CCGES, the German Section of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics and the European Studies Programme are pleased to be hosting a talk by Prof. Waltraud Maierhofer of the University of Iowa on Wednesday, April 8th. Prof. Maierhofer’s presentation will be entitled “Poisoner, Corrupter, Infanticide . . . What Should I Write? – ‘Anna Göldi – The Last Witch’ and the Fictionality of Trial Records” investigates the film adaptation (1991) of the novel “Anna Göldi—The Last Witch” by Swiss writer Eveline Hasler. Göldi (1734-1782) was the last woman to be put to trial for witchcraft in German-speaking countries in the late 18^th century. Recent historical research has made it clear that Anna Göldi was the victim of a power struggle between two of the leading families in the canton of Glarus, and in June 2008, the cantonal administration of Glarus declared its intention to rehabilitate Göldi. Prof. Maierhofer’s deliberations will focus on two aspects of the film, namely the character of the council’s scribe who records the trial and the transformation and role of the trial documents in the film.

Prof. Maierhofer received her Dr. phil. from the University of Regensburg, Germany. She is the Fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation and the Field-editor of the Eighteenth-Century Current Bibliography. Among her numerous publications are the books Hexen – Huren – Heldenweiber. Bilder des Weiblichen in Erzähltexten über den Dreißigjährigen Krieg; ‘Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre’ und derRoman des Nebeneinander, and the co-edition of Women Against Napoleon: Historical and Fictional Responses.

Location: TEL Building 0016
Time: 1:30 – 2:20 p.m.

The event has been made possible by the support of the German Studies Programme/York University, the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, and York’s European Studies Programme. For more information and to RSVP, contact Dr. Diana Spokiene (Ext. 88745; email: spokiene@yorku.ca)

Born 1978 in Yekaterinburg/Russia, Alina Bronsky grew up on the Asian side of the Ural Mountains as well as in Marburg and Darmstadt. After dropping out of her medical studies, she worked as a copywriter and journalist. Her debut novel Scherbenpark, which was nominated for the prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, is about 17-year-old Sascha who came from Moscow to Germany and lives in the Broken Glass Park,­ a ghetto of high-rise buildings ruled by its own laws which she breaks with fierce determination. Sascha is a commuter between two worlds and not at home in either of them but sharp-tongued and precocious enough to stand her ground ­ and to take the reader with her on a constantly accelerating journey.

The Munk-Goethe Writers Residency aims to foster German-Canadian exchange on European migration topics.

This reading has been made possible by the Goethe Institut-Toronto, The Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, German Studies Programme/York University, the Canadian Centre for German & European Studies, and York’s European Studies Programme.

Time: 12:30 – 2:15 pm
Location: Lounge, Department of Languages, Literatures, Linguistics, S558 Ross Building
Campus Map: click here

For more information please contact:
Dr. Diana Spokiene, Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics, York University (Ext. 88745; email: spokiene@yorku.ca)

Born in Ankara in 1961 and living in Germany since 1970, Zafer Senocak is a writer and intellectual whose publications have garnered several German-language literary awards and made him a leading contributor to German discussions of multiculturalism and cultural identity. At each of the two readings he will give while in Toronto, Senocak will read a different selection of literary and essayistic pieces in German and English and discuss the current state of (multi-)cultural life in Germany today.

Door Languages
Date: Monday, March 23, 2009
Time: 12:30-2:15pm
Location: S 558 Ross, York University (Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics)
For  a campus map, please click here.

Das Land hinter den Buchstaben / Beyond the Language of the Land
Date: Monday, March 23, 2009
Time: 6:30-8:00pm
Location: Room 208, North House, Munk Centre for International Studies, 1 Devonshire Place, University of Toronto

Both readings are free and open to the public and are made possible by generous funding provided by the German Studies Programme, York University; the German Department, University of Toronto; the Academic Initiative Fund, York Faculty of Arts/ Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics; the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, and the York University European Studies Programme

For more information and questions please contact Dr. Peter M. McIsaac, Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics, York University (416-736-2100 x88747, email: pmcisaac@yorku.ca)

CCGES is pleased to be welcoming the Acting Head of the European Commission’s Delegation to Canada, Mr. Giovanni Di Girolamo, to York on Wednesday, March 11th. Mr. Di Girolamo will be meeting with several CCGES affiliates and university representatives to learn about Europe-related activities at the Centre and York generally, before presenting a talk in a fourth year Political Science course on the EU. His talk is open to all interested individuals and will take place at 11:30 am in Winters College, room 118.

Please rsvp to ccges@yorku.ca.

The European Politics & Society Workshop is a monthly, interdisciplinary forum for discussing work in progress. This month the workshop welcomes Dr. Andrej Zaslove, a post-doctoral fellow at McGill University’s European Studies Institute. Attendees of the workshop will discuss his paper “Divergent Paths: The Politics of Immigration in Europe and Canada Compared.” (CONTINUE READING)