Congress day 3 – The participants

Panel 4

Michael Werz holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and an M.A. in philosophy, political science and Latin American studies from Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main. He is Visiting Researcher at the Institute for International Migration Studies at the Georgetown University and is a GMF fellow. Michael Werz has widely published on the areas of race, ethnicity, and nationalism in Europe and is an expert on U.S. and European foreign policy, migration policy, domestic politics, EU policy, and government relations in Europe and the United States with a developing expertise on China.

Further reading: “Herkunft ist nicht länger Schicksal”

Yasemin Soysal, Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, was previously a researcher at Harvard University. Her research focuses on questions of nation and citizenship in Europe.

Sergey Lagodinsky is a lawyer, writer and Fellow of a new Think Tank, the “Stiftung Neue Verantwortung”. He studied law in Germany before he did his Master in Public Administration at Harvard University.

Forum Policy

Mark Terkessidis

Günter Piening, sociologist, was formerly the foreign representative of Saxony-Anhalt from 1996 to 2003 before starting to work for the Belrin Senate.

Ayça Polat, sociologist and intercultural pedagogue, has been a researcher on issues of migration and integration in Oldenburg and Toronto before she started working for the city of Oldenburg in 2008.

Culture Forum

Cilly Kugelmann, who studied in Israel and Germany, is program director of the Jewish Museum Berlin and Deputy Director.

Mely Kiyak, freelance journalist and author, has been trained at the University of Leipzig in the German Creative Writing Programme and has published books and articles on immigration in Germany.

The Berlin-based Portuguese artist Filipa César studied painting in Oporto and Lisbon and has been working in Germany for several years.

Fatema Mian is a radio and tv journalist journalist, script editor and works for the intercultural magazin “puzzle” of Bavarian television.

Wilfried N'Sondé, born in the Republic of Congo, raised in Paris, has lived for 16 years in Berlin. He is a political scientist, musician, social worker and author of the novel „Das Herz der Leopardenkinder“, (“The Heart of the Leopard Children”), which received two prestigious literary awards in France.

Final discussion

David Hollinger is the Preston Hotchkis Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. He is on the editorial board of two of the most recognized academic journals of Intellectual History: Modern Intellectual History and The Journal of the History of Ideas. His works include: ”Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism” and “Cosmopolitan and Solidarity” (2006) and “The Humanities and the Dynamics of Inclusion” (2006).

Further readings: “Obama, the Instability of Color Lines, and the Promise of a Postethnic Future”, “From Identity to Solidarity”

Biography Kien Nghi Ha