when they bring about separations.” 

How words and images represent and whether they enjoy a harmonious kinship, engage in border skirmishes, or seek to annihilate one another, are not merely formal matters. The history of iconoclasm tells us about the ideological stakes of the debate. Contemporary discussions of memorialisation seem to demand multi-media expression, and urban inscriptions such as graffiti and mural arts express political positions. New technologies for meshing words and images – such as medical imaging, virtual archives, the Internet – will also be discussed. Among the themes of the conference are: the arts of the book; early correspondences; political inscriptions; sacred words, sacred images; scientific imaging; spaces, places; photographic texts.

For complete conference program, please click here: Program

Lectures/Colloquia/Films

Wednesday Night German Film Series

• Monday, September 12, 2005
  3:00 pm, Huntsman Program Office, 3732 Locust Walk
  "U.S. Relations with Germany, Switzerland, and Austria"
  A discussion with Daniel Weygandt, Director of the Office of Austrian, German and Swiss Affairs in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs|
  Sponsored by The Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies
  Open to the entire Penn community.
  
  
• Wednesday, September 14, 2005
  4:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  "Haydn's Whimsy: Poetry, Sexuality, Repetition"
  A lecture by Professor Marshall Brown, Dept. of Comparative Literature, University of Washington
  Sponsored by Department of Music, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures, Program in Comparative Literature & Literary Theory
  
  
• Monday, September 26, 2005
  8:00 pm, Hall of Flags, Houston Hall
  Concert by Tempesta di Mare with soprano Julianne Baird
  Flaming Rose offers a musical glimpse into Georg Friedrich Händel’s expressions of spirituality through some of his most intimate chamber arias. The texts come from Barthold Hinrich Brockes’s Iridisches Vergnügen in Gott (Earthly Pleasure in God), a collection of devotional poems that employ such vivid imagery as “flaming rose” and “glittering garden” to symbolize spiritual ideals.

Soprano Julianne Baird joins the Tempesta di Mare Chamber Players for a program that also includes instrumental chamber music that complements the mood of the songs. The group will record this program for Chandos in March 2006.

Co-sponsored by Elective Affinities: 7th International Conference of Word and Image Studies, Department of Music and Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures.
Free for Elective Affinities conference participants and Penn faculty and students. Others: $5:00.


• Friday, October 21, 2005
  3:00 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  "Die Gruppe 47: oder Der Aufbruch zu einer neuen deutschen Literatur"
  A lecture by Professor Heinz Ludwig Arnold, Universitaet Goettingen
  
  
• Monday, October 24, 2005
  3:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  Film screening: Jacques Demy's "Lola" (1961)
  
  
  
• Thursday, October 27, 2005
  Faculty and Graduate Student Colloquium
  4:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  Speakers will be:
  Ilinca Iurascu, Progam in Comparative Literature
  "'Das Klingelzeichen der Geschichte': Benjamin, Broch and the Legacy of the Kaiserpanorama"
  
  David Copenhafer, Ph.D., Department of Music
  "Kafka's Sirens"
  
  
• Monday, October 31, 2005
  3:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  Film screening: Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Lola" (1981)
  
  
• Monday, November 7, 2005
  3:30 pm, Huntsman Program, 3732 Locust Walk
  The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business are pleased to present
  Dr. Hans-Juergen Heimsoeth, General Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany
  in a conversation about "Germany after the Elections: The Future of Transatlantic Relations"
  For more information, please contact Simon Richter (srichter@sas.upenn.edu)
  
  
• Tuesday, November 29, 2005
  4:30 pm, Cherpack Lounge, 543 Williams Hall, 255 S. 36th Street
  "Lessing's Laokoon and the Rhetoric of Pain"
  A lecture by Professor Tim Mehigan, University of Otago, New Zealand
  
  
• Thursday, December 1, 2005
  Faculty and Graduate Student Colloquium
  4:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  Speakers will be:
  Nicholas Di Liberto, Department of History
  "Overcoming the Empty Years: the Role of Philosophy and the University in West Germany after 1945. The Example of Hans Blumenberg"
  
