Political Uses of Utopia Workshop

April 18-19, 2013

This workshop brings together 17 junior and senior scholars from Canada, the United States, and Europe for two days at Founder’s College to discuss the possible contributions of the idea of utopia and different forms of utopianism  to political thought across different traditions, including liberalism, radical democracy, anarchism, Marxism, Critical Theory, environmentalism, and feminism.

For more information please email Nika Jabbarova (event coordinator) at nikaj@yorku.ca, or check out the Politics of Utopia page here!

MARCH 14: BOOK LAUNCH AND EXHIBIT

The German Consulate in Toronto, Intellect Books, and the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies at York University welcome you to an evening of Berlin film, art and culture with the launch of World Film Locations: Berlin. Editor Susan Ingram, along with many local contributors to the volume, will be in attendance to discuss and sign the book.

“With the help of full-colour illustrations that include film stills and contemporary location shots, World Film Locations: Berlin cinematically maps the city’s long twentieth century, taking readers behind the scenes and shedding new light on the connections between many favourite and possibly soon-to-be-favourite films.”

The book launch is presented in conjunction with the multimedia exhibit Museumsinsel Berlin. Keeping the Past – Facing the Future. Berlin’s Museumsinsel (Museum Island) is host to an ensemble of museums, housing collections that span 6000 years of history. The exhibit explores the challenges that museums in Berlin face, as well as their impact on the surrounding urban space.

Plee join us at the German Consulate Toronto at 2 Bloor Street East, 25th Floor on March 14 at 5:00pm for the launch of World Film Locations: Berlin and Museumsinsel Berlin. Keeping the Past – Facing the Future. Light refreshments will be served.

The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, co-sponsored by the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies and the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, is proud to present Andreas Schnitzler, “Reconsidering Austria’s Past.”

Andreas Schnitzer is currently serving as Holocaust Memorial Intern at the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto. His internship is part of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service, which offers an independent alternative to Austria’s compulsory military service. In his interactive presentation, Schnitzer will discuss current memory discourses in Austria, as well as issues of xenophobia, immigration and anti-Semitism. Finally, he will provide students with information about opportunities to participate in a field trip to Vienna.

When?: March 11, 2013, at 2:30-4:30pm
Where?: York Research Tower, 749 York University

The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies is pleased to present the film screening of Etwas Besseres als den Tod (2011) (English translation: “Beats Being Dead“), directed by Christian Petzold, at the Nat Taylor Cinema on Saturday, February 23rd, 3:00pm.

Dreileben is a trilogy to which German directors Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf, and Christoph Hochhäusler each contributed one movie. Presented for the first time at the 2011 Berlinale, the three movies function as a collective as they are connected through time, place, characters, and events: in order to say goodbye to his foster mother, convicted sexual criminal Molesch finds himself in a hospital in a forest in Thüringen; unobserved for a minute, he manages to break away. His escape and the city of Dreileben’s hunt after him is the core of the trilogy. However, each movie offers another perspective and narrative.

Petzold’s movie Etwas Besseres Als den Tod (2011) is the first part of the trilogy, dealing with the romance between civilian servant Johannes and Bosnian maid Ana. Abandoning Ana, Johannes falls in love with Sarah, and the two of them pursue their studies in Berlin. Meanwhile, Ana encounters Molesch on his escape.

Christian Petzold was born in Hilden, Germany. He studied at the Free University of Berlin before graduating from the German Film and Television Academy. His feature films are The State I Am In (2000), Wolfsburg (2002), Ghosts (2004), Yella (2006), Jerichow (2008), Dreileben: Beats Being Dead (2011) and Barbara (2012). He has received several renowned film awards, and is a leading artist in contemporary German‐language cinema.

Gustav Klimt was one of the central figures of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the epoch that marked the beginning of Modernism. Creator of some of the most famous Art Nouveau paintings worldwide, Klimt was also one of the organizers of the “Jugendstil” art movement in Vienna.

To commemorate the official “Gustav Klimt Year” in Austria and his 150th birthday, the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies is pleased to present an exhibit of his life and work. This exhibition, generously provided to us by the Austrian Cultural Forum, focuses on the artist by recreating the atmosphere of his era through historical photographs, biographical documentations and reproductions of his finest and most famous works of art.

The exhibit will be on display on the 1^st Floor of York’s Scott Library until January 30.