8th Transatlantic Students Symposium

Federalism and Regionalism
in the United States, Canada and Europe

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Georgetown University.
Montreal, Richmond and Washington D.C., March 5-14, 2010

Program Description

The symposium will address two important dimensions of federalism and regionalism in the United States/Canada and Europe/Germany in a transatlantic perspective. Based on a discussion of the historical emergence of the formal power division between national, state and regional governments and its functions in both North America and Europe, we will first explore how the actual balance of power is institutionalized, negotiated, and translated into political practice in various fields. At the backdrop of these questions, the course will then analyze specific forms and functions of constructions of national cultures, as well as the characteristics of subnational, regional and local cultures by looking at "Southern," "Western" and "New England," city cultures or manifestations of minority vs. mainstream cultures in the United States and "the West" and Quebec in Canada on the one hand and national, regional (Berlin vs. Bavaria, Thuringia vs. Hanseatic Cities etc.) and local cultures (village vs. city, for instance) in Germany on the other.

The symposium will take a group of selected German students together with American students to a field trip in the United States/Canada and culminate in an academic style symposium at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. in March 2010.

Symposium Week Field Trips

Workshops: at Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, Université de Montréal; Georgetown University

Site Visits: Montréal: McCord Museum of Canadian History; Richmond: Museum of the Confederacy/White House of the Confederacy; Virginia Historical Society; DC: American History Museum

Institutional Visits: Parti Québécois; Québec Liberal Party; Association of Canadian Studies

Total participants: 23

Organizers

Philipp Kneis, PD Dr. Reinhard Isensee (Humboldt),
Dr. Eric Langenbacher, Marie Gschwindt de Gyor (Georgetown)

Student Organizers

Anja Swidsinski, Anneke Boese, Isabel Scholz (Humboldt)

Student Participants (not organizers)

16 (Humboldt: 10, Georgetown: 6)

Conference Program

Symposium Week Program

Partners and Supporters

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: International Office,
Humboldt-Universität, Philosophical Faculty II,
American Studies Program,
Humboldt-Universität, Students Union English and American Studies

Georgetown University:
BMW Center for German and European Studies,
Department of Government

Max Kade Foundation

Holiday Land Richter Reisen, Berlin

see also: Latest Program Report

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