CCGES is pleased to announce that new issues of both Centre-housed journals, spacesofidentity and the German Law Journal.  Review of Developments in German, European and International Jurisprudence, are now available online.

www.spacesofidentity.net is an interdisciplinary, open-access journal about tradition, cultural boundaries, and identity formation in Central Europe (and beyond). After going “beyond” Central Europe in our summer issue, which with “the other East” on occasion of the Beijing Olympics, the latest issue returns to the multiple layers of identity formation processes in Central Europe.

Contributions to this issue include:

• Eva Bodnar’s exploration of the multifaceted loyalties in the cartographic mappings of pre-1848 Hungary
• Marcin Filipowicz on the concept of masculinity in 19th-century Czech literature
• Natalia Barykina’s discussion of architecture and spatial practices in post-Communist Minsk
• Inga Untkis introducing us to the unexpected presence of rock musician Frank Zappa in post-Soviet Lithuania

Meanwhile, the latest  issue of the German Law Journal, available at www.germanlawjournal.com, contains a small Symposium dedicated to the English translation of the volume ‘Der Gespaltene Westen’ (Frankfurt, 2004; transl. 2006) by Jürgen Habermas. The greatly intriguing and thought provoking essays found in this volume, along with the approach of Habermas’ 80th birthday this coming June,  inspired the editors to invite a number of experts on the work of Habermas and on international law to share their views on this important phase in Habermas’ scholarship, the results of which are found in the journal’s latest issue.

In the wake of Barack Obama’s historic victory, the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies (CCGES) at York University gathered together a group of its faculty affiliates to discuss a variety of aspects of the European relationship with president-elect Obama and his new administration This discussion is now available for viewing online at GermanStudies.ca or on YouTube directly by clicking on any of the topics listed below.
Amongst the topics addressed by the group were the following:

• A European Obama? – Could a candidate similiar to Obama emerge in any of Europe’s political cultures? What are the hurdles such a person would face?
• What Do They See in Him? – The perception of Obama in Europe
• Great Expectations – What an Obama administration and European leaders expect from each other

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As the kickoff to a series of events marking the 20th anniversaries of the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989) and German unification (October 3, 1990), CCGES recently took an interdisciplinary group of ten graduate students from York and the Centre’s partner institution at the Université de Montréal on a 11-day trip through the former-East Germany. Led by Prof. Marcus Funck, the German Academic Exchange Service’s Visiting Professor at York, and CCGES Coordinator, John Paul Kleiner, the trip was intended to provide insight into the massive social, economic and cultural transformation which has taken place in eastern Germany over the past almost two decades of unification. Through encounters with academics, politicians, professionals as well as civic leaders, activists and residents, tour participants explored the ramifications of rapid deindustrialization, declining levels of social and democratic engagement, massive demographic changes (relocation from east to west and a rapidly aging population) and East Germany’s disastrous ecological legacy. (CONTINUE READING)

CCGES is pleased to be able to congratulate Prof. Willem Maas on the occassion of his receiving a prestigious Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration. Prof. Maas is a Centre faculty affiliate and professor of political science at both York’s Glendon College and the Faculty of Graduate Studies. (CONTINUE READING)

Croatian-German author Jagoda Marinić reflects on her reading at York this past Monday, March 19th in her literary blog, strawberryfields. To see what she has to say about her experience at the reading, click here

Ms. Marinić is the author of Der Namenlose (The Nameless One) and the 2008 Munk-Goethe Writer-in-Residence.