Tuesday, 10 January
AGS/WIGS Active Bystander Training workshop
Bystander Training Workshop, organised by AGS/WIGS and delivered by The Active Bystander Training Company
Date and time: Tue, 10 Jan 2023 13:00 – 14:00 GMT
Location: Online
About this event:
The 60-minute workshop will be held online (Zoom) on Tuesday, 10 January 2023 at 1pm. The session will take the form of a group workshop and will include ‘tried and tested decision-making and personal effectiveness techniques to overcome the initial fear of tackling challenging situations’.
All delegates will additionally be supplied with an Active Bystander toolkit – a booklet containing assertive verbal and non-verbal language techniques to use when mounting a challenge or reporting bad behaviour.
This workshop is part of a series of events relating to diversity and inclusivity that will be running in 2022/3 and co-organised by the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland (AGS) and Women in German Studies (WIGS).
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‘Active Bystander’ is an innovative and award-winning training session which gives staff and students the skills to challenge unacceptable behaviours, including those which may have become normalised over time.
Each session is tailored to meet the specific needs of the organisation(s) in question but every session treats the following topics:
• Bystander apathy
• Decision-making techniques to help people overcome fear and self doubt when faced with a challenging situation
• Assertiveness techniques to give them the confidence and tools to speak out, whether they are dealing with the challenge directly or calling for help from others.
Wednesday, 29 March
EDI workshop: Dr Niko Tracksdorf on a new inclusive language textbook
The AGS and WIGS welcome Niko Tracksdorf to present ‘Impuls Deutsch”, a new and inclusive ab initio German language textbook from the US
Date and time: Wed, 29 Mar 2023 17:00 – 18:30 BST
Location: Online
About this event:
AGS and WIGS are delighted to welcome Dr Niko Tracksdorf, Assistant Professor of German and Co-Director of the German International Engineering Program at the University of Rhode Island, USA, and editor and co-author of Impuls Deutsch, to speak to educators based in the UK, Ireland and beyond, about this new intercultural, interdisciplinary, and inclusive ab initio German-language textbook. Since its launch in 2020, Impuls Deutsch has been adopted by universities and high schools across North America. It is not currently available outside North America.
In this workshop, Niko will first give a presentation on Impuls Deutsch. He will introduce the textbook and its aims, provide examples of the textbook’s approach to diverse representation and inclusive language, including gender in German, and lastly discuss student survey data on gender-inclusive and trans-affirming language instruction, gathered from students on courses based on the Impuls Deutschtextbook.
In the second part of the workshop, Niko will be interviewed by UK-based language pedagogy expert, Sascha Stollhans. They will delve into some of the points raised in the presentation, as well as discussing the areas of intersection and diversion between the US university language textbook landscape and that in the UK and Ireland.
The event will close with a Q&A session. This part of the event will not be recorded.
The workshop will be of particular interest to instructors of German (and other languages) in HE language departments and institution-wide language centres, those preparing STEM students for work placements in a German-speaking country, and secondary school language teachers.
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Niko Tracksdorf is an Assistant Professor of German at the University of Rhode Island and Co-Director of the German International Engineering Program there. His research and teaching focuses on interdisciplinary language teaching, diversity and inclusion, intercultural competence, and online and blended learning. He is editor and co-author of Impuls Deutsch, a new intercultural, interdisciplinary, and inclusive German textbook series that uses a flipped classroom concept. In 2020, Niko Tracksdorf received the Nelson Brooks Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Culture from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Sascha Stollhans is an Associate Professor of Language Pedagogies in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds. His research expertise includes language pedagogy, digital approaches to language teaching and learning, and linguistics in language teaching and learning. He has taught German (as well as linguistics, translation and interpreting) in the UK, South Africa and France, and has also worked in the translation industry and as an educational consultant and teacher trainer. He is a member of the Working Group on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) matters for the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland.
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Wednesday, 26 April
EDI Workshop: Dr Lucy Neat-Ward on ‘Access, Awareness and Academia’
Access, Awareness and Academia: Constructing a Proactive Approach to Access and Inclusion for Disabled Individuals in German Studies
Date and time: Wed, 26 Apr 2023 17:00 – 18:30 BST
Location: Online
About this event:
From our research and teaching to the very buildings which comprise our campuses, academia has historically been a place of both exclusivity and exclusion. Within this ivory tower, disability has long been constructed as the inverse of the ideals of higher education with its emphasis on (intellectual) ability. Where disabled individuals have gained access to the academy, they have primarily been objects of study rather than co-creators of our knowledge of disabled experience and identity.
