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Department Newsletter
Autumn 2002

Prof. Kai Hammermeister - Editor

TABLE OF CONTENTS Graduate Student News 2002 ~ 2003

Note from the Editor

We are happy to share with our readers the news from yet another year in our department. We hope that this newsletter serves the function to inform you about recent events, but that it also encourages you to stay in touch with us. We want to invite you to visit our department’s Web site at www.germanic.ohio-state.edu.

Our secretary Natascha Miller helped greatly in putting together this issue of the annual newsletter. Responsibility for the content, however, rests with the editor.

With the best wishes for the holiday season,
Kai Hammermeister

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Letter from the Chair

As we witness how rapidly and fundamentally the US role in the world can shift, one cant help but think that foreign language departments in this country will not remain unaffected both administratively and academically. Against this geopolitical backdrop, it seems timely indeed that, in a number of ways, the department has begun to reflect on the recent history of German-American relations. Alexander Stephan has organized a conference on Americanization and Anti-Americanism: The Impact of American Culture after 1945 in collaboration with OSUs Mershon Center for the Study of International Security and Public Policy, 18-20 October 2002. The conference is preceded by a two-day graduate student symposium on the same topic, organized by a group of dedicated graduate students.

Another intriguing approach to intertwined perspectives of American and European lifestyles can be explored in a remarkable novel written by a member of our faculty. Earlier this year, Gregor Hens published Himmelssturz, a campus novel featuring a German linguist teaching in the American Midwest (www.randomhouse.de/btb/).

I am pleased to report that three students defended their dissertations this summer: Jennifer William, who accepted a tenure-track position at Purdue University; Yogini Joglekar, who accepted a position at St. Marys College of Maryland; and Alicia Carter, who stays with us for another year as visiting assistant professor. She is joined by Andy Spencer, who returns to the department once again as visiting assistant professor to help out with our increasing enrollments at the advanced language levels. Andy directed our summer program at the TU Dresden this year and, amidst sandbagging and pumping water, managed to have every class taught and every test administered. Nick Sathe, who is about to complete his dissertation, has accepted a position at Ohio University.

And there is another positive development I can report. Our first alumni fund drive was met with extraordinary generosity, and, even more important, it allowed us to reconnect with a large number of old friends. Several alumni were kind enough to send biographical information. Some can be found at the end of this newsletter. My sincere gratitude for the many letters and e-mails and, of course, for the financial contributions! If you have not written yet or if you have additional news, please let us hear from you.

Bernd Fischer

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Faculty Profile

Professor Harry Vredeveld

Its a post-modern world, so nowadays many of us study marginalized writers authors who arent in the canon because nobody paid attention to them. Our colleague Harry Vredeveld has evidently been ahead of the curve all along. As a matter of fact, hes been working on such authors for several decades already. Having started so early, however, he may have gotten his post-modernism a bit backwards. For the writers he studies are the ones that everybody used to pay attention to, but who have since become marginalized: Renaissance poets who wrote in Latin.

So why still bother with those faded supernovas? Harry replies with a question of his own. Why ignore the half of German literature on which the other, vernacular half is founded? Take the example of Sebastian Brant. Brant wrote his masterpiece in German. But since he, like all educated Europeans of his time, was raised in the Latin tradition and constantly wrote and thought in that language, it is obvious that we moderns ought to know at least something about the shores from which his famous book set sail. Indeed, without this sort of background it is we whod be at sea in the Narrenschiff. The same, mutatis mutandis, holds true for Opitz and Gryphius, for Lessing and Goethe. It was Goethe, after all, who had to scold his younger contemporaries in the early 19th century: Einer freieren Weltansicht, die der Deutsche sich zu verkmmern auf dem Weg ist, wrde ... sehr zu statten kommen, wenn ein junger geistreicher Gelehrter das wahrhaft poetische Verdienst zu wrdigen unternhme, welches deutsche Dichter in der lateinischen Sprache seit drei Jahrhunderten an den Tag gegeben. Es wrde daraus hervorgehen, da der Deutsche sich treu bleibt, und wenn er auch mit fremden Zungen spricht. Wir drfen nur des Johannes Secundus und Baldes gedenken.... Zugleich wrde er beachten, wie auch andere gebildete Nationen zu der Zeit, als Lateinisch die Weltsprache war, in ihr gedichtet und sich auf eine Weise unter einander verstndigt, die uns jetzt verloren geht.

Access to this lost Atlantis is of course far more difficult now than it was even in Goethes day. Latin and Greek are no longer the pillars of western education; the primary sources are hard to obtain and harder to understand. Few of the Renaissance masters are available in modern editions or translations. That is why Harry has made it his goal to help make their works accessible again. To this end he has focused especially on three humanist Latin poets: Sebastian Brant (1457-1521), Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536), and especially Helius Eobanus Hessus (1488-1540).

