College of Arts and Sciences|German Studies

Mini-Conference: Trans Literatures: What Do We Read and How Do We Read?

Monday, Nov. 16, 2026, 3 – 4:30 p.m.

You are very warmly invited to our mini conference on

Trans Literatures: What Do We Read and How Do We Read?
hosted by the Diversity and Equity Committee of the German Studies Department at the University of Washington

When? November 16, 2026 at 3-4:30 PM
Where? Denny Hall 359

What? This event features a variety of graduate students who study trans literature at UW and beyond. Most of the work presented was developed during last spring’s seminar on What is Trans Literature? Narrative Form and Trans Embodiment (German 592/German 495A) with Dr. Rafael Balling. Come and learn about exciting research on fictional texts that deal with transness, join the critical discussion of how we read these texts and why they matter.

Presentations:

Sophia Aepfelbacher (Department of Political Science, UW):
From Identity to Obligation: Vulnerability, Interdependence, and T4T

Sloan Emrick (English Literature and Culture, UW):
“I Don't Ever Want That Problem to Ever Go Away”: League Discrimination as Genre in Gay Sports Romance

Tristan Sheridan (English Literature and Culture, UW):
“There’s something about Midwestern girls”: Race and Place in Herculine's t4t Utopia

Til Weber (Comparative Studies at Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf)
Not Here Yet but Within Reach: A Comparative Analysis on Transgender Parenthood and Its Queer Utopic Visions in American and German Literature

Moderation and introduction: Rafael Balling (German Studies, UW) and Noga Rotem (Political Science, UW)

For questions, reach out to balling@uw.edu

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Academics, Conferences, Diversity Equity Inclusion
Event sponsors: German Studies

Kaffeestunde

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026, 3:45 – 4:45 p.m.

Jeden Dienstag
Practice your German!

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Student Activities

German Club

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026, 5 – 6 p.m.

Come meet fellow students who are interested in German and have fun playing games, eating snacks, and practicing German together!

Students at UW with all levels of German knowledge are welcome.

Be sure to bring your Husky Card, as you’ll need to scan it to enter Denny Hall.

Bis dann!
The German Club at UW
Follow us on Instagram @germanclubatuw to keep up with everything German Club!

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Student Activities
Event sponsors: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu

Monday Lecture Series: Elizabeth Nijdam (UBC), "Storytelling and Climate Literacy: Radical Imaginings from Fairy Tales to Today"

Monday, Nov. 23, 2026, 3 – 4:30 p.m.

Despite humanity’s role in the ongoing climate crisis and, thus, its responsibility to identify climate solutions, scholarship on environmental change reveals a persistent failure to identify pathways to sustainable futures. Unexpectedly, research on climate planning links this incapacity to identify pathways toward more sustainable and just futures to a “crisis of imagination” (Kumar et al. 1), positioning a breakdown of human creativity at the core of our lack of collective understanding and absence of collective action in the midst of our present realities (Moore & Milkoreit 1). This creative crisis not only relates to the general comprehension of “the significant risks posed by global environmental challenges, especially their long-term impacts on every aspect of communities, cultures, and societies around the world” (Moore & Milkoreit 1; Milkoreit, 2017), but it also relates to a distinct lack of the sociological imagination—"the ability to see the social structures that are continuously recreating and reinforcing our current environmental conditions” (Moore & Milkoreit 1; Mills, 1959). The third failure of humanity’s creative capacities, however, is less preoccupied with the past and present. Instead, this third failure refers to our collective inability “to imagine a rich and detailed set of possible futures” (Moore & Milkoreit 1; Bendor 2018). In short: “It is difficult to imagine a way out of this” (Kumar et al. 4).