  Birte Britta Pfleger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, California State University, Los Angeles
  "Free with the Past: The History of the German Society of Pennsylvania"
  
  
• Monday, January 9, 2006
  4:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  "Aesthetic Theory and Non-Proportional Truth Content in Adorno"
  A lecture by Dr. Gerhard Richter, University of California, Davis
  
  
• Tuesday, January 10, 2006
  6:00 pm, Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk
  Please join us for another installment of Theorizing, Penn's only lecture series devoted to literary theory at the intersections of art, philosophy and literature.
  This week's guest:
  Svetlana Boym, Harvard University
  "Estrangement and Architecture of Freedom: Victor Shklovsky and Hannah Arendt"
  Lecture co-sponsored by Comparative Literature, the Kelly Writers House, and the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures.
  
  
• Friday, January 20, 2006
  6:30 pm, The German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
  Repertory Film Showing:
  "To Be Or Not To Be, " with Jack Benny and Carole Lombard, directed by Ernst Lubitsch
  $15, includes soup and a light meal. For more information, please contact The German Society of Pennsylvania (215) 627-2332. www.germansociety.org
  
  
• Friday, January 27, 2006
  3:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  German TV program: "Bis in die Spitzen" Die letzten zwei Folgen
  Alle sind eingeladen! Kommt vorbei! Geniesst Kaffee und Kuchen!
  
  
• The Penn Humanities Forum is pleased to announce the following special event on behalf of the Project for Global Communication Strategies of Penn's Annenberg School for Communication, Cinema Studies, Slavic Studies, Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Middle East Center.
  Selling Democracy
  A Public Diplomacy Symposium & Film Festival
  
  Symposium: Friday, January 27, 10:00 am - 4:30 pm
  Film Festival: Sat-Sun, January 28-29, time vary
  
  Free. Public invited. Registration required:
  To register for the symposium, email sbeauvais@asc.upenn.edu
  Symposium details: http://www.pgcs.asc.upenn.edu/events_sellingdemocracy.php
  Film Screenings: Tickets are free and can be obtained at the International House box office one hour before show time.
  
  
• Thursday, February 2, 2006
  4:30 pm, Stiteler Hall B21
  Please join us for a discussion on
  "German Foreign Policy after Schroeder: Two Views from within the Grand Coalition"
  featuring Olaf Boehnke (SPD), Senior Advisor to MP Engelbert Wistuba, and Hartmut Philippe (CSU), Foreign Policy Advisor to MP Karl-Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg.
  Cosponsored by the American Council on Germany, the Department of German Languages and Literatures, European Studies, and the International Relations Program
  
  
• Friday, February 10, 2006 - every Friday until the end of semester
  3:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  German TV program will be shown Fridays this Spring:
  "Liebesleben. Sechs junge Leute in der Grosstadt..." Die neue Komoedie aus Deutschland
  Alle sind eingeladen! Kommt vorbei! Geniesst Kaffee und Kuchen!
  
  
• Wednesday, February 15, 2006
  3:00 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  "The Kafka-Einstein Effect: Max Brod and the Way of Weakness"
  A lecture by Dr. Peter Fenves, Northwestern University
  
  
• Friday, February 17, 2006
  6:30 pm, The German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
  Repertory Film Showing:
  "Der Hauptmann von Koepenick ("The Captain from Koepenick," 1956, in German with English subtitles), starring Heinz Ruehmann, directed by Helmut Kaeutner
  $15, includes soup and a light meal. For more information, please contact The German Society of Pennsylvania (215) 627-2332. www.germansociety.org
  
  
• Wednesday, February 22, 2006
  4:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  "Sublimation and Desire: The Limits of Theory and the Abundance of Art"
  A lecture by Dr. Ulrich Baer, New York University
  
  
• Thursday, February 23, 2006
  Faculty and Graduate Student Colloquium
  4:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  Speakers will be:
  Mara Taylor, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
  "The Struggle Over Identification: Lesbian Alternatives to Sexological Discourse in Weimar Germany"
  
