Report on the opening of the KMG – Collegium Modern and Contemporary Studies with Elisabeth Bronfen

On 22 May 2024, the opening ceremony for the inter-faculty Collegium Modern and Contemporary Studies (KMG) at the University of Würzburg took place in the Schelling Forum. Prof Dr Esme Winter-Froemel, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, delivered the welcoming address.

The first speaker team of the Kolleg, Prof. Dr Stephanie Catani and Prof. Dr Catrin Gersdorf, introduced the event and led into the evening's keynote speaker: the renowned literary and cultural scholar Prof. Dr Elisabeth Bronfen.

Bronfen read excerpts from her debut novel "Händler der Geheimnisse" (Dealer of Secrets), an autobiographically tinged mixture of thriller and family history about the culture of silence in the German post-war generation: theatre scholar Eva Bromfield investigates the mysterious circumstances under which her father, an American-Jewish veteran who returned to Bavaria after the Second World War, died with "cryptomaniacal" zeal. His second wife is suspected of having murdered him. Together with her brother Max, Eva Bromfield searches for clues in Munich and New York, looking for connections with a portrait painter and Nazi collaborator, among other things.

Bronfen combined the presented passages, which show the motifs and approaches of her own research career, with in-depth reflections from the perspective of production aesthetics and cultural studies.

After this inspiring opening, the members of the Collegium are looking forward to the activities of the KMG with great anticipation and exchanged views in a relaxed atmosphere at the subsequent reception.