31st Annual Berkeley Interdisciplinary German Studies Conference: “Fictions of Reproduction”
Berkeley 2023 German Studies Conference:
Fictions of Reproduction (Online)
Join the conference meeting room on Zoom by clicking here or scanning the QR Code. (Meeting ID: 998 4212 1224; Passcode: 333132)
Day 1: Friday, February 24, 2023
9:00-9:15 PST / 18:00-18:15 MEZ
Introductory Remarks by Ambika Athreya (UC Berkeley)
9:15-10:40 PST / 18:15-19:40 MEZ
Panel 1 – Taming, Staging and Rhapsodizing the Maternal Body
Moderator: Verena Wolf (UC Berkeley)
Commentator: Dr. Patrick Hohlweck (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin/UC Berkeley)
- Marcella Fassio (Freie Universität Berlin) – Zwischen Verstummen und Anklagen: Repräsentationen (un)gewollter und (un)erlaubter Schwanger- und Mutterschaft bei Gabriele Reuter und Mela Hartwig
- Antonia Villinger (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) – Staging Pregnancy in Dramatic Plays around 1800 (Goethe, Wagner, Hebbel)
- Alina Antonov (University of Arizona) – The Mother Figure in Gottfried Benns Early Works
10:40-10:45 PST / 19:40-19:45 MEZ
Coffee Break
10:45-11:45 / 19:45-20:45 MEZ
Panel 2 – In(opportune) Reproductive Timing
Moderator: Kayla van Kooten (UC Berkeley)
Commentator: Professor Chenxi Tang (UC Berkeley)
- Annika Orich (Georgia Institute of Technology) – Shooting Blanks: Absences of Reproductive Processes in Fictions of Reproduction
- Christian Hißnauer (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) – Reproduktives Timing und (normalisierende) Zeitlichkeitsvorstellungen: Warum Iris Berben (als MISS SIXTY, 2014) keine Mutter mehr werden darf
11:45-12:00 PST / 20:45-21:00 MEZ
Coffee Break
12:00-13:00 PST / 21:00-22:00 MEZ
Keynote Speech by Professor Waltraud Maierhofer (University of Iowa)
“From Family Planning to Family Optimization: Current Debates and Recent German Fiction”
13:00-14:00 PST / 22:00-23:00 MEZ
Lunch and Social / Abendbrot and Social
14:00-15:35 PST / 23:00-24:35 MEZ
Panel 3 – Botanical Cognates
Moderator: Sean Lambert (UC Berkeley)
Commentator: Professor Karen Feldman (UC Berkeley)
- Nat Modlin (University of Chicago) – Gender Fluidity in Subaquatic Fictions of (Fort-)Pflanzen
- Lukas Oberem (New York University) – The Vegetable Lamb and How Mice are Born from Dirty Shirts: The Concept of Spontaneous Generation in Early Modern Europe
- Fay Yurwit (UC Berkeley) – Disaster, Impotence, and Weimar Film: The Fertile Industrial Aesthetics of Das Blumenwunder
*16:30-18:00 PST, Dwinelle 370*
In-person Happy Hour for Berkeley Participants (with light refreshments)
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Day 2: Saturday, February 25, 2023
9:00-9:15 PST / 18:00-18:15 MEZ
Day 2 Remarks by Elise Thora Volkmann (UC Berkeley)
9:15-10:15 PST / 18:15-19:15 MEZ
Panel 4 – Labor after Labor
Moderator: Qingyang Freya Zhou (UC Berkeley)
Commentator: Professor Jeroen Dewulf (UC Berkeley)
- Pola Groß (Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung Berlin) – Milch und Arbeit. Stillen in der Gegenwartsliteratur
- Mary Hennessy (UC Berkeley) – The Wages of Textual Reproduction: Typists in Weimar Literature
10:15-10:30 PST / 19:15-19:30 MEZ
Coffee Break
10:30-11:30 / 20:30-21:30 MEZ
Panel 5 – Embryonic Dreams, Birthing Machines
Moderator: Elizabeth Sun (UC Berkeley)
Commentator: Professor Deniz Göktürk (UC Berkeley)
- Florenz Gilly (Sigmund-Freud-Privatuniversität Wien) – Vom “Retortenbaby” zum Wunschkind: Assisted Reproduction as Represented in Contemporary German Children’s Books
- Julia Wurr (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg) – Surrogacy and the Dystopian Double Standard: Generic Tensions and the German Embryo Protection Act
- Casey Stuck (University of Duisburg-Essen) – (Self-)demolition of Humanity through Creation: Notions of Reproduction in Contemporary Hollywood Science Fiction Films
11:30-11:45 PST / 20:30-21:45 MEZ
Closing Remarks by Verena Wolf (UC Berkeley)