Fulbright German Studies Seminar 2011

Participants in this seminar gain a firsthand look into how Germany’s political, economic and cultural systems deal with contemporary issues. For U.S. scholars, the engagement in substantive dialogue with political, academic, scientific, journalistic and cultural leaders in Germany can strengthen research and teaching.

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application deadline: October 15, 2010

Next topic: “Ethnic Diversity and National Identity”

Globalization requires individual national states to engage in international collective action and to accept a greater interdependency, whether this concerns international trade and finance, security issues, or climate politics.  In Europe, the politics of “harmonization” and the growing momentum towards a strengthening of the European Union have raised concerns about infringements on the sovereignty of the individual states and the loss of national self-esteem.  At the same time, our national societies become increasingly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, putting in question the traditional idea of a "national" identity.

The seminar will explore what it means to be a member of a distinctive national group today (e.g. German, French, Dutch etc); how a national identity is defined, how it has evolved, whether there are geographic differences in this concept of "national identity” and – in the case of Germany - what impact reunification, i.e. the merging of two seemingly different national identities, has had on it.  Do East and West Germans, for example, even share the same views of a German national identity today?

The seminar will further investigate the growth of multi-ethnic societies in Germany and Europe, the role of religion, language, and culture for social cohesion and individual self-esteem.  Considering that nearly 20 percent of the population in Germany has an immigration background, with neighbouring nation states sharing similar demographic developments, what is our discourse on citizenship and social integration?  What role is played by access to education and work for political representation and identity?  Do we have a concept or a vision of a national identity that can bind the pluralistic forces of our society?

From a European perspective, the seminar will look at the minority policies made in Brussels, and ask if perhaps the German trend is less towards a revised German national identity than towards a sense of belonging to an increasingly unified, though heterogeneous Europe. Go to Award Detail >