Contemporary Witness Talks" series starts on November 10

Over the years, many generations of students have attended the University of Kassel. They have played a decisive role in shaping the history of the university and also the city of Kassel in very different ways, from the comprehensive university to the university and beyond. As part of the university's 50th anniversary, the "Zeitzeug:innengespräche" series explores this change. It was organized by students of history. The conversations with alumni and staff revolve around studies, life on campus and the special features of the University of Kassel, and also address the university's place in the city. The aim is to take a look at the university "from below", i.e. from the perspective of those who have gone through, experienced and shaped it in very different ways and at different times in its 50-year history.

The events will take place on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the University of Kassel's Gießhaus, Mönchebergstraße 5, 34127 Kassel .

A talk with Annette Ulbricht will open the series of events on November 10, 2021. The former press officer of the university is a chronicler of its development. Here, the issues of the university's external and internal perception, both in the city and in the university landscape of the Federal Republic, will be discussed.

On November 17, 2021, Sinan Akkuş will be our guest. With the director, screenwriter and actor, who graduated from the Kunsthochschule Kassel in 2002, the topic will be how the Documenta city of Kassel was also perceived as a starting point for creative development at the university and whether and how he benefited from cultural impulses of the time in Kassel.

This will be followed on November 24, 2021, by a conversation with Heide Wunder, former professor of the social and constitutional history of the early modern period. She cameto the Gesamthochschule in 1977 and established the field of gender history, for which the university remains renowned. How research and teaching developed at Kassel will be the focus of this discussion.

The series of events will conclude with a panel discussion on December 8, 2021 , for whichfouralumni will share their experiences, adventures, and quirky stories about the university in dialogue. They have all had a lasting impact on politics and urban society after graduating. Joining them will be Martina Werner, a politician and member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2019; Dr. Kerstin Wolff, head of the research department of the Archive of the German Women's Movement in Kassel; Thomas Ewald, the longtime program manager for the History and Politics Department of the Kassel Adult Education Center; and author Anant Kumar, whose work explores interculturality and intercultural perception.

The series of talks is organized by students of the master's program "History and the Public Sphere".

Contact: PD Dr. Mieke Roscher, Social and Cultural History, roscher[at]uni-kassel[dot]de, Laura Wendel, uk081908[at]uni-kassel[dot]de