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6:00 PM

Navid Kermani in conversation with Jaron Lanier

Discussion|A conversation on the intersections of literature, technology, and democracy in contemporary society

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Navid Kermani in San Francisco © StudioPandan

Navid Kermani in San Francisco © StudioPandan

"Among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in German today."
New York Review of Books

"Navid Kermani shows us what it means to be a critical intellectual today."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

How is democracy being reshaped in an age defined by AI, digital platforms, and growing political polarization? What forms of solidarity remain possible in societies fractured by war, displacement, and competing narratives of “the West”? Join us for an evening with Navid Kermani, award-winning German author and Jaron Lanier, pioneering technologist, author, and leading critic of the digital age. Both are recipients of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.

Drawing on Kermani’s new book, When Our Hearts Open Alike (2025), and on his ongoing conversations across the United States, the speakers will explore how literature, technology, and spirituality can help us navigate democratic crises and foster connection across divided communities. The discussion will consider the civic implications of AI and social media, the pressures facing democratic institutions, and the possibilities for building shared meaning in a rapidly changing world.

About the speakers

  • 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 prizes, 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).
     

  • Jaron Lanier is a technologist, author, and musician. Credited with coining the terms Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality, Lanier founded one of the earliest VR technology companies and has worked at the forefront of digital innovation. He has served as Chief Scientist for Internet2 and contributed to early AI research. Known as a constructive critic of the digital landscape, Lanier has published several influential books on technology and society. His honors include the IEEE Lifetime Achievement Awardand multiple honorary degrees. He is a recipient of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Lanier currently serves as Microsoft’s “Octopus” (Office of the Chief Technology Officer Prime Unifying Scientist) and is active in music collaborations that span genres and geographies.

  • Deniz Göktürk holds a Ph.D. from Freie Universität Berlin and is a professor in the Department of German at the University of California, Berkeley, also affiliated with the Department of Film & Media. She works on cultural and media studies with a focus on moving images, documentary forms, polyglott literature, and theories of migration, social interaction, and aesthetic intervention in a global horizon. Her publications include a book on literary and cinematic imaginations of America in early twentieth-century German culture, translations from Turkish literature, articles and edited volumes on transnational migration, culture, and cinema. She is co-editor of The German Cinema Book (BFI 2002, expanded 2nd edition 2019); Germany in Transit: Nation and Migration 1955-2005 (Berkeley: University of California Press 2007); Transit Deutschland: Debatten zu Nation und Migration (2011); Orienting Istanbul: Cultural Capital of Europe? (Routledge 2010); Komik der Integration: Grenzpraktiken der Gemeinschaft (2019). Her book Framing Migration: Seven Takes on Movement and Borders is forthcoming from De Gruyter. She is also working on a project on Poetic Truth in Documentary Cinema and has been co-curating film series on Documentary Voices at the Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive. She is co-founder and has served as concept coordinator of TRANSIT, the UC Berkeley German Department’s electronic journal since 2005.
     

In collaboration with 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!