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Department Newsletter
Autumn 2001
Editor: Professor Paul Reitter
- Letter from the Chair.
- New Faculty Members.
- Faculty Profile.
- News from the Faculty.
- News from the Staff.
- Graduate Student News.
- Degrees.
- Awards & Honors.
- GLL Talks 2000/2001.
- Other Activities.
- Alumni/ae News.
Letter from the Chair
I am particularly pleased that we are able to welcome Nina Berman as our newest faculty member at the rank of associate professor, and that we also managed to reappoint Ben Robinson as visiting assistant professor. Please read all about the two colleagues on the following pages. I am equally pleased to report that Gregor Hens was promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure. Two of our graduate students, Christine Moeller-Sahling and Cindy Chalupa, completed their PhDs this year. Both accepted a tenure track position for autumn 2001. Christine can now be reached at the University of Southern Indiana, and Cindy moved to the University of West Virginia. Congratulations!Thanks to the dedicated and collegial work from colleagues and students alike, I believe we have reason to look to the future with a healthy amount of optimism, not a mean feat in these troubled times.
Bernd Fischer
New Faculty Members
Professor Berman joined the faculty of the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in the Fall of 1994, and was affiliated with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Comparative Literature, Women's Studies, and Islamic Studies at the university. She also served as the Graduate Adviser and Associate Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies for several years. Professor Berman's research and teaching focuses on questions related to crosscultural interaction and representation. She concentrates particularly on the relationship between Germany and the Middle East, and recently broadened the scope of her studies to include cultural representations that deal with the German presence in Africa. In addition, she is especially interested in questions of modernization and modernity. In this context, Professor Berman explores processes of and reactions to modernization comparatively, not only in the German context, but also in Africa and the Middle East. Recently, she has begun to conduct research on the situation of peoples of Arab origin and Muslims who live in Germany today. As a reflection of her wide range of interests, she is not only a member of the AATG, WiG, MLA, and GSA, but also MESA (The Middle East Studies Organization of North America), ASA (African Studies Association) and ACLA (American Comparative Literature Association). Professor Berman's book "Orientalismus, Kolonialismus und Moderne: Zum Bild des Orients in der deutschsprachigen Kultur um 1900" (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1997) explores the Saidian concept of orientalism in the German context. She is currently finishing a monograph on German engineers, doctors, pilots, soldiers and tourists in Africa. With her next project, she turns her attention to Arab German artists and intellectuals in contemporary Germany. She has written articles on orientalism, colonialism, minority literature, modernization, multiculturalism, Karl May, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Ernst Udet, tourism, Albert Schweitzer, Bodo Kirchhoff, and Salim Alafenisch. Professor Berman received several grants from the University of Texas (Summer Research Assignment from UT Austin, 1995 and 1999), was a Dean's Fellow at the University in 1997, and received generous funding for course development and research from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Austin (1995, 1996, 1998, 1999). In addition, she was awarded grant support in 1999 by the Kittredge Foundation to conduct research in Kenya, and received a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Summer Research Grant for research in Germany in 1996. Her teaching focus comprises courses about 20th century German Literature and Culture, Germany and the Middle East, German Drama, Cultural Studies Theory and Postcolonial Studies, Muslim Travelers, Thomas Mann, and Minority Literature. One of her most popular undergraduate courses ends with the production and public performances of a major German play. She first introduced this course as a graduate student in Berkeley in 1993, which was supported at the time by a Teaching Development Grant from the Office of Educational Development at UC Berkeley. The course is still offered annually at UC Berkeley. In Austin, she put on five productions which drew up to 500 visitors each year. At Ohio State University, she plans to develop several new courses, for example, on German cultural history, minorities in Germany, and in Comparative Studies. In 1999, Professor Berman, who already won an award for outstanding teaching s a graduate student in Berkeley, was awarded the President's Associates Teaching Award, one of the most prestigious teaching awards at UT Austin. Her commitment to teaching and student supervision is documented by the long list of independent studies courses she taught over the years, and by the many masters thesis, reports and dissertations she supervised and cosupervised.
