The first presentation of the TraCe lecture series will be held by Michael Rothberg on the topic “Restitution, Repair, and Implication: Afterlives of Colonialism and the Holocaust in the Humboldt Forum”. Michael Rothberg is the 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, where he is working on a book about “comparison controversies”.
In recent years, the German public sphere has been agitated by debates that concern the relationship between the Holocaust and colonialism, antisemitism and racism, and Holocaust memory and violence in Israel/Palestine. These debates have intersected with a longer-standing dispute about colonial legacies that has centered on the reconstruction of Berlin’s imperial palace and the creation of the Humboldt Forum. The Humboldt Forum debate involves the afterlives of colonial structures, stolen artifacts, and human remains. In this lecture, Michael Rothberg will address the stakes of these different debates. Much of the controversy about the relationship between the Holocaust and colonialism concerns the past, but Rothberg’s approach also foregrounds what it means to live in the wake of such histories of violence and addresses questions of memory and responsibility, restitution and repair.
When? May 7, 2025, 18:00h
Where? Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Campus Westend, IG-Farben-Haus, IG 311
The lecture series “Transformations of Political Violence: New Perspectives” showcases new approaches to the changing forms, institutions, and interpretations of political violence as they are studied within TraCe. It brings together perspectives from history, sociology, political sciences, and cultural studies with activist voices.
The presentation takes place at Campus Westend and will be held in English. There will be no live stream, but the event will be recorded.