2024

Gity Razaz
Spellbound
Candenza for the Once Young

Nasim Khorassani
Growth

Adib Ghorbani
Flowers of Nostalgia (Golhay-e Ghorbat)

Hesam Abedini
O n O r W y

Hesam Abedini
'End of Shâhnâmeh' (Ferdowsi)

Adib Ghorbani
'How Are We Still Alive' (Ali Asadollahi)

SPELLBOUND - Gity Razaz
Spellbound for solo viola has the intimate quality of a reminiscing soliloquy. Textures and soundscapes weave in and out of an original melody that conjures the improvisatory lyricism of traditional Persian music. I was particularly inspired by the mourning and sul ponticello sound quality that is inherent to Persian instruments such as the Ney and Kamanche. Spellbound was commissioned by Maggie Snyder for the VIOLA2020 project in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment establishing women’s right to vote.

CADENZA FOR THE ONCE YOUNG - Gity Razaz
This short violin piece is about my grandparents, specifically about my grandmother. After the death of my grandfather, my grandmother (or Mamani, as we call her) moved to the U.S. to be close to her family. She and Babaee (my grandfather) were living in Iran all alone after their children immigrated to the US and Europe, so it was only natural for Mamani to come live here after her husband of 60+ years had passed. However, after a short period of five years, Mamani decided to move back to Iran as she was homesick, missed visiting Babaee’s resting place and all their memories. This piece is dedicated to their lasting love and decades of companionship.

GROWTH - Nasim Khorassani
This is a cell constructed by B, C, D, and E flat, growing and expanding. Growth has elements from Iranian traditional music influencing its form, harmony, trills, and long introverted melodies, but these are the characteristics that I discovered later.

FLOWERS OF NOSTALGIA (GOLHAY-E GHORBAT) - Adib Ghorbani
The work’s title is derived from the Iranian radio program “Flowers of Nostalgia”. This program aired throughout the 90s, broadcasting both Iranian traditional and Iranian pop music. This string quartet is inspired by the melodic content of those tunes - primarily stepwise melodies full of grace notes, vibrations and nuanced dynamics. The flowers of nostalgia now bloom here, carrying with them the scents of Iran.

O n O r W y - Hesam Abedini
I composed this relatively short string quartet piece to reconstruct my memory of the beginning of the 2009 Green Movement in Iran. In the afternoon after the presidential election, people took to the streets, and almost everywhere in Tehran, you could hear the sound of protests. I remember waking up to the whisper-like sounds of the protesters. In those moments, we all experienced a mixture of fear, uncertainty, excitement, and hope. We were all hopeful, at least at the beginning. I left Iran about eight months later, but the feeling that stayed with me was hope. Every time I remember those moments, hope is the first feeling that envelops my soul. Therefore, I chose a classical Persian modal system that, in the memory of the Iranian people, is associated with hope. Mâhur is a Dastgah (modal system) that includes a Gusheh (subsystem) named Châhâr Pâreh (four-part), based on a classical Persian poetic rhythm with a repetitive short-long syllabic pattern: Short-Short-Long-Short-Long (x4). I chose this specific Gusheh of Mâhur because of its repetitive rhythmic component. The words that are sung are meaningless, composed of short or long syllables set to the music in a way that sometimes the combination of them may sound meaningful to a Persian-speaking audience. This part imitates how, on that afternoon, we could hear the protesters from a distance at home and how excited and passionate we were to join them.

‘END OF SHÂHNÂMEH’ - Hesam Abedini

Setting of this 11th-century Shâhnâmeh text by Ferdowsi:.

They hide all the treasures

They strive yet yielding their achievements to the foe

••

No faith has remained in this world

The tongues and souls are brimming with tyranny

••

They shed blood for the worldly gains

Bad times seem halcyon

••

They seek their own profit at the expense of others

Using “religion” as their pretext

‘HOW ARE WE STILL ALIVE’ - Adib Ghorbani

Protest song from Women Life Freedom movement. Setting of a poem by Ali Asadollahi.

Aida Baghernejad is a journalist who studied media studies in Berlin, Barcelona, and London. Her work focuses on how cultural products such as music, film, and social media content influence the socio-political state of the world. In addition to numerous contributions for Die Zeit, Der Tagesspiegel, Missy Magazine, and others, she also co-hosts the podcast 55 Voices for Democracy, a collaboration between the Thomas Mann House, the Goethe-Institut, dublab radio, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Joy Calico joined the faculty at UCLA in August 2023, where she is Professor of Musicology at the Herb Alpert School of Music and affiliated faculty in Jewish Studies. She has published monographs on two luminaries of the Austro-German diaspora in Los Angeles: Bertolt Brecht at the Opera (2008) and Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw in Postwar Europe (2014), both with University of California Press. She is a member of the international working team of the Black Opera Research Network (BORN). Her current projects include a book about operatic scene types in 20th- and 21st-century opera based on Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin, and a co-edited volume entitled Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900. 
 

Alex Ross has been the music critic of The New Yorker since 1996. His first book, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, won a National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His second book, Listen to This, is a collection of essays. His latest book is Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, an account of Wagner’s vast cultural impact. He has written often about Thomas Mann and the émigré community in L.A. for The New Yorker. He was awarded with a MacArthur Fellowship and the Belmont Prize.

Julius Reder Carlson is Associate Professor of Music and Artistic Director of The Da Camera Society at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles and co-founder of the Santa Monica Youth Orchestra (aka Sounds Like LA). His recent publications explore the transnational resonances of the South American Nueva Canción, particularly the work of Cold War-era singer-songwriters Atahualpa Yupanqui and Wolf Biermann.

Ciani-Sophia Hoeder is a journalist and author from Berlin. She studied journalism and politics in Berlin and London. In 2019, she founded the online magazine RosaMag, which addresses a variety of challenges faced by Black individuals in German-speaking countries. In her work, Hoeder celebrates Blackness rather than problematizing it. In 2020, RosaMag was nominated for the Grimme Online Award, and in 2021, Hoeder received the Golden Blogger Award. Her debut book Wut & Böse was published with hanserblau in 2021. She is a 2024 Thomas Mann Fellow. 

Jamiah Hargins is the Founder and Executive Director of Crop Swap LA. He worked as a stock and options trader in Chicago, where he also participated in a community garden. In Brazil, Hargins managed a social enterprise that leveraged rural agriculture and urban business to sustain an orphanage. Energized by the experience, and seeing first-hand what creative, mission-driven businesses can accomplish, he returned to the U.S. to study public policy at Columbia University and identify opportunities for impact. Along the way, he worked as an executive headhunter in the education field—a position that he says became excellent training for his work at building and managing Crop Swap LA.  

