Zu Gast im Carl-Schurz-Haus - Eine Auswahl 1968 - 2010 

26.04.2010     Jeremy Symons, USA – one of America’s top nonprofit advocates and spokesperson on environmental and energy issues, former co-chair of the U.S. Climate Action Network
Lecture: “Earth Day”

11.04.2010     Nancy Fraser, USA – political scientist and one of the most famous American feminists (*1947), offering new critical perspectives on the crises of capitalism
Lecture: “Rethinking Capitalist Crisis. On Marketization, Social Protection, Emancipation”

10.02.2010     Berndt Ostendorf, München – renowned German scholar in the field of American literature and cultural studies (*1940), widely noted for his studies on multiculturalism
Lecture: “Bacchus in der Neuen Welt. Eine Kulturgeschichte des amerikanischen Weins”

07.02.2010     Jeremy Rifkin, USA – one of the most popular social thinkers of our time and bestselling author, economist, public speaker, and activist (*1943); founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends
Lecture: “The Empathic Civilization. The Race to Global Consciousness in a World of Crisis”

01.12.2009    Susan Howe, USA – American poet and critic (*1937), associated with avant-garde language poetry, also famous for her creative scholarship on Emily Dickinson
Reading: “Susan Howe’s Poems and Documents”

27.11.2009    Claus Kleber, Mainz – one of the most distinguished and prize-winning German journalists (*1955), ZDF's primetime news frontman and director of several documentaries on the US and the nuclear threat, long-time foreign correspondent in Washington DC
Lecture: “Krieg und Medien in den USA”

22.11.2009     Ernest Callenbach, USA – film scholar, author, and journalist (*1929), well-known author of green books, particularly his ecological utopias Ecotopia (1975) and Ecotopia Emerging (1981)
Lecture: „From Capitalism to Ecotopia”

02.11.2009    Elisabeth Bronfen, Zürich – renowned literary scholar, cultural theoretician, and psychoanalyst (*1958), specialist in the fields of gender studies, film, cultural theory, and art
Lecture: “Sich vom Krieg ein Bild machen. Eine kleine Fotogeschichte vom amerikanischen Bürgerkrieg bis zu Abu Ghraib”

29.10.2009    Carl Weissner, Mannheim – German author and influential literary agent (*1940); celebrated translator (and personal friend) of Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, and Alan Ginsberg; well-known for his translations of Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa
Reading: “Carl Weissner liest Bukowski”

25.02.2009    Walter Pincus, USA – (*1937) national security journalist of The Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize laureate (2002), famous for his coverage of the Watergate scandal 1974
Lecture: „What Has Happened to the American Press?”

13.01.2009     Prof. Dr. Marcia Pally, USA – sociologist, journalist and cultural critic, founder of the organization "Feminists for Free Expression"
Lecture: „The Influence of Religion on US Foreign Policy – Past and Future”

24.06.2007     Prof. Saskia Sassen, USA – sociologist and economist (*1949), noted for her analyses of globalization and international human migration, invented the term “Global City”
Lecture: „Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages”

19.11.2006     Prof. Joseph Stiglitz, USA – economist and Nobel Prize laureate 2001 (*1943), known for his critique of the management of globalization and free-market economists (whom he calls "free market fundamentalists")
Lecture: „Making Globalization Work: Über die Chance der Globalisierung“

10.07.2006     Prof. Dr. John Searle, USA – philosopher (*1932), widely noted for his contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and social philosophy, as well as for his speech-act theory
Lecture: “What is Language?”