  Dr. Christina Frei, Senior Lecturer and Director of Language Instruction, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
  "Spiraled Interactions: the dynamic nature of foreign language pedagogy in a CMC environment"
  
  
• Sunday, March 5, 2006
  3:00 pm, The German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
  Chamber music concert:
  Wister Quartet. Haydn String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 74, No. 3 (Rider);
  Barber String Quartet, Op. 1;
  Dvorak String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 9.
  For more information, please contact The German Society of Pennsylvania (215) 627-2332. www.germansociety.org
  
  
• Thursday, March 23, 2006
  Faculty and Graduate Student Colloquium
  4:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  Speakers will be:
  Anika Kiehne, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
  "From Authorship to Editing: Women and Periodicals in late 18th Century Germany"
  
  Dr. Warren Breckman, Associate Professor, Department of History
  "The Young Hegelians and the Politics of the Symbolic"
  
  
• Sunday, March 26, 2006
  4:00 pm, The German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123, $25.
  Choral concert:
  Ephrata Cloister Chorus. Chorales written by the celibate brothers and sisters who lived at the Cloister in the 18th century, as well as music from Shakers, the Moravians, the New England School, and African American spirituals.
  For more information, please contact The German Society of Pennsylvania (215) 627-2332. www.germansociety.org
  
  
• Monday, April 3, 2006
  An Evening with Thomas Lehr
  4:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture and Media Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  Berlin Author Thomas Lehr reads at Penn
  4:30 pm Reading of excerpts from his novels (in German)
  6:00 pm Buffet dinner (Indian)
  7:00 pm Spaziergang ins Schneckenhaus: Eine poetologische Spirale
  Thomas Lehr is a contemporary Berlin-based novelist whose novels have won considerable acclaim.
  Sponsored by Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and the Max Kade Foundation
  
  
• Monday, April 10, 2006
  Delta Phi Alpha German Honor Society Induction Ceremony
  5:00 pm, Max Kade German Culture and Media Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  Guest Speaker: Professor Dr. Imke Meyer, Bryn Mawr College
  "Wie kann man unbeschwert sein wenn flipper der tod droht?"
  
• Wednesday, April 19, 2006
  7:30 - 9:30 pm, Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall
  "Autobiography and Biography, Before and After Freud"
  Presenters:
  Liliane Weissberg, Ph.D., Brown Distinguished Professor in Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
  Laurie Wilson, Ph.D., Faculty, NYU Psychoanalytic Institute; Art Historian; Author, Alberto Giacometti: Myth, Magic and the Man
  Co-sponsored by Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia and the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
  
  
• Thursday, April 20, 2006
  Faculty and Graduate Student Colloquium
  4:30 pm, Max Kade German Culture Center (Room 329A, 3401 Walnut Street, entrance next to Starbuck's)
  Speakers will be:
  Adrian Daub, Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory
  "'Zwillingshafte Gebaerden' - The Practice and Promise of Four-Hand Piano Playing in the 19th Century"
  
  Dr. Thomas Weber, Department of History
  "The Regiment: Adolf Hitler and the Men of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment in World War I"
  
  
• Friday, April 21, 2006
  6:30 pm, The German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
  Repertory Film Showing:
  "The Tunnel" (Der Tunnel, 2001, directed by Roland Suso Richter, German with English subtitles)
  $15, includes soup and a light meal. For more information, please contact The German Society of Pennsylvania (215) 627-2332. www.germansociety.org
  
  
• Sunday, April 23, 2006
  3:00 pm, The German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
  Chamber music concert:
  Wister Quartet with Davyd Booth, accordion. Works by Beethoven, Smith and Dvorak.
  $25. For more information, please contact The German Society of Pennsylvania (215) 627-2332. www.germansociety.org
  
  
  Upcoming Events:
  
  
• Thursday, November 9, 2006
  4:30 pm, location to be determined
  "Pius XII, the Second World War, and the Jews"
  A lecture by Stewart Stehlin, NYU
  Co-sponsored by the History Department, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and the Jewish Studies Program.