The term "identity" bears various meanings, individual and collective, familial and generational, imposed or perceived by others and self-chosen. The problems and possibilities of identity, whether personal, communal or national, exist among every group of people, but have found particularly interesting and at times alarming manifestations in German regions and culture throughout the centuries. From the wide variety of regional identities present within German speaking countries, to the rampant assertion of Germanic identity in the Third Reich, and to the problems of identity facing post-WWII and post-reunification Germans today, there is a great deal of ground to cover on this topic in German Studies.

This conference aims to consider questions such as the following: What constitutes identity on the personal and collective levels? Which mechanisms are involved in the adoption and rejection of a particular identity? How is identity defined by language and literature? How do language, literature, music, and the visual arts define gender, cultural, social, and national identities? To what extent do multiple identities either interfere or collaborate with each other to make up a single entity? How is identity construction influenced by and conceptualized in the digital media? On a linguistic level, how is an individual's identity reflected in and affected by the language he or she uses?

We invite contributions that explore the topic of identity in all its manifestations. The conference encourages papers to consider issues of digital and traditional media; language; technology; and visual and musical arts as they affect the main theme. We welcome interdisciplinary papers--ranging from literature to sociolinguistics--that place German and Germanic Studies in a larger context.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

Historical and Contemporary German National Identities	English in German: Hip-Culture, Education, and Power
Identity under Transformation: Reconsideration, Reconstruction, and Realignment	Commercial Identities, Legal Identities and Other Negotiating Positions
Gender Identity	Identity and Naming Conventions
Exile Literature	Regional Identities and Dialects
Identity among German Minorities	Identity and the German Sie/du Address Forms
Identity in Music, Identity through Music	False Pretexts
Social Stratification and Identity	Being Cool, Being Square
Failed Identities	Hegemony and German Identity
Ironic and Provisional Identities	Foreign Perceptions of Germany and Germans
Autobiography and the Self-Constructed Identity	German Identity in the US

Please submit abstracts electronically (ca. 250 words) by December 20, 2006 to:

Graduate Student Conference Department of Germanic Studies Ballantine Hall 644 Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 Email: germconf@indiana.edu