When Dr. Barbara Laubenthal relocated from Germany to the United States, she became a Texas resident and began working in the Department of Germanic Studies and the University of Texas at Austin. She was horrified to learn that Texas had the death penalty and was carrying out executions. She joined the local death penalty abolition movement and eventually began to write to men on death row. She met Carl Buntion as his pen pal and befriended him. On April 21, 2022, soon after his 78th birthday, Carl Buntion was executed and Barbara was there witnessing his execution as his dear friend and support. In the article provided above, titled "The Many Deaths of Carl Buntion," Dr. Laubenthal writes about her friend Carl and describes how he was "stripped of his rights, his dignity, his humanity."
On April 28, 2003, I met with Dr. Laubenthal at her home in Cope, Colorado to interview her about her experience serving as a witness to the execution of her dear friend, Carl Buntion by the state of Texas.
Dr. Barbara Laubenthal's curriculum vitae is found below. Following her vitae, a link can be found to the website of The Capital Punishment and Social Rights Research Initiative, an organization that Laubenthal founded and for which she serves as the director. On the home page of the website the following description is written:
The Capital Punishment and Social Rights Research Initiative assesses
and analyzes the access of men and women on U.S. death rows to social rights
such as health care, social contacts, visitation, communication, recreation and
spiritual support. We are committed to producing high-quality research,
and we want to offer information and resources to scholars, advocates
and to everyone who is interested in the living conditions of people in prison.
We care about the men and women on death row.
Following the link to the website of The Capital Punishment and Social Rights Research Initiative, at the botton of this page, a link can be found to an article that was published in the Houston Chronicle following Mr. Buntion's execution. The article exposed Dr. Laubenthal's complaint that she lodged against the police union, in which she expressed her discontent with a common practice that was exercised during the execution. When the person being executed by the state of Texas has been accused of killing a police officer, it is common for dozens of police officers to appear at the prison just outside of the execution chamber, revving their engines so loudly that the witnesses cannot hear the final statement of the person being executed.
Dr. Barbara Laubenthal
Department of Germanic Studies The University of Texas at Austin 2505 University Ave, C3300 Austin, Texas 78712-1802
Phone: 512 550 5840
Barbara.Laubenthal@austin.utexas.edu https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/germanic/faculty/bl25396
Education
PhD Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany, Department of Political Science, 2006, summa cum laude
Dissertation: Soziale Bewegungen und illegale Migration. Eine vergleichendeAnalyse der Entstehungsbedingungen von Pro- Regularisierungsbewegungen in Frankreich, Spanien und der Schweiz (Social movements and undocumented migration. A comparative analysis of pro-regularization movements in France, Spain and Switzerland)
Committee: Prof. Dr. Claus Leggewie (Chair), Prof. Dr. Klaus J. Bade
MA University of Münster, Department of Political Science, 1997
Professional experience
Since 09/2016
DAAD Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Germanic Studies
03-08/2016
Visiting Professor of Public Administration, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz
2012-2016
Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz
2012
Postdoctoral fellow at the Center of Excellence „Cultural foundations of integration”, University of Konstanz
2011-2012
Visiting professor of Sociology/Migration and Integration, University of Tuebingen
2011
Postdoctoral researcher, Research group “History and Memory”, University of Konstanz (director: Professor Aleida Assmann)
2006-2011
Senior Lecturer/Migration and Transnationalism, Department of Social Sciences, Bochum University
1998-2001
Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Muenster University
1997-1998
Research assistant in the Department of Political Science, University of Muenster
Fellowships and grants
2019 Conference grant by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and Goethe Institut, Washington D.C., Symposium “Cultures of the Berlin wall - from 1989 to 2019”, $ 5135
2018 Global classroom teaching grant, UT Austin, $7500
2015 Conference grant by Volkswagen Foundation, International workshop “Labour migration in Europe. Changing policies - changing organizations - changing people”, 8500 Euro
2013 Research grant, German Research Foundation (DFG), Project “Reparations for colonial soldiers - transnational dimension and national preconditions”, 266,000 Euro
2012 Postdoctoral fellowship, Center of Excellence “Cultural foundations of integration”, Konstanz University, 12,000 Euro
2002-2005 PhD grant, Hans-Böckler-Foundation, 43,200 Euro
Books
2007. Barbara Laubenthal. Der Kampf um Legalisierung. Soziale Bewegungen illegaler Migranten in Frankreich, Spanien und der Schweiz (The Battle for Regularization. Social movements by undocumented migrants in France, Spain and Switzerland). Frankfurt/Main: Campus-Verlag.
