German department hosts media symposium

The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in Arts & Sciences is organizing the 19th annual St. Louis Symposium on German Literature and Culture. “Consuming News: Newspapers and Print Culture in Early Modern Europe (1500-1800)” will be held April 3-5.

“We are thrilled to, once again, organize the German department’s biennial International Symposium on German Literature and Culture,” said Gerhild S. Williams, Ph.D., the Barbara Schaps Thomas & David M. Thomas Professor in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences and associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.

“This conference will highlight the role of early modern print media by investigating what was considered news and how it was used. The role of the media is a topic very much in the news even today. By discussing the evolution and the impact of newspapers and other early modern print media, the symposium will shed light on today’s media practices and how news is presented.”

The symposium, which will focus on the uses and the evolution of news reports in periodical and fictional literature, will examine how such reports changed forms, venues and audiences; how cultures constructed as well as interpreted historical events with the help of print media; and how history, memory and public discourse work together.

The symposium is free and open to the public. For a complete schedule, visit artsci.wustl.edu/~sym2008/index.html.