GSC meets every year as part of the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Canada, organized by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
In view of the on-going Pandemic, our Annual Conference of German Studies Canada (formerly Canadian Association of University Teachers of German) will be hosted at McGill University, Montréal, and take place from June 16–18, 2024.
The preliminary 2024 GCS Conference Program is still being put together.
While the Federation is still finalizing the choice of hosting institution for the Congress as a whole, we are already posting the GSC call for papers so that potential participants can mark their calendars with upcoming deadlines and the future conference date. The deadline for submitting an Abstract is Friday, December 1, 2023.
Papers presenting original, unpublished research on any topic or period of German-language literature, cinema, cultural studies, German language and language pedagogy are welcome, in English, French or German. We also welcome proposals in related fields (e.g., anthropology, art history, Black studies, diaspora and transnational studies, education, environmental humanities, history, musicology, philosophy) provided they are related to topics in German Studies.
We also welcome proposals in related fields (e.g., anthropology, art history, Black studies, diaspora and transnational studies, education, environmental humanities, history, musicology, philosophy) provided they are related to topics in German Studies. Papers or pre-constituted panels on Black German Studies are especially welcome and will be vetted in consultation with the BGHRA (Black German Historical Research Association).
You may submit a single paper or panel proposal:
- Single paper proposals: maximum 350 words.
- Panel proposals: panels of two or three papers on a related theme are welcome. The panel organizer should submit a proposal explaining the theme as well as the proposals for the individual papers as a package. Maximum 1,500 words. The panel proposals will be assessed on their merits as a panel separately from the single paper proposals.
- Workshop: an event with participant engagement. The workshop organizer(s) should submit a proposal explaining the purpose and outcome. Maximum 500 words.
- Pre-constituted roundtables: a venue affording up to 10 minutes input from each speaker on a particular theme relevant to the wider constituency, with room for wider discussion, also from the audience. The roundtable organizer(s) should submit a proposal explaining the theme and rationale, and line-up of speakers. Maximum 500 words.
In 2024, the Federation remains committed to questions of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization with the theme Sustaining Shared Futures. Possible lines of inquiry for German Studies might include, but are by no means limited to the following:
- Which specific forms of knowledge about the demise of the planet, its ecosystems, and animate and inanimate inhabitants are being produced in German-language literature, film, and culture?
- Which specific forms of knowledge about the past and present allow for a revisioning of a future as it relates to social justice, the climate crisis, reciprocity, or education? How are these forms of knowledge conveyed in German-language literature, film, and culture?
- How can we integrate Black and Indigenous knowledges without cooptation in order to generate more sustainable futures beyond the white settler paradigm of capitalist exploitation, extraction, and dehumanization?
- How are recent public debates about the climate crisis taken up in current socio-political and cultural discourses in the German-speaking world (and beyond)?
- What does German Studies “know” about sustainability? How is sustainability portrayed, critiqued in German-language literature, film, and other forms of artistic production?
- How can we, as scholars of German Studies, address the climate crisis? How can we learn from the past in order to imagine and create alternative futures? To what extent can such inquiries help reframe disciplinary, geopolitical, and national thinking and boundaries?
- How do we as German scholars position ourselves to the term “sustainability” when it is also used to justify the closure of programs and departments? What possible changes to and in German Studies as a discipline might result in the discipline’s sustainable future? Do we, as German Studies scholars, envision a potential future of the discipline through dismantling it?
A copy of your proposal should be emailed to the program co-chairs no later than Friday, December 1, 2023. Proposals are to be submitted electronically as a Word document, PDF or .rtf file. An adjudication committee will assemble the program following blind and anonymous review. The author’s name should not appear on the proposal itself. Please include your university affiliation and contact information in the accompanying e-mail. Decisions will be announced by January 15, 2024.
Presentation time at the conference is limited to 15 minutes per paper. Primary sources in German should be quoted in the original language.
GSC meets as part of the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Canada (https://www.federationhss.ca/en/congress/congress-2023) organized by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The largest multidisciplinary meeting in Canada, the Congress hosts the meetings of more than 70 scholarly associations during a 7-day period, bringing together scholars from across Canada and around the world.
Please note that presenters must be paid-up GSC members by 15 March 2023. Presenters on joint panels with other scholarly organizations in the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences must be paid-up members of either GSC or the co-sponsoring organization. (Please see here for membership information: CAUTG Membership)
Seminar Graduate Students Award: Both Graduate students and underemployed scholars selected for presentation are eligible to receive a Conference Registration Subsidy Award generously provided by the journal Seminar.
Please note that presenters must be paid-up GSC members by 15 March 2024. Presenters on joint panels with other scholarly organizations in the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences must be paid-up members of either GSC or the co-sponsoring organization.
Submissions and any inquiries can be jointly addressed to the GSC Program Co-Chairs:
Dr. Simone Pfleger (University of Alberta) Dr. Lars Richter (University of Manitoba)