Prof. Hamm-Ehsani authors conference paper

Karin Hamm-Ehsani, assistant professor of German, presented a paper titled "Cross-Se(x)ions: Issues of National, Cultural and Sexual Identities in Kutlug Ataman's Berlin-Film Lola and Bilidikid" at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities in January. The paper investigates the representational strategies used by Ataman to highlight the queer characters' identity negotiations vis à vis their double marginalization caused by xenophobia and racism as well as homophobia, not only in the wider German society, but also within the German Turkish community. Ataman's film is read as an essential cultural production of the so-called Wende (political change after the German reunification), as a narrative in which Turkish and German histories and memories cross and converge, and where history is confronted with its present.