November 18, 2025, 16-19 h

Colonialism, Racism, and Human Dignity: On the Global Novel in an Age of Refugee

Drawing on his current book project, Tales of Unsettlement, in this paper Mani situates the figure of the refugee and the forced migrant at the center of contemporary novels. Mani proposes that “refugee” narratives reveal much more than just the plight and flight of refugees, which has largely been the focus of contemporary studies. Instead, Mani argues that novels of refuge open doors to reframe our thinking of histories of European colonialism and its morphed manifestations in contemporary Europe. Moving narratives of refuge from a marginal to a central space, Mani underlines, opens up possibilities of thinking of the European novel as novel as a site of new political and aesthetic examination of race-, religion-, caste- and class-based discriminations in the contemporary era. 

His publications include Cosmopolitical Claims (2007), Recoding World Literature (2017; winner of MLA and GSA awards for best book in German Studies), and as editor A Companion to World Literature (2020). 

The lecture will be moderated by Paul Nolte, Freie Universität Berlin.

DATE & TIME: November 18, 2025, 16:00-18:00 h followed by a reception 18:00-19:00 h

LOCATION: FU Berlin, Ehrenbergstr. 26/28, 14195 Berlin, Room 009

REGISTRATION: Please register by for in-person by Novr 10 via email bprogram@zedat.fu-berlin.de

LANGUAGE: The lecture will be in English; the discussion in English & German

CONSENT:  By attending, you consent the possibility of appearing in our publicity materials.

Nov 20, 2025, 16- 18 h

From Manuscript to Monograph: A Workshop on Academic Publishing

What does it take to turn a dissertation into a book? How do you approach a publisher? What does the publication process entail? This workshop, hosted by the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, is devoted to helping rising scholars navigate the world of English-language academic publishing. We will discuss how to prepare your work for publication and feature a manuscript-in-progress as a case in point. The session will be hosted by Thomas O. Haakenson (professor, California College of the Arts, and series editor for Visual Cultures in German Contexts, Bloomsbury Academic) and Lea Greenberg (commissioning editor, Central European University Press). After a discussion of publishing more generally, we will focus on Haakenson’s current project Love in the Time of Fascism: Salomo Friedländer and Avant-Garde Resistance in Berlin.
The event is open to any students and faculty of the Freie Universität Berlin. Read more

Alle Veranstaltungen finden - wenn nicht anders angebeben - im

Raum 009 des International House der FU Berlin in der Ehrenbergstr. 26/28, 14195 Berlin statt.