Dear Friends of Yale:

we probably all wait nervously for November 4th and for the great challenges it will bring regardless of outcome. Meanwhile the social distancing will soon be back to spring levels. The challenges the Covid Crisis brings for the Yale Club are among the topics addressed in the interview with our President Laura Sudhaus, which also serves as a introduction after her acceptance of this new responsibility.

Fortunately all the challenges of our times do not keep Bartley Grosserichter from organizing wonderful events for Dialogues on Democracy by attracting fascinating thinkers to the forum. Our next guest, Arne Westad, will even come to Munich (fingers crossed) and speak live at the newly opened home of Amerika Haus (fingers crossed). There will of course be an online event as well so that all of you can join even if you are outside of Munich ... or in case we have a lockdown.

In other good news: We can introduce the 2020 Yale BAA fellow: Dr. Nathalie Aghoro. Her project is fascinating and we are looking forward to her book.

Stay safe, healthy and hope to see or "see" you at the Westad Event.

Alexander

Interview with the President of Yale Club Germany Laura Sudhaus

How have you experienced the changes to Club life in the times of Corona?

I've been impressed by the Club's resilience in the face of Corona. We were able to hold our Annual Meeting on March 7 just as parts of Europe were locking down. Already a week later the Alley Cats had to cancel their concert at Schloss Wartin. Amazingly, our vice president Bartley Grosserichter and her Dialogues on Democracy team in Munich were able to transition their in-person lectures to online events. This allowed all Yale Club members to attend our Munich lecture series from afar and hear David Frum (June 25), Nina Jankowicz (July 20), and Jan-Werner Müller (Sept. 21).
Although Lena Gotteswinter, our scholarship recipient from Munich, was able to finish her fellowship with Professor Blight (history) in February as scheduled, Johanna Höhs, our recipient from Heidelberg, had planned on working with Professor Bargh (psychology) until May and had to leave in March without conducting her final study.
In September we had an evening of normalcy when the Frankfurt group met outdoors at a Mexican restaurant for their Stammtisch (including three new faces). With the rising number of cases, however, all sense of normalcy has once again disappeared, and our Alumni Schools Committee (ASC) coordinator, Rebecca Haltzel-Haas, will soon begin scheduling applicants' virtual interviews with alumni. If you haven't already signed up to interview applicants remotely, please help by going to the ASC website and doing so: https://asc.yale.edu/ Although online events and interviews are not ideal, they are the next best thing!

What does the Yale Club Germany mean to you?

The meaning of the YCG has evolved for me over the years. When I first moved to Germany in 1992, the Club provided an opportunity for me to meet with lively, like-minded souls and stay in touch with the best of Yale. I had been almost completely immersed in German society before receiving a postcard from the then-president David Ilten '60 inviting me to a Frankfurt Stammtisch. I appreciated the contact with an English-speaking community whose members were of all ages and interests (doctors, lawyers, chemists, businesspeople, psychotherapists). Those were pre-Internet days and attending the generally small gatherings felt a bit like home; English was spoken and we had our Yale-related memories in common. I left every Stammtisch having learned something new, and the older alumni were like proxy relatives during a time when even phone calls to the US cost a fortune. It was a treat attending the occasional Yale singing group performance or Yale professor's talk.
As president for the past year, I've been aware that the purpose of the Club is not just social, but to support students from Germany. The Yale Club e.V.—the smaller administrative arm of Germany's alumni network—allows residents in Germany to make their Yale-related donations tax-deductible. As mentioned in last month's newsletter, it has been a pleasure to see how last year we were able to support two talented German graduate students during their fellowships at Yale. The tax-deductible status of the club has also allowed the Munich chapter to expand its lecture series, providing the opportunity not just for Yale alumni to hear Yale professors and world-renowned alumni speak but for the general public as well.

What is, or perhaps what should be, its purpose.

I believe the three purposes stated in the Yale Club's Constitution continue to be admirable and should be supported as much as possible: 1) to support students from Germany at Yale 2) to offer Yale-affiliated lectures and events leading to international exchange and 3) to support students and instructors from Yale when they are in Germany temporarily.

David’s passing away was a big loss for the Yale community in Germany. What is the most vivid memory of him?

My most vivid memory of David was probably the time we met at my first Stammtisch. He had a big head of very curly hair, wore a blazer and Yale tie, and was the picture of an absent-minded chemistry professor (although he was neither absent-minded nor a professor). He immediately made me feel very welcome, putting out his hand and introducing me to the others at the table. Within minutes we realized that he and my father were in the same Yale class at Yale and that his son in high school was the same age as my youngest brother. David asked if perhaps his son could stay with my family and go to high school a few weeks during his summer break. With that, a family exchange program was set in motion.
That's how David was—friendly and networking at all times, not for glory but because he saw connections that needed to be made! Although the first time we met is my most vivid memory, something else I'll never forget about him is how he was so inclusive. He would meet random people on the train, find some connection to the Yale Club, and soon we'd have informal "honorary members" at our Stammtisch, some even giving lectures on our behalf or participating in our Yale Day of Service activities.

What are the most pressing challenges for the club at the moment? What can Yalies in Germany do to help?

