Degrees

Ph.D., Harvard University (1982)
B.A., University of New Hampshire (1972)
A.M. (honorary), Amherst College (1988)

Teaching Interests

The teaching of German Studies in the liberal arts context opens up a broad humanistic focus. All of my courses are interdisciplinary in approach, relating the history of ideas, social issues, history, politics, art, and music to the particular period and works under discussion. I offer German-taught language, culture, and literature courses at all levels. In addition, and to open up our curriculum to a general student audience, some of my interdisciplinary topics courses are taught in English, such as Romantic Couples, Berlin Metropolis, The Artist as Antihero, or Women and Social Change in Germany. Among my period courses are The Age of Goethe, Modernism and its Discontents, Post-War German Culture in East and West, or The Culture and Politics of United Germany. Some courses also focus on one or more literary figures in the context of their age, for example Lessing and his Times, or Kafka, Brecht, and Thomas Mann. As capstone courses for senior German majors, I taught seminars on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing; on Günter Grass; and on Christa Wolf. I have recently developed the course Exile and Migration--the literature and culture of foreign-born authors, writing in German. In future, I would like to teach additional courses on multicultural issues, national identities, and transmigrations in Europe.

Awards and Honors

Fulbright German Studies Fellowship, 2011

Georges Lurcy Professorship, 2009

Senior Faculty Fellowships, Amherst College, 2001, 2011

Institute for European Studies Fellowship, 1993

Eleven Research Grants, Amherst College, 1990-2011

Minor D. Crary Fellowship, Amherst College, 1985

Scholarly and Professional Activities

Delegate for New England and Eastern Canada, Modern Language Association, present--2015.

Board of Overseers, Research Institute for the Study of Youth, Georg August Universität, Göttingen, 1997–present.

Visiting Professor, University of Massachusetts. 1996 and 2002.

Graduate Faculty, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Massachusetts, 1995–present.

Five College Graduate Advisor, 1988–present.

Frequent Editorial Consultant, 1983–present:

Germanic Review, the German Quarterly, Monatshefte, Michigan Germanic Studies, MLA series Teaching World Literature, University of Massachusetts Press, Purdue University Press, Bucknell University Press, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Women in German Yearbook.

 

See also: Research Interests and Selected Publications