Faculty Profile
Helen Fehervary: These are eventful times for Professor Helen Fehervary. Her book on Anna Seghers, the first comprehensive analysis of Seghers's writings in English, has just been published. It is entitled Anna Seghers: The Mythic Dimension (University of Michigan Press). And its aim, according to Professor Fehervary, is to illuminate contexts behind and themes in Seghers's works that have not received the attention they deserve. More precisely, where most attempts to contexualize Seghers understandably focus on the grim social realities that figure so prominently in her novels, Professor Fehervary emphasizes Seghers's debt to gothic art, especially to Northern European painting in the early modern era. She also stresses Seghers's interest in Biblical problems, in epic traditions of storytelling and in the archaic aspect of everyday speech in urban modernity. Hence Professor Fehervary's subtitle, "the Mythic Dimension." Furthermore, Professor Fehervary offers a thorough investigation of Seghers's intellectual life. Foraying into a largely unexamined area, she analyzes Seghers's involvement with the famous Hungarian philosopher Georg Lukcs and, in particular, Lukcs's effect on both Seghers's literary works and her critical thinking. There is, in short, a substantial intellectual historical component to Professor Fehervary's book.And there is much more happening in Professor Fehervary's research on Seghers. Professor Fehervary is the co-general editor, with Bernhard Spies (University of Mainz) of the first text critical edition of Seghers's works. The edition will consist of twenty four volumes, edited by Seghers scholars from around the world. It will appear with Aufbau Verlag, and it is being supported by the DFG, the Rheinland Stiftung fr Kultur, the Ohio State University and the German Department at Ohio State. So far, two volumes have appeared to enthusiastic reviews. Professor Fehervary has edited the third volume, with Jennifer William. Professor Alexander Stephan is editing the fourth volume.
Here, according to Professor Fehervary, the main goal has been to convey an accurate image of Segher's oeuvre. This means making available original typescripts and first editions. For they enable readers to see Seghers's appreciation for local culture and for what Professor Fehervary describes, again, as the "mythic dimension" in them. The problem is that later editions of Seghers's works standardize her writing. Seghers herself often took part in this "smoothing out," Professor Fehervary notes. At the same time Seghers did not preserve original editions or correspondences very effectively. In some cases she destroyed manuscripts because she feared that the Gestapo would find them.
Another major challenge has been that the Seghers's archive has been building up around the critical edition. While the critical edition thus will include previously unpublished writings, the editors have had to take on the work of archivists, as Seghers's heirs and Seghers's scholars have showed their support for the critical edition by releasing materials that must be sorted through carefully. All indications suggest that the extraordinary effort that has gone into this project will result in an extraordinary accomplishment.
News from the Faculty
She published the articles "Renaissance oder Reformation? Epochenschwellen fr schreibende Frauen und die Mittlere Deutsche Literatur." Das Berliner Modell der Mittleren Deutschen Literatur. Ed.Christiane Caemmerer et al.. Berlin 2000,pp. 69-97; and "'Die wrmste Liebe zu unsrer litterarischen Ehe': Friedrich Schlegels Lucinde und Dorothea Veits Florentin,"in: Bi-Textualitt. Inszenierungen des Paares. Ed. Annegret Heitmann, Sigrid Nieberle, Barbara Schaff, and Sabine Schtting. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 2001, pp. 131-41.
She also published: "Review Article: Goethe - New Scholarship." The German Quarterly 73,2 (Spring 2000), pp.185-193, and a review of:Jutta Osinski. Einfhrung in die feministische Literaturwissenschaft. Berlin: E. Schmidt, 1997. In: Jahrbuch fr Internationale Germanistik 31 (1999), pp. 222-225 [appeared in 2000]. She is a co-author (with the MLA Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession) of "Women in the Profession, 2000." In: Profession 2000, The Modern Language Association of America, 2000, pp.191-217. She presented several lectures in Germany during the past year: "Die Lektren Sophie von La Roches (1730-1807)" at the International Collo-quium: Geselligkeit und Bibliothek. Lesekultur im 18. Jahrhundert, in Halberstadt, 23-25 November 2000; "Mythos und Gewalt: Medea," at the University of Gttingen, 23 January 2001; and "Die Neue Frau und die Frauengestalten Carl Hauptmanns," at the International Symposium "Carl Hauptmann und seine Zeit," at the Free University Berlin and the University of Wroclaw, Poland, May 29-June 2, 2001. At the Annual Convention of the MLA, Dec. 27-30, 2000, Washington D.C., she presented: "The Trauma of Conversion: Religious Quest in Dorothea Veits Florentin (1801)."
