2018-19 Events

Othmar Plöeckinger,
“Mein Kampf: A Critical Edition” and Discussion with the Editor

April 19, 2019

CGES held a discussion with co-editor Othmar Plöeckinger about the importance of republishing the book with added footnotes.

Movie poster for film Wackersdorf. On the top half, five people stand behind a microphone and in front of a barbed wire fence. On the bottom half, a group of anti-nuclear activists stand opposite police in riot gear. Text reads: "Es ist wieder da, das Wackersdorf-Gefuhl." Wackersdorf, Wehrt Euch, Leistet Widerstand. Actors: Anna Maria Sturm, Johannes Zeiler, Fabian Hinrichs.
Screening of “Wackersdorf” and Q&A with Director Oliver Haffner

April 14, 2019

CGES hosted a screening of "Wackersdorf," winner of the Audience Award, Munich Film Festival in 2018.

Director Oliver Haffner joined us after the movie screening for a Q&A session.

“Wackersdorf” movie trailer

The flag of the United Kingdom and the flag of the European Union superimposed on a brick wall.
Panel Discussion: “Brexit — Continuing Chaos?”

March 29, 2019

CGES hosted a discussion on the outcomes of the dawn of Brexit. What will leaving the European Union mean, from a political and economic perspective, to British and European citizens?

Answers to this and many more questions were discussed by panelists Lucy Goodhart of Brandeis University, Mark Crowley of Harvard University and Robert Savage of Boston College.

A CGES student employee stands behind a table with many Catan games.
“Deutschlandjahr: Brandeis Catan Competition”

March 27, 2019

A fun evening of competitive board gaming!

Today's Germany is known in the U.S. primarily as an exporter of cars — and perhaps for its Oktoberfest beer. But there is another way in which Germany has been reaching out into many corners of the world: as a producer of board games and puzzles. Catan is one such board game. Invented by Klaus Teuber, it is one of the most popular board games in the U.S. today.

Artemy Troitsky
“Rock and Resistance in Russia: One Hundred Years of Musical Resistance and Censorship in the USSR and Putin’s Russia”

March 26, 2019

Lecturer Artemy Troitsky is a Russian journalist, music critic, concert promoter, broadcaster and academic who has taught classes in music journalism. He was described as "the leading Soviet rock critic" by the New York Times in 1988. His publications include "Back in the USSR: The True Story of Rock in Russia," "Tusovka: Whatever Happened to the Soviet Underground Culture" and "Let Me Take You Down to the World of Pop."

This event was co-sponsored by the International and Global Studies Program and the Russian Studies Program.
Dror Keren
“What is Home?” A Lecture by Dror Keren

March 25, 2019

Lecture in English, followed by Q&A discussion in Hebrew

Brandeis University welcomed Dror Keren, actor, playwright and director.

The funny guy. The creative genius. The winking, witty, geeky, lovable best friend. Dror Keren is one of the most important people in Israeli theatre. He has starred in countless productions over the past 20 years, touring with productions he has adapted, directed and acted in — from Lincoln Center in New York to national theaters in China. Known for his razor sharp wit and punchy-writing, Dror Keren showcases what it means to be Israeli: The dilemma of living in the conflict; acknowledging, as a second generation Holocaust survivor, the need for a Jewish homeland; struggling to find an artistic voice amid people suffering from PTSD and the side-effects of war. Keren has delved into the fundamental question of what, for a writer like himself, is home. Is it within his writing? Is it wherever his readers and viewers are? Or is home just the place where he sits down and writes?

Sponsored by CGES, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, the Department of Theater Arts and the Hebrew Program at Brandeis University.
Karsten D. Voigt
“Best Frenemies Forever? Germany and Russia” with Karsten Voigt

March 18, 2018

Speaker Karsten D. Voigt is a former member of the German Bundestag and served as the coordinator of German-North American Cooperation at the Foreign Office of Germany from 1999 to 2010. He also served as vice president (1992-94) and then president (1994-96) of the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO.

From 1976-98, he was a member of the German Bundestag, where he served as foreign policy speaker of the Social Democratic faction from 1983-98. For many years, he was chairman of the German-Soviet, and later the German-Russian Parliamentary Group.

Voigt is a board member of Aspen Germany and a senior associate fellow and member of the presidium of the German Council on Foreign Policy.

Event poster that reads: Ireland and Israel: Parallel and Divergent Paths in National Liberation. Imagery incorporates elements of the Israeli and Iris flags.
Panel Discussion: “Ireland and Israel: Parallel and Divergent Paths in National Liberation”

March 11, 2019

A roundtable discussion exploring the relationship between Ireland and Israel: past, present and future.

