Some Final Thoughts on the Block 4 2017 #FemGeniusesinBerlin

Kai (Dylan)

Photo Credit: Dylan Compton

This podcast—led and produced by Kai Mesman-Hallman—provides some final reflections on the Block 4 2017 section of Hidden Spaces, Hidden Narratives: Intersectionality Studies in Berlin with Professor Heidi R. Lewis. Throughout the block, the #FemGeniusesinBerlin have taken walking tours, visited museums and cultural centers, and met with activists and artists in the city to conduct situated examinations of how the identities of marginalized people and communities in Germany (especially in Berlin)—such as Black Germans, Turkish Germans, migrants, refugees, victims of Neo-Nazi terrorism and police brutality, and LGBTQI communities—are constructed, particularly how these constructions are dependent on racism, heterosexism, colonialism, imperialism, and other forms of oppression. Additionally, we examined how these communities resist, reject, revise, and reproduce these narratives as they construct their own subjectivities.

Kai is a junior at Colorado College majoring in Psychology, and is originally from San Diego, CA. She is especially interested in consciousness and the ways our brains’ processing and collecting information can shape our beliefs and thoughts. She spends her free time with her dog and watching conspiracy theory videos.

Joining Kai in her discussion are Uma Scharf—a Baltimore, MD native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Neuroscience, and Drew Ceglinski—a Bath, ME native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Geology.

 

Block 4 2017 FemGeniuses in Berlin Podcast Index:
Click here to view a slideshow, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter to see even more pictures and videos!

Jewish History & Culture Walking Tour” by Maggie Mehlman
Das Verbogene Museum” by Anna Balaguer
Interkulturelles Frauenzentrum S.U.S.I.” by Bridget O’Neill
Women’s Perspective Walking Tour” by Caroline Olin
Jüdisches Museum Berlin” by Britta Lam
Jewish AntiFa Berlin” by Dylan Compton
Berliner Unterwelten” by Atiya Harvey
BlackBox Cold War Exhibition” by Karl Hirt
Generation ADEFRA” by Maya Littlejohn
Queer Berlin Walking Tour” by Judy Fisher
Queer City: Stories from São Paulo” by D. Adams
A Right to Mourn; A Right to Monument” by Maddie Sorensen
The Spirit of 1968 Walking Tour” by Anabel Simotas
Reframing Worlds: Mobilität und Gender aus Postkolonial Feministischer Perspektive” by Elsa Godtfredsen
Queer@School” by Drew Ceglinski
RomaniPhen: Rromnja Archiv” by Kendall Stoetzer
Reflections on the Asian Diaspora in Germany” by Uma Scharf
Street Art Workshop & Tour” by Wynter Scott

To read and/or listen to the finales and view the indices and slideshows for previous FemGeniuses in Berlin, click here

Reframing Worlds: Mobilität und Gender aus Postkolonial Feministischer Perspektive

Elsa (Bridget)

Photo Credit: Bridget O’Neill

This podcast—led and produced by Elsa Godtfredsen—examines our tour of the “Reframing Worlds: Mobilität und Gender aus Postkolonial Feministischer Perspektive” (“Reframing Worlds: Mobility and Gender from a Postcolonial Feminist Perspective”) exhibit, a cooperation between the Galerie im Körnerpark and Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst. According to the project group (Oliver Baurhenn, Dorothee Bienert, Marisa Maza, Antje Weitzel, Jole Wilcke, and Moira Zoitl), “Colonialist influenced mindsets, imagery, and categories of knowledge that are still in effect today are the departure points; their historic structures are to be laid bare and examined. The artists follow experiences of oppression, resistance, and migration in their research, which encompasses travel reports, life stories, plant worlds, photographs and other objects. They investigate where and in what ways traces are still visible, and critically discuss ways to deal with archives and archival material today as well as their own roles as knowledge producers. The exhibition not only reveals gaps in the historiography, but also challenges the kind of knowledge that was produced in the context of the colonial projects and circulated Europe. Who produces knowledge about the world and in which way? How do the complex intersections between racism and sexism continue to affect us, and how can we imagine and practise feminism transculturally and in solidarity?”

Picture I

Photo Credit: Elsa Godtfredsen

Elsa Godtfredsen is a junior at Colorado College who is majoring in Organismal Biology and Ecology and minoring in Creative Writing. She is from Bainbridge Island, an island across from Seattle. At Colorado College, she is a part of SOSS; she loves to hike and climb; and she also participates in spoken word events on and off-campus.

Picture III

Photo Credit: Elsa Godtfredsen

Joining Elsa in her discussion are Bridget O’Neill—a junior at Colorado College from Louisville, CO who is majoring in Political Science with a German minor, and Caroline Olin—a senior at Colorado College from Highland Park, IL that is majoring in Race, Ethnicity, & Migration studies major with a Feminist and Gender Studies minor.

NOTE: The photo credit for the featured image also belongs to Elsa Godtfredsen.

 

Interkulturelles Frauenzentrum S.U.S.I.

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Photo Credit: Maggie Mehlman

This podcast—led and produced by Bridget O’Neill—examines our session at Interkulturelles Frauenzentrum S.U.S.I. with Jamile da Silva e Silva (Program Coordinator) and Melody LaVerne Bettencourt (Events Assistant). S.U.S.I. (an abbreviation of Solidarity, Independence, Social and International)—an organization whose members and boards are mostly migrant—was founded on in 1992 by Christiane Barckhausen-Canale, “who wanted to create a house of international encounters in the autumn of ’89 in the east of Berlin.” The original aim of the organization “was to promote intercultural exchange, especially through events and workshops,” and this has evolved to include counseling services and empowerment events.

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Photo Credit: Maya Littlejohn

Bridget is a junior at Colorado College, where she is majoring in Political Science and minoring in German. She is from Louisville, CO (just outside of Boulder), and enjoys climbing, hiking, writing, and finding the best coffee shops around. She has spent this semester mostly in Lüneburg, Germany, and is excited to be spending her last term of the semester in Berlin, where this course with Professor Lewis is putting often silenced narratives center stage.

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Photo Credit: Maya Littlejohn

Joining Bridget in her discussion about S.U.S.I. are Anabel Simotas—a New York City native and sophomore at Colorado College majoring in History, Political Science, and Classics, and Judy Fisher—an Oklahoma native and sophomore at Colorado College majoring in Feminist and Gender Studies.

NOTE: The feature photo credit also belongs to Maya Littlejohn.

 

Das Verbogene Museum

This podcast—led by Anna Balaguer—examines the Women Photojournalists in Europe 1914-1945: Wartime and Adventure exhibit at Das Verbogene Museum (The Hidden Museum). Das Verbogene Museum, founded in 1986, “is the only existing institution world-wide whose programme focuses on the public presentation and academic appraisal of women artists from past centuries, or of those who are no longer working within the art world.” According to the museum, it’s mission “is to publicise the life’s work and biographies of women artists who have fallen into obscurity for various reasons.”

Anna Balaguer is a junior at Colorado College majoring in Classics and minoring in Philosophy and German. She lives in Boulder, Colorado and has a younger brother named Jack and a little dog named Sox. She’s been staying in Northern Germany for the past three months, and is excited to explore Berlin. She enjoys running, reading, and hiking in her free time.

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Photo Credit: Anna Balaguer

Joining Anna in her discussion of the exhibit at Coco Coffee are Maya Littlejohn—a Brooklyn native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Race, Ethnicity, & Migration Studies, and Bridget O’Neill—a Louisville, CO native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Political Science  major.

NOTE: The photo credit for the featured image also belongs to Anna Balaguer.