
Beyond “Wilkommenskultur”
Intense debates about appropriate measures for dealing with large-scale migration are taking place in both Germany and the United States. Against this backdrop, the American Academy in Berlin hosted an event in cooperation with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz entitled “Beyond ‘Willkommenskultur’: Artistic and Academic Approaches to Integration from a Transatlantic Perspective” on the evening of Wednesday, February 28, 2018. Two multidisciplinary panel discussions, related to the Academy’s migration theme, brought together thinkers and practitioners from both countries and from a wide variety of artistic and academic backgrounds to gain a broad-based understanding of two catalysts of integration.
The participants on the first panel, about integration in the arts, were Raven Chacon, a composer, performer, installation artist, and the Inga Maren Otto Fellow in Music Composition at the American Academy this spring; Jörg Heiser, the director of the Institut Kunst im Kontext, Universität der Künste Berlin; Julia Grosse, the co-publisher and editor-in-chief of Contemporary And (C&); and Josh Kun, a professor of communication and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, and this spring’s Bosch Fellow in Public Policy at the American Academy. The arts panel was moderated by Pamela Rosenberg, a senior advisor to the American Academy in Berlin.
The second panel, about academic life and institutions, was moderated by Academy president Michael P. Steinberg and was comprised of participants Kerry Bystrom, the associate dean and a professor of English and human rights at Bard College Berlin; Rajshri Jayaraman, an associate professor of economics at ESMT Berlin; Keith Watenpaugh, a professor and the director of Human Rights Studies at the University of California, Davis, and director of the Article 26 Backpack™ program, and a spring 2018 Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy; and Zaher Alshamy, a PhD candidate at the Freie Universität Berlin.
The evening was introduced by Barbara Schneider-Kempf, director of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz. The full video of the discussions is below, and coverage of the event ran in Der Tagesspiegel.
Share This

“Beyond the Lecture” Podcast with Claudia Rankine

The 2023-24 Berlin Prize Fellows

Museums, Architecture, and Social Engagement

The Fall 2019 Program

Berlin Journal 32

The 2018-19 Berlin Prize
BERLIN—April 25, 2018—The American Academy in Berlin has awarded Berlin Prizes—semester-long fellowships in Berlin—to 24…

The Spring 2023 Program

The Fall 2022 Program

The 2021-22 Berlin Journal

New Academy President: Ambassador Daniel Benjamin

The Spring 2019 Program

Jens Stoltenberg Receives the 2023 Henry A. Kissinger Prize

Remembering John C. Kornblum (1943 – 2023)

The 2024-25 Berlin Prize Fellows

Refugees and the Political Crisis of Our Time

John McCain Receives the 2018 Henry A. Kissinger Prize
BERLIN—May 3, 2018—The American Academy in Berlin has awarded the 2018 Henry A. Kissinger Prize…

President Steinmeier Delivers the 2019 Fritz Stern Lecture

Remembering Vartan Gregorian (1934-2021)

The 2021 Henry A. Kissinger Prize

C. Boyden Gray (1943-2023)

The US Midterm Elections

Remembering Richard K. Goeltz (1942-2020)

The Spring 2025 Program

Singing to Glaciers

Al Gore at the American Academy

William Drozdiak on Emmanuel Macron and the Future of Europe

Remembering Berthold Leibinger (1930-2018)

The Spring 2024 Program

Remembering Anna-Maria Kellen (1918-2017)
The American Academy in Berlin mourns the passing of Anna-Maria Kellen, who died in New…

Remembering Madeleine Albright (1937−2022)

The Global Triangle Project
On May 5, 2017, the Richard C. Holbrooke Forum hosted a workshop entitled The Global…

Remembering Dr. Henry A. Kissinger (1923-2023)

Welcoming the Fall 2019 Fellows

The Fall 2021 Program

Remembering Erivan Haub (1932-2018)

Remembering Ambassador Martin Indyk (1951-2024)

Welcoming the Spring 2018 Class of Fellows

Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Party

Anthony Vidler (1941-2023)
