Image: This year the German Studies Association held their annual conference in Atlanta from September 26th-29th. Sara Adkins, a Russian and German double major at UGA, presented her project titled, "Post-Wall Russian-German Interventions in German Literature." The project was formed this past spring in a Senior Seminar course taught by Dr. Berna Gueneli and combined Adkins' study of German, Russian, and diasporic communities. This research project aimed to examine the ‘Eastward expansion of German literature,’ which was a literary movement of the 2000’s led by Russian immigrants to Germany from the late 70's through the 90's. Works of this literary movement often featured the unique experiences of the writers, who faced difficulties in the Soviet Union and faced difficulties being immigrants or refugees in Germany. Themes such as antisemitism, Stalinism, Perestroika, exile, loss of identity and multilingualism are often touched upon by these writers. The major focus of the project was the works of Olga Grjasnowa, who is the face of the Russian-German literary scene. The GSA conference historically did not include undergraduate students in their panels, but recently a new panel for undergraduate research was added to the conference format and, at the recommendation of Dr. Gueneli, Adkins was chosen to be one of the panelists. When asked about her experience presenting at the conference, Adkins said, "One of the most interesting aspects of presenting at this conference was being able to hear what other undergraduate students of German studies in Georgia are researching. Topics on my panel varied widely, from Turkish-German queer poetry to economic policy during the Covid-19 lockdown. Furthermore, after our panel we had a Q&A session with the audience. The questions that I was asked helped me identify new directions that I can continue to push this project in for UGA’s CURO." CURO of course being the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities Symposium held by UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences in the Spring. The Germanic and Slavic Studies department congratulates Sara on her hard work and looks forward to seeing how it may further develop in the near future!