Not everybody is aware that Erasmus was a major poet in his own right. The fact is, however, that he started his career as a poet and continued to write verse all his life. In the past decade Harry edited and annotated all of Erasmuss Latin and Greek verse, first in the Collected Works of Erasmus, vols. 85-86 (Toronto, 1993), with a prose translation by Clarence H. Miller, and then in the historical-critical Opera omnia (Amsterdam, 1995). He also investigated philological aspects of other works by Erasmus, and more recently did the same for Sebastian Brants Latin texts. In addition he has worked hard to complement the existing commentaries on the Narrenschiff by uncovering the works biblical, classical, patristic, and medieval roots.

But the Erasmus and Brant projects, large as they are, are really just a sideshow to Harrys long-term dream: a complete edition and translation of Eobanus Hessuss poetic works, with extensive introductions and notes.

For many years the epitome of Erfurt humanism, later also the leading light at Nuremberg and Marburg, Eobanus Hessus was the best Latin poet in Germany, admired for his style, his learning, and his boldness in pioneering new genres on his native soil. It was he who introduced the eclogue cycle to German literature (Bucolicon, 1509). He was the first to compose a poetic description of Prussia (1510) and publish a book of fictional letters by women saints (Letters from Christian Heroines, 1514). Just as memorable are his elegies in praise of Martin Luther (1521) and his Nuremberg Glorified (1532), a vivid depiction of the citys scenic, artistic, and cultural splendors. Hessus was equally at home in the medical field, as one can see in his enormously successful Rules for Keeping in Good Health (1524). His fame was capped by a splendid verse paraphrase of the Psalter (1537) a book that remained a best seller for well over a century. Erasmus of Rotterdam dubbed him the Christian Ovid; Johannes Reuchlin crowned him king of poets.

It is perhaps a measure of how badly Neo-Latin literature has become marginalized that Harry has found it hard to publish a complete edition of this once-revered classic. Two contracts and three decades later, he has one volume to show for his efforts: Helius Eobanus Hessus, Dichtungen: Lateinisch und Deutsch. Dritter Band (Bern, 1990), still in print. But Harry is not one to roll over easily. Discarding the German-language translations and notes that he had already put together, he started over again for an English-speaking audience, secured a third contract (Renaissance Texts Series, sponsored by the Renaissance Society of America), and is happy to report that the first volume (Student Years at Erfurt, 1504-1509) is currently being copy-edited. Volume 2 (Journeyman Years, 1509-1514) is virtually finished, thanks to a NEH Fellowship. If all goes as planned, volume 3 (King of Poets, 1514-1526) will follow in a year or two. Each of the projected nine volumes will offer a critical edition of the Latin texts, with an idiomatic translation and a detailed commentary.

So wish Harry well. Make sure your librarian does too!

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Professor Hens first novel Himmelssturz

-- Professor Paul Reitter

On May 2, 2002, Gregor Hens gave a literary reading at the Max Kade German House. Dr. Hens first belletristic publication, a novel entitled Himmelssturz, appeared last spring. It was greeted with much enthusiasm. The German editions of Vogue and Marie Claire listed Dr. Hens as one of Germanys most promising young authors. And both the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Sddeutsche Zeitung reviewed Himmelssturz favorably. At the Kade German House Dr. Hens read from a forthcoming collection of short stories. Judging from response of the group assembled there, it too will elicit energetic applause. How did Dr. Hens manage to get so far so fast? When asked this question, Dr. Hens emphasized the importance of his academic experiences. He stated that his literary critical training has yielded insights into the basic principles of storytelling. He also mentioned that his colleagues and friends have helped provide him with rich material for his fictional works.

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OSU students witness "Jahrtausendflut in Dresden

-- Professor Andy Spencer

The 24 OSU students who returned in September from the eighth annual Summer Study in Dresden Program got more than they bargained for during their time in Germany. The floods which hit the city this past August coincided with the second half of the eight week program and there was no escaping their impact. While neither the dorms in which students stayed nor the university facilities of which we availed ourselves were directly affected, life in the city after August 12 was anything but normal as some thirty thousand people had to be evacuated from their homes. A continual soundtrack of sirens accompanied the frantic activity aimed at staving off at least some of the destruction wrought as the River Elbe rose to an unprecedented high water-mark of 9.4m, almost 8m above normal levels. Several students helped out on sandbagging duties in the historic Altstadt district but despite everybodys best efforts the damage caused to the citys cultural institutions alone is estimated at 64.5m Euro, while smaller towns close by, such as Meissen and Pirna, experienced incalculable losses when their medieval town centers disappeared under unimagined volumes of water. While money was immediately made available to the region from the Federal Government and from fund-raising campaigns initiated in the days following the catastrophe, it will be some time before the cost in livelihoods becomes clear.

One thing that is for sure is that this years participants will not soon forget their experiences in Germany and will be wishing Dresdens population well as it picks up the pieces, scrubs off the mud and, in many cases, starts over afresh. Information in both German and English on Dresdens clean-up efforts, including addresses for donations, can be found at www.sachsen.de.