She organized an chaired the meeting of the steering committee of the Wolfenbtteler Arbeitskreis fr Barockforschung, January 2001, planning the next international congress (for 2003).At the German Studies Association meeting in Washington D.C. in October 2001, she organized a panel on eighteenth-century literature and was a respondent to a panel on gender in Early Modern Germany. She also served on the National Screening Committee, Institute of International Education, U.S. Student Programs (Fulbright). She was elected to the Board of Directors of the Alexander von Humboldt Association of America and is serving a three-year term.
Nina Berman presented "Colonization or Modernization: Max Eyth's Autobiographical Writings about Egypt" at Rutgers University and Ohio State University, January 24 and 29, 2001 /"Colonization or Globalization? Ernst Udet in Africa" at "Pathways to Africa's Past," University of Texas at Austin, March 30-April 1, 2001 / "Is the 'civilizing mission' a racist concept? Thoughts on German agents of development in Africa" at the conference "The German Invention of Race at Harvard University, May 4-6, 2001 / "Islam as Discourse: Thoughts on the anti-religious bias in contemporary Western scholarship" at a symposium on Islam and the West, Haydauer Hochschulgesprche, Kloster Haydau, September 15-17, 2000 / "The Engineer as Colonizer/Modernizer: Max Eyth in Egypt" at the annual conference of the German Studies Association, Houston, October 5-8, 2000 / "Contemporary Arab-German Writers: Questions of Methodology and Reception." Middle East Studies Association, Orlando, November 16-19, 2000.
John E. Davidson presented "Deutschland Privat: Gordian Maugg's Der olympische Sommer and Privatization of German History," at a symposium on "Screening the Shoah: Drama, Trauma, and Testimony," Kent State University, April 2001. In November, 2001 he presented "Pictures of War and the Inscription of the World," a discussion of media traditions and terrorism at Oberlin College.He was a participant in the first East German Film Institute hosted by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst(Summer 2001), where he was honored with membership in the Blue Smock Cotillion.
Helen Fehervary: Books: Anna Seghers, The Mythic Dimension (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001), 304 pp. / Anna Seghers, Das siebte Kreuz, vol. ed. Bernhard Spies, vol. I/4 in A.S., Werkausgabe, 24 vols., ed. H. Fehervary and B. Spies (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 2000), 504 pp. / Anna Seghers, Transit, vol. ed. Silvia Schlenstedt, vol. I/5 in A.S., Werkausgabe, 24 vols., ed. H. Fehervary and B. Spies (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 2001), 377 pp. // Presentations: "Kunstgeschichte und Schreiben bei Seghers." Symposium: Das Jahrhundert der Anna Seghers, Universitt Potsdam (Nov. 11, 2000) / "Die Werkausgabe in 24 Bnden: Neue Zugnge zum Werk von Anna Seghers," Anna-Seghers-Woche: Zum 100. Geburtstag, Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, Berlin (Nov. 13, 2000). // Book Review: Anna Seghers in Perspective, ed. Ian Wallace (Amsterdam/Atlanta, Ga.: Editions Rodopi, 1998), in Monatshefte, vol. 93, No. 2 (Sommer 2001), 244-246.
