Sophie Lorenz, M.A.
Curt Engelhorn Chair in American History
Research Associate
Contact:
E-Mail: sophie.lorenz@outlook.com
CV:
2010-2016
Research Associate at the Curt Engelhorn Chair in American History, History Department
September 2011 – March 2012
Doctoral Fellow in the History of African Americans and Germans/Germany, German Historical Institute (GHI), Washington D.C.
July 2009
Magister Artium (Heidelberg University)
Topic of the master thesis: „Between Race War and Class Struggle: Black Power, the Student Protest Movement and Black Panther Solidarity in West Germany during the 1960s and 1970s“
2007-2010
Coordination of the HCA doctoral conference HCA Spring Academy – American History, Politics & Culture
2004-2010
Student assistant, Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA)
2003-2009
Studies in History, Political Science and Public Law at Heidelberg University
Research Interests:
- Transnational History
- Cold War Cultures
- 20th Century German and American History
Teaching:
- Summer Term 2010: "The Sixties’ Rebellion: ‚1968’ in Transatlantic Perspective"
- Summer Term 2011: "Commies, Containment und Detente: The United States during the Cold War era, 1945-1963"
- Summer Term 2012: "From Camelot to Watergate: American Politics, Society and Culture from 1961 to 1973"
- Summer Term 2013: "Sisters in the Struggle: Women in the African-American Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to Angela Davis"
- Summer Term 2014: "Occupation, Fraternization, Americanization? The U.S. Military in Germany from 1945 to the Present"
- Summer Term 2016: "From Rosa Parks to Angela Davis. Women in the African-American Civil Rights Movement."
Fellowships:
- Fellowship in the History of African Americans and Germans/Germany, Deutsches Historisches Institut Washington D.C. (2011/2012)
- Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) Diversity and International Outreach Fellowship (2011)
- Bosch Archival Seminar for Young Historians Fellowship (2010)
Dissertation Project:
"Weil ihre Haut schwarz und ihr Herz rot ist‘: Die DDR und Angela Davis, 1965-1975"
On October 13, 1970 Angela Davis was arrested and put on trial for being an accomplice to homicide. After that the German Democratic Republic (GDR) started a wide-ranging state-sponsored solidarity program for Angela Davis through which Davis became an East German heroine of the “Other America”. This dissertation tracks the various expressions of support for Angela Davis in the GDR in particular and the crossings between the GDR and black Americans in general – both in terms of specific personal interactions and cultural perceptions. Thereby, despite the ostensible political isolation of the GDR by the Iron Curtain dividing East and West, a new dimension of Cold War relations between the U.S.A. and the GDR will become visible. At the same time, the study will add a new perspective to the international history of the black freedom movement.
Publications:
Together with Andreas Riffel: Tagungsbericht Toward an International History of Lynching. 04.06.2010-06.06.2010, Heidelberg, in: H-Soz-u-Kult, 24.07.2010, <http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=3210>; auch erschienen in AHF-Information, 2010, Nr. 150, <http://www.ahf-muenchen.de/Tagungsberichte/Berichte/pdf/2010/150-10.pdf>.
„'Heldin des anderen Amerikas'. Die DDR-Solidaritätsbewegung für Angela Davis, 1970–1973", in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History, Jahrgang/Volume 10 (2013), Heft/Issue 1, (Druckausgabe: S. 38-60) <http://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/16126041-Lorenz-1-2013>.
„Konstruktionen einer Emotionskultur des Kalten Krieges: Das Beispiel der DDR-Solidaritätskampagne für Angela Davis, 1970-1972“, in: David Eugster und Sibylle Marti (Hg.), Das Imaginäre des Kalten Krieges. Beiträge zu einer Wissens- und Kulturgeschichte des Ost-West-Konfliktes in Europa, Essen: Klartext 2015, S. 213-242.
„‘Schwarze Schwester Angela‘: Rot-Schwarze Verbundenheitsvorstellungen und die DDR-Solidaritätskampagne für Angela Davis“, in: Frank Bösch, Caroline Moine und Stefanie Senger (Hg.), Internationale Solidarität. Globales Engagement in der Bundesrepublik und der DDR, Göttingen September 2018.
„Heroine of the other America: the East German solidarity movement in support of Angela Davis, 1970-73“, in: Chen Jian, Martin Klimke, Masha Kirasirova, Mary Nolan, Marilyn Young, Joanna Waley-Cohen (Hg.), The Routledge Handbook of the Global Sixties: Between Protest and Nation-Building, New York 2018, S.548-563.
Project Affiliation:
The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American G.I.s, and Germany
