Education

1997 Ph.D. in German Literature, University of Maryland at College Park

1988 MA in German Literature, University of Maryland at College Park

1985 Bachelor degree (equivalent), double major in Sociology and Linguistics with a minor in English, Universität Bielefeld, Germany

Courses Taught

Spering semester 2024:
GRMN 202: Intermediate German II; MWRF 1:00-1:50 pm

GRMN 302: Studies in German Language, Media, and Culture II; MWF 10:00-10:50 am

GRMN 391: Advanced Oral Expression, M 11:00 -11:50 am 

GRMN 298: German Internship (in an afterschool program in Missoula)

Fall semester 2024: On Sabbatical research leave fall semester

Teaching Experience

University of Montana, MT

American University, Washington DC

George Mason University, VA

SAIS -- The Paul H.Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University Division, Language Studies, Washington DC

University of Maryland at College Park

Research Interests

Research areas: postcolonial studies and transnational literature and how it pertains to contemporary German literature; postdramatic theatre and intercultural trends; writers researched and written on: Rafik Schami, Yoko Tawada, Libuse Monikova, George Tabori, Zafer Senocak, Yade Kara, Carmen-Fancesca Banciu.

Field of Study

German Literature of 20th century with focus on post-war Germany, contemporary German Literature, multiethnic and transnational German-language literature and writing since the 1980s; the exile experience during the Nazi period, topics of migration, literature since unification.

Research areas: postcolonial studies and transnational literature; postdramatic theatre; feminist literary theory. Writers researched, presented and/or written on: Robert Cohen, Rafik Schami, Yoko Tawada, Libuse Monikova, George Tabori, Zafer Senocak, Yadé Kara, Carmen-Francesca Banciu, Bettina (Brentano) von Armin.

Selected Publications

Book:

Kulturelle Hybridität in der deutschen Minoritätenliteratur der achtziger Jahre. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 2008. 2. edition. 246 pp.

Recent articles:

“‘Ich frage mich manchmal, wer mein Regisseur ist’ – Imagination und Intermedialität in Yoko Tawada’s Das nackte Auge.”  Wege der Germanistik in transkulturellen Perspektiven: Ästhetisch-narrative Strategien der Transkulturalität in Literatur und Film. Eds. Simonetta Sanna, Lena Wetenkamp, Barbara von der Lühe. Frankfurt/New York: Peter Lang, 2022. 161-171.

"So frech möchte ich auch sein": Robert Cohens Exil der frechen Frauen." Nachkriegsliteratur als öffentliche Erinnerung. Deutsche Vergangenheit im europäischen Kontext. Ed. at al Helmut Peitsch. Berlin/Boston: Walter De Gruyter, 2019. 334-343.

"Berlin als Metapher für Umbruch und Transformation in Carmen-Francesca Bancius Berlin ist mein Paris.” Transiträume und transitorische Begegnungen in Literatur, Theater und Film.  Eds. Withold Bonner, Sabine Egger, and Ernest W.B. Hess-Lüttich. Frankfurt/New York: Peter Lang, 2017. 313-328.

“‘So frech möchte ich auch sein’ – Brazen Women in Robert Cohen’s Exil der frechen Frauen”. Exile and Gender I: Literature and the Press.  The Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, vol. 17.Eds. Charmian Brinson and Andrea Hammel. Leiden/Boston: Brill/ Rodopi, 2016, 146-161.

“Berlin als Fragment – Berlin als Jahrmarkt in Zafer Senocaks und Yadé Karas Prosa.” Trans/Nationale Akten des XXII. Internationalen Germanistenkongresses Warschau 2010: Vielheit und Einheit der Germanistik weltweit.  [Publikationen der Internationalen Vereinigung für Germanistik (IVG)]. Frankfurt a M: Peter Lang. 2012, 303-308.     

"Die Toten erzählen grundsätzlich anders": Yoko Tawadas postdramatischer Text Die Kranichmakse, die bei Nacht strahlt. GegenwartsLiteratur. Ein germanistisches Jahrbuch. A German Studies Yearbook, ed. by Paul Michael Luetzeler and Stephan K. Schindler. 9/2010: 59-81. 

“Family Secrets and Hybrid Identities: Rewriting the Past for the Future in Rafik Schami’s Reise zwischen Nacht und Morgen and Zafer Senocak’s  Gefährliche Verwandschaft.“ Colloquia Germanica. Internationale Zeitschrift für Germanistik. Ed. Theodore Fiedler and Harald Hobusch. (2008): 41.4. 295-313.

 "Das kurze Leuchten unter dem Tor oder auf dem Weg zur geträumten Sprache: Poetological Reflections in Works by Yoko Tawada." Yoko Tawada: Voices from Everywhere. Ed. Doug Slaymaker. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2007. 59-76.

"The 'Circus of Culture' and Culture as Circus in Rafik Schami's Reise zwischen Nacht und Morgen."  Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies (2006): 42.3: 302-320.

Affiliations

American Association of Teachers of German (AATG)

Coalition of Women in German (WIG)

German Studies Association (GSA)

Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik (IVG) [International Association for German Studies]

Modern Language Association (MLA)

Montana Association of Language Teachers (MALT)

Professional Experience

Consultant for educational non-profit organizations at a German consulting firm, Paderborn, Germany,  with the name "gpdm"

International Experience

Visiting Professor Spring semester 2013 at the University of Potsdam (Universität Potsdam), Germany (Faculty exchange)

Director of German and Austrian semester-long study abroad programs for students organized through the Department of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Montana (2000, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2014)

Co-director of a two-week study abroad trip to Berlin, Potsdam and Weimar, Germany, summer 2019

Publishes in German in Germany as well as in English in the US and the UK

Lived and worked in Germany and in Europe