Ajuan Mance is a Professor of African American literature at Mills College in Oakland, California as well as a writer and artist. Throughout her comics and illustrations she uses the elements of humor and bright colors to explore race, gender, and power, and the people and places in which they intersect. Her work has appeared in a number of digital and print media outlets, including most recently The Women’s Review of Books, Blavity.com, BET.com, Transition Magazine, Buzzfeed.com, KQED.org, The San Francisco Chronicle, NYTimes.com, KPIX News, and Publisher’s Weekly.

Sara Abrahamsson is a fourth-year student at UCLA studying Art History and French. As a culmination of her artistic and academic interest in political graphics, Sara is currently writing her senior thesis paper on the internationalist poster art of post-revolutionary Cuba. Upon graduating, she plans to continue working in museums before pursuing graduate studies in Art History or Art Conservation.

Amy Cabrales is a First-Generation fourth-year undergraduate student at UCLA, studying Sociology and the Russian Language. She is a Mexican-American, Los Angeles native born in Lynwood, California. Her career interests include cross-cultural education via museum work or language instruction and immigrant resettlement, while her academic interests include immigrant integration and self-identity across immigrant generations. She is anticipating returning to Almaty, Kazakhstan for the 2024-25 academic year to inform these interests and advance her Russian proficiency.

Elsa Coony is a fourth-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles double majoring in Global Studies and German. She has previously worked at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as both a docent and translator and is excited to join this year's council. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in international development.

Biruke Dix is currently a 2nd year student at UCLA studying Applied Mathematics. He joined the Wende Student Council in 2024 and is deeply invested in the ever-changing properties of art as well as social habits. He hopes that he can create language and conversation that promotes the spread of cultural shifts and social justice.

Matthew Jones is a third-year PhD student in Claremont Graduate University’s Cultural Studies and Museum Studies program. His research currently explores how sites connected to authoritarian regimes function as pilgrimage destinations and what strategies states and institutions employ to reduce extremist attachment at these sites. He is thrilled to continue his training with the Wende Museum through this collaboration with the Thomas Mann House.

Emma Larson is a master's student at Columbia University's Harriman Institute of Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies. There, she focuses on the gender, social, and political history of Central Asia. Before starting at Columbia, Emma taught English in Kazakhstan with the Fulbright Program. She graduated from Williams College with degrees in History and Russian in 2021.

Zora Nelson is a current undergraduate student at New York University,  where she is studying Harp Performance and Media, Culture, and Communication.  As an east coaster born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she discovered the Wende Museum in the summer of 2022 and is honored to be a part of the council. With a passion for writing, Zora sees a future in storytelling to promote social justice.

Lexi Tooley is a current sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Political Science and Art History, minoring in Chinese Language and Culture. She is originally from Los Angeles, California, and attended the Archer School for Girls. Lexi has been working with the Wende Museum for the past 2 years. She looks forward to continuing the search for truth and examining the vulnerability of democracy through this program!

Julia Franck is an author based in Berlin. She studied philosophy, modern German literature, and Ancient American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Frank published her first novel, Der Neue Koch, in 1997. Her work has received numerous prizes and awards, including a residency at Villa Massimo in Rome in 2005 and the German Book Prize in 2007. Franck also writes essays on literature, film, and art and is a member of Exil-PEN and PEN Berlin, among others. In 2023 she took the position of editor for Die Andere Bibliothek. Her work has been translated into 40 languages to date. She is a 2024 Thomas Mann Fellow.

Arnon Grunberg is a Dutch novelist and reporter. After being kicked out of high school, he worked as assistant in a drugstore, as dishwasher, publisher, and playwright for an Amsterdam theater company. In 1994, at age of 23, he made his debut with the internationally acclaimed novel Blue Mondays which won him two awards: for the best and for the bestselling debut novel. Grunberg's work has been translated into thirty different languages. He writes reports, book reviews, columns and essays for Dutch media and regularly publishes essays and stories in literary magazine Hollands Maandblad. He has contributed to The New York Times, The Times of London, The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Standard, Die Welt, Bookforum, among others.  

Lynne Thompson served as Los Angeles’ 4th Poet Laureate and received a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. She is the author of four collections of poetry, Beg No Pardon, winner of the Perugia Press Prize and the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award; Start With A Small Guitar (What Books Press); Fretwork, winner of the 2019 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize selected by Jane Hirshfield; and Blue on a Blue Palette, published by BOA Editions in April 2024. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Thompson is the recipient of multiple awards including the George Drury Smith Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles, the Tucson Literary Festival Poetry Prize, and the Steven Dunn Poetry Prize.

Cesy Leonard is an action artist, speaker, and founder of the “Radikale Töchter” - inspiring people through political art to act and stand up for democracy, freedom, equality, brotherhood, and sisterhood. She studied acting in Berlin and worked in film, television, and theater. Often experiencing what it meant to have to conform to a clichéd image of a woman led her to start directing her own films. Her 2012 film “Guilt - The Barbarism of Europe” awarded her various prizes, such as the Web Video Award. In 2012, she joined the artistic staff of the collective “Center for Political Beauty,” which promotes pressing political issues through their art. Seeing how art, in particular, has the power to mobilize people to act is the inspiration behind the “Radikale Töchter.” Funded by the “Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung” as a model project, the team works to strengthen democracy in the former GDR.

Josephin Haardt studied International Relations and Economics in Erfurt. She has been working as a project manager and managing director of the "Radical Daughters" since April 2019. This is where her interests in democracy, sisterhood, and organizational talent come together.

Sara Abrahamsson studiert im vierten Jahr an der UCLA Kunstgeschichte und Französisch. Als Höhepunkt ihres künstlerischen und akademischen Interesses an politischer Grafik schreibt Sara derzeit ihre Abschlussarbeit über die internationalistische Plakatkunst des nachrevolutionären Kuba. Nach ihrem Abschluss plant sie, weiterhin in Museen zu arbeiten, bevor sie postgraduale Studien in Kunstgeschichte oder Kunstkonservierung aufnimmt.

Amy Cabrales ist eine First-Generation-Studentin im vierten Jahr an der UCLA, die Soziologie und Russisch studiert. Sie ist mexikanisch-amerikanischer Herkunft und wurde in Lynwood, Kalifornien, geboren. Ihre beruflichen Interessen umfassen interkulturelle Bildung durch Museumsarbeit oder Sprachunterricht sowie die Ansiedlung von Einwanderern. Ihre akademischen Interessen liegen in der Integration von Einwanderern und der Selbstidentität über Generationen hinweg. Sie plant, im akademischen Jahr 2024-25 nach Almaty, Kasachstan, zurückzukehren, um diese Interessen zu vertiefen und ihre Russischkenntnisse zu erweitern.

