September 2024

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.