Bernd Fischer published: "Christoph Heins Kleine Prosa: Von Allem Anfang An und Exekution eines Kalbes." Christoph Hein in Perspective, ed. Graham Jackman (Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, 2000), pp. 165-86./ "Achim von Arnims Wintergarten als politischer Kommentar." Universelle Entwrfe - Integration - Rckzug: Arnims Berliner Zeit (1809-1814), ed. Ulfert Ricklefs (Tbingen: Niemeyer, 2000), pp. 43-59. / "Peter Turrini." Deutsche Dramatiker des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. Alo Allkemper and Norbert Otto Eke (Berlin: Schmidt, 2000), pp. 733-45. / "Christoph Hein." Reclams Romanlexikon: Deutschsprachige erzhlende Literatur vom Mittlealter bis zur Gegenwart, ed. Frank Rainer Max & Christine Ruhrberg (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2000), pp. 441-43. He presented: "Zum Russlandbild in der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur: Christoph Hein und Ingo Schulze," Neues Land Neue Literatur? Gesamteuropisches Studienwerk, Vlotho, Germany, 20 Jul. 2001 / "Die Romantische Nation: Friedrich Schlegel und Friedrich von Hardenberg," Universitt Bonn, Germany, 13. Jul. 2001 / "The Return of the Wild East in German Literature of the 1990s," The New Europe at the Crossroads, University of Edinburgh, UK, 10 Jul. 2001.
Gregor Hens, who was recently promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, published "Poetologie einer Dreiecksbeziehung. Zu Thomas Bernhards Erzhlung Ja." Colloquia Germanica 33.3 (2000), pp. 255-273. He presented "Schlechte Voraussetzungen -- Zur Prosa von Marlene Streeruwitz" at the German Studies Association Conference, Houston, Oct. 2000 / " Jaja sie schreiben. Zum Subsumtionsverhltnis von Text und Wirklichkeit bei Bernhard." at the conference Wissenschaft als Finsternis? Methoden und Ergebnisse der Thomas-Bernhard-Forschung.Vienna, March 2001 / "Selbstgesprchskunst -- Zu Thomas Bernhards Alte Meister. Komdie" at the International Austrian Contemporary Culture Conference. Aberdeen, Scotland April 2001.
Paul Reitter currently serves as chair of the publicity committee. He remains a board member of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at Ohio State, and associated faculty with the Comparative Studies department. Last year Paul placed an article, "Bad Writing in Franz Kafka's 'Das Urteil'" in the german studies journal Seminar. He wrote a chapter ("Karl Kraus's Jewish Question") for a forthcoming anthology on Karl Kraus: Karl Kraus und die Nachwelt, eds. Gilbert Carr and Edward Timms (Munich: Iudicum, 2002). And he wrote several encyclopedia entries for the forthcoming Reference Guide to Holocaust Literature, ed. Thomas Riggs (Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press), and several review essays and reviews, for such journals as The German Quarterly, The Germanic Review, The Journal of English and Germanic Philology and Modernism/ modernity. Paul also presented papers on teaching literature at a large state university, Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful and Franz Kafka's writings on Jewish culture at, respectively, the German Studies Association convention in Houston, a conference on Holocaust film at Kent State University and the German department at the University of California, Irvine.
Benjamin Robinson , Germanic Languages and Literatures, two articles appeared in 2001: Morphine as the Tertium Quid between War and Revolution; or, The Moon Gland Secretes Poppy Sleep over the Western Front of J.R. Becher in German Quarterly Winter 2001; Tactical Humanists: Foreign Cultural Literacy in the Post-Excellent University. ADFL Bulletin Winter 2001. Still forthcoming is Saint Monica of the Turn in New German Critique Spring/Summer 2002. Two more articles are under submission: The Specialist and Moral Universalism: Self-Evidence or Political Judgment? and Outlaw Memories of Underdevelopment. I continue to revise my manuscript Other Systems: On the Ultimate Vacation in Another Germany as I begin research for my new project on Johannes Becher, Hans Fallada and Klaus Mann. Recent conferences at which I have presented: PAMLA, Santa Clara (November 2001), Power, Evidence and Testimony: Law on the Silver Screen; GSA, Washington (October 2001), Delinquents at the Bench of History: Outlaw Memories of German Underdevelopment, and, commentator, Berlin 2001: Literature, History, Politics; MLG Summer Literary Institute, Chicago, June 2001, Cold War Testimony: Speaking Power as Truth; Kent State University, Screening the Shoah (April 2001), The Specialist and Cosmopolitan Law: Genocide or the Holocaust? Cleveland State University, Invited Lecture, Prof. Sam Richmond, Philosophy (April 2001), Richard Rorty: Patriotism, Realism and the Law; berhaupt ist vieles viel verschiedener: Forschungsperspektiven zehn Jahre nach der DDR, Berlin (October 2001), Corresponding to the State of Emergency: The Fhmann/Wolf Letters.