Elsa Coony studiert im vierten Jahr an der University of California, Los Angeles Global Studies und Deutsch. Sie hat bereits im United States Holocaust Memorial Museum als Führerin und Übersetzerin gearbeitet und freut sich darauf, dem diesjährigen Rat beizutreten. In der Zukunft hofft sie, eine Karriere in der internationalen Entwicklung zu verfolgen.

Biruke Dix studiert im zweiten Jahr an der UCLA angewandte Mathematik. Er trat 2024 dem Student Council bei und ist tief in die sich ständig verändernden Eigenschaften der Kunst sowie gesellschaftlicher Gewohnheiten investiert. Er hofft, Gespräche zu schaffen, die die Verbreitung kultureller Veränderungen und sozialer Gerechtigkeit fördern.

Matthew Jones ist ein Doktorand im dritten Jahr im Programm für Kulturwissenschaften und Museumsstudien der Claremont Graduate University. Seine Forschung untersucht derzeit, wie Orte, die mit autoritären Regimen verbunden sind, als Pilgerziele fungieren und welche Strategien Staaten und Institutionen anwenden, um extremistische Bindungen an diesen Orten zu verringern. Er ist begeistert, seine Ausbildung durch diese Zusammenarbeit mit dem Wende Museum fortzusetzen.

Emma Larson ist eine Masterstudentin am Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies der Columbia University. Dort konzentriert sie sich auf die Geschlechter-, Sozial- und Politikgeschichte Zentralasiens. Bevor sie an der Columbia begann, unterrichtete Emma Englisch in Kasachstan im Rahmen des Fulbright-Programms. 2021 schloss sie ihr Studium am Williams College mit Abschlüssen in Geschichte und Russisch ab.

Zora Nelson ist derzeit eine Studentin im Grundstudium an der New York University, wo sie Harfenperformance sowie Medien, Kultur und Kommunikation studiert. Als Künstlerin, die in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, geboren und aufgewachsen ist, entdeckte sie das Wende Museum im Sommer 2022. Mit einer Leidenschaft für das Schreiben sieht Zora ihre Zukunft im Storytelling, um soziale Gerechtigkeit zu fördern.

Lexi Tooley studiert im zweiten Jahr an der University of Pennsylvania Politikwissenschaft und Kunstgeschichte mit einem Nebenfach in Chinesisch und Kultur. Sie stammt ursprünglich aus Los Angeles, Kalifornien, und besuchte die Archer School for Girls. Lexi arbeitet seit 2 Jahren mit dem Wende Museum zusammen.

Cesy Leonard is an action artist, speaker, and founder of the “Radikale Töchter” - inspiring people through political art to act and stand up for democracy, freedom, equality, brotherhood, and sisterhood. She studied acting in Berlin and worked in film, television, and theater. Often experiencing what it meant to have to conform to a clichéd image of a woman led her to start directing her own films. Her 2012 film “Guilt - The Barbarism of Europe” awarded her various prizes, such as the Web Video Award. In 2012, she joined the artistic staff of the collective “Center for Political Beauty,” which promotes pressing political issues through their art. Seeing how art, in particular, has the power to mobilize people to act is the inspiration behind the “Radikale Töchter.” Funded by the “Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung” as a model project, the team works to strengthen democracy in the former GDR.

Josephin Haardt studied International Relations and Economics in Erfurt. She has been working as a project manager and managing director of the "Radical Daughters" since April 2019. This is where her interests in democracy, sisterhood, and organizational talent come together.

Aida Baghernejad is a journalist who studied media studies in Berlin, Barcelona, and London. Her work focuses on how cultural products such as music, film, and social media content influence the socio-political state of the world. In addition to numerous contributions for Die Zeit, Der Tagesspiegel, Missy Magazine, and others, she also co-hosts the podcast 55 Voices for Democracy, a collaboration between the Thomas Mann House, the Goethe-Institut, dublab radio, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Pendarvis Harshaw is an award-winning journalist from Oakland who writes about prisons, politics, hip-hop and all things impacting his Northern Californian community. He currently works in San Francisco at KQED, where he hosts the Rightnowish podcast and is the co-editor of BayAreaHipHop.com. You can reach him at @ogpenn on all platforms.

August Brown covers pop music, the music industry and nightlife policy at the Los Angeles Times.

Irfan Nooruddin is the Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Indian Politics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He studies problems of economic development and globalization, democracy and democratization, and civil conflict. His books are Coalition Politics and Economic Development (2011); Elections in Hard Times (2016, with T.E. Flores); and The Everyday Crusade (2022, with E.L. McDaniel and A.F. Shortle), all published by Cambridge University Press. Irfan received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in Economics and International Studies from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Sara Abrahamsson studiert im vierten Jahr an der UCLA Kunstgeschichte und Französisch. Als Höhepunkt ihres künstlerischen und akademischen Interesses an politischer Grafik schreibt Sara derzeit ihre Abschlussarbeit über die internationalistische Plakatkunst des nachrevolutionären Kuba. Nach ihrem Abschluss plant sie, weiterhin in Museen zu arbeiten, bevor sie postgraduale Studien in Kunstgeschichte oder Kunstkonservierung aufnimmt.

Amy Cabrales ist eine First-Generation-Studentin im vierten Jahr an der UCLA, die Soziologie und Russisch studiert. Sie ist mexikanisch-amerikanischer Herkunft und wurde in Lynwood, Kalifornien, geboren. Ihre beruflichen Interessen umfassen interkulturelle Bildung durch Museumsarbeit oder Sprachunterricht sowie die Ansiedlung von Einwanderern. Ihre akademischen Interessen liegen in der Integration von Einwanderern und der Selbstidentität über Generationen hinweg. Sie plant, im akademischen Jahr 2024-25 nach Almaty, Kasachstan, zurückzukehren, um diese Interessen zu vertiefen und ihre Russischkenntnisse zu erweitern.

Elsa Coony studiert im vierten Jahr an der University of California, Los Angeles Global Studies und Deutsch. Sie hat bereits im United States Holocaust Memorial Museum als Führerin und Übersetzerin gearbeitet und freut sich darauf, dem diesjährigen Rat beizutreten. In der Zukunft hofft sie, eine Karriere in der internationalen Entwicklung zu verfolgen.

Biruke Dix studiert im zweiten Jahr an der UCLA angewandte Mathematik. Er trat 2024 dem Student Council bei und ist tief in die sich ständig verändernden Eigenschaften der Kunst sowie gesellschaftlicher Gewohnheiten investiert. Er hofft, Gespräche zu schaffen, die die Verbreitung kultureller Veränderungen und sozialer Gerechtigkeit fördern.

Matthew Jones ist ein Doktorand im dritten Jahr im Programm für Kulturwissenschaften und Museumsstudien der Claremont Graduate University. Seine Forschung untersucht derzeit, wie Orte, die mit autoritären Regimen verbunden sind, als Pilgerziele fungieren und welche Strategien Staaten und Institutionen anwenden, um extremistische Bindungen an diesen Orten zu verringern. Er ist begeistert, seine Ausbildung durch diese Zusammenarbeit mit dem Wende Museum fortzusetzen.