Moderator

Dr. Lisa Lynch, Provost and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy, Brandeis University

Panelists
  • Former Ambassador to Ireland

  • Alexander Kaye Karl, Harry and Helen Stoll Assistant Professor of Israel Studies, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Near East and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

  • Frances Malino, Sophia Moses Robison Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and History, Wellesley University

A clip art couple in formal wear dance with each other.
Let's Dance! International Evening of Dance

March 10, 2019

People from all parts of our campus community put on their dancing shoes and joined us for an international evening of dance — with music and performances, and dance lessons as well as desserts from around the world. Students, staff, faculty, alumni, family and friends came together to counter the winter doldrums and to get off their screens for a few hours.

A group of activists holding banners with German climate change slogans

March 7, 2019

German activists from "Ende Gelände" (Here and No Further) joined us on their U.S. tour to share stories and tactics about successful mass mobilizations for climate justice, including their campaign to stop coal mines and protect Hambach Forest.

Several stones sitting on top of a grave marked with a Star of David
“Let's Talk About the Holocaust: German and Jewish Students in Dialogue”

March 6, 2019

Seventy-five years after the Holocaust, the lessons of the Shoah still resonate loudly. This Holocaust memory panel discussion was moderated by Brandeis graduate Benyamin Meschede-Krasa,’17.

Panelists included Elan Kawesch and Jillian Fisch, Jewish students at Brandeis, and Felix Knodel and Mia Balk, German volunteers with Aktion Suehnezeichen (Action Reconciliation Service for Peace) at Hebrew Senior Life.

Guest speaker Mariama White-Hammond and CGES staff stand next to a CGES banner
“Power, Privilege and Climate Justice”

February 4, 2019

We welcomed Mariama White-Hammond, a Boston-based faith leader, who has proven a commitment to climate justice advocacy and speaks forcefully against environmental racism, oppression and privilege within our communities. This event helped members of the community recognize that they are stakeholders in the important work around protecting our planet and each other. It also expanded our thinking of the "who" and "how" of climate justice, the impact of our actions and how we can perpetuate diversity in our activism.

A video recording of Mariama's presentation is available.

A woman wearing a hijab and standing in front of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.
“From Atonement to Tolerance: The Paradox of Citizenship and Religious Difference in Post-Holocaust Germany”

December 12, 2018

The notion of tolerance is generally hailed as the key civic virtue in liberal democracies. In German political discourse tolerance has become the key component in regulating and disciplining members of immigrant communities as Muslims. This talk unsettles the popular binary of religiosity versus secularity by examining how the notion of Christian atonement has become the condition for secular tolerance in the German national context by drawing on more than two years of ethnographic work in the field of civic education in Berlin.

Sultan Doughan is a doctoral candidate in the department of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her primary site of inquiry is located in the field of civic education in Berlin, Germany. In her dissertation titled "Teaching Tolerance: Citizenship, Religious Difference and Race in Germany," she conceptualizes the post-Holocaust as a time of racelessness, in which contemporary forms of racialization are naturalized. By doing so, she "problematizes" the asymmetrical relations among subjects categorized as Jewish and Muslim vis-à-vis Germans in the face of rising nationalism.

“The Current Migration Situation in Europe and the Rule of Law: Persecution, War and the Question of Ecological Migrants” with Bruce Leimsidor

November 28, 2018

Professor Bruce Leimsidor currently teaches European asylum law at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice. He has been concurrently counselor for asylum affairs in the Venice municipality’s program for asylum seekers. Before his positions in Venice, he was a senior resettlement expert at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' central resource center in Nairobi, Kenya, covering east and central Africa.

He has also served as director of the U.S. State Department’s Overseas Processing Entity in Vienna, Austria, the central office covering U.S. refugee admissions through Central Europe, and was the director of the Central European Office of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He has taught at the American University, Paris; Oberlin College; Occidental College; and Indiana University. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and holds an advanced degree from Princeton University.

Quinn Slobodian
“Democracy in Danger” with Nancy MacLean, Quinn Slobodian and Yascha Mounk

November 19, 2018

Our guest speakers discussed what they believe endangers democracy.

  • Nancy MacLean, author of "Democracy in Danger: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America"
  • Quinn Slobodian, author of "Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism"
  • Yascha Mounk, author of "The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom is in Danger and How to Save It"
A group of young adults play the board game Catan.
“Deutschlandjahr: Brandeis Catan Competition”

November 14, 2018

At this event, we brought together novices and expert players for a fun evening of competitive board gaming.

