Claiming the Record: Black German Lives, Adoption, and the Work of Memory
BGHRA TENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
February 18–20, 2027 · Rutgers University–Camden
The Black German Heritage & Research Association in Africana Studies at Rutgers University–Camden invites scholars, artists, adoptees, educators, students, archivists, families, and community members to our tenth international conference, Claiming the Record: Black German Lives, Adoption, and the Work of Memory.
Who creates the record of Black German life—and whose voices shape how it is remembered? Through scholarship, testimony, literature, performance, film, and conversation, we will explore how Black Germans and their diasporic communities preserve their histories, interpret their experiences, and make new connections across generations and borders.
This gathering marks BGHRA’s tenth international conference and celebrates A Special Collection on Black German and Adoption Studies at the Paul Robeson Library. Bringing community knowledge into conversation with institutional archives, we will consider adoption and its afterlives, family and belonging, citizenship, representation, and the responsibilities of remembering.
Keynotes and panels will connect historical inquiry with contemporary Black German cultural life. Planned activities include opportunities for young learners to engage with artists, authors, and scholars, alongside conversations for educators and the wider community. A Zoom participation option is planned; the program and registration details will follow.
Celebrating a Lasting Home for Black German Histories
A Special Collection on Black German and Adoption Studies
The 2027 conference celebrates this new resource at the Paul Robeson Library. Books, journals, and films will offer a foundation for research and teaching, alongside BGHRA’s growing digital archive of conference presentations, interviews, and community conversations.
Together, these resources help carry Black German histories into future classrooms, scholarship, and public memory. Details of the conference library visit and celebration will follow.
Call for proposals: Proposals are due November 15, 2026. Decisions will be communicated December 15, 2026. Read the full 2027 Call for Proposals, including submission guidelines and a downloadable PDF.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Malick Bauer · FES Keynote
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Keynote
Malick Bauer is a German actor known internationally for his leading role as Samuel Meffire in the Grimme Award-winning series Sam – A Saxon. His work spans television, cinema, and theatre, including the Volksbühne Berlin and Berliner Ensemble.
Watch Malick in Sam – A Saxon
Before joining us at the conference, discover Bauer’s acclaimed portrayal of Samuel Meffire. Watch the seven-part series now on Hulu, including the English-dubbed version.
WATCH NOW ON HULU · ENGLISH DUB
Official trailer courtesy of Hulu. Watch the trailer on YouTube.
His recent film work includes Wunderschöner and The Physician II (Der Medicus II, 2025), directed by Philipp Stölzl. In the English-language historical drama, Bauer plays Abu alongside Tom Payne, Emily Cox, Áine Rose Daly, Liam Cunningham, and Aidan Gillen.
A returning BGHRA keynote speaker, Bauer brings students and audiences into conversation about Black German representation, storytelling, and the possibilities of a life in the arts.
Portrait: Pascal Bünning.
The Physician II: official English information · Professional biography
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Keynote
Dr. Azziza B. Malanda · Virtual Keynote
Historian Dr. Azziza B. Malanda researches the lives and memories of Black Germans who grew up in institutional care after the Second World War. Her book ÜberLebenswege: Erinnerungen und Erfahrungen Schwarzer Deutscher der Nachkriegsgeneration (2024) centers their own accounts of childhood, relationships, racism, and survival.
Her work brings oral history into conversations about childhood, public memory, and the preservation of Black German life stories. She will participate virtually.
Portrait source: Kampnagel, “Witnessing the Invisible” event page.
Constance Jones Simmons
Constance Jones Simmons is a German-born American journalist whose reporting connects audiences across the Atlantic. Born in Stuttgart to a German mother and an African American father, she brings a personal understanding of military childhoods, cultural identity, and belonging.
A BGHRA keynote speaker in 2025, she explored German-American connections through her reporting around the NFL games in Frankfurt. Her work offers students and community members a perspective on journalism as a way to make complex identities and shared histories visible.
Alice Hasters
Alice Hasters is a German author, journalist, and cultural critic whose work explores racism, identity, and social justice. Her books include Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen, aber wissen sollten and Identitätskrise.
She co-founded the podcast Feuer & Brot with Maximiliane Häcke and has worked with Tagesschau, RBB, and Deutschlandfunk. Her writing and public conversations connect everyday experience with larger questions about how societies understand race, power, and belonging.
Lena Whooo
Lena Whooo is an Afro-German actor, author, and activist whose work connects performance, writing, and community. Their creative practice includes Write to Heal, a journaling workshop for QTIBIPOC, and curatorial work on The Black Gaze at Interfilm.
Their debut book un-fulfilled (2022) explores identity and resistance. Returning after their 2026 BGHRA keynote, Lena brings an interdisciplinary perspective on self-expression, visibility, and belonging.