Emma Larson ist eine Masterstudentin am Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies der Columbia University. Dort konzentriert sie sich auf die Geschlechter-, Sozial- und Politikgeschichte Zentralasiens. Bevor sie an der Columbia begann, unterrichtete Emma Englisch in Kasachstan im Rahmen des Fulbright-Programms. 2021 schloss sie ihr Studium am Williams College mit Abschlüssen in Geschichte und Russisch ab.

Zora Nelson ist derzeit eine Studentin im Grundstudium an der New York University, wo sie Harfenperformance sowie Medien, Kultur und Kommunikation studiert. Als Künstlerin, die in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, geboren und aufgewachsen ist, entdeckte sie das Wende Museum im Sommer 2022. Mit einer Leidenschaft für das Schreiben sieht Zora ihre Zukunft im Storytelling, um soziale Gerechtigkeit zu fördern.

Lexi Tooley studiert im zweiten Jahr an der University of Pennsylvania Politikwissenschaft und Kunstgeschichte mit einem Nebenfach in Chinesisch und Kultur. Sie stammt ursprünglich aus Los Angeles, Kalifornien, und besuchte die Archer School for Girls. Lexi arbeitet seit 2 Jahren mit dem Wende Museum zusammen.

Patty Jenkins ist eine preisgekrönte Drehbuchautorin und Regisseurin, die vor allem für „Wonder Woman“ (2017), „Wonder Woman 1984“ (2020) und ihr Oscar-prämiertes Spielfilmdebüt „Monster“ (2003) bekannt ist. Jenkins führte auch Regie bei der Pilotfolge und dem Finale der AMC-Hitserie „The Killing“, für die sie mehrfach ausgezeichnet wurde. WONDER WOMAN brach Rekorde an den Kinokassen und wurde zum umsatzstärksten Live-Action-Film, bei dem eine Frau Regie führte. Sie war die erste Frau, die einen Film mit einem Budget von über 100 Millionen und über 200 Millionen inszenierte. Als Nächstes wird Jenkins mehrere Projekte selbst entwickeln und eine kleine Reihe an Filmen produzieren.

Veronika Fuechtner is Chair of Comparative Literature and Associate Professor of German Studies at Dartmouth College. She also teaches in Jewish Studies, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is the author of Berlin Psychoanalytic (University of California Press, 2011) and the co-editor of Imagining Germany, Imagining Asia (with Mary Rhiel, Camden House, 2013) and A Global History of Sexual Science 1880-1960 (with Douglas E. Haynes and Ryan Jones, University of California Press, 2017). She is completing a monograph on Thomas and Heinrich Mann's Brazilian mother, Julia Mann, and the Mann family construction of race and "Germanness." Her research interests include the history of psychoanalysis and sexology, the relationship between science and culture, discourses on race and ethnicity, German-language modernism, contemporary culture, German-language film, and global cultural and scientific histories.

The guest speaker for our September program is John E. Echohawk, Pawnee, the Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund. He was the first graduate of the University of New Mexico’s special program to train Indian lawyers and was a founding member of the American Indian Law Students Association while in law school. John has been with NARF since its inception in 1970, having served continuously as Executive Director since 1977. He has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal and has received numerous service awards and other recognition for his leadership in the Indian law field including the 2023 Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association. He serves on the Boards of the Association on American Indian Affairs, the Indigenous Language Institute, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Grand Canyon Trust, the Native Ways Federation, the Water Foundation, the Keystone Policy Center, and the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development.

Sara Abrahamsson is a fourth-year student at UCLA studying Art History and French. As a culmination of her artistic and academic interest in political graphics, Sara is currently writing her senior thesis paper on the internationalist poster art of post-revolutionary Cuba. Upon graduating, she plans to continue working in museums before pursuing graduate studies in Art History or Art Conservation.

Amy Cabrales is a First-Generation fourth-year undergraduate student at UCLA, studying Sociology and the Russian Language. She is a Mexican-American, Los Angeles native born in Lynwood, California. Her career interests include cross-cultural education via museum work or language instruction and immigrant resettlement, while her academic interests include immigrant integration and self-identity across immigrant generations. She is anticipating returning to Almaty, Kazakhstan for the 2024-25 academic year to inform these interests and advance her Russian proficiency.

Elsa Coony is a fourth-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles double majoring in Global Studies and German. She has previously worked at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as both a docent and translator and is excited to join this year's council. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in international development.

Biruke Dix is currently a 2nd year student at UCLA studying Applied Mathematics. He joined the Wende Student Council in 2024 and is deeply invested in the ever-changing properties of art as well as social habits. He hopes that he can create language and conversation that promotes the spread of cultural shifts and social justice.

Matthew Jones is a third-year PhD student in Claremont Graduate University’s Cultural Studies and Museum Studies program. His research currently explores how sites connected to authoritarian regimes function as pilgrimage destinations and what strategies states and institutions employ to reduce extremist attachment at these sites. He is thrilled to continue his training with the Wende Museum through this collaboration with the Thomas Mann House.

Emma Larson is a master's student at Columbia University's Harriman Institute of Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies. There, she focuses on the gender, social, and political history of Central Asia. Before starting at Columbia, Emma taught English in Kazakhstan with the Fulbright Program. She graduated from Williams College with degrees in History and Russian in 2021.

Zora Nelson is a current undergraduate student at New York University,  where she is studying Harp Performance and Media, Culture, and Communication.  As an east coaster born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she discovered the Wende Museum in the summer of 2022 and is honored to be a part of the council. With a passion for writing, Zora sees a future in storytelling to promote social justice.

Lexi Tooley is a current sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Political Science and Art History, minoring in Chinese Language and Culture. She is originally from Los Angeles, California, and attended the Archer School for Girls. Lexi has been working with the Wende Museum for the past 2 years. She looks forward to continuing the search for truth and examining the vulnerability of democracy through this program!

Aida Baghernejad ist Journalistin und hat in Berlin, Barcelona und London Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften studiert. Ihre Arbeit beschäftigt sich insbesondere mit dem Thema, was kulturelle Produkte wie Musik, Film oder Social Media Content über den sozialpolitischen Zustand der Welt berichten. Neben zahlreichen Beiträgen für u. a. Zeit Online, Der Tagesspiegel, Missy Magazin und mehr, ist sie auch Co-Host des Podcasts 55 Voices for Democracy, eine Kollaboration zwischen dem Thomas Mann House und Los Angeles Review of Books.

Jamie Stewart ist ein amerikanischer Musiker und Schriftsteller, der vor allem als Hauptautor, Performer und Tontechniker der experimentellen Band Xiu Xiu bekannt ist.

