Goethe Society members and friends have a great deal to look forward to at the 2019-20 GSA and MLA conferences. GSNA-sponsored sessions span a wide range of topics and approaches from Goethe’s heterodox thought and Karl Philipp Moritz’s interdisciplinarity to broader themes of realism, colonialism and decolonization. They also encompass an equally wide range of formats, including a panel, a panel series, a seminar, and a roundtable. This diverse range not only of what we are talking about, but how we are talking with one another, speaks to the Experimentierfreude that is alive and well among the community of scholars affiliated with the GSNA.
For the German Studies Association convention in Portland, Jan Jost-Fritz (East Tennessee State University) and Christian Weber (Florida State University) have co-organized a four-part panel series on “Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy,” bringing together over 20 scholars. Clark Muenzer (University of Pittsburgh), Karin Schutjer (University of Oklahoma), and John H. Smith (University of California, Irvine) are convening a seminar at the GSA on “Goethe as a Heterodox Thinker” that likewise gathers about 20 participants around a topic that attracted intense interest at last year’s GSA in Pittsburgh. Mattias Pirholt (Södertörn University) has also put together a fascinating panel for the GSA on “Karl Philipp Moritz’s Interdisciplinary Stance.” Together, these GSA sessions include participants from institutions in the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and Australia. For the 2020 Modern Language Association convention in Seattle, Jason Groves (University of Washington) and Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia) have collaborated to assemble a truly impressive roundtable comprised of 8 panelists addressing “Decolonization and the Age of Goethe.”I want to thank each of these organizers for all their excellent and innovative work.
As a result of their hard effort, 2019-20 promises to be a banner year for the Goethe Society at both the GSA and the MLA. I hope that many of you will be able to join us in Portland and Seattle!As always, if you are interested in organizing a panel sponsored by the Goethe Society at one of the annual (incl. regional) meetings of ASECS, GSA, or MLA, please contact me.Elliott SchreiberGerman Studies DepartmentBox 72Vassar CollegePoughkeepsie, NY 12604Telephone: (845) 437-5687elschreiber@vassar.eduNote the deadlines for submission of panel proposals.
GSA, 15 November 2019 for the 2020 convention
MLA, 1 December 2019 for the 2021 convention
ASECS, 15 March 2020 for the 2021 convention
We encourage all presenters to become members of the GSNA.
Elliot Schreiber, Vassar College