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Salon Series
The CGES Salon Series is the Center's signature outreach program to the Twin Cities' business and professional communities. Patterned on the French salon tradition, Salon Series events offer knowledge, intellectual stimulation, and conversation on a European topic. Each salon features a major invited speaker. Attendees come from outside and inside the university—constituencies that too often don't have a chance to interact closely. But all embrace the University as a place for knowledge and the exchange of ideas. This makes for exciting meetings. CGES Salons occur two to three times per semester, accommodate 60-90 guests, and are by invitation only. Once a year, CGES also hosts a high-profile international forum on an issue that is of significant common concern to Americans and Europeans.
Selected CGES Salons and international forums:
- The Sheep in the Bathtub: Multiculturalism and Religion in France and England. 04/14/08
guest speakers: Dr. Azouz Begag, former French Minister of Equal Opportunity; Dr. Patricia Lorcin, U of M. - Austrian Writer/Director Stefan Ruzowitzky and The Counterfeiters. 02/17/08
guest speaker: Stefan Ruzowitzky, screen writer and film director; U of M faculty respondent: Eric Weitz - Echoes of Violence: Letters from a War Reporter. 01/28/08
guest speakers: Carolin Emcke, author and reporter for Die Zeit; Sharon Schmickle, reporter minnpost.com - The EURO and the Dollar in a Globalized Economy. 11/26/07
guest speaker: Kurt Huebner, director, Institute for European Studies at the University of British Columbia; U of M faculty respondent: Chris Phelan - In Search of Father: Approaching a Troubled Legacy. 10/25/07
guest speaker: Konrad Jarausch, Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; U of M faculty respondent: Stephen Feinstein - Democratic Promise, Cultural Breakthroughs: Germany in the 1920s. 09/28/07
guest speaker: Eric Weitz, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Chair of History at the University of Minnesota; U of M faculty respondent: Kate Solomonson - *American & German Healthcare: Healthcare and Innovation—A Transatlantic Experts' Roundtable. 07/16/07
guest speakers: Ulla Schmidt (Minister of Health, Federal Republic of Germany); Hubert Humphrey, Jr. III (President AARP-Minnesota); Cal Ludeman (Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services); Frank B. Cerra, MD (Senior VP, Academic Health Center, U of M); Stephen Oesterle, MD (Senior VP, Medtronic); Andreas Barner, MD (Board of Managing Directors, Boehringer-Ingelheim GmbH). - In Pursuit of a Genuine "American Opera": The Musical Genius of Kurt Weill. 05/01/07
guest speakers and guest performers: Prof. David Walsh, Director, Opera Theatre, University of Minnesota School of Music; Prof. Alex Lubet, Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Minnesota School of Music; Julie Brousseau (soprano); Naomi Enter (mezzo-soprano); Vicki Fingalson (soprano); April Hanson (mezzo-soprano); Chandler Molbert (baritone); Joel Swearingen (baritone); Rachel Ware (soprano); Andrew Fleser (piano) - Germany's Presidency of the E.U. and the G8: Improvements in Transatlantic Relations? 03/21/07
guest speakers: Wolfgang Drautz, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany at Chicago; Prof. Jackson Janes, Executive Director of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. - The End of Ostalgia?—A Conversation with Writer/Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck on The Lives of Others. 02/16/07
guest speaker: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, screen writer and film director; U of M faculty respondent: Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus Gerhard Weiss - Making Minnesota Home: Sweet Land and the Immigrant Experience. 11/13/06
guest speaker: Ali Selim, film director; U of M faculty respondent: Prof. Emeritus Hy Berman - Germany/Europe and the United States: Reconfiguring Relations. 10/09/06
guest speakers: Karsten D. Voigt, Coordinator of German-American Cooperation, Foreign Office, Federal Republic of Germany; Dr. Klaus Friedrich, former chief economic advisor, Dresdner Bank. Co-sponsored with American Council on Germany - *American & German Healthcare: Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals—A Transatlantic Experts' Roundtable. 06/05/06
guest speaker: Ulla Schmidt (Minister of Health, Federal Republic of Germany) - Selling Democracy: Films of the Marshall Plan, 1948-1953—A Conversation with curator and director Sandra Schulberg. 04/03/06
guest speaker: Sandra Schulberg. U of M faculty respondent: Prof. Lary May - Ernestine Schlant Bradley: A German Childhood, An American Life. 02/15/06
guest speaker: Ernestine Schlant Bradley; U of M faculty respondent: Prof. Donna Gabaccia - Literatur schreiben fuer Kinder und Jugendliche: Ein Gespraech mit der Autorin Karin Guendisch. 11/07/05
guest speaker: Karin Guendisch; U of M moderator: Dr. Sabine Engel - Challenges to the European Union and the Transformation of the Transatlantic Partnership: A German View. 10/18/05
guest speaker: Peter Gottwald (Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Washington). Co-sponsored with American Council on Germany - Germany's 2005 General Election: Who Won and Why? 09/28/05
guest speakers: Dieter Roth (Forschungsgruppe Wahlen) and Dieter Dettke (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) - *Healthcare Systems for the 21st Century: A German-American Discussion of Best Practices and Major Challenges. 06/10/05
guest speakers: Ulrich Dietz (German Ministry of Health and Social Security), Dr. Frank B. Cerra (Senior Vice President, U of M Academic Health Center), Dianne Mandernach (Commissioner of Health, Minnesota Department of Health), Dr. James K. Ehlen (Halleland Health Consulting); U of M moderator: Prof. Eric Weitz - Talk about Trade: Opportunities and Pitfalls of Economic Liberalization. 04/21/05
guest speakers: Prof. Timothy Kehoe (U of M; Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis) and Prof. Eric Sheppard (U of M) - Trans-Atlantic Relations at the Beginning of the New Bush Administration. 02/18/05
guest speaker: Ambassador Reinhard Bettzuege; U of M respondent: Prof. W. Phillips Shively - Jazz on the River: An Evening of Music and Conversation on Jazz in the Tradition of Anti-Traditionalist Django Reinhardt. 12/14/04
guest musicians and speakers: Sam Miltich & The Clearwater Hot Club, Dr. Mirjana Lausevic (U of M), Prof. Alex Lubet (U of M), and Michael Dregni (author of Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend) - Citizenship and Migration in Germany and Europe: Histories and Futures. 10/22/04
guest speakers: Prof. David Abraham (University of Miami Law School), and Prof. John Torpey (University of British Columbia); U of M respondent: Prof. Helga Leitner - *The Public Research University for the 21st Century: Is the American System a Model? 08/23/04
special forum organized for members of the Congressional Study Group on Germany and their counterparts from the German Bundestag
guest speakers: Rep. Gil Gutknecht, Hans-Ulrich Klose (MdB), Prof. Steven Rosenstone (Dean, College of Liberal Arts, U of M), Dr. Frank B. Cerra (Senior Vice President, U of M Academic Health Center) - Global Democracy and French Singularity. 05/7/04
guest speaker: Prof. Richard Wolin (CUNY Graduate Center) - The E.U. Constitution. 01/20/04
guest speakers: Prof. Ingeborg Toemmel (University of Osnabrueck), and Prof. Michael Gehler (University of Innsbruck); U of M respondent: Dr. Werner Reutter - The Spirit of the Berlin Republic. 10/20/03
guest speakers: Dr. Dieter Dettke (Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Washington), Prof. Kurt Huebner (York University), Prof. Ton Nijhuis (University of Amsterdam)
* asterisks mark CGES annual international forum events. These high-profile events were recorded for broadcast as 60-minute public television specials. DVDs of various programs are available upon request.