2021 10th Undergraduate Research Conference in German Studies

As you may remember, due to Covid-19 we had to cancel last year’s Undergraduate Research Conference in German Studies, but we look very much forward to celebrating the 10th anniversary this academic year. On Saturday, April 10, 2021, the 10th URC in German Studies, co-organized by Lafayette College and Moravian College will take place virtually via Zoom. 

Since 2010, over 300 students from more than 50 different U.S. and Canadian institutions have presented their research. Every year, we had the privilege to hear outstanding presentations and enjoyed excellent intellectual discussions. The jury’s deliberations to whom to award the Max Kade Prize for the best presentation was always challenging because of the high-quality work of all undergraduate participants. A look at the list of paper topics also reminds us of the wide range of research fields that these undergraduate students were working on.

• “Hazy Morality: Carmina Burana and the Nazi Ethos” presented by Philip Decker (Swarthmore),
• “Representations of Gender in Berlin Dada: The Photomontage of Hannah Höch” presented by
  Emilee Finkelstein (Bryn Mawr),
• “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The conflicting role of the ‘New Woman’ in Germany’s
  Weimar Republic (1918-1932)” presented by Hannah Rose Foley (Franklin & Marshall),
• “I am able to touch a knife again …”: A Deleuzian Critique of G.W. Pabst’s Geheimnisse einer
  Seele” presented by Christopher Graves (UT, Austin)
• “Native, Mutter, fremd: The Challenges and Rewards of Translating into a ‘Foreign Language’”
  presented by Nicolas Herzberg (Grinnell),
• “Inhabiting the Discourses of Belonging; Franz Kafka and Yoko Tawada” presented by Aviv
  Hilbig-Bokaer (Clark),
• “Schrödinger’s Nukes: The Opacity of American Nuclear Weapons in Germany“ presented by Jack Matlack (Syracuse)
• “Paper Trails: Space, Time, and Citizenship in the Deutsche Kolonialzeitung of Africa” presented by Anna Lane (Macalester),
• “The Ideal Woman?: Gender-Stereotyped Pro-Robotics in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Sandman presented by Emily Loparco (Syracuse),
• “A Pygmalion Community: The Communal Touch in Modern German and Austrian History” presented by Kimberly L. McPhearson (Haverford),
• “Before LGBTQI: The First Wave of German Intersex Rights” presented by Sarah Mudrick (Lafayette).

All students who are still pursuing their degree and had been accepted to present last year do not need to re-apply and are invited to present their papers on April 10, 2021. We would just like to ask these students to confirm their participation by January 31, 2021.

Format: we consider proposals for research papers and posters.

Papers and posters can be presented in either German or English.

Paper presentations may not exceed 15 minutes (2000 to 2500 words). Posters should include a thesis statement, short reference to literature and primary materials, a discussion of the methodology and results.

Please send your proposal of 250-300 words to Axel Hildebrandt at hildebrandta@moravian.edu by January 31, 2021.

The proposal should include: 

• The title of the paper or poster
• Concise thesis statement
• Short list of primary and secondary sources (bibliography)
• Anticipated findings

The program committee will notify accepted applicants by early February 2021. For more information and updates, please contact Axel Hildebrandt at hildebrandta@moravian.edu.

We would like to encourage our colleagues to identify outstanding student work and guide the students through the application process. The deadline to submit the abstracts is January 31, 2021.

It would be helpful if you could indicate by December 1, 2020 whether some of your students are planning to apply. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

With kind regards – mit freundlichen Grüßen

Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger und Axel Hildebrandt