FILM · U.S. Exclusive Premiere: The Secret of the Stolen Mask
U.S. Exclusive Premiere at BGHRA 2027
The Secret of the Stolen Mask
Das Geheimnis der gestohlenen Maske
Directed by Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye · Germany · 2026
German theatrical release: October 29, 2026
Featuring keynote speaker Malick Bauer as Marco Salzer, this family adventure brings colonial history, cultural heritage, and questions of belonging into a contemporary mystery. When eleven-year-old Johanna’s grandfather Kito visits from Tanzania, he recognizes a museum mask he believes was taken from his village during the colonial era. After the mask disappears and Kito falls under suspicion, Johanna and her friends Sweta and Anton set out to uncover the truth.
Join us at the conference for the film’s U.S. Exclusive Premiere. Screening time and further program details will follow.
CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS
Dr. Rosemarie Peña
Founder and President
Rosemarie Peña, Ph.D., is a scholar of Black German Studies, transnational adoption, childhood, kinship, and diaspora. She is founder and president of BGHRA, based in Africana Studies at Rutgers University–Camden. A Black German transnational adoptee, she connects her lived experience with scholarship, archival recovery, and public humanities. Her work advances adoptee narratives, citizenship, belonging, and the Special Collection on Black German and Adoption Studies at the Paul Robeson Library.
Dr. Sonya Donaldson
Executive Director of Media & Archives
Sonya Donaldson is an Assistant Professor of African-American Studies at Colby College. A former journalist and technology editor, she brings experience in storytelling, media, digital humanities, and public-facing scholarship to BGHRA’s archival work. Her research and teaching encompass Black German Studies, Black diaspora studies, African American literature, autobiography and memoir, Black digital cultures, and the relationship between race and technology. She leads the documentation, organization, preservation, and public interpretation of BGHRA’s audiovisual record.
Dr. Emily Frazier-Rath
Executive Director of Education Initiatives
Emily Frazier-Rath is a scholar, educator, editor, and indexer with a Ph.D. in German Studies and additional training in feminist studies, migration, language learning, and cultural studies. She taught German Studies at Davidson College and has developed courses and public programs addressing Black German art, identity, resistance, gender, migration, and contemporary German culture. Her scholarship includes work on Black German FLINTA* community, identity, and connection. At BGHRA, she develops educator and student engagement, teaching initiatives, workshops, and partnerships that bring the diversity of the German-speaking world into classrooms.
Elisabeth Clarke-Hasters
Executive Director of Arts & Culture
Elisabeth Clarke-Hasters is a Black German actor and professionally trained dancer whose career spans film, television, theater, and international performance. Her dance background includes the Dance Theatre of Harlem and work with Pina Bausch and Tanztheater Wuppertal. Her screen work includes Sam – A Saxon, among other German and international productions. Clarke-Hasters brings an artist’s perspective to BGHRA’s cultural programming and leads work that recognizes performance, film, movement, and creative practice as essential forms of Black German knowledge and memory.
Dr. Keith Michael Green
Executive Director of Events & Publications
Keith Michael Green is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Africana Studies Program at Rutgers University–Camden. His research and teaching include African American literature, nineteenth-century American literature, autobiography, captivity narratives, multilingualism, Afro-Cuban culture, speculative fiction, and disability studies. His books include Bound to Respect and, as co-editor, Diverse Unfreedoms. Green helps connect BGHRA’s work to Rutgers–Camden and guides conference planning, campus engagement, publications, and the association’s broader public-humanities collaborations.
PD Dr. Silke Hackenesch
Executive Director of International Relations
Silke Hackenesch is an Akademische Rätin in the Department of History at the University of Cologne. Her research spans American cultural history, critical race studies, childhood studies, critical adoption studies, Black American history, and Black diaspora studies. She is the editor of Adoption across Race and Nation: US Histories and Legacies and researches the adoption of Black German children within the wider histories of family, race, civil rights, social welfare, citizenship, and the Cold War. Hackenesch strengthens BGHRA’s relationships in Germany and Europe and supports its international scholarly, institutional, and community partnerships.
Christine Webb · Regional Coordinator
Following a decades-long career as a public school teacher, mentor, and teacher leader in Southern New Jersey, Christine Webb works as an educational consultant, helping world language teachers strengthen communication in their classrooms and use tools that reduce teacher workload.
She has presented at local, regional, and national conferences, including AATG, FLENJ, NECTFL, and ACTFL. As a volunteer SPARK for German Innovator, she supports German language advocacy through the Goethe-Institut. She teaches adults at the German Society of Pennsylvania and serves on its Language Committee.
Through her work with the German Society and South Jersey AATG, Christine connects students, teachers, and community partners with the BGHRA conference. She is especially proud of bringing students from South Jersey schools together for annual German Language Days.
Biography and photograph supplied by Christine Webb.
CONFERENCE PARTNERS
With gratitude to our partners, whose collaboration helps bring Black German scholarship, culture, and community into conversation across generations and borders.
Rutgers University–Camden
Africana Studies at Rutgers–Camden
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Stenner Law
The German Society of PennsylvaniaRutgers–Camden · World Languages and Cultures
Rutgers–New Brunswick · German, Russian, and East European Languages and LiteraturesRutgers–Camden · Division of Impact and Community Engagement (DICE)Rutgers–Camden · Department of Childhood Studies
South Jersey AATG (SJAATG)