Andy Spencer

Director, Ohio State Summer Study in Dresden Program, 1998-2002

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A Trip Back to Ohios German Roots

German 260: The German Experience in America

This past May, Professor Barbara Becker-Cantarino organized a field trip to historic German settlements in Ohio for her German 260 class and members of the German department. The group of undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty started out in their OSU chartered bus bright and early on a sunny Saturday morning and drove eastward through the scenic south-eastern countryside to Tuscarawas County, where we visited three German-American settlements: Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrunn, and Zoar Village.

Founded in the 1770s by Moravian missionaries, Gnadenhutten (pronounced ja-nay-den-hutten) is one of Ohios oldest existing settlement. In 1782, ninety Indian members of the settlement were massacred and their cabins set afire. In 1798, John Heckwelder returned to the area to begin a second settlement. He buried the bones of these men, women, and children in a single burial mound which has never since been disturbed. We visited the memorial and toured the settlement buildings and grounds on the banks of the Tuscarawas river.

Our second stop was at Schoenbrunn Village, founded in 1772 by missionary David Zeisberger as a Moravian mission to the Delaware Indians. This first Christian settlement in Ohio grew to include sixty dwellings and more than 300 inhabitants who drew up Ohios first civil code and built its first Christian church and schoolhouse. Problems associated with the Revolutionary War lead to Schoenbrunns closing. The village has been reconstructed by the Ohio Historical Society in the 1920s as a State Memorial. We visited several log structures, the schoolhouse, the town hall, the original cemetery named Gods Acre, and the two-and-a-half-acres of planted fields. In the town hall David Zeisberger (impersonated by historian and Zeisberger-biographer Earl Omstead) entertained us with stories about the Moravians and Indians.

After a picnic lunch at the metropolitan park in New Philadelphia, we traveled to nearby

Zoar Village with its beautifully maintained 19th -century German buildings. Established in 1817 on a 5,500-acre tract of land along the Tuscarawas river by a group of 300 German Separatists from Wrttemberg under the leadership of Joseph Bumeler (now: Bimeler), Zoar was meant to be a sanctuary from evil. Because of difficult living conditions, the group developed a communal society: all property, wealth, and work were pooled, each member had to follow the decisions of the societys trustees, elected by all adult men and women. In return, each member received food, clothing, and shelter. The new communal economy, the thrift and skills of its members, and Bumelers business acumen enabled the society to thrive until it was dissolved at the end of the 19th century. Our tour guide showed us the stately Number One Bimeler House with its communal kitchen, laundry, and storage rooms, the large greenhouse, the old bakery, tinshop, wagon shop, and blacksmith shop and explained the intricate workings of the members daily lives and duties. We walked through the Zoar gardens arranged in a biblically inspired pattern, marveled at the skills and inventiveness of the nineteenth-century settlers and wondered how we would have fared under the difficult conditions the early German settlers faced in Ohio.

The field trip was made possible by generous support from the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and the Max Kade Foundation. It will become a standard feature of the new course on the German heritage in North America, especially in Ohio, together with a visit to German Village in Columbus and an excursion to the Amish country in central Ohio.

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Business German LIVE: Striezelmarkt

-- Professor Kathy Corl

When the Dresden Striezelmarkt merchants arrive in Columbus in late November to set up their Christmas market booths at Easton Town Center, they will already have made contact with some friendly faces from OSU. Beginning in July, a group of our enterprising undergraduate majors and business German students met with Mr. Dixon Miller of Dresden Sister City, Inc. for their assignments as student liaisons to Striezelmarkt vendors. Through this service learning project, our undergraduate student liaisons gain valuable experience that deepens their intercultural and business German skills. We thank Mr. Dixon Miller from the Columbus legal firm Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur for his many contributions to our Business German program.

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Poetic Nights

-- Erol Boran

Whrend des akademischen Jahres 2001/2002 erlebte das Department zwei Gedichtslesungen der ganz besonderen Art. Zu beiden Anlssen war das Max Kade Haus bis unter das Dach mit lyrikwtigen Knstlern und Schaulustigen gefllt, die bereit waren, sich vom Zauber - und auch dem Schrecken - der deutschen Sprache verfhren zu lassen.

Die erste Lesung unter dem Motto "Grausen und Schrecken" fand Ende Oktober, also gerade recht zu Halloween, statt und entfhrte uns in eine Welt von Finsternis und Folter. Und wem das noch nicht schockierend genug war, der durfte dann im Februar noch die Lesung "Liebeslust und Liebesfrust" ber sich ergehen lassen, bei der es mitunter nicht weniger nervenzerreibend zuging als in der vorhergehenden. Von Mittelalterlichem ber Goethe/Schiller bis hin zu Fried und sogar zu Selbstverzapftem war dabei alles geboten - und trotz des fr deutsche Verhltnisse kaum begreiflichen Alkoholmangels kam es sogar zu musikalischen und dramatischen Intermezzos oder -mezzi oder was-auch-immer.

