Navid Kermani: In Search of a Common Cause. Conversations across the US
Schedule
Mon Feb 09 2026 at 07:00 pm to 08:30 pm
UTC-05:00Location
Goethe-Institut Washington | Washington, DC
About this Event
Navid Kermani, “among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in German today,” (The New York Review of Books), recently visited some of the world’s major conflict zones, not as a political analyst, but as a literary observer. Now, in partnership with the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles and the Goethe-Institut North America, he is on a tour of the US to explore how we can build and maintain solidarity among seemingly opposing identities, groups, and geopolitical alliances.
Join us for an evening in Washington as Kermani, together with Dr. Jeffrey Gedmin (President/CEO, Middle East Broadcasting Networks) discusses: What does it mean to be a writer in a polarized world marked by war, displacement, and political division? How is the concept of “the West” changing? How might literature, poetry, and religion serve as bridges in fractured societies and foster solidarity? These events bring together acclaimed thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic for a conversation on literature, politics, and spirituality at a moment of profound global change.
Navid Kermani is regarded in the media as one of the most important thinkers of our time:
Polyphony is the elixir of Kermani's international renown: his encounters with times and worlds, in an age of increasing isolation, defend the idea that the world is more than everything that is the case. They defend the existence of something entirely different—the unexpected, the unheard of, and the supposedly lost. For Kermani's thinking, and this is often overlooked, possesses the power of the pariah, that outsider who has understood that one can use one's own dual belonging to one's advantage, both for oneself and for others.
- Marie Luise Knott, Deutschlandfunk (‘Germany Radio’, a major German public radio station)
Navid Kermani has established himself as one of Germany’s foremost public intellectuals. The child of Iranian immigrants, he has spoken of himself as belonging, like Heine or Goethe, to a tradition of German cosmopolitanism, open to the world and critical towards the nation.
-Times Literary Supplement
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Biographies:
Dr. Jeffrey Gedmin currently leads Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. (MBN), a non-profit international multimedia corporation funded by the U.S. Government to produce and communicate accurate, objective, timely and relevant news and information about the United States, the region, and the world to Arabic-speaking audience across the Middle East and North Africa. In support of U.S. public diplomacy, MBN operates Alhurra television network, audio content and targeted digital and social media properties.
Gedmin served on International Broadcasting Advisory Board (IBAB). The IBAB is an independent federal entity, composed of experts representing mass communications, broadcast media, and international affairs, who provide strategic counsel and oversight in partnership with USAGM’s CEO. Six members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The seventh, the Secretary of State, serves ex officio. He also served as Interim President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from July to December 2023.
He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of American Purpose, the magazine and media venture. He is the former president/CEO of the London-based Legatum Institute. Gedmin served for four years as president/CEO of RFE/RL, prior to which he served as president/CEO of the Aspen Institute in Berlin. Previously, he was a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and Executive Director of the New Atlantic Initiative.
Gedmin is the author/editor of several books on Germany and European security. He also served as co-executive producer for two major PBS documentaries: “The Germans, Portrait of a New Nation” (1995) and “Spain’s 9/11 and the Challenge of Radical Islam in Europe” (2007).
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on several advisory boards, including the Institute for State Effectiveness, the Justice for Journalists Foundation, the Tocqueville Conversations, and the Institute for Current World Affairs. Together with former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic Norm Eisen, Gedmin is co-chair of the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group, hosted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is currently a Research Council Member at the National Endowment for Democracy, senior fellow at Georgetown University and at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
He earned his M.A. in German Area Studies from American University. He received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University in German Area Studies and Linguistics.
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Navid Kermani is an independent German writer living in Cologne. He studied Middle Eastern Studies, Philosophy, and Theater in Cologne, Cairo, and Bonn, where he received the post-doctoral degree (“Habilitation”). For his literary and academic work, he was awarded numerous prices, including the Hannah-Arendt-Prize, the Kleist-Prize, the Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Hölderlin-Prize and the Thomas Mann-Prize.
His literary books are published by Carl Hanser Verlag (German) and Seagull Books (English), his academic and non-fictional works by C. H. Beck (German) and Polity Press (English).
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Part of an event series by the Goethe-Institut in North America in cooperation with the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles, and other U.S. partners.
The Thomas Mann House Los Angeles, a transatlantic space for debate in the former exile home of German Nobel-laureate Thomas Mann in Pacific Palisades. The house organizes programs and events in L.A. and beyond, where innovators, scholars and artists from Germany and the U.S. address pressing issues related to democracy, society, arts and culture.
Learn more at www.vatmh.org and follow them on social media @thomasmannhouse
Foto Navid Kermani
Copyrights (c) Peter-Andreas Hassiepen
Foto Jeffrey Gedmin
Used with permission
Agenda
🕑: 06:30 PM
Doors open
Info: Enjoy a complimentary beverage
🕑: 07:00 PM
Conversation Begins
Audience Q&A, followed by wine reception
Where is it happening?
Goethe-Institut Washington, 1377 R Street Northwest, Washington, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