Recent decades have seen considerable improvements in the accessibility of teaching and learning in higher education, especially following the legal requirements for access and reasonable adjustments outlined in the UK 2010 Equality Act.
However, if we wish to create an inclusive space for disabled individuals, are legal requirements for accessibility enough? What more can be done moving forwards to not only include disabled individuals in higher education, but to respect and value the unique experiences they bring to the (height-adjustable) table?
This 1.5-hour online workshop will consider the issues at stake when thinking about disability in academia and what access means in contemporary institutions. Focusing on teaching and learning in German Studies, we will discuss practical steps to proactively improve the accessibility of your courses and classrooms, as well as possibilities for diversifying cultural studies to centre disabled voices. Finally, we will approach the question of whether access alone is sufficient and consider the importance of disability awareness in further dismantling the obstructive stairs of the academic ivory tower.
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Lucy is an independent scholar and disabled woman, who received an Integrated Professional Masters in Languages from the University of Manchester in 2018, followed by a PhD in French Studies in 2022. Her research explores how perceptions of nonhuman animals and animal-human relationships intersected with theories, attitudes and practices of care in early modern France. Lucy has spent the last decade of her life in UK Higher Education on her journey from undergraduate student to postgraduate researcher, teaching assistant, research assistant and now currently works in administration. Through her own experiences, she has a keen interest in improving accessibility and disability awareness across UK HE.
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Thursday, 25 May
EDI Workshop: Dr Kit Heyam on Actions for Trans Inclusivity in Higher Ed
A workshop led by Dr Kit Heyam to increase confidence and familiarity around trans identities and rights in Higher Education
Date and time: Thu, 25 May 2023 17:00 – 18:30 BST
Location: Online
About this event:
This session will provide a conversational, non-judgmental space to increase confidence and familiarity around trans identities and rights, and to develop meaningful actions to create a positive experience for trans students and staff (including trans men, trans women and non-binary people) in higher education. We’ll cover the basics of trans identities and related terminology alongside practical aspects of trans inclusivity, including pronouns and social interactions, trans-inclusive pedagogy, supporting trans students pastorally, and running academic events and organisations in a trans-inclusive way. Attendees will have the chance to ask questions and discuss problems specific to their area of work, and there will also be an opportunity to ask anonymous questions.
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Dr Kit Heyam (they/them or he/him) is a transgender awareness trainer, historian and activist. With eight years’ experience in providing trans awareness training across the UK, they specialise in tailoring training sessions to the practical realities of working in higher education, and in helping staff to build confidence and familiarity around trans issues. As a historian and activist, they work to uncover queer and trans histories and make them visible to the public.
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Co-ordinated by Molly Harrabin and Ina Linge on behalf of WIGS, this workshop is part of a series of workshops relating to diversity and inclusivity co-organised by the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland (AGS) and Women in German Studies (WIGS).
Wednesday, 8 March
Queer, Working-Class and Kurdish Experiences in German Literature
International Womxn’s Day Event: Queer, Working-Class and Kurdish Experiences. Narrative Interventions in Contemporary German Literature
Date and time: Wed, 8 Mar 2023 17:00 – 18:30 GMT
Location: Online
About this event:
On International Womxn’s Day, writers Fatma Aydemir and Karosh Taha will join Maha El Hissy, Miriam Schwarz and Tara Talwar Windsor to talk about representations of Queer, working-class and postmigrant, especially Kurdish, experiences in German literature.
The event will be in English.
This will be a hybrid event taking place bothin person (Cynthia Beerbower Room, Newnham College, University of Cambridge) and online (Zoom). An access link will be circulated to those registered to attend online shortly before the event.
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This panel will offer a space to think critically about the kind of marginalised voices and stories that can be told in the contemporary German literary scene. As considerations of queerness and gender currently tend to be left out of discussions around racist realities in Germany, this panel aims to foreground intersectional perspectives on postmigrant experiences. At the centre of the discussion will be Aydemir’s Dschinns (Hanser, 2022) [Djinns] and Taha’s Im Bauch der Königin (DuMont, 2020) [In the Belly of the Queen, V&Q Books, 2023, trans. by Grashina Gabelmann]. With innovative aesthetics and narrative structures, Aydemir’s and Taha’s writing intervenes in traditional forms of storytelling and opens new pathways of thinking and analysis.
A drinks reception for in-person attendees will follow the event .
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With generous support from the Cambridge DAAD Research Hub, the Association of German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland, Women in German Studies, the Schroeder fund, the Tiarks fund, the Cambridge Q+ Network, Newnham College, and the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement.
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This workshop is linked to a series of workshops relating to diversity and inclusivity co-organised by the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland (AGS) and Women in German Studies (WIGS).