{"id":939,"date":"2026-10-05T15:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/?p=939"},"modified":"2026-10-05T15:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:52:19","slug":"pitches-for-feature-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/pitches-for-feature-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitches for Feature Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>3 pitches:<\/b><b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Holocaust Memory and the Rise of the AfD<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The relationship between German memory culture and anti-migrant sentiment has been the focus of sociologists for some time, and I now turn journalistic attention to the subject as the AfD and strands of its racist ideology become more popular. White, right-wing Germans, who commit the majority of antisemitic offenses in the country, primarily take two main approaches to memory culture: 1) they reject it or 2) they proclaim that sufficient atonement for the Nazi atrocities has already occurred, and any antisemitism lingering in the country has actually been \u201cimported\u201d by migrants. Migrants have become scapegoats for anti-semitism, just as Jews became the Nazis\u2019 scapegoats for the ills of the day. I aim to investigate this symmetry. I am primarily interested in investigating how those who have accepted German guilt for the Holocaust can still support the AfD or espouse Nazi-adjacent beliefs about migrants. There is a sort of moral blindspot here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For a scholarly perspective, I\u2019d be delighted to interview Susan Neiman, who studies evil, German self-consciousness, and the Holocaust (and was previously interviewed for a memory culture piece in this class). Tracking down sources to speak on their support for AfD, coupled with their views on memory culture, will be the primary challenge in researching this piece.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The \u201cDistrict Mothers\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Somewhat distinct yet connected to the memory culture idea, I am interested in pursuing a project on the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stadtteilm\u00fctter <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(\u201cdistrict mothers\u201d)<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">an organization of migrant women who act as mentors to newer arrivals in their neighborhoods. Memory scholar Michael Rothberg has <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1080\/13534645.2011.605576\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">written about<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> these women hosting seminars and directing documentaries about the Holocaust and Nazism. It has led me to be interested in how and why newcomers invest in memory culture, and the relationship between memory culture and citizenship.<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The migrant comedy scene in Berlin<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cHumor is just truth, only faster!\u201d declared comedian Gilda Radner. There is perhaps no better window into the zeitgeist than comedy: it reflects the fears and absurdities of the cultural\/ political moment. I am interested in locating migrant comics in Berlin and evaluating the function\/evolving value of humor in an era of increasing racism, uncertainty, and violence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I\u2019ve come across several prominent migrant comics whose work is particularly socio-politically engaged. Enissa Amani, a refugee from Tehran, is a comedian and activist based in Frankfurt. She was the first European woman to have an international Netflix special in 2018, and she uses her platform to criticize racism and intolerance in Germany. Kinan Al is a Syrian-born stand-up whose work tackles Arab identity. Serdar Somuncu, from Turkey, is a provocative and controversial comic whose upcoming show in Berlin reportedly \u201cdismantles everything that considers itself sacrosanct: political correctness, outrage culture, moral arrogance \u2013 and you.\u201d Then there\u2019s RebelComedy, a German stand-up troupe composed completely of comedians from migrant backgrounds. Their routines poke fun and respond to current events.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These are all relatively big names in Berlin\u2013\u00a0so I\u2019m not certain I\u2019ll be able to interview them. I\u2019m in the process of reaching out now. Otherwise, there are weekly (English-language) shows at Cosmic Comedy Club Berlin, Comedy Caf\u00e9 Berlin, and other venues, where I can find sources and discern the problems of the day via satire. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3 pitches: Holocaust Memory and the Rise of the AfD The relationship between German memory culture and anti-migrant sentiment has been the focus of sociologists for some time, and I now turn journalistic attention to the subject as the AfD and strands of its racist ideology become more popular. White, right-wing Germans, who commit the<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/pitches-for-feature-story\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5380,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}