The most pressing challenge for the Yale Club of Germany has been and still is that there is not one hub of Yalies in the country as there is in England (London) or France (Paris). Therefore, when a Yalie takes the initiative to offer an event, it is sometimes too far away for all of us to gather. In some cities, such as Düsseldorf or Heidelberg, the number of Yalies are too small even for a Stammtisch to take place. Yalies can help by occasionally offering a small gathering not requiring too much organization (e.g., just posting a get-together on FB) to see if there are any other Yalies out there. Making the effort to attend an event in one of the bigger cities would also be a way of narrowing the distance. The second challenge to the Club will soon be its ability to continue offering scholarships and supporting lectures. Yalies in Germany could make even very small donations to the Yale Club to keep the German-New Haven exchange in motion.

Laura (right) with Bartley Grosserichter (left) and Lena Gotteswinter (Middle).

AN EVENING WITH PROF. ARNE WESTAD

The Sources of Chinese Conduct

Are Washington and Beijing Fighting a New Cold War?

More than 70 years after George Kennan wrote his famous “Long Telegram” laying out the containment strategy that would define U.S. policy until the end of the Cold War, the United States and its allies again face a communist rival that views the United States as an adversary and is seeking regional dominance and global influence: China. What are the parallels between China today and the Soviet Union of old? What are the differences?

Prof. Westad will explore this and the effect that the past four years of Trump administration policy has had on relationships, not only with China but also with the United States’ allies around the world. Has China outsmarted the U.S.? How can the international system reform and respond to this challenge? Using his September/October 2019 Foreign Affairs article as a starting point, Professor Westad will offer insight and analyses on what the U.S.-China policy is - and what it should be.

Odd Arne Westad is the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs and has just been named the Director of International Security Studies at Yale, a position he will assume in July 2021. He is the author of The Cold War: A World History. Originally from Ålesund on the Norwegian coast, he studied history, philosophy, and modern languages in Oslo before doing a graduate degree in U.S./international history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Westad has published 16 books, most of which deal with 20th century Asian and global history. Westad joined the faculty at Yale after teaching at the London School of Economics (LSE), where he was School Professor of International History, and at Harvard University, where he was the S.T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations. At Yale, he teaches in the History Department and at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Westad is a fellow of the British Academy and of several other national academies, a visiting professor at Peking University, and a research associate of the Harvard Fairbank Center.

The lecture takes place as a hybrid event – virtually and on site at Amerikahaus. Please be advised that changes may occur – even on short notice.

Click here for the YouTube livestream, no registration necessary: https://youtu.be/07lp1DgHs4k

For your personal participation at Amerikahaus you must register due to COVID-19 regulations and limited capacity. Check the Site of the Amerikahaus.

2020 Yale BAA Fellow: Dr. Nathalie Aghoro

Nathalie Aghoro is an assistant professor of North American Literary and Cultural Studies at the Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt with an interest in auditory culture, postmodern and contemporary literature, media theory, and social justice. Her book Sounding the Novel: Voice in Twenty-First Century American Fiction (Universitätsverlag Winter, 2018) examines the sonic mediality of voice in the works of Richard Powers, Karen Tei Yamashita, Jennifer Egan, and Jonathan Safran Foer. She is the co-editor of the 2017 JCDE special issue on Theatre and Mobility (with Kerstin Schmidt) and her publications include essays on postmodern novels, contemporary literature, and Afrofuturism in music. Her current book project is called Common Grounds: Civil Society, Solidarity, and Shared Places in Cultural Practices.

Her book project, "Common Grounds: Civil Society, Solidarity, and Shared Places in Cultural Practices" explores how cultural and artistic practices engage with civic agency and solidarity in public spaces and other sites of encounter. The project focuses on site-specific cultural interventions such as collective performances, written exchange, muralist projects, and communal architectures that seek to foster solidarity and establish inclusive notions of citizenship in the aftermath of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery in the United States.

The Yale Club of Germany e.V.

• http://www.yaleclub.de

• For up-to-date event information, join our Facebook group.

If you have event ideas, would like to get involved in club activites, let us know!

Interviews

The Yale Club is always looking for alumni to interview local high-school students who are applying to Yale College. If you would like to help out or learn more, please contact our ASC director, Rebecca Haltzel-Haas.

Yale Book Award

If you interested in presenting the Yale Book Award at a high school in your area, please contact the club board.

Contributions

The Club does not assess dues, but asks its members to make an modest annual contribution (€20 suggested, but any amount is welcome) to help fund Club activities such as the Yale Book Award.

To contribute, please arrange a bank transfer (Überweisung) to the following account and be sure to include your email address so we can send you your tax-deductible donation receipt:

Bank (Kreditinstitut des Begünstigten): n26 Bank
Payee (Begünstigter): Hans Christian Siller
IBAN: DE76 1001 1001 2621 3219 84
BIC (SWIFT): NTSBDEB1XXX

For any question regarding contributions, please contact our Treasurer, Hans Christian Siller.

Club Officers

PRESIDENT

Laura Sprague Sudhaus (Yale College ’88)
laura.sprague@aya.yale.edu

TREASURER

Hans Christian Siller (GSAS ’12)
chris.siller@aya.yale.edu

SECRETARY

Bartley Grosserichter (Yale College ’88)
bgrosserichter@aya.yale.edu

ALUMNI SCHOOLS COMMITTEE

Rebecca Haltzel-Haas (Yale College ’90)
haltzel-haas@aya.yale.edu

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

Alexander Schmitt-Glaeser (LAW '89)
a.schmitt-glaeser@gmx.net

DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

David Syverson (DIV '97)
egga_david@yahoo.com