Deutsches Haus at NYU and the Thomas Mann House present a conversation on "Discourses and Likes: Emancipation Going Viral" between Fatma Aydemir and Mohamed Amjahid, which will be moderated by Ulrich Baer (NYU).

In the last couple of years, queer-feminist, antiracist, and emancipatory discourses have become increasingly visible, both in the United States and in the German and European mainstream. Social media has played a vital role in centering and raising awareness about these issues, while inadvertently requiring a watering-down of complex realities to like-able and shareable content.

In this moderated conversation, the writers Fatma Aydemir and Mohamed Amjahid will discuss their personal experiences as traditional long-form journalists who are actively creating content on social media channels; the impact content culture has had on their work; and the potential advantages and pitfalls they see in instagrammable literature, journalism, and activism.

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Fatma Aydemir is an author and journalist based in Berlin. She studied German Literature and American Studies in Frankfurt am Main. Her debut novel Ellbogen (Elbow) from 2017 was awarded with several literary prizes and is being adapted as an upcoming movie. She co-edited the essay collection Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum (Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare). Her latest novel Dschinns (Jinns) will be published by Hanser Literaturverlage in February.

Mohamed Amjahid was born as the son of so-called guest workers in Frankfurt am Main in 1988. He studied political science in Berlin and Cairo. After completing his master's degree Amjahid worked for several big German newspapers. Amjahid is a political journalist, book author and moderator. He was an editor at ZEITmagazin and was awarded among others the Alexander Rhomberg Prize and the Henri Nannen Prize. He received wide attention for his bestsellers Among Whites and Whitewash. Amjahid is a 2022 Fellow at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles.

Ulrich Baer (moderator) is University Professor at New York University where he teaches literature and photography. His books include Remnants of Song: The Experience of Modernity in Charles Baudelaire and Paul Celan; Spectral Evidence: The Photography of Trauma; The Rilke Alphabet; What Snowflakes Get Right: Free Speech, Equality and Truth in the University, and, as editor and translator, among others, The Dark Interval: Rilke’s Letters on Loss.  Baer has published editions of numerous classic books with Warbler Press.