Elsa Godtfredsen

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.

 

Queer Berlin Walking Tour

Picture I

Photo Credit: Caroline Olin

This podcast—led and produced by Judy Fisher—examines our Queer Berlin walking tour with Jared Pool. During this tour, we try to understand why Berlin is sometimes considered the “Queer capital of Europe” due to its relationship with gay and lesbian rights despite the history of “Section 175” of the German penal code, which criminalized homosexuality for decades after the end of World War II. The tour takes participants through Schöneberg, the home of Marlene Dietrich that was chronicled by Christopher Isherwood and Otto Dix; the Eldorado, one of Berlin’s oldest gay bars that was frequented by openly gay Nazi SA leader Ernst Röhm; the Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted by the Nazis; and Kreuzberg. It examines the advocacy of Magnus Hirschfeld, whose Institute for Sexual Science was shut down in 1933 and whose library destroyed in the infamous Nazi book-burning; queer figures in the administration of Prussian King Frederick the Great; and openly gay mayor Klaus Wowereit, among others.

Picture II

Photo Credit: Judy Fisher

Judy Fisher is a Sophomore at Colorado College from Oklahoma. She is a first-generation student, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and is active in the Native American Student Union (NASU) at Colorado College. As a Feminist and Gender Studies major and Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies minor, she has developed a focus on Indigenous Feminism and the different intersections of her own identity as a queer, Native woman from a low income background attending a predominantly white institution (PWI).

Picture III

Photo Credit: Judy Fisher

Joining Judy in her discussion are Elsa Godtfredsen—a Seattle, WA native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Biology and minoring in Creative Writing, and Dylan Compton—a Tulsa, OK native majoring in Religion and International Affairs with a Chinese language minor.

NOTE: The photo credit for the featured image also belongs to Judy Fisher.

 

Jewish AntiFa Berlin

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Photo Credit: Kai Mesman-Hallman

This podcast—led and produced by Dylan Compton—examines our session with Jewish AntiFa Berlin. As the organization notes in “The Chutzpah Bites Back,” “In many areas of the left in Germany, the Jewish left is under attack. This is not unique to us. Our comrades, Palestinians, migrants and others who speak out against Israel’s policies of colonization, occupation and dispossession are being attacked even more forcefully. Recognizing this, and understanding the clear connection between things, we discuss ourselves and our position in this text. We, Jewish leftists, especially immigrants from Israel, are systematically subjected to violence from the German left, and particularly from people who claim to love Israel. We are dealing with attempts of delegitimization, demonization, exclusion and even pathologization. Violence and bullying on the ideological level translates into harassment in everyday life. There are increasing cases of rejection from workplaces on the basis of having too “radical” left views, exclusion from community spaces, online and offline threats, cancellations of movies, performances and lectures, verbal attacks and even a physical attack once. Beyond this, we know that elements on the left are cooperating with workers at the Israeli embassy and various “Hasbara” (propaganda) organizations. This might sound conspiratorial, but it should be reminded that spying against left-wing organizations has been the declared and official policy of the State of Israel for many years.”

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Photo Credit: Professor Heidi R. Lewis

Dylan is a junior at Colorado College. This fall semester, he studied in Germany with Colorado College’s Lüneburg Program, organized by the German Department. On campus, he is part of the Bridge Scholars Program, QuestBridge, and the Graduate School Exploration Fellowship. Dylan majors in Religion and International Affairs, and has completed a Chinese language minor. He is interested in studying the intersection of religion and political narratives, and hopes to become a professor.

File Dec 04, 9 12 57 PM

Photo Credit: Professor Heidi R. Lewis

Joining Dylan in his discussion about the session are Anna Balaguer—a Boulder, CO native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Classics and minoring in German and Philosophy, and Elsa Godtfredsen—a Seattle, WA native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Biology and minoring in Creative Writing.

NOTE: The featured image photo credit also belongs to Professor Heidi R. Lewis.