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Interviews

A selection of (media) interviews I gave on my research topics:

  • Interview with Marvin Graevert, T-Online.de, about Nazi ideology in Indianthusiasm, and the use of swastika symbols among Native people, “Historiker im Interview: Wie kam das Hakenkreuz auf die Figur im Karl-May-Museum?“, in T-Online.de, 13 March 2023.
  • Interview with Markus Harmann to discuss how stereotypes about Native Americans affected Indigenous soldiers in World War II. “Als die Irokesen Hitler den Krieg erklärten”, in Der Prignitzer, 16 Sep 2022.
  • Short Interview with Pia Uffelmann (MDR Kulturnachrichten), for UN International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (9 August 2022), on awareness in the German populace about pressing issues Indigenous communities face today, and how the German public continues/addresses/deconstructs stereotypes about Indigenous peoples.
  • Expert interview with Tino Dallmann (MDR), for the podcast series “Winnetou ist kein Apache“. The series details the efforts of members of the Bischofswerda, Saxony, Karl May festival, to review their concepts and stage practices in order to avoid stereotypical representations and appropriations of Native cultures. The team invites experts in Native studies and cultural studies, but also actors from various Karl May festivals and May-related institutions, as well as Indigenous activists and actors. The process leads the festival organizers to abandon and change particular stage practices, and to use the festival’s popularity to provide information about the lives of contemporary Native North American communities today. The series launched on MDR on 20 June 2022, 6 episodes of c. 40-45 minutes each.
  • Expert interview with Michael Hollenbach on the history of the Moravian church and its missionary activities, especially the entanglement of missionaries with slavery in the Caribbean and Suriname, produced for the 300th anniversary of the founding of Herrnhut, Saxony; radio feature/podcast episode “300 Jahre Herrnhuter Brüderunität“, podcast “WDR Lebenszeichen“, 15 June 2022; length: c. 30 minutes
  • Expert interview with Markus Harmann on Native Americans’ contributions to and war experience in World War II; Radio Feature “Wie American Natives halfen, Hitler zu besiegen“, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), series “Neugier genügt”, 5 June 2022: length: c. 15 minutes

  • Expert interview with Philipp Löwe (Der Spiegel) on cultural appropriation during the Capitol Riots in Washington, and on Native American cultural traditions (buffalo and coyote imagery), 7 January 2021.

https://www.spiegel.de/stil/jake-angeli-was-ueber-den-qanon-schamanen-aus-dem-us-kapitol-bekannt-ist-a-be3f2bb7-6b59-4e76-9ffd-9abedffe1c3a

  • Expert interview with Kurt Prinz and Clemens Marschall (Austria) for their forthcoming non-fiction book on the Austrian and German Indian hobbyist communities (September 2020). The book Ich bin Indianer: Nachahmung kultureller Identitäten (I am Indian: Emulating Cultural Identities) will be released early in 2021.

Ich bin Indianer: Nachahmung kultureller Identitäten

  • Dossier to discuss Native American imagery in right-wing anti-immigrant discourse in Europe and the US, analyzing such imagery in the manifestos of the El Paso shooter (August 2019), and of the massacre in Norway (2011). High Country News, 27 August 2019, by Kalen Goodluck:

Far Right Extremists Appropriate Indigenous Struggles for Violent Ends

  • Radio feature on German “Indianthusiasm,” covering Evan Torner‘s research on East German “Indian movies” made in the 1960s and 1970s, and my own work, particularly how Native imagery feeds into anti-immigrant rhetoric among the German populist and extreme Right today. The interviews are individual segments, while the main segment discusses the nomination hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (hence the episode title). New York Public Radio, 5 October 2018, by Brooke Gladstone, Bob Garfield, and Micah Loewinger:

On The Media – The Victimhood

  • Radio feature to commemorate the anniversary of Tecumseh’s death, discussing his life, death, and legacy in the US and Germany. Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 5 October 2018, by Almut Finck:

“Zeitzeichen: Tecumseh, Indianerhäuptling (Todestag 05.10.1813)”

  • Dossier on the history of German “Indianthusiasm” and nationalism. De Standaard, 4 August 2018, by Evita Neefs:

“Winnetou was een goede Duitser. Waarom de Duitsers zo Gefascineerd Zihn door Native Americans”

  • Dossier on the history of German “Indianthusiasm.”  Le Monde, 19 July 2018, by Marc-Olivier Bherer:

“L’Amérindien, Modèle de la Nation Allemande”

Geschichte der Psychiatrie

  • TV feature on the East German “Indian Hobbyist” movement. Includes interviews with members of the movement, as well as contextual interviews with Native American scholar Renae Watchman and media activist John Blackbird. Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, September 2015 (Der Osten. Entdecke, wo Du lebst), by Kristin Kielon and Gesine Schultz:

“Tipi, Tanz und Totempfahl. Die Hobby-Indianer. Indianistik im Wandel der Zeit”

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