Was blieb unter dem Strich? Freudenspendende lyrische Ergsse - na sicher! Neue Erkenntnisse ber Tod und Liebe - na klar doch! Das Vorhaben, weitere mehr oder minder grauslige Lesungen zu veranstalten - wahrlich keine Frage! ... Also Ohren auf, wenn es bald wieder heit: "Willkommen, meine Damen und Herren, lassen Sie sich erneut entfhren zum Abgrund der Lyrik ...!"

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Conferences

Americanization and Anti-Americanism.
The Impact of American Culture on Germany
after 1945

Mershon Center/Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
October 18-20, 2002

Organizer: Alexander Stephan

From October 18 to 20, 2002 the Mershon Center for the Study of International Security and Public Policy at The Ohio State University, supported by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, hosted an international conference on Americanization and Anti-Americanism. The Impact of American Culture on Germany after 1945. The event was opened by a discussion on The Image of the United States in Germany between Bowman Miller, the Director of the Office of Analysis for Europe at the U.S. Department of State, and Karsten D. Voigt, the Coordinator for German-American Cooperation in the Auswrtige Amt in Berlin. This debate was followed by a lecture by Volker Berghahn (Columbia University) entitled Awkward Relations: European Perceptions of America - American Perceptions of Europe in the 20th Century. Four subsequent panels focused on Politics of Culture (Russell Berman, Michael Ermarth, Bernd Greiner), Popular Culture (Jost Hermand, Kaspar Maase, Heide Fehrenbach), Film (David Bathrick, Sabine Hake, Thomas Elsaesser), and European and Global Perspectives (Richard Pells, Rob Kroes, Winfried Fluck). The full program of the conference is attached below. The event received support from the Deutsche Programm fr transatlantische Begegnung (Bundesministerium fr Wirtschaft und Technologie, Berlin), the German Academic Exchange Service in New York, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in Bonn, Germany.

Funding has been secured from various U.S. and German sources to continue at different locations in Europe and at The Ohio State University this initial investigation of the impact of American culture on Germany, Europe and the world in the 20th Century. For instance, in collaboration with Jochen Vogt of Essen University several events are planned at the Kulturwissenschaftliche Institut and the University in Essen in 2002, 2003 and 2004, including a lecture series and two international conferences looking at the image of America in German literature and at the transfer of American culture to various European countries. These meetings will be complemented by a number of mini-symposia and an international conference about the impact of American culture on different regions of the world organized by Alexander Stephan with the Mershon Center, the Office of International Affairs and the Area Studies Centers at OSU between 2003 to 2005. Stephan is teaching two graduate seminars and a freshmen Honors seminar on the topics of these conferences and on the relationship between culture and security in a globalizing world.

An ongoing lecture series arranged by Stephan since Spring 2002 at the Mershon Center complements the symposia with presentations by prominent historians and specialists in culture studies, including Volker Berghahn (Columbia) who talked on America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe and Martin Jay (UC Berkeley) who discussed the double transfer of the Frankfurt School across the Atlantic.

More information on the events above and on Stephans project at the Mershon Center can be found at http://www.germanic.ohio-state.edu/faculty/AS and http://www.mershon.ohio-state.edu.

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Graduate Student Conference

On October 16th and 17th, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures held a Graduate Student Conference entitled Americanization and Anti-Americanism: The Impact of American Culture on Germany After 1945. This conference was organized by Andrea Heitmann and Kristy Boney with the assistance of Norm Hirschy and was held in conjunction with the following professorial conference of the same title.

Following an opening reception at the Max Kade German House and opening remarks by Professor Bernd Fischer, Prof. Paul Michael Luetzeler, the Rosa May Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, held a Key Note Address entitled The City of Man (1940): An Example of American-European Intellectual Cooperation. Further conference panels took place at the Mershon Center for the Study of International Security and Public Policy and included 10 papers covering issues pertinent not only to literature, but also to popular culture, history, gender studies and political science. In keeping with its title, the conference was pleased to welcome submissions not only from across the United States, but also from Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany. Kristy Boney, Sai Bhatawadekar, Michaela Peroutkova and Norm Hirschy served as moderators. A closing dinner was held at the Max Kade German House.

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Autumn Quarter 2002 Film Screening

-- Norm Hirschy

On Wednesday, Oct. 23rd, The Max Kade German House hosted over 35 people for a screening of the film Der bewegte Mann. Refreshments were sponsored by the Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Student Affairs. Despite some audio-visual difficulties, the evening was a success and some audience members expressed interest in living in the German House in the future.

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Faculty News 2001 ~ 2002

Autumn - Summer

Barbara Becker-Cantarino published the chapter Goethe and Gender in The Cambridge Companion to Goethe. Ed. Leslie Sharpe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002, pp. 179-92; the article Martin Opitz und der Dreiigjhrige Krieg in Martin Opitz (1597-1639). Nachahmungspoetik und Lebenswelt. Ed. Thomas Borgstedt and Walter Schmitz. Tbingen: Niemeyer, pp. 38-52; and Dorothea Veit-Schlegel als Schriftstellerin und die Berliner Frhromantik in Arnim und die Berliner Romantik: Kunst, Literatur und Politik. Ed. Walter Pape. Tbingen: Niemeyer, 2001, pp.123 - 134.

