Who Can Speak and Who Is Heard/Hurt?

Who Can Speak and Who Is Heard/Hurt?

Facing Problems of Race, Racism, and Ethnic Diversity in the Humanities in Germany

In: Kultur und soziale Praxis

Edited by: Mahmoud Arghavan, Nicole Hirschfelder, Luvena Kopp and Katharina Motyl

transcript-Verlag | 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839441039

Overview
Contents

About this book

Ethnic diversity, 'race', and racism have been subject to discussion in American studies departments at German universities for many years. It appears that especially in the past few decades, ethnic minorities and 'new immigrants' have increasingly become objects of scholarly inquiry. Such research questions focus on the U.S. and other traditionally multicultural societies that have emerged out of historical situations shaped by (settler) colonialism, slavery and/or large-scale immigration. Paradoxically, these studies have overwhelmingly been conducted by white scholars born in Germany and holding German citizenship. Scholars with actual experience of racial discrimination have remained largely unheard.
Departing from a critique of practices employed by the German branch of the American studies, the volume offers (self-)reflective approaches by scholars from different fields in the German humanities. It thereby seeks to provide a solid basis for thorough and candid discussions of the mechanisms behind and the implications of racialized power relations in the German humanities and German society at large.

Author information

Mahmoud Arghavan (Dr.) coordinates the unit for Help for Refugees, Migration, and Integration at the Inner Mission in Munich. He completed his PhD in 2013 at the Free University of Berlin with a dissertation on Iranian American literature. From 2014 to 2016, he worked as an adjunct lecturer at the American studies department of the University of Tübingen. His research interests include diaspora studies, postcolonial studies, critical race theory, and border studies.
Nicole Hirschfelder (Dr.) is an associate professor at the American studies department at the University of Tübingen and an associate member of the collaborative research center (Sonderforschungsbereich) 923 "Threatened Order - Societies Under Stress". She was a visiting professor at the University of Maryland in 2016. Her main areas of scholarship (figurational sociology, inequality, and the Civil Rights Movement) inform her collaborations with schools that strive to facilitate dialogues about the specific meanings of the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. and Germany.
Luvena Kopp (M.A.) teaches film, literature, and cultural studies at the University of Tübingen. Her research interests include concepts of figurational sociology as developed by Pierre Bourdieu and Norbert Elias, power relations, and the films of Spike Lee.
Katharina Motyl (Dr.) is a postdoctoral scholar at the American studies department of the University of Tübingen and a member of the collaborative research center (Sonderforschungsbereich) 923 "Threatened Order - Societies under Stress". Her research focuses on Arab American literature, global Arab and Muslim perspectives on the 'War on Terror', the sociocultural history of drugs and addiction, African American expressive culture as well as Native American cultures and knowledge systems.

Supplementary Materials

Leseprobe

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	1
Table of Contents Free access PDF PDF	5
Acknowledgments Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	7
Who Can Speak and Who Is Heard/Hurt? Facing Problems of Race, Racism, and Ethnic Diversity in the Humanities in Germany: A Survey of the Issues at Stake Mahmoud Arghavan, Nicole Hirschfelder and Katharina Motyl Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	9
I. Race in Translation: Comparing Racial and Xenophobic Formations in Germany and the United States
‘Ausländer’ – A Racialized Concept? ‘Race’ as an Analytical Concept in Contemporary German Immigration History Maria Alexopoulou Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	45
Perspective Matters: Racism and Resistance in the Everyday Lives of Youths of Color in Germany Lili Rebstock Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	69
Beyond a Trifling Presence: Afro-Germans and Identity Boundaries in Germany Anthony Obute Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	83
Race and Racism in Translation: “Who Can Speak?” in German Renderings of Literary African American English Annika Rosbach Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	101
II. Normative Whiteness in the German Humanities
Post-Racism, Colorblind Individualism & Political Correctness: Contemporary Modes of Materialization in American Studies and German Academia Courtney Moffett-Bateau and Sebastian Weier Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	123
Kanak Academic: Teaching in Enemy Territory Ismahan Wayah Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	153
The Migrant Scholar of Color as Refugee in the Western Academy Mahmoud Arghavan Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	177
Keeping Academia White: A Case Study Kai Linke Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	195
III. Diversity-Conscious Approaches to Academic and Pedagogical Practice
On Racism without Race: The Need to Diversify Germanistik and the German Academy Priscilla Layne Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	217
“So You Want to Write about American Indians?” Ethical Reflections on Euro-Academia’s Research on Indigenous Cultural Narratives Amina Grunewald Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	239
“The Danger of a Single Story”: Addressing Contemporary Public Discourse and Protest Movements in American Studies Classrooms in Germany Saskia Hertlein Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	261
IV. Shifting Perspectives: Transatlantic and Genre-Crossing Reflections on White Normativity
Goethe Meets Baldwin: Notes towards a Comparative Perspective beyond Misappropri Derek C. Maus Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	285
Notes from the Margin: Academic White Spaces and the Silencing of Scholars of Color Kimberly Alecia Singletary Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	295
Transatlantic Postcolonial (T)Races in the Classroom: From Defoe’s Desert Island to Larsen’s Quicksand and Black-ish Suburbia Elahe Haschemi Yekani Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	315
Passing Tone/Note Marius Henderson Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	337
Contributors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	343

Who Can Speak and Who Is Heard/Hurt?

Facing Problems of Race, Racism, and Ethnic Diversity in the Humanities in Germany

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