1999. Barbara Laubenthal. Vergewaltigung als Asylgrund. Die gegenwärtige Praxis in Deutschland (Rape as Grounds for Political Asylum. The current practice in Germany). Frankfurt/Main: Campus-Verlag.
In preparation: Barbara Laubenthal. ‘Give us justice before we die.’ Reparations for Second World War colonial veterans in the USA and in France. Proposal under review at The University of Michigan Press
Edited Volumes
2020. Barbara Laubenthal (Ed). How migrants become members. Integration and transnationalism theories revisited (guest editor), special issue of International Migration, forthcoming
2017. Barbara Laubenthal (Ed.). Labour migration in Europe: Changing policies - changing organizations - changing people (guest editor), special issue of International Migration, 55 (S1), December.
2000. Barbara Laubenthal, Irene Gerlach, and Annette Zimmer (Eds). It's A Man's World? Frauenförderung aktuell. Münster: Agenda Verlag.
Journal articles (**peer reviewed)
** 2019. Refugees Welcome? Reforms of German Asylum Policies between 2013 and 2017 and Germany's Transformation into an Immigration Country. German Politics 28 (03): 412-425.
**2018. Barbara Laubenthal and Daniel Schumacher. Colonial memories and transnational mobilizations: Asia's colonial veterans and their struggle for British citizenship, c. 1980-2015, Memory Studies, online first doi.org/10.1177/1750698018784113
**2017. Introduction: Labour Migration in Europe. Changing policies - changing organizations - changing people. In Barbara Laubenthal (guest editor), Labour migration in Europe: Changing policies - changing organizations - changing people. International Migration, 55 (S1), December, 3-11.
** 2016. Political Institutions and Asylum Policies - The Case of Germany. Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management 4(2), 122–144
2015. History as a resource. The movie „Indigènes“ and the debate on integration in France.
IMIS-Beiträge, special issue „The visual production of migration “, 46, 77-95.
**2014. Europeanization and the Negotiation of a New Labour Migration Policy in Germany. The Goodness of Fit Approach Revisited. Comparative Migration Studies, 2(4), 469-492.
**2014. Politik ohne Mandat? Gesellschaftliche Akteure und neue Formen informellen Regierens im Politikfeld Migration. Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 8 (1), 237- 257.
2011. ‚Keine Papiere für alle?‘ Formen und Grenzen der Politisierung illegaler Migration in Deutschland. Vorgänge. Zeitschrift für Bürgerrechte und Gesellschaftspolitik, 194, 2/2011, 77- 84.
**2011. The negotiation of social rights of irregular migrants in Germany - a challenge to the nation-state. Ethnic and Racial Studies, special issue Undocumented Migrants: Policy, Politics, Motives and Everyday Lives, 34 (8), 1357-1373.
2009. Barbara Laubenthal and Joerg-Uwe Nieland. ‘Des gens pas comme nous‘. Les transmigrants turcs dans le documentaire allemande. Hommes et Migrations, Dossier France Allemagne. Politiques d’immigration et identités nationales, no. 1277, 98-104.
**2007. The emergence of pro-regularisation movements in Western Europe. International Migration 45 (3), 101-133.
2006. Die Schweizer Pro-Regularisierungsbewegung. Forum. Zeitschrift des Schweizerischen Forums für Migrations- und Bevölkerungstudien 6, 2006.
2005. ‘Papiere für alle‘. Die Entstehung von Protesten illegaler Einwanderer in Murcia (Spanien). IMIS-Beiträge 27, Dezember 2005, 109-130
In preparation: Barbara Laubenthal and Kevin Myers. Migration memories in Germany and the United Kingdom. Under review at German Politics and Society
Book chapters
2018. Spillover in der Migrationspolitik. Die Asylpolitik der dritten Merkel-Regierung und der Wandel Deutschlands zum Einwanderungsland. In Zohlnhöfer,R./Saalfeld, T. (Eds.). Zwischen Stillstand, Politikwandel und Krisenmanagement.Eine Bilanz der Regierung Merkel 2013-2017. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 513-532.
2016. Entschädigungen für Kolonialveteranen des zweiten Weltkriegs in Frankreich und den USA. In Monika Hölscher, Viola Krause and Thomas Lutz (Eds.). Geschichte und Geschichtsbilder - Der erste und zweite Weltkrieg im internationalen Vergleich, Hessische Landeszentrale fuer politische Bildung, (POLIS 57): Wiesbaden.
