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Past Events

The following events were presented by CGES in fall 2009.

Author Marshall Jon Fisher '85

Tuesday, November 3

Brandeis alumnus Marshall Jon Fisher '85 discussed his new book, "A Terrible Splendor," a spell-binding story of homophobia, antisemitism and immortal tennis on the eve of World War II.

Sponsored by the Center for German and European Studies, the Brandeis Tennis Club, and Triskelion, the GLBT/Queer Alliance at Brandeis University.

Blasphemy, Censorship, and Scholarship
‘The Cartoons That Shook the World’ Then Shook Academe

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Widespread rioting broke out in the Muslim world in 2006 in connection with publication of a page of editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. Brandeis political scientist Jytte Klausen’s new book, "The Cartoons that Shook the World," reveals the dark politics behind the riots, and Yale University Press’s removal of the cartoons from the book reveals serious differences over free speech in the academy.

Presenters included:

Jytte Klausen, Professor of Comparative Politics, author, specialist on Muslims and the West
Joseph E. B. Lumbard, Assistant Professor of Classical Islam
Eileen McNamara, Professor of the Practice of Journalism
Charles A. Radin, Director of Global Communications and Operations (moderator)

20 Years after the Fall of the Wall:
Revealing the Truth
Concert and Conversation with Wolf Biermann and Marianne Birthler

Tuesday, October 27

Marianne Birthler heads the government office that manages the archives of the former East German secret police (Stasi). Since 2000, she has been responsible for securing the controlled opening of the Stasi files and for overseeing one of Germany’s largest archives: the records of the GDR’s secret police files that stack up to a total of 120 miles.

Wolf Biermann, singer and song writer, became the most radical critic of the party dictatorship of the GDR. In 1976 he was stripped of his citizenship. This act sparked a wave of protests in East and West Germany. Biermann has won every major German literary prize. His volumes of poetry are among the best-selling in German post-war literature.

Turn up the Pressure — Turn down the Heat

Monday, October 19, 2009

Leading experts explored what it would take to try to get the nations of the world to commit to stopping Global Warming at a two-degree Celsius level at the December UN Framework Commission on Climate Change in Copenhagen. 

Presenters included Claus Leggewie
, professor for political science at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen and member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU); Moritz Hartmann, 

Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen, Germany and the European University Institute, Florence, Italy; Bernd Sommer
, Research Analyst, German Advisory Council on Global Change to the Federal Government; Charles C. Chester
, lecturer in environmental studies, Brandeis University and author of "Conservation across Borders: Biodiversity in an Interdependent World" (Island Press 2006).  

Jewish-German Dialogue with Ursula Mahlendorf

Monday, October 12

Ursula Mahlendorf discussed her latest work, "The Shame of Survival: Working through a Nazi Childhood." In writing the novel, Mahlendorf drew upon on her own experiences as well as her research in teaching students about how Germans and German writers deal with their Nazi past. Mahlendorf is a professor emerita of German, Slavic and Semitic Studies at the German department and Women’s Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Film Screening of “Exile Shanghai”
by German filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger

Wednesday, October 14

German filmmaker, documentarian and photographer Ulrike Ottinger discussed his film, "Exile Shanghai." With fascinating details and rich with dry humor, "Exile Shanghai" tells six life stories of German, Austrian and Russian Jews whose lives intersect in exile in Shanghai. The film is an extraordinary cultural odyssey that affectionately conjures up the lost Jewish world of Shanghai, the most fabulous city of the Far East.