Join us on March 3 at 12:00 pm (noon) Paci fic Time for the virtual Ziegler Lecture Series\, featuring Jamele Watkins of the University of Minnesota.
View the recording of this talk here:
< p>Title: "From Celebrity to Saint: Angela Davis in East Ge rmany"Abstract: This lecture examines various objec ts taken in the Free Angela archive. In it\, Dr. Watkins analyzes multiple curious objects\, meaning-making\, and their relationship to Davis and to E ast Germany. Dr. Watkins reads these objects (e.g.\, charms\, scarves\, sho es\, a purse) as gifts\, small tokens meant to encourage Davis while in pri son. Gift culture has been discussed thoroughly\, and oftentimes in conjunc tion with capitalism. The question becomes\, what is global communist gift culture like? As a prisoner in a capitalistic society\, to what extent does prison remove Davis from capitalistic gift giving? How do you show someone that you are thinking of them when you everyone supposedly has the same th ing? Interestingly\, East Germans found ways to show their care and love fo r Davis with the things they sent. In this lecture\, Dr. Watkins argues tha t these gifts work truly in the realm of fandom and religious offering over a productive reading because they allow for emulation and intimate knowled ge as East German give gifts. Davis becomes saint-like in the many campaign s to support her release. This is fascinating because of the anti-religious ness about communist society. This larger-than-life quality explains the ma ny small tokens and gestures\, the offerings she received. The performative nature of this part of the archive is Davis’ transformation from celebrity to saint.
Bio: Dr. Jamele Watkins is Assistant Prof essor in German Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She eng ages in intersections of race and gender in Germany in the 20th and 21st Ce ntury. Her current book project\, "Roses for Angela\," examines East German transnational solidarity with Angela Davis. She completed a Postdoctoral F ellowship at Stanford University in German Studies and the Comparative Stud ies in Race and Ethnicity. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Ma ssachusetts Amherst where she wrote her dissertation\, “The Drama of Race.” The dissertation examined the ways in which Black Germans make their exper iences visible on stage. Her recent articles tackle Black hair\, communist faith\, and violence.
CATEGORIES:Featured Events,Featured German,Featured Homepage URL;VALUE=URI:https://cenes.ubc.ca/events/event/ziegler-lecture-jamele-watk ins-from-celebrity-to-saint-angela-davis-in-east-germany/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cene.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2020/12/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-L0911-029_Berlin_Erich_Honecker_empfängt_Angela_Davis.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 DTSTART:20201101T090000 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR