31st Annual Berkeley Interdisciplinary German Studies Conference: “Fictions of Reproduction”

Time: - 5:00 PMDate: - 02/25/2023 Location: Zoom- (https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/99842121224?pwd=M2JOUUxhVHRiaEM0UzJRSm8zV0paUT09)

Organizers: Ambika Athreya, Elise Volkmann, Verena Wolf 

 

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)