Migration is a consistent feature of the history of Germany and German-speaking Central Europe. Though many scholars have long recognized this truism and the centrality of migration in Germany’s past and present, recurrent contemporary “crises” of migration have drawn wider popular and especially student attention to Germany as an Einwanderungsland. From a topic formerly often treated as peripheral, migration has become increasingly prominent in the teaching of German language, culture, and history, both in courses dedicated to migration and mobility and as a core theme in introductory and survey classes. Migration’s growing importance in drawing and sustaining student interest in German history and German Studies brings with it pedagogical, methodological, and ethical challenges. Issues of narrative, voice, agency, and sources in the teaching of migration, especially against the backdrop of racist violence and official hostility to migration on both sides of the Atlantic, confront instructors with a research focus on migration just as much as those who study other topics but hope to bring migration into their teaching.

This roundtable invites participants interested in the teaching of migration in German history and German Studies and in discussing best practices, pitfalls, and paths toward bringing migration to the fore of German history and German Studies instruction. The interdisciplinary composition of the roundtable and the research and teaching focus of participants on different time periods and migration movements is intended to help bridge persistent disciplinary gaps between historians and German Studies scholars on these topics. Short remarks by roundtable participants will encourage and create space for a wide ranging conversation which will engage the audience in a discussion of how best to bring migration into the classroom. Topics of discussion can include (but are not limited to):

- Language and translation
- Racism, nationalism and exclusion
- Transit, in-betweenness and identity
- Integration as a political and cultural concept
- Gender, age and generation
- Experience and emotion
- The global and the local
- Knowledge production and ignorance
- Politics of memory
- Syllabus and assignments
- Teaching material (analog and digital)

Please send a one-page abstract (up to 250 words) and a brief biography to Brian Van Wyck (bvanwyck@umbc.edu) and Swen Steinberg (Swen.Steinberg@queensu.ca) by March 10, 2023. Participants will be notified by March 15, 2023. The final deadline for proposal submissions to the German Studies Association is March 27, 2023. Please note that to submit, you must be a current member of the Association.