She reviewed Bettina Gruber, Die Seherin von Prevorst. Romantischer Okkultismus als Religion, Wissenschaft und Literatur. Paderborn: Schningh, 2000. 306 pp. in Germanistik 42 (2001), pp. 740-41; Sigrid Nieberle, FrauenMusikLiteratur. Deutschsprachige Schriftstellerinnen im 19. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1999. 272 pp. in Jahrbuch fr Internatonale Germanistik 33,1 (2001), 206-209; Ulrike Landfester, Selbstsorge als Staatskunst. Bettine von Arnims politisches Werk. Wrzburg: Knigshausen & Neumann 2000 (Stiftung fr Romantikforschung, Bd. 8); 411 pp. in Internationales Jahrbuch der Bettina-von-Arnim-Gesellschaft 13/14 (2001/2002), pp. 277-82.

She presented: Mythos und Geschlecht: Dorothea Veit, Florentin und Eichendorff, Das Marmorbild at the University of Kln on January 24; Erbauung und Autorschaft: Johanna Eleonora Petersens Herzensgesprche mit Gott (1689) at the conference on Erbauung im 17. Jahrhundert at the University of Mainz in April 2002; Empfindsamkeit und Frauenlektre im 18. Jahrhundert at the international colloquium Das Projekt Empfindsamkeit und die Moderne in Osnabrck in June; and Freundschaft in der Konstruktion romantischer Identitt: Bettina von Arnims Briefbcher at the meeting of the Arnim-Gesellschaft in Glasgow in July 2002. She traveled to Wroclav, Poland, to present Johann Scheffler und die Kontroverse um seine Tuercken-Schrifft at the International Congress Silesia, War and Peace in the Seventeenth Century in September and spoke at the international conference on Geselligkeit und brgerliche Kultur on the topic Reliquien empfindsamer Freundschaft: Sophie von La Roche, Julie Bondeli und die Schweiz at the Gleim-Haus Halberstadt in early October 2002.

She served as organizer and moderator co-chair of a panel on Representations of Sexuality in 18th and 19th century German Literature at the Women in German Conference, Tucson, AZ, Oct. 18-21 and organized and chaired a Special Session Reading in the 18th Century at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association in New Orleans, December 27-30, 2001.

She continues as co-editor of the journal Daphnis. Zeitschrift fr Mittlere Deutsche Literatur and chaired the meeting of the steering committee, Wolfenbtteler Arbeitskreis fr Barockforschung, January 2002, planning the next international congress (for 2003). As a member of the Board of Directors of the Alexander von Humboldt Association of America she attended an invitational conference at the Humboldt Stiftung in Bonn and served as moderator for two sessions at the meeting of the Humboldt Association of America in Berkeley, CA in May 2002.

Nina Berman published the book chapters: Colonization or Globalization? Ernst Udets Account of East Africa from 1932. Africanizing Knowledge: African Studies Across the Disciplines Eds. Toyin Falola and Christian Jennings. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers Rutgers, 2002. pp 297-313; Defining Religious Identity in Modern Germany: Two Case Studies. Islam and the West: Judgements, Prejudices, Political Perspectives. Ed. Werner Ruf. Mnster: agenda-Verlag, 2002. pp 95-109; The Appeal of Karl May in the Wilhelmine Empire: Emigration, Modernization, and the Need for Heroes. A Companion to Realism. Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture. Ed. Todd Kontje. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2002. pp 283-305; Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Political VisionAn Analysis of Selected Early Prose Writings. A Companion to the Works of Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture. Ed. Thomas A. Kovach. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2002. pp 201-220; With Good Intentions, Humanities Exchange 2002, The Ohio State University; and two book reviews: Turk, Horst, Brigitte Schultze and Roberto Simanowski, eds. Kulturelle Grenzziehungen im Spiegel der Literaturen. Nationalismus, Regionalismus, Fundamentalismus. Gttingen: Wallstein, 1998. Monatshefte 93.4 (Winter 2001) 510-11, and Gelbin, Cathy S., Kader Konuk and Peggy Piesche, eds. AufBrche: Kulturelle Produktionen von Migratinnen, Schwarzen und jdischen Frauen in Deutschland. Knigstein/Taunus: Ulrike Helmer, 1999. The German Quarterly 74.3 (Summer 2001): 326.

She presented Autobiographies about Kenyan-German Marriages: Questions of Reception and Context. Conference in Honor of Susanne Zantop, Dartmouth College, June 20-22, 2002; "Modernizing Egypt: A Turkish-German Development Project." University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, September 12, 2002; Informal Development Aid: German Repeat Visitors in Kenya. African Studies Association, Houston, November 15-18, 2001; and How Ethnic Is It? Reflections on works by Arab-German writers of the second generation. German Studies Association, Washington, October 4-7, 2001.

