The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Deutsches Haus at NYU present a reading by Joyce Mushaben from her new book, “Becoming the World’s Most Powerful Woman: Angela Merkel and the Transformation of United Germany,” followed by a conversation between her and Christian Martin, the current Max Weber Chair in German and European Studies at New York University.
Despite the ostensible setback witnessed during the 2017 Bundestag elections, the fact remains that over the last twelve years, Angela Merkel has redefined not only the way Germans see themselves but also the way that politicians world-wide perceive women in power. Lacking a strong state constituency and years of party socialization that usually propel someone to national power, this East German daughter of a Protestant pastor was forced to deploy her own life experiences to master the ins and out of “contentious democracy,” allowing her to cultivate a unique set of leadership skills. Her pragmatic, data-driven approach to politics – grounded in a commitment to freedom, human rights, and personal responsibility – has produced extraordinary paradigm shifts in many national policies in the wake of major European crises. Mushaben provides an overview of Merkel’s leadership performance across five key domains, locating them within the broader context of German policies before and after unification. She also analyzes personal socialization factors that have contributed to the Chancellor’s hard-earned status as the World’s Most Powerful Woman, ten times over, based on the premise that gender still “matters” more than 25 years after unification.
Joyce Marie Mushaben is a Curators’ Professor of Comparative Politics and former Director of the Institute for Women’s & Gender Studies (2002-2005) at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Fluent in German, her teaching centers on comparative public policy, the European Union, women’s leadership, citizenship, immigration, mega-cities and sustainability issues. Her research covers new social movements, youth protest, German unification and identities, gender, ethnicity and welfare issues, EU migration and integration studies. Her books/monographs include Identity without a Hinterland? Continuity and Change in National Consciousness in the German Democratic Republic, 1949-1989 (1993); From Post-War to Post-Wall Generations: Changing Attitudes towards the National Question and NATO in the Federal Republic of Germany (1998); The Changing Faces of Citizenship: Integration and Mobilization among Ethnic Minorities in Germany (2008); and, Gendering the European Union: New Responses to Old Democratic Deficits (co-edited with Gabriele Abels, 2012). Her latest book focuses on Becoming Madam Chancellor: Angela Merkel and the Berlin Republic (forthcoming 2016). Her articles have appeared in World Politics, Polity, West European Politics, German Politics, German Politics & Society, the Journal of Peace Research, Democratization, Politics & Religion, Citizenship Studies, Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies, German Law Review and Femina Politica. A past president of the German Studies Association (USA), she has also served on the Executive Boards of the International Association for the Study of German Politics and the German Studies Association, as well as on selection committees for Fulbright, the German Academic Exchange Service and the American Council of Learned Societies. She is a current Editorial Board member for German Politics & Society, German Politics and Femina Politica. Having received a 1999 Trailblazer Award and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research Creativity in 2007, Mushaben is a three-time Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, a former Ford Foundation Fellow, German Marshall Fund grantee and DAAD recipient. She has held guest-scholar posts at the Academy for Social Sciences (GDR), the Center for Youth Research (GDR), the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Research (Berlin). She was named the first Research Associate in the BMW Center for German & European Studies at Georgetown University, has enjoyed Visiting Professorships at the Ohio State University, Berlin’s Humboldt University, the Missouri-London Program and at the Universities of Erfurt, Stuttgart and Tübingen (Germany) , inter alia. Affiliated with the American Institute for Contemporary German Politics (Washington D.C.) and a designated Fulbright Specialist, she is commonly known as “Dr. J.”
Dr. Christian Martin is a professor of political science at the University of Kiel, Germany. He currently holds the Max Weber Chair in German and European Studies at New York University. Martin has studied political science at the University of Konstanz and holds a doctorate from there (2002). Martin was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz and at the Max-Planck-Institute in Jena (2003-2004). He was an assistant professor at the University of Hamburg (2004-2008) and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Northwestern University (2008-2011). Martin’s research interests focus on the political conditions and consequences of globalization and regional integration. He has published on the effects of globalization for electoral participation and, most recently, on the incentive to adopt more proportional voting systems in a highly globalized environment. His current research project is on backlashes against globalization and EU integration.
Events at Deutsches Haus are free and open to the public. If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to [email protected]. As space at Deutsches Haus is limited, please arrive ten minutes prior to the event to ensure you get a good seat. Thank you!
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