2016. Zwischen Ehre und Exil. Kolonialveteranen des Zweiten Weltkriegs in Frankreich und den USA. In Hans Peter Zimmermann, Andreas Kruse, and Thomas Rentsch (Eds.). Kulturen des Alterns. Plädoyers für ein gutes Leben bis ins hohe Alter. Frankfurt am Main: Campus
2012. Barbara Laubenthal and Ludger Pries. Migration und Alter. Eine transnationale Perspektive In Helen Baykara-Krumme, Andreas Motel-Klingebiel and Peter Schimany (Eds.)
Viele Welten des Alterns? Ältere Migrantinnen und Migranten im alternden Deutschland. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 345-410.
2010. The new German integration policy - successes and challenges. In Alasdair Murray and Martin Adahl (Eds.) Migration – Europe’ s challenge. London: CentreForum, 76-86.
2007. ‘Der Tod braucht keine Papiere‘. Die Rolle der Printmedien bei den Protesten illegaler Einwanderer in Spanien In Barbara Pfetsch and Silke Adam (Eds.) Medien als Akteure im politischen Prozess. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 266-284.
2007. Entre el mercado y el estado. La formación del movimiento pro-regularización suizo. In Suarez-Navaz, L. (Ed.) Las luchas de los sin papeles y la extensión de la ciudadanía. Madrid: traficantes de suenos.
2005. La emergencia de protestas de inmigrantes sin papeles en España: El caso de la Región de Murcia. In Pedreño, Andrés&Hernández, Manuel (Eds). La condición inmigrante. Exploraciones e investigaciones desde la Región de Murcia. Murcia: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia.
In preparation: The Language of Hate. Social Media Discourses on Immigration by Far-Right Actors in Europe. Mihr, Anja and Dimitra Manou (eds.). Migration in Europe - Impact and Changes since 2015. Springer: New York.
Working papers
2012. Labour migration governance in contemporary Europe. The German case. Turin: FIERI.
2011. Barbara Laubenthal and Patricia Pielage. European Task Force on Irregular Migrations. What are the Costs of National Non-Regularization Policies for the Local Level? Country report Germany. Paris: IFRI.
2009. The role of economic-non-state actors in labour migration policies: The German case in the European context. CeSPI Issue paper, February 2009, Rome.
2008. Two steps forward, one step back. Recent trends in German migration policy. CeSPI Country paper, June 2008, Rome.
Conference and workshop presentations (since 2012)
The Role of Memory in Current German and European Refugee Policies. Conference Migration, Exile, Transitional Justice and Memory between Europe and Latin America. Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City, 11/22/2019 (invited talk)
Refugee Policies as Labor Migration Policies? The Integration of Refugees in Germany. 30th Anniversary SASE meeting, The New School for Social Research, New York City, 6/30/2019
Migrant precarity in Europe. Workshop Precarious Statuses of Migrants. Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Immigration, University of Pennsylvania, 5/23/2019 (invited talk)
Facing the present by using the past - immigration and the politics of memory. A Night of Philosophy and Ideas, Central Library, Brooklyn, NY, 2/03/2019 (invited talk)
Art and Politics. Graphic Novels on Migration and European Immigration Policies. Conference Migration in Comics and Graphic Novels, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 10/06/2018 (invited talk)
The Borders of Europe: Death and Political Activism in the Mediterranean, Conference Migration, Discipline and Displacement, UT Austin, 4/26/2018 (invited talk)
Right-wing populism after the Holocaust - the role of the past in Germany’s current asylum
policies, APPAM International Conference “Public Policy and Governance Beyond Borders”, Brussels, Belgium, 7/12/2017
Erinnerungskulturen an den Zweiten Weltkrieg in globaler Perspektive. Konferenz Geschichte und Geschichtsbilder: Der Erste und Zweite Weltkrieg im internationalen Vergleich. Stiftung Topgraphie des Terrors, Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, Hessische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung, Grünberg/Hessen, 10/30/2015 (invited talk)
Veränderungen in der deutschen Arbeitsmigrationspolitik. Das Zusammenspiel zwischen
nationaler und europäischer Ebene. International Conference Labour Migration and Migrants’ Integration in Germany and Russia: A Comparative Approach, Saint Petersburg State University, 4/10/2015
Zwischen Ehre und Exil. Kolonialsoldaten des Zweiten Weltkriegs in Frankreich und den USA. Konferenz Kulturen des Alter(n)s. I. Kongress Kulturwissenschaftliche Altersforschung, Zürich, 5/25/2012 (invited talk)