16.02.2006     Amiri Baraka, USA – African American poet, dramatist, and music critic (*1934), best known as the Father of the Black Arts Movement
Reading/Lecture: “The Living Beat”

14.02.2005     Avi Primor, Israel – diplomat and publicist (*1935), ambassador of Israel to Germany (1993-1999)
Lecture: “Terror als Vorwand”

30.06.2003     Rudy Wiebe, Canada – author (*1934), won international awards forThe Temptations of Big Bear (1973) and A Discovery of Strangers (1994) as well as for his Mennonite memoirs
Reading/Lecture: “Sweeter Than All the World”

25.10.2002     Michael Ballhaus, Los Angeles/Berlin – German cinematographer and Director of Photography (*1935), worked with Rainer Werner Fassbinder on sixteen films and became one of Hollywood’s most sought-after cameramen; developed the legendary 360-degree tracking shot in which the camera moves in a circle around the actor
Book and film presentation, panel discussion

28.10.2001     Ernest Callenbach, USA – film scholar, author, and journalist (*1929), well-known author of green books, particularly his ecological utopias Ecotopia (1975) and Ecotopia Emerging (1981) Lecture: „Ökotopia“

28.03.2001     Louis Begley, USA – Jewish-American author (*1933), best known for his novels Wartime Lies (1991) and About Schmidt (1996) the movie adaption of which has been nominated for an Oscar in 2002
„Schmidt Delivered“

26.03.2001     Gioconda Belli, Nicaragua/USA – author, novelist and renowned Nicaraquan poet (*1948), active participant in the Sandinista struggle against the Somoza dictatorship
Reading: “Die Verteidigung des Glücks”

28.04.1999     William Cody Maher, USA – poet, performance artist and film-maker (*1950), celebrated for his powerful collection of poems The Suitcase (2000)
Poetry Performance

20.04.1999     Slavoj Žižek, USA – sociologist, psychoanalyst, philosopher, and cultural critic (*1949), well known for using Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytical theories for a new reading of popular culture
Lecture: „Liebe deinen Nächsten? Nein, danke! Die Sackgasse des Sozialen in der Postmoderne“

13.05.1998     Chaim Potok, USA – American Jewish author and rabbi (1929-2002), famous for his novels The Chosen (1967) and The Promise (1969)
Reading: “The Gates of November” / “Novembernächte”

23.04.1997     Prof. Dr. Carl Djerassi, USA – Nobel-prize winning chemist, novelist, and playwright best known for his the development of the first oral contraceptive pill (*1923)
Lecture: “Von der Pille zur Feder”

07.05.1997     Joyce Johnson, USA – author of fiction and nonfiction (* 1935), award for the memoir Minor Characters (1987) about her relationship with Jack Kerouac
Reading with music and slides

18.05.1996     Robert Wilson, USA – American avant-garde stage director and playwright (*1941) who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist’”
Performance & Lecture

28.01.1994     Naomi Wolf, USA – feminist writer and political activist (*1962), leading spokesperson of what was later described as third-wave feminism
Lecture: “Power Feminism: Towards a New Understanding of Female Power”

10.12.1993     George McGovern, USA –  former United States Representative, Senator, and Democratic presidential nominee (*1922)
Lecture: “Beyond the Cold War: America and the New Global Challenge”
Honorary Lecture

28.10.1993     Kate Millett, USA  –  feminist writer and activist (*1934), author of Sexual Politics (1970), a classic text of feminist literature
Lecture: “Entmenschlicht. Versuch über die Praktiken der Psychiatrie“

24.06.1991     Gerald Vizenor, USA – Native American writer (*1934), best known for his novel Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles (1990) and for deconstructing the idea of “Indianness”
Reading

06.05.1991     Ronald Sukenick, USA –American writer and literary theorist (1932-2004), proclaimed "The Death of the Novel" (1989)
Reading

1988              Ishmael Reed, USA – African-American poet, essayist, and novelist (*1938), one of today's pre-eminent African American literary figures, and, along with Amiri Baraka, probably the most controversial
Reading

1973              Prof. Ihab Hassan, USA – literary theorist (*1925), well known for his “Concept of Postmodernism”
Lecture: “Avant-Garde Trends in Contemporary American Fiction”

1968              Prof. Dr. Leslie A. Fiedler, USA – literary theorist and critic (1917-2003), famous for his groundbreaking work on postmodernism
Lecture: “Close the Gap – Cross the Border: The Case for Post-Modernism”

Special Event

03.04.2009    Barack Obama, USA, at Townhall Meeting Strasbourg
Selected members and friends of the Carl-Schurz-Haus attended the Town Hall Meeting in Strasbourg where Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, connected with German and French Youth.