Alexander Stephan published Agent communiste camoufle: Anna Seghers dans les dossiers du FBI" ["Camouflaged Communist Agent: Anna Seghers in the Files of the FBI"]. In europe, No. 854-855 (2000), pp. 226-38; Authentizitt und Fiktion. Das KZ Osthofen und der Roman Das siebte Kreuz von Anna Seghers [Authenticity and Fiction. The Concentration Camp Osthofen and Anna Seghers Novel The Seventh Cross]. In Die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus in Rheinland-Pfalz. Eds. Hans-Georg Meyer and Hans Berkessel. Vol. 2. Mainz: Schmidt, 2000, pp. 104-115; Partial reprint in Informationen. Studienkreis: Deutscher Widerstand, No. 52 (2000), pp. 9-13. He presented Kein Ort. Nirgends. Die Ausbrgerung und berwachung deutscher Exilanten durch Behrden des Dritten Reiches (Katastrophen und Utopien. Exil und innere Emigrantion 1933-1945, Berlin, October 2000); Das siebte Kreuz- Zur Rezeptionsgeschichte des Romans und des Films in den USA (Anna-Seghers-Woche, Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, Berlin, Germany, November 2000); Schreiben gegen das Vergessen. ber Anna Seghers Roman Das siebte Kreuz (Kulturzentrum der Aktion Lebensqualitt, Munich, Germany, November 2000); Anna Seghers in den USA (Brechtshop, Augsburg, Germany, November 2000; Die Exilanten und das FBI (Peutinger Gymnasium, Augsburg, Germany, November 2000); Anna Seghers und das FBI, (Stadtbcherei Meiningen, Germany, November 2000); Anna Seghers Roman Das siebte Kreuz, (Landesverband der Thringer Bibliothekare, Meiningen, Germany, November 2000); Das siebte Kreuz Rezeption von Film und Buch in den USA (Rathaus Mainz, Germany, November 2000); Im Visier der Diplomaten. Die Observierung deutscher Exilanten durch die Botschaft des Dritten Reiches in Paris, (Paris als Metropole des europischen Exils, Paris, France, March 2001); Fiktion und Wirklichkeit in Anna Seghers Roman Das siebte Kreuz, (Gedenksttte KZ Osthofen, Germany, June 2001); Grundforschung und kein Ende: Enteignung, Ausbrgerung und Observierung von Feuchtwanger durch das Dritte Reich, (Founding Conference, International Lion Feuchtwanger Society, Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, July 2001).
Harry Vredeveld published Some Supplementary Notes to Erasmuss De conscribendis epistolis,Humanistica Lovaniensia 50 (2000): 105141; and Deaf as Ulysses to the Sirens Song: The Story of a Forgotten Topos, Renaissance Quarterly 54 (2001), 846882. He is currently working on volumes III and IV of The Poetic Works of Helius Eobanus Hessus.
News From the Staff
Early
in the year, Natascha worked together with Professor Davidson in assembling applications
for four University Fellowship nominees and together with Professor Stephan in
sorting applications for a tenure-track faculty position. Updating the departmental
Web site has been added to Natascha's duties, and in October and November, she
attended two workshops to learn new skills. On the weekends, Natascha continued
helping Senior citizen groups near Lancaster with seasonal events and was able
to read more of the collected works of Jean Gebser.
As a team this past Summer, Brenda and Natascha revised the shared file on the
network, archived and reorganized personnel and academic files from the 1960's
to the present, and sorted binder contents that had been accumulating in Room
317. The little red wagon was often seen in the halls! Steady progress is
being made in preparing for the move to Hagerty Hall.
