2009-10 Events
April 28, 2010
CGES premier event of the Spring 2010 season brought together scholars from the U.S. and Europe who shared their work on right-wing radicalism. The conference began with the European perspective panel and then shifted to the U.S. perspective.
Co-sponsored with the the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, The Department of Sociology, the Program in Social Justice and Social Policy and the History of Ideas Program.
April 15, 2010
A very enlightening talk was given by the CEO of Verbundnetz Gas, Klaus Dieter Barbknecht, on the issue of energy security and the world's continued reliance on fossil fuels. The moderator was Arpad van Lazar, a distinguished professor emeritus from the Fletcher School. The talk was followed by a luncheon at the Faculty Club with a smaller group of faculty and students.
Co-sponsored by the Perlmutter Institute for Global Business Leadership.
April 8, 2010
A talk by Harvard CES Fellow Marion Roewekamp about one of the first female judges in Weimar, Germany
The talk was held at the Faculty Club with a crowd of students, faculty and staff members. The event was followed by the Kaffeestunde, which Marion Roewekamp also attended.
March 24, 2010
Uta Larky is an associate professor of German and Holocaust studies at Goucher College and is in residence at the Hadassah Brandeis Institute for the Spring 2010 semester.
Film screening of "Letters from Chicago" followed by a discussion.
March 17, 2010
The Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International came to Brandeis to lecture about the Soviet Holocausts and the work of Moscow Jewish intellectuals in response to the genocide.
February 24, 2010
Reverend Monika Renninger talked with the Jewish German Dialogue group about her work with interfaith dialogue in Stuttgart, Germany.
February 22, 2010
International political scientist Arne Jungjohann talks about the successes of the Copenhagen Conference.
January 28, 2010
Panelists
Claudia Schuett
Asbed Kotchikian
Respondent
Asadullah Pasoon
CGES hosted a lively panel discussion on the current situation after the war in Afghanistan. Panelists talked about the history of occupation and violence in the area, the German government strategy and the Afghani optimists’ view of the situation. Members of the community related their own personal Afghanistan experiences and asked poignant questions.
January 28, 2010
Sebastian Fohrbeck, DAAD director in New York, answered Brandeis students’ questions about exchange opportunities in Germany.
December 2, 2009
Global Perspectives on a Failed Global Climate Change Agreement
After months of negotiations, world leaders predicted that the long-anticipated United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen (Dec. 7-18, 2009) would not end in a legally binding global agreement on reducing CO2 emissions. While European nations were hopeful that an agreement could be reached, the United States postponed its domestic climate change legislation to 2010. Developing countries like China and India won't move forward without the Unites States.
Panelists explained American vs. European vs. Asian perspectives on the (broken) deal.
Panelists
Eloi Laurent, Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Michael Mehling, Ecologic Institute, Washington D.C.
Gary Jefferson, Brandeis International Business School
Moderator
Preeta Banerjee, Brandeis International Business School
Film
"The Age of Stupid" was shown at the end of dinner.
November 24, 2009
Students for Social Entrepreneurship Club… More Than Profit
Alexis Olans, program manager of Better Place, the environmental business arm of Adidas, discussed creating your own dream job, crafting your career and network, and launching into careers in environmental business.
November 3, 2009
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.
October 27, 2009
Widespread rioting broke out in the Muslim world in 2006 in connection with the 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. 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)
October 27, 2009
Concert and Conversation with Wolf Biermann and Marianne Birthler
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.
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)
October 12, 2009
Ursula Mahlendorf discussed her latest work, "The Shame of Survival: Working through a Nazi Childhood." In writing the novel, Mahlendorf drew upon 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.
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.