The Brown panel discussion features Gayle Murchison (William and Mary College), Edwin Seroussi (Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dartmouth College), and Samuel Torjman Thomas (City University of New York, Hunter and John Jay Colleges), and is chaired by Katharina Galor (Brown University). Questions of Jewish identity accompany the issue of how Milhaud’s music shaped the musical landscapes of Germany, France, and the USA. It engages questions of antisemitism, racism, and gender; of Esther as a proto-feminist; Weimar Germany’s fertile ground for modernist music; the sudden shift towards outlawing “Jewish” and “Black” music, art, and lives in the context of Nazi Germany; the impact of American jazz and culture on Milhaud; the relationship between liturgical music and Milhaud’s work; the dialogue between Ashkenazi and Sephardi, between European and Middle Eastern liturgies; between Jews and Christians; the parallels between cantorial music and jazz; and finally Milhaud’s musical and artistic legacy internationally.

A short film Stalk by renowned animation artist Steven Subotnick (Rhode Island School of Design) interpreting Esther de Carpentras, has been created especially for the 50th anniversary of Milhaud's death. It examines the opera’s biblical, medieval, and modern heritage from a contemporary perspective. The screening will be introduced by Katharina Galor (Brown University).

Light refreshments will be served.

In collaboration with Brown pianist Saleem Ashkar, and violist Consuelo Sherba (Department of Music, Brown University), Berlin-based pianist Michal Friedländer (Neuer Musikverein Berlin) is in charge of all musical aspects of the production. Performers include mezzo-soprano Hagar Sharvit (Neuer Musikverein Berlin), tenor Daniel McGrew, violinist Lois Finkel (Brown University), violonist Mina Lavcheva (Rhode Island Philharmonic), cellist Daniel Harp (Brown University), and pianist Angeline Sun (Brown University). The program includes La Creation du Monde, excerpts from Milhaud's Esther de Carpentras, and his famous Scaramouche.

Susanna Hecht hat akademische Rollen an der Luskin School of Public Affairs und dem Institute of the Environment and Sustainability an der UCLA. Sie ist außerdem Direktorin des Centers for Brazilian Studies am Latin American Institute. Sie spricht mehrere Sprachen und ihre Veröffentlichungen konzentrieren sich auf weitreichende Themen wie Migration, Urbanisierung, den Amazonas und natürliche Ressourcen in Südamerika.

Tejas Parasher, Assistant Professor für politische Theorie, hat eine gemeinsame Professur im Department of Political Science und dem International Institute an der UCLA. Er ist Autor von Radical Democracy in Modern Indian Political Thought (Cambridge, 2023). Seine Forschung untersucht die politische Philosophie der kollektiven Selbstbestimmung, politische Repräsentation und Staatsbürgerschaft.

Gaspar Rivera-Salgado ist Direktor des UCLA Center for Mexican Studies und Projektleiter am UCLA Labor Center, wo er Mitglied der Kernfakultät im UCLA-Programm für Arbeitsstudien ist. Er leitet die Global Labor Initiative mit einem Schwerpunkt auf grenzüberschreitenden, arbeiter-zu-arbeiter Kooperationen zwischen den USA, Mexiko und Kanada.

Klavier: Michal Friedländer

Bariton: Noam Heinz

Sopran: Alma Sadé

Klavier: Cathy Milliken

Gesang: Jocelyn B. Smith

Leitung: PD Dr. Kai Hinrich Müller

Moderation: Cathy Milliken, Kai Hinrich Müller, Karl-Heinz Steffens

Lynn Vavreck, Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy an der UCLA, ist Expertin für Kampagnen, Wahlen und die öffentliche Meinung und beschäftigt sich mit Wahlwerbung, Umfragemethoden, Politik und Medien sowie dem Einfluss der Wirtschaftslage auf Wahlen. Vavreck ist Mitautorin von The Bitter End: The 2020 Presidential Campaign and the Challenge to American Democracy, in dem sie die Nachbeben des Wahlkampfs untersuchte. Sie ist außerdem Mitautorin von Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America. Beide Bücher stützen sich auf Beobachtungen und Erkenntnisse von Nationscape, einer umfassenden wöchentlichen Meinungsumfrage unter den amerikanischen Wählern, für die Vavreck als Hauptforscherin tätig ist.

Alexandra Lieben ist stellvertretende Direktorin des Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations und Dozentin an der UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Sie war Beraterin der Fakultät des Applied Management Research Program der UCLA Anderson School und ist Fakultätsmitglied des Promise Institute for Human Rights an der UCLA School of Law. Als zertifizierte Mediatorin unterrichtet sie an der UCLA Student:innen u. a. in konstruktiver Kommunikation und alternativer Streitbeilegung. Für Führungskräfte und Mitarbeiter:innen von Behörden der öffentlichen Sicherheit und des öffentlichen Sektors hält sie in diesem Bereich Seminare.

This panel explores the new challenges democracies on both sides of the Atlantic face from media and technological changes, with an emphasis on elections.

Moderator:

• Daniel Kreiss, Principal Investigator, CITAP & Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Panelists:

• Francesca Tripodi, Principal Investigator, CITAP & Associate Professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science

• Guido Zurstiege, Professor for Media Studies, University of Tübingen

• Tobias Wilke, Assistant Professor of German, UNC Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures

• Gregor Asmolov, Lecturer in Digital Entrepreneurship and Marketing, King's College London

• Jianing Li, Assistant Professor of Communication, Rutgers University Department of Communication.

This panel focuses on how social cleavages around race, ethnicity, religion, and immigration are weaponized in political narratives and elections.

Moderator:

• Ulrike Klinger, Professor for Digital Democracy, European New School of Digital Studies

Panelists:

• Meredith Clark, Principal Investigator, CITAP & Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

• Jen Schradie, Associate Professor, Center for Research on Social Inequalities, Sciences Po

• Priscilla Layne, Director of the UNC Center for European Studies & Professor of German, UNC Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures

• Sarah J. Jackson, Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania & Co-Director, Media, Inequality & Change Center

• Frank Baumgartner, Professor of Political Science, UNC Department of Political Science

• Robert Jenkins, Teaching Professor, UNC Department of Political Science

This panel examines the resurgence of authoritarianism and anti-democratic politics, with a focus on how media and technology facilitate these trends.

Moderator:

• Ulrike Klinger, Professor for Digital Democracy, European New School of Digital Studies

Panelists:

• Alice Marwick, Director of Research, Data & Society

• Johannes Gerschweski, Research Fellow, Department of Global Governance, WZB Berlin Social Science Center

• Jakob Norberg, Professor of German Studies, Duke University

• Christiane Lemke, Emerita Professor of Political Science and International Relations, UNC Department of Political Science

• Annett Heft, Research Project Lead, Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

This panel addresses the role of media in increasing polarization, disinformation, and division during election campaigns.