Kathryn A. Corl reviewed Nicol, Janet L. (Ed.) One Mind, Two Languages: Bilingual Language Processing. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001 for the Modern Language Journal. Together with alumna Barbara Schnttgen Jurasek she co-authored and taught Listening, an online professional development course offered through the GOLDEN Project (German Online Distance Education Network) sponsored by the AATG, Goethe Institut and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received grants from OSUs CIBER to attend the CIBER Conference on Global Interdependence and Language, Culture, and Business, Chapel Hill NC, and from the Goethe Institut to attend a Lehrerfortbildungsseminar for commercial communication in Dsseldorf, Germany.

Helen Fehervary published Anna Seghers, Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara, vol. I/1, A.S.,Werkausgabe (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 2002), 171pp.; commentary: 100-63 Mitarbeit: Jennifer William; Einige Gedanken zu Exil und Heimat im Leben und Werk der Anna Seghers,University Governance and Humanistic Scholarship: Studies in Honor of Diether Haenicke, ed. Joachim Dyck et al. (Wrzburg: Verlag Knigshausen & Neumann, 2002), 89-99; Response to Heroes and Reunification: The Resistance of Cultural Memory from Two Germanies, in: Heroes and Heroism in German Culture: Essays in Honor of Jost Hermand, ed. Stephen Brockmann and James Steakley (Amsterdam/New York: Editions Rodopi, 2001), 157-61; a review of Carola Stern, Mnner lieben anders: Helene Weigel und Bertolt Brecht (Berlin: Rowohlt Berlin Verlag, 2000) in The Brecht Yearbook, 26 (2001), 353-55; and Anna Seghers, Whos Who in Contemporary Womens Writing, ed. Jane Eldridge Miller (New York: Routledge, 2002): paperback reprint.

She presented Storytelling in the Darkest of Times: Anna Seghers and Walter Benjamin at the University of Maryland-College Park, 24 October 2001; Gnter Grass: Writer and Graphic Artist at The Humanities Institute, OSU, 19 November 2001; John Willett: The Power and Wit of the Context at the MLA Convention in New Orleans, 27 December 2001; "Heiner Mller's Representations of Hitler: The Bunker as topos for the Endpoint and the Terror of the New", 35th Wisconsin Workshop: Unmasking Hitler: Cultural Representations of Adolf Hitler from the Weimar Republic to the Present, Madison, Wisconsin, September 19-21, 2002; and moderated the panel Metacommentaries on Germanic Theatrical Influences at the 26th Comparative Drama Conference, OSU, 27 April 2002.

Bernd Fischer published Verfhrte Verfhrer: Zur Ordnung der Gefhle bei Heinrich von Kleist. University Governance and Humanistic Scholarship: Studies in Honor of Diether Hnicke. Vol. 1: Studies. Ed. Joachim Dyck et al. Wrzburg: Knigshausen & Neumann, 2002. 101-12; "Fremdbestimmung und Identittspolitik in Die Hermannsschlacht." Kleists Erzhlungen und Dramen: Neue Studien. Ed. Paul Michael Ltzeler & David Pan. Wrzburg: Knigshausen & Neumann, 2001. 165-78; Kleist und die Romantik. Arnim und die Berliner Romantik: Kunst, Literatur und Politik. Ed. Walter Pape. Tbingen: Niemeyer, 2001. 135-51.

He reviewed Hilda Meldrum Brown. Heinrich von Kleist: The Ambiguity of Art and the Necessity of Form (Oxford: Claredon, 1998). Colloquia Germanica 34 (2001): 74-76.

He presented Romantische Identitt und Nation: Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis und Edmund Burke, Fourth Symposium of the International Achim von Arnim Society: Constructing Identities: History and Biography in German and English Romanticism, Goethe Institute Glasgow, UK, 26 Jul. 2002; Durchbrochene sthetik: berlegungen zu einem deutsch-jdischen Projekt, Universitt Bonn, Germany, 26 Jan. 2002; Kleist und Krieg heute, Deutsche Eliten I (Lecture and Discussion following a performance of Thomas Bischoffs production of Heinrich von Kleists Hermannsschlacht at the State Theater Niedersachsen), Schauspielhaus Hannover, Germany, 21 Oct. 2001.

Kai Hammermeister's monograph Hans-Georg Gadamer (1999) was published in Dutch translation. (Rotterdam: Lemniscaat, 2002. Translator: Marc Van den Bossche) His article "Hegel, Heidegger und die Architektur" appeared in Weimarer Beitrge (3/2001), pp. 433-446. He revewied books for Germanic Notes and Reviews, Theologische Revue, German Quarterly, Philosophisches Jahrbuch, German Studies Review, and Philosophischer Literaturanzeiger.

Gregor Hens contributed two entries to the Enclyclopedia of Life Writing (Fitzroy Dearborn 2001) and published an article on Thomas Bernhard in the first Jahrbuch der Thomas-Bernhard-Privatstiftung, Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler and Martin Huber. He also published a novel, Himmelssturz (Mnchen: btb, 2002), and writes essays on contemporary culture for various German newspapers.