Today's Germany is known in the U.S .primarily as an exporter of cars — and perhaps for its Oktoberfest beer. But there is another way in which Germany has been reaching out into many corners of the world: as a producer of board games and puzzles. Catan is one such board game. Invented by Klaus Teuber, it is one of the most popular board games in the U.S. today.

Rena Finder
“Kristallnacht Commemoration: Rena Finder, Schindler's List”

November 7, 2018

Rena Finder survived the Holocaust as one of Oskar Schindler's "list" (made famous by Steven Spielberg's 1993 film that won numerous academy awards in 1994).

In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938, Rena came to Brandeis to tell her story.

Looted art in the Louvre

Photo Credit: Courtesy of U.S. National Archives, Gustav Klimt - Neue Galerie New York, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons Aleksander Gierymski - CYfrowe, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Symposium: “Looted Art for Sale”

November 6, 2018

A free, interdisciplinary symposium that provided an international perspective on the past 20 years of art recovery. Our speakers included former Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, a primary leader in the creation of U. S. restitution policies, Nicholas O’Donnell, Victoria Reed, Inge Reist and Kim Oosterlinck.

Watch 2018 Symposium Videos

Sponsored by the Center for German and European Studies at Brandeis University, the Perlmutter Institute for Global Business Leadership at Brandeis International Business School, the Mandel Center for the Humanities, the Department of Fine Arts and the National Center for Jewish Film.

Film Excerpt Screening: “Restitution: Art and Memory”

November 5, 2018

In conjunction with the Looted Art for Sale Symposium, there was an exclusive excerpt screening with the filmmaker John Friedman.

An outline of Germany containing a word cloud describing current social and political issues.
“Campusweek: “Syrian Refugees in and Around Germany With Ibrahim Shkhess and Hassan Almohammed”

November 1, 2018

“Peacebuilding in Ukraine and Russia” with Andre Kamenshikov

October 30, 2018

Andre Kamenshikov is the representative of the U.S.-based NGO Nonviolence International and regional coordinator for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), an international civil society network in the Eastern European region.

He was the founder of Nonviolence International-CIS, a civil society organization based in Moscow. Since 2015, Mr. Kamenshikov has been in Kyiv working primarily with the local civil society sector on enhancing its capacities to contribute to peace and democratic development of the country. Mr. Kamenshikov has also published multiple works on the role of civil society in post-soviet conflicts.

Jacobia Dahm
Campusweek: “Picturing Immigration in Germany and the U.S.”

October 29, 2018

Griselda San Martin and Jacobia Dahm presented recent photo essays about immigrant communities in Germany and the U.S., and discussed how their work ties in with larger debates about immigration on both sides of the Atlantic.

  • Griselda San Martin is a Spanish documentary photographer based in New York City. She is a graduate of the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) and holds a master's in journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
  • Jacobia Dahm is a German photojournalist based in Berlin. Her projects are rooted in her longstanding interest in social justice and vulnerable communities. In the past she has worked on stories revolving around the effects of criminal justice on families (in the U.S.), and since 2015 she has also been documenting refugees along the migrant trail across Europe, and after their arrival in Germany.
MaDonna Girls
Campusweek: Gabriella Heinemann on “The Madonna Girls Center in Berlin-Neukölln”

October 23, 2018

Berlin-Neukölln has been a destination for migrants since the 1970s. Gabriele Heinemann, founder of the MaDonna Girls Center, described her work empowering young girls and women and the Center's urban development/violence prevention efforts. How does the Center realize participation and self-determination? How can an understanding of social work as human rights work be realized in daily interaction? How can diversity and community be protected against increasing gentrification?

Julie Lindahl and Rachael Cerrotti

October 22, 2018

Co-sponsored by CGES, Facing History and Ourselves and the Boston Area Jewish-German Dialogues Group.

“Deutschlandjahr: Trade, Trade, Tariffs and Transatlantic Relations” with David Art, Peter Petri and Bob Art

October 17, 2018

Panelists: David Art, Peter Petri and Bob Art

Free Lunch Society
Film Screening: “Free Lunch Society”

September 20, 2018

What would you do if your income was taken care of? Just a few years ago, an unconditional basic income was considered a pipe dream. Today, this utopia is more imaginable than ever before — intense discussions are taking place in all political and scientific camps.

Filmmaker Christian Tod, born 1977 in Linz, Austria, is an economist himself and was available for questions after the screening.

Watch the movie trailer

Karl Marx
Movie Screening: “The Young Marx”