Up Against the Wall
A conference to commemorate the 20-year
anniversary of the fall of the "Berlin Wall" on November 9, 1989 (all sessions are open to the public, and take place in the Browsing Room of the Knight Library). In this conference, we examine political, economic, cultural, and sociopsychological dimensions of walls around cities and between countries, in their historical and contemporary implications. We broaden the focus from the German case to a global range of instances,with lectures that explore the Great Wall of China, the Alsatian border between Germany and France, the Berlin Wall, the U.S.-Mexico Border Fence, and the Israeli-Palestinian Separation Barrier.
Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
10:30-10:45 Opening Remarks
Michael Ahrens (Consul for Cultural and Press Affairs)
10:45-11:00 Introduction
David Luebke (University of Oregon)
Morning Session: Walls in History
Moderator: David Luebke (University of Oregon)
11:00-12:00 Making the Great Wall: Evolution of a Symbol
Ina Asim (University of Oregon)
12:10-1:10 Die Grenzen im Kopf: Imagining Walls,
Borders, Frontiers, and National Identity in Alsace/Elsaß –
Some Historical Reflections
Peter G. Wallace (Hartwick College)
1:10-3:00 Lunch Break
Afternoon Session: Berlin Wall I:
How Divided Was Divided
Moderator: Craig Parsons (University of Oregon)
3:00-4:00 James Dean in Berlin: How the Berlin Wall
Divided Germany's Teenage Rebels
Sebastian Heiduschke (Oregon State University)
4:10-5:10 “The Wall and the Books”: an Experiment
Nikolaus Wegmann (Princeton University)
Friday, Nov. 13, 2009
Morning Session: Berlin Walls II: Disavowal and
Acknowledgement
Moderator: Jeffrey S. Librett (University of Oregon)
10:30-11:30 'Where we are not, our enemies are':
the Berlin Wall and the Disavowal of Desire
John Urang (Reed College)
11:40-12:40 Re-Narrating German-Jewish Memories
of the Shoah during and After the Collapse of the
German Democratic Republic
Victoria Lenshyn and Delene White (U Mass, Amherst)
12:40-3:30 Lunch Break
Afternoon Session: East-West, North-South:
Walls Today
Moderator: Martin Klebes (University of Oregon)
3:30-4:30 Occupation as Disorientation in
Israel-Palestine
Ronen Shamir (Tel Aviv University)
4:40-5:40 Walls and Borders: the Shifting
U.S.-Mexico Relationship and Transborder
Communities
Lynn Stephen (University of Oregon)
5:40-6:00 Closing Remarks
Jeffrey S. Librett
6:00-6:15 Pre-Reception Break
6:15-8:30 Conference Reception – Recreation Center
Bonus Room
Jazz by Eva Bagno Trio
Thursday: 10:30 AM to 7 PM.
Friday: 9 AM to 6 PM.
Location: the Knight Browsing Room.
Click here to view a poster for this course.