Neil G. Jacobs published the article: Yiddish in the Baltic Region. In: sten Dahl and Maria-Koptjevskaja-Tamm (eds.), The Circum-Baltic Languages, pp. 285-311. Benjamins: Amsterdam. He presented The East of Convenience: Geography, Yiddishism and the notion of Eastern Europe at the conference Beyond the Shtetl: Yiddish Language and Culture in 20th Century Eastern Europe, Indiana University, October 28-30, 2001; Experienced Drivers: Code Switching in Contemporary American Hasidic Yiddish at the 8th Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference [GLAC-8], Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, April 26-28, 2002. The borders of Yiddish as a modern European Kultur-language at METHODS XI: Eleventh International Conference on Methods in Dialectology, University of Joensuu, North Karelia, Finland, August 5 - 9, 2002. (Refereed); and The Urbanization of Yiddish, invited lecture, Uriel Weinreich Summer Yiddish Program. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Columbia University. June 25, 2002. Professor Jacobs received a Small Research Grant from the Melton Center for Jewish Studies for 2001-2002, and conducted research on Jewish cabaret at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the Leo Baeck Institute, both at the Center for Jewish History (New York, June 2002).

Paul Reitter presented his work last year at the GSA conference, UCLA, the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oberlin College and the CATCO Educators Workshop at Ohio Dominican University. He published several reviews, several review essays and several encyclopedia entries. He also published an article on Franz Kafkas short fiction in Seminar.

Alexander Stephan is currently working on a research project with the title Culture, Conflict and Identity. The Impact of American Culture on Europe in the 20th Century. The opening event of the research project on Culture, Conflict and Security was a conference on Jeans, Rock and Vietnam. American Culture in the German Democratic Republic, which took place in January 2002 at the Literaturforum in Berlin. In related projects, German national television produced two documentaries during the past twelve months with Alexander Stephan about the surveillance by the FBI of the German exile intellectual Bertolt Brecht and the movie star Marlene Dietrich. Two other TV contributions based on the study Communazis. FBI Surveillance of German migr Writers (2000) deal with attempts of the Office of Strategic Services to use Thomas Mann and his fellow exiles as sources of information for the planning of the political and cultural life in post-WW II Europe. The proceeding of the conference on Jeans, Rock and Vietnam appeared in Theater der Zeit in Berlin (2002). Professor Stephan was elected President of the International Brecht Society (IBS) and participated in founding the International Lion Feuchtwanger Society.

Harry Vredeveld published Materials for a New Commentary to Sebastian Brants Narrenschiff (II), Daphnis 29 (2000): 709-713; Deaf as Ulysses to the Sirens Song: The Story of a Forgotten Topos, Renaissance Quarterly 54 (2001): 846-882 ; and Towards a Serviceable Edition of Sebastian Brants Kleine Texte, Humanistica Lovaniensia 50 (2001): 19-89. He also delivered a lecture on Eobanus Hessus in Krakau at the Akademie gemeinntziger Wissenschaften zu Erfurt, Tagung zum Erfurter Humanistenkreis, October, 2001. ld

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GLL lectures and other events in 2001 ~ 2002

On November 8, 2001, Tilo Schulz, an artist from Leipzig, Germany, talked about e.w.e.-exhibition without exhibition, which is an exhibition project he organized over three years with different artists from Europe.

The Gnter Grass ~ About Drawing and Writing Exhibition Opening was held at the George Wells House on November 19, 2001. Professor Helen Fehervary gave an introduction to this travelling exhibition which was arranged by the Goethe Institute, New York.

In honor of Valentines Day 2002, the department hosted an evening of poetry and song - Liebeslust und Liebesfrust at the Max Kade German House.

Professor Paul Reitter served as the moderator at the Jewish Studies in Different Disciplinary Contexts Symposium on February 25, 2002. Participants included Professor Robin Judd (The Ohio State University), Professor David Brenner (Kent State University), and Professor Lou Rose (Otterbein College).

On March 4, 2002, the German artistic duo The Reinigungsgesellschaft, reported on co-operative and social interactive forms of contemporary art.

Prof. Dr. Edith Wenzel (University of Aachen) lectured on Isolation or Symbiosis? Social and cultural relationships between Jews and Non-Jews in Medieval Europe. (3/11/02)

Professor Horst Wenzel (Humboldt Universitt - Berlin), our 2002 Max Kade Visiting Professor from Humboldt, gave a lecture entitled Von der Gotteshand zum Datenhandschuh: Zur Vorgeschichte digitaler Speicher on April 5.

On April 12th, Professor Martin Jay (University of California at Berkeley) spoke at the Merson Center on the topic, The Return of the Prodigal Fathers: The Frankfurt School and Postwar Germany.

Beyond the Hunting Camera: Hans Schomburgk, Jean Rouch and Ahmadou Kourouma was the title of the April 18th lecture by literary critic and writer Dr. Alain Patrice Nganang.

