“Germany is one of the most committed operators of international artist residencies,” asserts the self-description of the “Working Group of German International Residency Programs.” Among German residencies are Villa Massimo in Rome, Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, Villa Kamogawa in Kyoto, and many others. Together, these institutions form a global network coordinated by actors such as the Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut. This network plays a key role both in Germany’s foreign cultural policy and in supporting literature and the arts.

What are the goals of the German residency programs abroad? What are their criteria for supporting authors and artists? What effects does this support have on literary and art scenes? And what kind of works take shape in the residencies? The edited collection addresses these questions with a broad spectrum of approaches from cultural, literary, and theatre studies as well as from political science.

The volume will appear in the series “World Literatures” of De Gruyter in 2023. We are seeking additional contributions that address one of the following topics:

- the connections between literary works of any genres and their genesis within the residency programs Villa Massimo (between the 1970s and the 1990s) or Villa Aurora;

- the relations between various arts and media in German residency programs (Villa Massimo, Villa Aurora, Villa Kamogawa, Kulturakademie Tarabya, BangaloResidency);

- support of literature in German foreign cultural policy.

Please send an abstract (approx. 300 words) and a short biography to a.ksenofontova@fu-berlin.de by August 15th.

The contributions will be due by the end of March 2023.