Graduate Student News
Erol Boran recently transferred to OSU from UT Austin. He is working towards his dissertation on Turkish theater in Germany under the supervision of Prof. Nina Berman. In the summer, Erol taught at the Deutsche Sommerschule von New Mexico. While there he also directed a theater production and presented two papers, one on "Turkish Literature in Germany" and the other on "Past and Present Reflections of the Vampire in Literature." Erol's (not so secret) passion is theater, and he is seriously considering organizing a departmental production next spring.
Kent Broestl: The son of a chemist and a botanist, he comes to Ohio State from northern Colorado after a year at Carl von Ossietzky Universitt in Oldenburg, Niedersachsen. He has started teaching 101 after 3 quarters as a Bernhard Blume Fellow, and is writing a thesis dealing with motifs of technology and medicine in literature from the Romantics to the Realists, from A. v. Arnim to Th. Fontane. His interests include magical realism/ Surrealism, Central/Latin American history, literature and folklore (especially M.A. Asturias and G.G. Marquez), and Soviet History and Culture. He currently resides with his wife, Erin, and newborn daughter Moira in San Margherita.
Alicia Carter: I'm applying for positions and attending the MLA this December in New Orleans. I plan to defend my dissertation in February 2002. The title is: "'Eine fremde Pflanze: The Gendered Gardens of Adalbert Stifter and Theodor Fontane." Publications: Review of Fontane-Handbuch, forthcoming in Colloquia Germanica / Translation of Foreword and Abstracts for forthcoming third volume of Beihefte Ikonographische Repertorien: Wege zum Mythos, ed. Dr. Gerlinde Huber-Rebenich (Friedrich Schiller Universitt Jena) / "A Circus of Disintegration: Rilke's 'Saltimbanques'" (Forthcoming proceedings of September 2001 "Circus and Literature" conference at Johns Hopkins University). Papers: "'Eine fremde Pflanze': The Gendered Garden in Adalbert Stifter's Brigitta" (Delivered at the University of Cincinnati's 6th Annual Focus Conference on German Studies, October 2001) / "Rilke's "Les Saltimbanques" and the Suburban Circus of Disintegration" (Delivered at the "Circus and Literature" conference at Johns Hopkins University, September 2001).
Kathleen Hallihanreturned from Berlin this summer where she had spent the year as the Humboldt University Exchange Fellow. While in Germany she also traveled to Weimar, Munich, and Frankfurt to complete archival research for her dissertationon Bettina von Arnim's heroic imagery in her political writings. In the summer of 2000, she participated in the German Historical Institute Summer Seminar in Paelography and Archival Studies, visiting archives in Cologne, Koblenz, Gotha, and Erfurt. This October she presented a paper at the German Studies Association Annual Conference in Washington D.C. entitled, "Lions Buffaloes and Baboons! Bettina von Arnim's Reception of the Tierkreis Motif in Her Political Writings," She has a book review for The German Quarterly under submission in which she reviews Ulrike Landfester's new Habilitationsschrift, Selbstsorge als Staatskunst. Bettine von Arnims politisches Werk. Kate is currently teaching two sections of German 103 and an OSU Adult Continuing Education course in beginning German.
Andrea Heitmann presented two papers on recent fictional accounts of Germany under Nazism in October 2000 at the Fifth Annual Graduate Student Conference at the University of Cincinnati, and in February 2001 at the conference Imagining Cultures Imagining Germanies at the University of California at Irvine. At a Graduate Student Conference at Rutgers in February 2001, she presented a paper on Marlene Streeruwitz Majakowskiring als Versuch der Konstituierung einer eigenen weiblichen Sprache." She published a book review on Manfred Hausmanns Kleine Liebe zu Amerika in Focus on German Studies. She was selected to participate in the Preparing Future Faculty Program, a collaborative program between the Graduate School and leading liberal arts colleges and universities in Ohio. In Spring 2001, Andrea was the recipient of the departmental Graduate Student Service Award.
