Past Events

You are warmly invited to an academic presentation by Jacob Hermant, PhD candidate in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and the collaborative program with the Anne Tanenbaum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. Lecture Title:Reading Diasporism in Yiddish Literary HistoryDate: Thursday, November 27, 2025Time: 4:00-6:00 PMLocation: Department Library, Room 323, 3rd Floor, Odette Hall About the Lecture: Jacob’s dissertation looks at nineteenth-century Yiddish literature and early twentieth-century radical Jewish politics in an attempt to locate and reveal an intellectual lineage between the two movements. The first wave of modern Yiddish literature, as part of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), is often read as didactic and moralistic, aiming to educate and modernize the Jewish population of Eastern Europe in order to integrate into modern European life and culture, and away from perceived superstition and backwardness, especially with regard to the use of Yiddish as a vernacular. While this was certainly the goal of many authors, a close reading of the period’s Yiddish literary texts can highlight momentary breaks that reveal a far more complicated and nuanced relationship between the Jewish intelligentsia and folk, one which finds both utility and positive affective connections in traditional Jewish life, as well as anticipating threads of ... Read More »

Are you considering graduate study in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures? Join one of our online information sessions to learn more about the MA and PhD programs in German and Yiddish Literature, Culture, and Theory at the University of Toronto. Our sessions will introduce the program’s distinctive interdisciplinary strengths, funding opportunities, research areas, and faculty expertise. Participants will also have the chance to ask questions about the application process and student experience. Online Information Sessions Monday, November 10, 2025 – 1:00 p.m. (EST)Join via ZoomFriday, November 14, 2025 – 2:30 p.m. (EST)Join via Zoom For detailed information about applying to the 2026–2027 graduate program, please visit our Graduate Admissions page. Read More »

What is the state of youth engagement in politics in Germany right now? What are some emerging trends in youth engagement across the Atlantic? What does this mean for Germany and what can we learn from it in Canada? The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is proud to present a round-table discussion with Prof. Thorsten Faas, Hannah Arendt Visiting Chair for German and European Studies at the Munk School. Prof. Faas is the Head of Research Unit at the Free University of Berlin’s Centre for Political Sociology of Germany and will discuss the state of German politics today and the shifting role of youth in society at a time of increased political polarization. This roundtable discussion will take place at 3 PM on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025, in the Senior Common Room, Brennan Hall, 81 St. Mary Street. Students and faculty of all backgrounds are welcome to attend and engage in a thoughtful discussion on the state of youth in politics across the Atlantic. The event will be moderated by Rudy Yuan, DAAD Young Ambassador at the University of Toronto. Sign up for the event here. This event is sponsored by the DAAD and made possible through the generous support ... Read More »

Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies is pleased to host the 4th Seminar Book Forum on Monday, November 17th, 1–2 PM EST, via Zoom. The forum will feature Todd Kontje discussing his recent book, Global Germany Circa 1800: A Revisionist Literary History (Penn State University Press, 2025). During the event, Kontje will respond to reviews by John Noyes (University of Toronto)Tanvi Solanki (Yonsei University)Chunjie Zhang (UC Davis). Register Here Read More »

Filmabend: B-Movie – Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979–1989 Join the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures for a special Filmabend screening of B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979–1989, a documentary that captures the spirit of West Berlin’s underground music and art scene in the 1980s. Date: Tuesday, November 4Time: 6:30 – 8:30 PM ESTLocation: John P. Robarts Research Library, Room RL 3-023, 130 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 0C2 About the FilmThe film is a compelling montage of archive material that captures West Berlin’s music scene in the 1980s. This time capsule is held together by British music lover Mark Reeder’s personal testimonials. In 1979, he left gloomy Manchester and moved to the “more fucked up” Berlin, home of his favorite music style the New German Wave. The movement includes underground bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten and Die Ärzte, as well as synthesizer pioneers Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. Reeder becomes a squatter and spends a decade immersed in the cultural life of the city, which he describes as “not pretty, but sexy.” He manages female punk band Malaria! and works as a sound engineer for Die Toten Hosen. Reeder, who likes to dress up in uniform, ... Read More »

We are thrilled to announce the department’s very first Oktoberfest happening next week. Date: Friday, October 3, 2025Time: 2 to 4 pmLocation: Romero Room, Loretto CollegeGet ready for an afternoon full of fun. There will be Bavarian beer, pretzels, sweets, classic German drinks that you can mix yourself, Oktoberfest games, a photo booth, and more.✅ Free entry✅ Free food, drinks, and activities⚠️ Remember to bring your ID if you plan to enjoy the beerBring your friends and join us to experience the authentic German vibe. And of course, feel free to dress up. Lederhose, Dirndl, or your own DIY costume, we cannot wait to see your creativity.We look forward to celebrating with you at this exciting event. Read More »