Moderator:

• Daniel Kreiss, Principal Investigator, CITAP & Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Panelists:

• Shannon McGregor, Principal Investigator, CITAP & Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

• Frank Esser, Professor of International & Comparative Media Research, Universität Zürich.

• Pola Lehmann, Research Fellow, Center for Civil Society Research, WZB Berlin Social Science Center

• Stanislav Shvabrin, Russian Program Director & Associate Professor of Russian, UNC Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures

• Radik Lapushin, Associate Professor of Russian Literature, UNC Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures

• Chad Bryant, Professor, UNC Department of History

Freedom Forum Conference Center, Carroll Hall

A fireside chat on “Media Coverage of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election: The View from Germany and the United States”.

With:

• Tressie McMillan Cottom, a New York Times columnist, Principal Investigator, CITAP & Associate Professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science

• Juliane Schäuble, U.S. Correspondent, Tagesspiegel Newspaper

Moderated by:

• Daniel Kreiss, Principal Investigator, CITAP & Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

RSVP here!

Jonathan Homola ist Assistenzprofessor an der Abteilung für Politikwissenschaft an der University of California, Los Angeles. Ein Großteil seiner Forschung beschäftigt sich mit Fragen der Repräsentation und der Wählerpräferenzen in westlichen Demokratien. Zu seinen Hauptinteressen gehören Xenophobie und die Unterstützung für rechtsextremistische Strömungen.

Marla Stone ist Professorin für Geschichte am Occidental College und spezialisiert auf die Geschichte des Faschismus sowie auf Fragen der Diktatur und des Völkermords in der Moderne. Stones Arbeiten betonen die Beziehung zwischen Kultur, Politik und dem Staat im 20. Jahrhundert. Sie hat zu verschiedenen Themen der europäischen Geschichte veröffentlicht, darunter die Kulturpolitik des italienischen Faschismus, Antikommunismus, die zeitgenössische extreme Rechte in Europa, die Erinnerungskultur zum Holocaust in Italien sowie die Kontinuitäten und Brüche zwischen historischem Faschismus und seinen zeitgenössischen Manifestationen. Sie lehrt am Occidental College seit 1994 und erhielt ihren M.A. und Ph.D. von der Princeton University.

Sara Abrahamsson studiert im vierten Jahr an der UCLA Kunstgeschichte und Französisch. Als Höhepunkt ihres künstlerischen und akademischen Interesses an politischer Grafik schreibt Sara derzeit ihre Abschlussarbeit über die internationalistische Plakatkunst des nachrevolutionären Kuba. Nach ihrem Abschluss plant sie, weiterhin in Museen zu arbeiten, bevor sie postgraduale Studien in Kunstgeschichte oder Kunstkonservierung aufnimmt.

Amy Cabrales ist eine First-Generation-Studentin im vierten Jahr an der UCLA, die Soziologie und Russisch studiert. Sie ist mexikanisch-amerikanischer Herkunft und wurde in Lynwood, Kalifornien, geboren. Ihre beruflichen Interessen umfassen interkulturelle Bildung durch Museumsarbeit oder Sprachunterricht sowie die Ansiedlung von Einwanderern. Ihre akademischen Interessen liegen in der Integration von Einwanderern und der Selbstidentität über Generationen hinweg. Sie plant, im akademischen Jahr 2024-25 nach Almaty, Kasachstan, zurückzukehren, um diese Interessen zu vertiefen und ihre Russischkenntnisse zu erweitern.

Elsa Coony studiert im vierten Jahr an der University of California, Los Angeles Global Studies und Deutsch. Sie hat bereits im United States Holocaust Memorial Museum als Führerin und Übersetzerin gearbeitet und freut sich darauf, dem diesjährigen Rat beizutreten. In der Zukunft hofft sie, eine Karriere in der internationalen Entwicklung zu verfolgen.

Biruke Dix studiert im zweiten Jahr an der UCLA angewandte Mathematik. Er trat 2024 dem Student Council bei und ist tief in die sich ständig verändernden Eigenschaften der Kunst sowie gesellschaftlicher Gewohnheiten investiert. Er hofft, Gespräche zu schaffen, die die Verbreitung kultureller Veränderungen und sozialer Gerechtigkeit fördern.

Matthew Jones ist ein Doktorand im dritten Jahr im Programm für Kulturwissenschaften und Museumsstudien der Claremont Graduate University. Seine Forschung untersucht derzeit, wie Orte, die mit autoritären Regimen verbunden sind, als Pilgerziele fungieren und welche Strategien Staaten und Institutionen anwenden, um extremistische Bindungen an diesen Orten zu verringern. Er ist begeistert, seine Ausbildung durch diese Zusammenarbeit mit dem Wende Museum fortzusetzen.

Emma Larson ist eine Masterstudentin am Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies der Columbia University. Dort konzentriert sie sich auf die Geschlechter-, Sozial- und Politikgeschichte Zentralasiens. Bevor sie an der Columbia begann, unterrichtete Emma Englisch in Kasachstan im Rahmen des Fulbright-Programms. 2021 schloss sie ihr Studium am Williams College mit Abschlüssen in Geschichte und Russisch ab.

Zora Nelson ist derzeit eine Studentin im Grundstudium an der New York University, wo sie Harfenperformance sowie Medien, Kultur und Kommunikation studiert. Als Künstlerin, die in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, geboren und aufgewachsen ist, entdeckte sie das Wende Museum im Sommer 2022. Mit einer Leidenschaft für das Schreiben sieht Zora ihre Zukunft im Storytelling, um soziale Gerechtigkeit zu fördern.

Lexi Tooley studiert im zweiten Jahr an der University of Pennsylvania Politikwissenschaft und Kunstgeschichte mit einem Nebenfach in Chinesisch und Kultur. Sie stammt ursprünglich aus Los Angeles, Kalifornien, und besuchte die Archer School for Girls. Lexi arbeitet seit 2 Jahren mit dem Wende Museum zusammen.

Johannes Gerschewski ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung und koordiniert die Arbeit des Theorienetzwerks am Exzellenzcluster „Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)“. Seine wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten wurden unter anderem im American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, und Comparative Political Studies publiziert. Sein Buch zu The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule erschien im April 2023 bei Cambridge University Press.

Pola Lehmann ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung und Co-Leiterin des Manifesto Projekts. Sie studierte Verwaltungswissenschaften an der Universität Potsdam und Kopenhagen. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Demokratie und politische Repräsentation, politische Parteien und Wahlen sowie maschinelles Lernen. In ihrer Dissertation, die mit dem Leibniz Promotionspreis 2021 ausgezeichnet wurde, untersuchte sie politische Repräsentation und Kompromisse im Deutschen Bundestag.