Yogini Joglekar is working on her dissertation, "Who Cares Whodunit? Anti-Detection in German Cinema after 1945," in Newark, Delaware. In December 2000, she received an International Research Travel Grant from OSU's Office of International Affairs to complete a dissertation research trip to the National Film Archive in Berlin, Germany. She wrote a book review on Alexander Haeusser's Zeppelin!, and presented a paper on doubling in German detective film at the Northeast Modern Language Association's annual meeting. At the Visual Turn conference in Yale University, she presented a paper on the connections between history and mystery in 1950s German detective film.In October 2001, she presented "Good Times for Detection? Fritz Lang's Die 1000 Augen des Dr Mabuse (1960)" at the German Studies Association's annual meeting. She taught as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Delaware in Fall 2000, and taught German 103 at OSU in Summer 2001.
During the past year Nikhil Sathe presented papers at the annual conferences of the German Studies Association and the Northeastern Modern Languages Association, the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, and at an interdisciplinary tourism conference in the United Kingdom. He wrote a book review for Modern Austrian Literature and also was awarded a University Presidential Fellowship for work on his dissertation, The Problem of Authenticity: Tourism and Identity in Postwar Austrian Literature.
Jennifer William presented papers last year at the GSA conference in Houston, a conference on pop culture at the University of Minnesota, and a symposium on Holocaust film at Kent State University, where she also taught a course on German-Jewish intellectuals. With Professor Helen Fehervary she helped to edit a volume of the new Werkausgabe of Anna Seghers' works (Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara/Die Gefhrten). In addition, she composed a few book reviews for German Quarterly and Colloquia Germanica. The assistance of a FLAS fellowship enabled her to take some interesting courses in the Russian department and to train for the Columbus Marathon. In her spare time she enjoys making headway on her dissertation, currently entitled"Zeitrume: Time, Space, and Metaphor in the Twentieth-Century German Novel."
Awards and Honors
Andrea Heitmann was chosen to receive the Graduate Service Award. Andrea earned her MA last March and has served as the Max Kade Haus Director for two years. In addition, she works closely with our GTAs as the Peer Coordinator for the German language courses.Yevgeniya Iosilevich received the Graduate Research Paper Award in May, 2001 for her 16-pager entitled ber den Begriff der Geschichte bei Anna Seghers.
In the 2001-02 academic year, one Fellow will study here and three Fellows will study in Germany. Samuel Jordan is the Melton Center Fellow. Michaela Peroutkova was chosen for the Humboldt Fellowship; Johanna Taylor will travel to Berlin as the FU Fellow; and Sanjot Walawalkar is the Dresden Fellow.
Last but not least, Ivan Svetlicic has been selected for the Technology Award, and the Dissertation Quarter Award goes to Cynthia Chalupa.
A hearty congratulations to our hardworking Graduate Associates!
Degrees
Stephanie Libbon, Ph.D. On October 27, 2000, Stephanie successfully defended her dissertation, Frank Wedekind's Fantasy World: A Theater of Sexuality. Prof. Becker-Cantarino - advisor.Moises Mermelstein, M.A. On November 14, 2000, Moises successfully defended his thesis, Shloyme Braynski: His Colombian Work in Context. Prof. Miller - advisor.
Lijun Feng, M.A. On February 15, 2001, Lijun successfully defended her thesis, Literatur als Therapie? Goethes Werther und Handkes Wunschloses Unglck. Prof. Becker-Cantarino - advisor.
Ivan Svetlicic, M.A. On May 16, 2001, Ivan passed his Master's Exam. Prof. Becker-Cantarino - advisor.
Jeffrey Rossetti, M.A. On May 18, 2001, Jeffrey passed his Master's Exam. Prof. Fehervary - advisor.
Bryan Kampbell, M.A. On May 18, 2001, Bryan passed his Master's Exam. Prof. Hammermeister - advisor.
Jennifer Scott, M.A. On May 23, 2001, Jennifer passed her Master's Exam. Prof. Becker-Cantarino - advisor.
