Michael Rothberg - Multidirectional Memory and Postcolonial Studies in Contemporary Germany

In this talk as part of the BCB Global Histories of Migration lecture series Michael Rothberg introduces his book: "Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization" on the occasion of the publication of the German translation.
The translation appears in a moment of intensive debate in the German public sphere about colonial legacies, postcolonial studies, the relation between antisemitism and racism, and the place of the Holocaust in Germany’s memorial landscape. In addition to providing an overview of the book’s central arguments, Rothberg will reflect on how the concept of multidirectional memory can help illuminate and address the current controversies.
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. His latest book is The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators (2019), published by Stanford University Press. His book Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization (Stanford UP, 2009) has just appeared in German as Multidirektionale Erinnerung (Metropol Verlag, 2021). He is also the author of Traumatic Realism: The Demands of Holocaust Representation (Minnesota UP, 2000) and co-editor with Neil Levi of The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings (UBC Press, 2003). With Yasemin Yildiz, he is completing Memory Citizenship: Migrant Archives of Holocaust Remembrance.
The talk is moderated by BCB faculty member Frank Wolff and was part of the Global Histories of Migration lecture series. The event series took place within the framework of and is funded by the Mellon Cluster of Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education.