Jeffrey Winters ist Professor und Direktor des Programms für Gleichheit, Entwicklung und Globalisierungsstudien (EDGS) sowie ehemaliger Vorsitzender der Abteilung für Politikwissenschaft an der Northwestern University. Prof. Winters ist auf Oligarchen und Eliten sowie auf die Rolle von Wohlstand, Macht und extremer wirtschaftlicher Ungleichheit in verschiedenen politischen Systemen spezialisiert. Sein bevorstehendes Buch Domination through Democracy: Why Oligarchs Win wird von Penguin Random House veröffentlicht. Sein früheres Buch Oligarchy (Cambridge 2011) gewann den Gregory M. Luebbert Award der APSA 2012 für das beste Buch in der vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft. Prof. Winters untersucht außerdem Menschenrechte, Autoritarismus und demokratische Übergänge in postkolonialen Staaten. Er hat umfangreiche Forschungen in der Region Südostasien durchgeführt.

Bruce Bimber is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at UC Santa Barbara, where he studies how democracy is affected by computing and media environments. He has written extensively about how the Internet facilitates the formation of political groups both within the mainstream and at the extremes. In recent years, he has turned to the study of democratic erosion, focusing on the role of social media use in people's belief in conspiracy theories and in the spread of populist and illiberal attitudes. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the International Communication Association, and a past Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He is currently working on the use of AI to analyze conspiracy theories and endorsements of political violence in social media.

Julien Labarre is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at California State University Dominguez Hills and an affiliate of the International Panel on the Information Environment, a research initiative launched at the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit. He is also the former administrator of the Center for Information Technology & Society. His research focuses on mass media, epistemic problems, extremism, and pathologies of democracy, primarily in the US and France.

Bruce Bimber is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at UC Santa Barbara, where he studies how democracy is affected by computing and media environments. He has written extensively about how the Internet facilitates the formation of political groups both within the mainstream and at the extremes. In recent years, he has turned to the study of democratic erosion, focusing on the role of social media use in people's belief in conspiracy theories and in the spread of populist and illiberal attitudes. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the International Communication Association, and a past Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He is currently working on the use of AI to analyze conspiracy theories and endorsements of political violence in social media.

Julien Labarre is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at California State University Dominguez Hills and an affiliate of the International Panel on the Information Environment, a research initiative launched at the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit. He is also the former administrator of the Center for Information Technology & Society. His research focuses on mass media, epistemic problems, extremism, and pathologies of democracy, primarily in the US and France.

Why and when should we engage in compromise?

The first session clarifies what a political compromise is, what the main features of a compromise look like, and why the ability to compromise might (or might not) lie at the heart of liberal democracies. In heterogeneous and pluralistic societies, compromise is not only a necessary feature of political life, but it can be argued that the acceptance of political rivals as having legitimate interests leads to a self-reinforcing dynamic that underpins democratic processes.

When should we not engage in compromise?

The second session looks at the limits of compromise, exploring the proverbial “rotten” compromise to ask when we should shy away from forging compromises. This includes reflections on the question of freedom of speech, and to what extent populism impedes our ability to find compromise.

How do the United States and Germany deal with compromise and polarization?

The third session explores the differing way in which political compromise is built into the different political systems of the United States and Germany, comparing two different ways these political systems react and maybe even produce societal polarization.

How to create a conducive environment for political compromise?

The last session discusses what conducive environments could look like that foster political compromise. What makes political compromise more likely? What hinders it?

Sarah E. Anderson is a Professor and Acting Dean at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She studies how the public and politics influences policy. In her 2020 book Rejecting Compromise: Legislators’ Fear of Primary Voters, she focuses on how the public drives inequity and inefficiency in agencies’ wildfire prevention and why legislators reject compromise. In her research, teaching, and service, she works with students, staff, faculty, communities, and leaders to overcome social and political barriers to solving environmental problems and to work toward equity in the environmental field.

Pola Lehmann is a research fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and co-director of the Manifesto Project. She studied administrative sciences at the Universities of Potsdam and Copenhagen. Her research focuses on democracy and political representation, political parties and elections, and machine learning. In her dissertation, which won the Leibniz Dissertation Award in 2021, she investigated political representation and compromise in the German Bundestag.

Alexandra Lieben is the Deputy Director of the Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations and an affiliated faculty member of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at the UCLA School of Law. A certified mediator, she teaches constructive communication, alternative dispute resolution, public dialogue, cultural competency, international conflict resolution, and community and economic development to undergraduate and graduate students at UCLA.

Johannes Gerschewski is a research fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and coordinates the work of the Theory Network at the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS).” He has published in academic journals including American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, and Comparative Political Studies. His book on The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule was published in April 2023 by Cambridge University Press.

Natalie M. Godinez is an educator and artist raised in Tijuana, México. Godinez has collaborated with AMBOS since 2017, performing artist interventions, leading education projects, and coordinating humanitarian aid efforts. Currently, she is the Community Engagement & Youth Programs Manager at Self Help Graphics and Art, working on advocacy, youth programming, and cultural organizing. In her personal art practice, she explores memories, identity, and relationships to places and language through textiles, printmaking, and collaboration. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Applied Design from San Diego State University.

Allison Lee serves as PEN America’s Los Angeles Director. She was the Chief Development Officer for TIME’S UP, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting gender equity and ending sexual violence in the workplace. She has previously served as Vice President of External Affairs at Bet Tzedek Legal Services, where she worked, among other things, to launch their Rapid Response Family Immigration Project and Transgender Advocacy Program. Prior to that, Allison served for eight years as the founding Executive Director of American Jewish World Service – Southern California. Allison received her B.A. in Political Science and American Studies from Tufts University.

Jonathan Parfrey is the founder and Executive Director of Climate Resolve, and has served as a commissioner at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (2008-2013). Parfrey is a member of the LA28 Olympics and Paralympic Games Sustainability Working Group. He is a founder and board member of CicLAvia, the popular street event, as well as a founder of the statewide Alliance of Regional Collaboratives for Climate Adaptation. He served as director of the GREEN LA Coalition (2007-2011). Prior to that, he founded and directed the Orange County Catholic Worker (1987-1993). He was appointed to Governor Schwarzenegger’s Environmental Policy Team in 2003.

Danielle M. Thomsen is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, with a focus on American politics, Congress, elections, campaign finance, and gender and politics. Thomsen’s first book Opting Out of Congress: Partisan Polarization and the Decline of Moderate Candidates was published in 2017, and her second publication The Money Signal: How Fundraising Matters in American Politics is forthcoming with the University of Chicago Press in Spring 2025. Her research has been published in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, among others.

Kurt Weyland is Professor of Government and Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Based on research conducted in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, and Venezuela, he has published many journal articles and book chapters, as well as seven books, most recently Assault on Democracy: Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism during the Interwar Years (Cambridge, 2021); and Democracy’s Resilience to Populism’s Threat (Cambridge, 2024).