This presentation turns to storytelling to address the ongoing crisis of imagination facing climate planning by exploring the role of fairy tales can play in imagining our way into more sustainable futures.
Bio: Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and settler scholar in the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. Biz’s research and teaching are grounded in the belief that popular culture is capable of both reflecting social and political discourse and intervening in it. Biz's scholarship examines the representation of complex histories in comics and digital and tabletop games, Tarot’s capacity for innovating classroom teaching, and the role of comics and game design in arts-based research. Biz is the Director of the UBC Pop Culture Cluster, which is home to the UBC Comics Studies Cluster.
In Fall 2025, Nijdam launched the UBC Critical Play Lab and its associated Critical Play Fellows Program, which is welcoming its second cohort of 30 Critical Play Fellows this fall.

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Academics, Lectures/Seminars

Kaffeestunde

Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2026, 3:45 – 4:45 p.m.

Jeden Dienstag
Practice your German!

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Student Activities

German Club

Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2026, 5 – 6 p.m.

Come meet fellow students who are interested in German and have fun playing games, eating snacks, and practicing German together!

Students at UW with all levels of German knowledge are welcome.

Be sure to bring your Husky Card, as you’ll need to scan it to enter Denny Hall.

Bis dann!
The German Club at UW
Follow us on Instagram @germanclubatuw to keep up with everything German Club!

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Student Activities
Event sponsors: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu

Pedagogies and Practices of Relational Memory in the Classroom and Beyond

Monday, Nov. 30, 2026, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Join UW’s Relational Memory Studies research cluster for a panel discussion by UW faculty of their pedagogies and practices of relational memory in the classroom and beyond. Panelists will briefly introduce a course or module on relational memory as a way to open a forum on teaching cultural memory relationally. A light lunch will be provided.

Panelists:
Jason Groves, Department of German Studies
Liora Halperin, Department of History and Jackson School of International Studies
Linh Thủy Nguyễn, Department of Ethnic Studies
Alys Weinbaum, Department of English

Event interval: Single day event
Campus room: Denny 359
Accessibility Contact: Simpson Center for the Humanities, humanities@uw.edu, 206.543.3920
Event Types: Not Specified
Event sponsors: Simpson Center for the Humanities, humanities@uw.edu, 206.543.3920

Kaffeestunde

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2026, 3:45 – 4:45 p.m.

Jeden Dienstag
Practice your German!

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Student Activities

German Club

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2026, 5 – 6 p.m.

Come meet fellow students who are interested in German and have fun playing games, eating snacks, and practicing German together!

Students at UW with all levels of German knowledge are welcome.

Be sure to bring your Husky Card, as you’ll need to scan it to enter Denny Hall.

Bis dann!
The German Club at UW
Follow us on Instagram @germanclubatuw to keep up with everything German Club!

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Student Activities
Event sponsors: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu

German Studies Faculty Meeting

Monday, Dec. 7, 2026, 3 – 5:30 p.m.

TBD

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Academics, Meetings

Kaffeestunde

Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2026, 3:45 – 4:45 p.m.

Jeden Dienstag
Practice your German!

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Student Activities

German Club

Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2026, 5 – 6 p.m.

Come meet fellow students who are interested in German and have fun playing games, eating snacks, and practicing German together!

Students at UW with all levels of German knowledge are welcome.

Be sure to bring your Husky Card, as you’ll need to scan it to enter Denny Hall.

Bis dann!
The German Club at UW
Follow us on Instagram @germanclubatuw to keep up with everything German Club!

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Student Activities
Event sponsors: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu

German Studies Faculty Meeting

Monday, Jan. 25, 2027, 1:30 – 4 p.m.

TBD

Event interval: Single day event
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Academics, Meetings
Target Audience: Faculty

German Studies Faculty Meeting

Monday, Feb. 8, 2027, 1:30 – 4 p.m.

TBD

Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Denny Hall (DEN)
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Academics, Meetings
Target Audience: Faculty

German Studies Faculty Meeting

Monday, Mar. 8, 2027, 1:30 – 4 p.m.

TBD

Event interval: Single day event
Campus room: 359
Accessibility Contact: Department of German Studies, uwgerman@uw.edu
Event Types: Academics, Meetings
Target Audience: Faculty