The 18th Toronto German Studies Symposium will take place October 2–4, 2025. This year’s theme is “Considering Cross-Species Assemblages: Conflict, Collaboration, Kinship”. The symposium will feature a diverse program including a screening of Singing Back the Buffalo by Indigenous Canadian filmmaker Tasha Hubbard, as well as presentations by scholars sharing research in progress. Download the Program Booklet Thursday, October 2, 2025 Location: Media Commons Theatre (3rd floor), Robarts library, 130 St. George Street 18:00 Screening of Singing Back the Buffalo with Tasha Hubbard and Kyra Northwest Virtual introduction by Kyra Northwest (Montana First Nation) and post-screening discussion with filmmaker and University of Alberta professor Tasha Hubbard (Peepeekisis First Nation) Singing Back the Buffalo (dir. Tasha Hubbard, CA, 99 min)A visually rich and compelling story of indigenous kinship with buffalo and how the latter’s return to the Great Plains can restore sustainability and balance to wider ecologies. Friday, October 3, 2025 Location: Room 208N (2nd floor), The Munk School for Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place 9:00 Opening Remarks Land Acknowledgement, Dr. Stefan Soldovieri, Chair, Germanic Lang. & Literatures. Opening Remarks, Dr. Angelica Fenner, Prof of German and Cinema Studies 9:15 Figure and Ground: Landscape, Habitat, & Umwelt in the Visual Field ... Read More »

International Herder Society Conference: Herder’s GeographySeptember 4–7, 2025 | University of TorontoSenior Common Room, Brennan Hall We are delighted to announce that the bi-annual conference of the International Herder Society will take place from September 4–7, 2025, at the University of Toronto. The conference theme is Herder’s Geography. Professor John Noyes, of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and President of the Herder Society, will welcome scholars from around the world for this important gathering. The event will bring together researchers and enthusiasts for lively discussions and to explore the question: “What does Geography mean for Herder?” Speakers Nigel DeSouza (Ottawa) · Louise Fischer (Leipzig) · Sarah Goeth (Aachen) · Matteo Garau (Turin) · Rainer Godel (Darmstadt) · Katherine Arens (Austin) · Johannes Schmidt (Clemson) · Catherine Girardin (Paris) · David Takamura (Dickinson) · Daniel Purdy (Penn State) · Sonia Sikka (Ottawa) · Horst Lange (Arkansas) · John Noyes (Toronto) · Marcus Bullock (Wisconsin–Milwaukee) · Carl Niekerk (Urbana–Champaign) Conference Agenda Thursday, September 4, 202513:30 – Welcoming remarks13:45 – John Noyes (University of Toronto): Introduction: What is Geography and Why Does it Matter to Herder?14:00 – Opening PresentationNigel DeSouza (University of Ottawa): Environment/Milieu/Territory: Aristotle, Herder, Merleau-Ponty Section 1: Geography’s Field ... Read More »

You are warmly invited to a research talk by Miriam Udel, associate professor of German Studies and Judith London Evans Director of the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies at Emory University. Research Talk Title:Children’s Literature: Materials for Yiddish WorldmakingDate: Tuesday, April 1, 2025Time: 2:00 – 3:30 PMLocation: Charbonnel Lounge, 1st Floor, Elmsley Hall About the Lecture:Around the turn of the twentieth century, a group of Jewish educators, authors, and cultural leaders undertook a bold project: creating a corpus of nearly one thousand books and several periodicals, which flourished in conjunction with the secular Yiddish school systems that spanned the globe in the 1920s and 30s. These vibrant texts cut across continents and ideologies but shared in their creators’ overarching goal: to write into being a better world, a shenere un besere velt—in a distinctively Yiddish key. The question of what a “better world” looks like is, of course, inextricably bound up in questions of political vision. No less political is the imagined figure of the young reader, set against the backdrop of changing conceptions of childhood and family life. We will reconsider a set of “orphaned texts,” the stories, poems, and plays written for children during the first half of the twentieth century, ... Read More »

You are warmly invited to an academic presentation by Miriam Schwartz, PhD candidate in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and the collaborative program with the Anne Tanenbaum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. Lecture Title:Dubbed Jewish Literature: Orality, Multilingualism, and Translation in Twentieth-Century Hebrew and Yiddish WritingDate: Thursday, April 3, 2025Time: 4:00 PMLocation: Department Library, Room 323, 3rd Floor, Odette Hall About the Lecture:In Mirian’s dissertation, she examines orality and speech in twentieth-century Hebrew and Yiddish literature. During the early decades of the twentieth century, both Yiddish and Hebrew were transnational languages. This diasporic state of writing produced a multilingual literature, that is written in a seemingly monolingual fashion. Yet beneath this façade, modern Jewish literature frequently suppresses or obscures other languages – languages that do not appear in the text yet reveal themselves in various ways.By exploring the noticeable gap between the language on page and the language of the story world, Schwartz aims to uncover the underlying lingual tensions, ideological affiliations, identity, and gender politics of the text. This gap becomes especially pronounced when the marked and unmarked languages within a text do not “speak” in the same tongue. The dissertation offers a comparative reading of Jewish ... Read More »