Thomas Aujero Small is the CEO of Culver City Forward, Chair of LA METRO Sustainability Council and member of the Mobility Committee of the Urban Land Institute Los Angeles. He served as Mayor of Culver City from 2018-2019, during his four-year term as a Culver City Council Member (2016-2020). He is also on the Transportation Policy Committee of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). On the Culver City Council, he served on several Subcommittees, including: the General Plan Update; Economic Development; Mobility, Traffic and Parking; Financial Planning and Budget; and the Ballona Creek Revitalization Task Force.

Pola Lehmann is a research fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and co-director of the Manifesto Project. She studied administrative sciences at the Universities of Potsdam and Copenhagen. Her research focuses on democracy and political representation, political parties and elections, and machine learning. In her dissertation, which won the Leibniz Dissertation Award in 2021, she investigated political representation and compromise in the German Bundestag.

Johannes Gerschewski is a research fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and coordinates the work of the Theory Network at the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS).” He has published in academic journals including American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, and Comparative Political Studies. His book on The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule was published in April 2023 by Cambridge University Press.

Allison Lee serves as PEN America’s Los Angeles Director. She was the Chief Development Officer for TIME’S UP, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting gender equity and ending sexual violence in the workplace. She has previously served as Vice President of External Affairs at Bet Tzedek Legal Services, where she worked, among other things, to launch their Rapid Response Family Immigration Project and Transgender Advocacy Program. Prior to that, Allison served for eight years as the founding Executive Director of American Jewish World Service – Southern California. Allison received her B.A. in Political Science and American Studies from Tufts University.

Kurt Weyland is Professor of Government and Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Based on research conducted in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, and Venezuela, he has published many journal articles and book chapters, as well as seven books, most recently Assault on Democracy: Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism during the Interwar Years (Cambridge, 2021); and Democracy’s Resilience to Populism’s Threat (Cambridge, 2024).

Thomas Aujero Small is the CEO of Culver City Forward, Chair of LA METRO Sustainability Council and member of the Mobility Committee of the Urban Land Institute Los Angeles. He served as Mayor of Culver City from 2018-2019, during his four-year term as a Culver City Council Member (2016-2020). He is also on the Transportation Policy Committee of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). On the Culver City Council, he served on several Subcommittees, including: the General Plan Update; Economic Development; Mobility, Traffic and Parking; Financial Planning and Budget; and the Ballona Creek Revitalization Task Force.

Sharon Dodua Otoo ist Schriftstellerin und politische Aktivistin. Mit dem Text Herr Gröttrup setzt sich hin gewann Otoo 2016 den Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis. Ihr erster Roman Adas Raum erschien 2021 beim S. Fischer Verlag und wurde in mehreren Sprachen übersetzt. In Zusammenarbeit mit den Ruhrfestspielen kuratiert sie das Schwarze Internationale Literaturfestival „Resonanzen“. Otoo ist derzeit Honorary Fellow an der Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.

Sara Abrahamsson studiert im vierten Jahr an der UCLA Kunstgeschichte und Französisch. Als Höhepunkt ihres künstlerischen und akademischen Interesses an politischer Grafik schreibt Sara derzeit ihre Abschlussarbeit über die internationalistische Plakatkunst des nachrevolutionären Kuba. Nach ihrem Abschluss plant sie, weiterhin in Museen zu arbeiten, bevor sie postgraduale Studien in Kunstgeschichte oder Kunstkonservierung aufnimmt.

Amy Cabrales ist eine First-Generation-Studentin im vierten Jahr an der UCLA, die Soziologie und Russisch studiert. Sie ist mexikanisch-amerikanischer Herkunft und wurde in Lynwood, Kalifornien, geboren. Ihre beruflichen Interessen umfassen interkulturelle Bildung durch Museumsarbeit oder Sprachunterricht sowie die Ansiedlung von Einwanderern. Ihre akademischen Interessen liegen in der Integration von Einwanderern und der Selbstidentität über Generationen hinweg. Sie plant, im akademischen Jahr 2024-25 nach Almaty, Kasachstan, zurückzukehren, um diese Interessen zu vertiefen und ihre Russischkenntnisse zu erweitern.

Elsa Coony studiert im vierten Jahr an der University of California, Los Angeles Global Studies und Deutsch. Sie hat bereits im United States Holocaust Memorial Museum als Führerin und Übersetzerin gearbeitet und freut sich darauf, dem diesjährigen Rat beizutreten. In der Zukunft hofft sie, eine Karriere in der internationalen Entwicklung zu verfolgen.

Biruke Dix studiert im zweiten Jahr an der UCLA angewandte Mathematik. Er trat 2024 dem Student Council bei und ist tief in die sich ständig verändernden Eigenschaften der Kunst sowie gesellschaftlicher Gewohnheiten investiert. Er hofft, Gespräche zu schaffen, die die Verbreitung kultureller Veränderungen und sozialer Gerechtigkeit fördern.

Matthew Jones ist ein Doktorand im dritten Jahr im Programm für Kulturwissenschaften und Museumsstudien der Claremont Graduate University. Seine Forschung untersucht derzeit, wie Orte, die mit autoritären Regimen verbunden sind, als Pilgerziele fungieren und welche Strategien Staaten und Institutionen anwenden, um extremistische Bindungen an diesen Orten zu verringern. Er ist begeistert, seine Ausbildung durch diese Zusammenarbeit mit dem Wende Museum fortzusetzen.

Emma Larson ist eine Masterstudentin am Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies der Columbia University. Dort konzentriert sie sich auf die Geschlechter-, Sozial- und Politikgeschichte Zentralasiens. Bevor sie an der Columbia begann, unterrichtete Emma Englisch in Kasachstan im Rahmen des Fulbright-Programms. 2021 schloss sie ihr Studium am Williams College mit Abschlüssen in Geschichte und Russisch ab.

Zora Nelson ist derzeit eine Studentin im Grundstudium an der New York University, wo sie Harfenperformance sowie Medien, Kultur und Kommunikation studiert. Als Künstlerin, die in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, geboren und aufgewachsen ist, entdeckte sie das Wende Museum im Sommer 2022. Mit einer Leidenschaft für das Schreiben sieht Zora ihre Zukunft im Storytelling, um soziale Gerechtigkeit zu fördern.

Lexi Tooley studiert im zweiten Jahr an der University of Pennsylvania Politikwissenschaft und Kunstgeschichte mit einem Nebenfach in Chinesisch und Kultur. Sie stammt ursprünglich aus Los Angeles, Kalifornien, und besuchte die Archer School for Girls. Lexi arbeitet seit 2 Jahren mit dem Wende Museum zusammen.