Das Governance-Konzept - ein neuer Blick auf irregulärer Migration? Workshop „Wissen über irreguläre Migration“, Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, 04/27.2012
Framing the Models of Labour Migration - the German case. Workshop „Framing the models“, European Policy Centre, Brussels, 3/1/.2012 (invited talk)
Conferences and panels organized
Cultures of the Berlin Wall - from 1989 to 2019. An interdisciplinary symposium. With Hans Boas, Department of Germanic Studies, UT Austin, 10/24-10/25 2019
Panel “How Migrants Become Members. The value of integration versus transnationalism theories”, German Studies Association Conference, Portland, 10/06/2019
Panel Asylum Policies and the Rise of the Right, with Ruth Wasem, APPAM International Conference “Public Policy and Governance Beyond Borders”, Brussels, Belgium, 7/12-7/14 2017
Labour Migration in Europe. Changing policies - changing organizations - changing people. International Workshop, Konstanz University, 5/05 - 06/05 2015
Auf der Suche. Trauer, Politik und Erinnerung im Kontext von Kriegen und Regimeverbrechen, (Mourning, Politics and Memory in the context of war and war crimes), Workshop, with Birgit Schwelling, Konstanz University, 12/8 -12/10 2011
People on the Move. Culture and Knowledge in Motion, International Conference, with Carola Bauschke-Urban, Heike Hawicks, Jenny Oesterle, Kim de Wildt, Technical University Dortmund, 11/10/2010
Guest lectures organized at UT Austin
Dean L. Root, Director of the Center for American Music at the University of Pittsburgh (online lecture): Controversial monuments. The Stephen Foster Statue in Pittsburgh, 11/12/2019
Matthias Klause, Head of Economic Department, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Washington D.C.: European Politics and the State of Transnational Affairs, 9/13/2019
Dr. Emily Haber, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Washington D.C.: Germany’s Role in a Changing International Environment, 3/13/2019
Wolfgang Benz, Center for Research on Antisemitism, Berlin: New Antisemitism in Germany?, 2/12/2019
Wolfgang Seibel, University of Konstanz: Structural Racism? German Authorities and the Serial Killings of Immigrants in the 2000s, 9/13/2018.
Martina Maletzky, University of Passau: Immigration and the Construction of “Germanness”, 3/21/2018
Dietrich Thraenhardt, University of Muenster: Refugees Welcome. National and European Dimensions of Germany’s recent refugee policies, 2/13/2018.
Teaching
UT Austin: Germany and Immigration: Immigration in Germany and the US; Politics of Memory in Germany and the US; War memories in Germany and the US; Introduction to European Studies; Sports and Politics in Germany.
University of Konstanz: European immigration policies; Organizations and their Role in Public Policy
University of Tuebingen: Immigration in Europe, Highlights of sociological thought
University of Bochum: Immigration in Europe, Introduction to organization theories; Immigration and Cultural Change, Transnationalism and Migration, Sociological theories of internationalization
University of Passau: Interculturality and Immigration
Stays as visiting fellow
02/2015
Manila, Philippines, in cooperation with Prof. Ricardo T. José, Department of History, University of the Philippines Diliman
10/2014
San Jose State University, USA, Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences
06/2014
Centre Jacques Berque, Rabat, Morocco
11/2013&02/2014
Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI), Paris, France
09/2010
German Historical Institute, London, UK
Reviewer
Citizenship Studies; Culture, Practice and Europeanization; European Societies; German Studies Review; International Migration.
Berghahn Books, Palgrave Macmillan; SEISMO-Series Social Cohesion and Cultural Pluralism; United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
Award Committees
DAAD research and study program grants, DAAD New York, 2018
Exchanges with North America Selection Committee, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz
Membership in professional organizations
German Studies Association (GSA), German Association for Political Science (DVPW)
Other professional memberships
Rat für Migration (Council for Immigration), Berlin; Member of the Advisory Board of Domid, Dokumentationszentrum und Museum über die Migration in Deutschland (Immigration Museum and Documentation Center), Cologne
Dr. Barbara Laubenthal is the founder and director of the Capital Punishment & Social Rights Research Initiative - website
Houston police union spars with UT-Austin professor over Texas execution of Carl Wayne Buntion