GLL talks in 2000 ~ 2001
Peter Henisch gave a reading at the Max Kade German House on October 9, 2000. Henisch is an Austrian novelist and author of Schwarzer Peter.Prof. Helmut Schneider gave a lecture at the Max Kade German House on October 17, 2000 Sonnenlicht und Bhnenbeleuchtung: Geburt und Bild in Goethes Faust was the title.
The first Inaugural Lecture of the 2000-2001 series was given by Prof. Alexander Stephan, Ohio Eminent Scholar in German. He presented Communazis: FBI Surveillance of German Emigr Writers on October 24, 2000.
Prof. Wolfgang Mieder , the worlds foremost proverb expert and author of over 50 books, presented In Lingua Veritas: Sprichwrtliche Rhetorik in Victor Klemperers Tagebchern 1933-1945 on October 25, 2000.
Prof. Henry A. Landsberger , from the University of North Carolina, spoke about Jews and Germans: The Gilded Age- Tragedy- Remorse- Renewal: Two Hundred Years of Jews in Dresden on ctober 26, 2000.
Prof. Rudolf Drux of the University of Kln presented Homo replicatus. Der technisch herstellbare Mensch zwischen Mythos und Wirklichkeit on October 30, 2000.
Marlene Streeruwitz , Austrian writer and playwright, visited the department on November 20, 2000 to read from her works.
Prof. Jay Rosellini , visiting from Purdue, gave a talk entitled Der langsame Abschied von der pazifistischen Leitkultur on January 26, 2001.
Prof. Nina Berman presented Colonization or Modernization: Max Eyths autobiographical Writings about Egypt on January 29, 2001.
Prof. Alexander Kosenina of the Freie Universitt Berlin gave a talk entitled Mikroskop und Guckkasten als Werkzeuge und Metaphern der Poesie on February 5, 2001.
Prof. Inge Stephan of the Humboldt-Universitt Berlin presented Weiblichkeit und Wasser: Zu einem kulturellen und literarischen Muster von der Romantik bis zur Gegenwart on February 22, 2001.
Prof. Irmela von der L, from Gttingen, lectured on Weiblicher Krper und moderne Welt: Bilder und Schreckbilder in der Literatur des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts on March 30, 2001.
Christoph Peters , author of the novel Stadt Land Flu (1999), read new stories at the Max Kade German House on April 2, 2001.
Prof. Jochen Vogtmso, the departments Visiting Kade Professor, gave a talk on Tatort: Crime at Prime Time: Thirty Years of History in Germanys Most Popular TV-Series on April 9, 2001.
Robert C. Holub, of UC Berkeley, presented The Deportation Train: Toward a Lexicon of Holocaust Film on April 18, 2001.
Dr. Fatima El-Tayeb presented "We Are Germans, We Are White and We Want to Stay White!"
Race and National Identity in 20th Century on October 8, 2001, followed by a screening of her film Alles wird gut the same evening.
Prof. Volker R. Berghahn, Seth Low Professor of History, Columbia University, presented America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe on October 11, 2001.
Other Activities
Alumni
Christine Moeller-Sahling reports:- I successfully defended my dissertation entitled "Der Liebesdiskurs im Brief um 1800" on August 10, 2001.
- I will be presenting a paper on "Epistolary Gender Discourses in the Seventeenth Century: A Comparative Study of Madame de Sevigne's and Lieselotte von der Pfalz' Letters" at the MLA Convention 2001 in New Orleans on December 30.
- My paper on "Sophie Mereau and Therese Huber: The Political and Private in the Correspondence of two German Women Writers during the French Revolution" will be published with Ashgate Publishers in the United Kingdom in the Volume Gender, the Letter, and Politics (1750-2000): From the Local to the Global in 2002.
- In August, I moved to Indiana, and I started as an Assistant Professor of German (tenure-track) in the Foreign Language Department at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, IN. Teaching three German courses and one Western Traditions (1400-present) course, while continuing to work in love letters. I have been too busy so far to visit the Dan Quayle Museum in Evansville.
- Last August, I successfully defended my dissertation on the mirror image in modernist poetry. I am now an assistant professor of German at West Virginia University.
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