Beyond the Lecture

Aug 01 2024 49 ep. 20 mins 575

Beyond the Lecture Podcast artwork

Beyond the Lecture is a podcast from the American Academy in Berlin featuring short interviews with our residential fellows and guest lecturers from a range of academic disciplines, journalism, and the arts. New York Office American Academy in Berlin, Inc. 14 East 60th Street, Suite 1104 New York, NY 10022 USA Berlin Office American Academy in Berlin GmbH Hans Arnhold Center Am Sandwerder 17-19 14109 Berlin Germany

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Why It’s So Hard to Talk About Taiwan

Aug 01 2024 32 mins

Taiwan is frequently in the news, but context is scarce. In this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," journalist and spring 2024 Holtzbrinck Fellow Michael Meyer talks about his research and writing on the colonial history of the island, the immense changes it has seen in recent decades, and what’s at stake for residents when their now thriving democracy is treated like a geopolitica

Children of Violence – Intergenerational Trauma and Political Identity

Jul 25 2024 27 mins

Our “Beyond the Lecture” podcast is back! In this episode, spring 2024 Nina Maria Gorrissen fellow and expert in comparative political behavior Noam Lupu talks about his research into how intergenerational trauma shapes political identity. Touching on his own family's experience and those of his research subjects, he opens new ways of understanding this transfer. Visit https:/

Is Russia a "Verbrecherstaat?" - A Perspective from International Law

Apr 29 2022 32 mins

With the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Academy's spring 2022 Daimler fellow Lawrence Douglas's project on aggressive war, atrocity and the "Verbrecherstaat" suddenly became very current. On this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," Douglas talks about the origin of the term "Verbrecherstaat," considers Russia's actions in light of the categories of aggressive war and atrocity, and ex

Threats from the Margin? - Ladee Hubbard's novel "The Descendants"

Feb 28 2022 28 mins

In fall 2021, New Orleans-based writer Ladee Hubbard spent her time as Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow in Fiction working on her new novel, "The Descendants." On this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," Hubbard talks about her novel-in-progress, the 1980s war on drugs, and, as a special treat, reads a story from her forthcoming collection "The Last Suspicious Holdout" (Amistad, Mar

"The Family Chao:" Lan Samantha Chang on How to Narrate a Community

Jan 31 2022 37 mins

During her stay at the American Academy as the Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow in Fiction in fall 2021, Lan Samantha Chang gave the finishing touch to her much-anticipated new novel "The Family Chao," to be published by W.W. Norton & Company in February 2022. On today's episode, you can find out how rediscovering Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" has shaped Chang's own writi

Who Is Classics for?

Apr 14 2021 28 mins

In this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," we take a behind-the-scenes look at a debate currently roiling classical scholarship and pedagogy. It’s a debate about how the field should be approached now and in the future, about privilege and access and the very aura of classics. To get into this story, we talk with spring 2021 American Academy fellow Nandini Pandey, who teaches class

Next Generation

Dec 15 2020 31 mins

What was it like to be the first black person at an all-white private school in the American South? The very first, that is. In this episode, we explore this question through the work of investigative journalist and fall 2020 Holtzbrinck fellow, Mosi Secret, who's currently writing a book about a philanthropic initiative to integrate black children into elite Southern schools in th

The Importance of Being Thomas Mann

Nov 12 2020 33 mins

There are few novelists who made more of an impact on twentieth-century German literature than Thomas Mann. His works have been translated into over thirty languages and remain the subject of much debate. On today's podcast, we bring together two scholars who have made Mann's life and literary output the focus of their academic concerns: Susan Bernofsky, a fall 2020 fellow and prof

Ninth Beast: A Quarantine Story

Sep 09 2020 24 mins

The world is on hold and we are all going a bit stir-crazy. Strange things are happening in a tiny New York City apartment, where a young podcaster uses his isolation time to open a mysterious portal to the afterlife. This episode of “Beyond the Lecture” features a special recording of novelist Paul LaFarge’s fictive play “Ninth Beast.” LaFarge is the American Academy’s

Corona Dispatches: Scholars at the American Academy reflect on the pandemic and its meanings

Jun 03 2020 27 mins

In this episode of „Beyond the Lecture,” scholars and artists at the American Academy in Berlin reflect on the various intersections of the coronavirus pandemic with their respective fields of study. We spoke with composer Carolyn Chen, cultural historian Liliane Weissberg (spring 2020 Anna-Maria Kellen fellow) of University of Pennsylvania, German Studies professor Veronika Fu