Professor Gregor Hens read from his first novel, Himmelssturz, on May 2nd, 2002.

On May 18, 2002, Professor Barbara Becker-Cantarino visited the Historical Park, Museum, and burial mound at Gnadenhutten, the Schoenbrunn Village State Memorial and Zoar Village with her German 260.03 (The German Experience in America) class.

A German movie evening took place on May 23, 2002. The screening of Die Legende von Paul und Paula (1973) was organized by our Dresden Exchange student, Ms. Annett Krause.

The Departmental Awards Ceremony on Monday, June 03, 2002 was well-attended with over 50 undergraduates, graduates, family members, faculty and staff. Our Undergraduate Awardees were Bryan Wysong ~ the Undergraduate German Essay Competition winner ; Lindsey Long ~ the Ilsedore Edse Scholarship winner; and Ben Parrot ~ the Dieter Cunz Award winner. The 2002 Diane M. Cummins Awardees for Outstanding Achievement in Yiddish were Leigh Davis and Jennifer Rubenstein. Congratulations!

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German Testing at OSU

Ohio States Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures serves as a test center for the following language examinations of the Goethe Institut: Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Zentrale Mittelstufenprfung, and Zertifikat Deutsch fr den Beruf. During our May examinations, the testing team of Kathryn Corl, Anna Grotans, and Gregor Hens tested a total of 18 candidates from OSU and other area institutions, including high school students from Graham High School in St. Paris, Ohio. We congratulate OSU undergraduate major Donovan Pavlik and continuing education student Harold Regan for their success in the Zertifikat, and graduate students Elizabeth Ascherl, Kent Broestl, Andrew Creamer, Susanne Erhardt, Heidi Harrison, Norm Hirschy, Nicholas Spitulski and Wray Withers for successful completion of the Zentrale Mittelstufenprfung. Through contributions to the Departmental testing fund, we are able to offer partial scholarships each year to qualified undergraduates to help defray the costs of Goethe Institut certification testing.

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Graduate Student News 2001~2002

Autumn ~ Summer

Awards and Honors

The Departments 2001~2002 Bernhard Blume Fellow was Norman D. Hirschy. Norm spent a year in Heilbronn, Germany as a Fulbright Scholar before joining the department.

A University Fellowship winner joined the department in 2001~2002. Wray Withers spent one of her years abroad at the Universitt Passau and graduated from Muskingum College.

Andrea Heitmann received the Graduate Student Research Paper Award in June 2002 and was chosen for the 2002~2003 Humboldt Fellowship.

Erol Boran won the Graduate Student Service Award in June 2002 and will travel to Berlin as the FU Fellow for the 2002-2003 academic year.

Congratulations to Sai Bhatawadekar, who was selected for the Technology Award.

Congratulations to Jennifer William, who received the Dissertation Quarter Award and First Prize in the OSU Graduate Research Forum, Humanities Division.

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Degrees and Candidacy Examinations

M.A.s

Ingo S. Stolz, M.A.
November 15, 2001
Prof. Becker-Cantarino - advisor

Sam Jordan, M.A.
August 14, 2002 thesis defense, The Semiotics of Soviet Yiddish: A Preliminary Study of a Visual System
Prof. Jacobs - advisor

Ph.D. Candidacy Exams

Erol Boran, M.A.
November 26, 2001
Prof. Berman - advisor

Yevgeniya Iosilevich, M.A.
February 7, 2002
Prof. Fehervary - advisor

Sai Bhatawadekar, M.A.
May 31, 2002
Prof. Davidson - advisor

Andrea Heitmann, M.A.
June 3, 2002
Prof. Fischer - advisor

Ph.Ds - Dissertations

Cynthia S. Chalupa, Ph.D.
August 10, 2001
Through the Looking Glass: Overcoming Language in the Works of Georg Trakl, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Ilse Aichinger
Prof. Davidson - advisor

Folke-Christine Mller-Sahling, Ph.D.
Wie schn und unendlich schner malt die Ferne Dich: Der Liebesdiskurs im Briefwechsel um 1800
Prof. Becker-Cantarino - advisor

Alicia Carter, Ph.D.
July 18, 2002
Fremde Pflanzen: The Gendered Gardens of Adalbert Stifter and Theodor Fontane
Prof. Becker-Cantarino - advisor

Yogini Joglekar, Ph.D.
July 19, 2002
Who Cares Whodunit? Anti-Detection in West German Cinema
Prof. Davidson - advisor

Jennifer William, Ph.D.
July 19, 2002
Zeitrume: Time, Space, and Metaphor in German-Language Novels of the Twentieth Century
Prof. Fehervary - advisor

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Graduate Student News

Andre Berger. After my Magister Exam in Bonn (Germanistik/Philosophy; thesis on Kleists Berliner Abendblaetter, which is also my Ph.D. project with Prof. Dr. Helmut J. Schneider), I came to Ohio State a year ago. I taught German 101/102 classes, now Im working in the Individualized Instruction Center. My interests here are, besides Kleist, Film and Media theory. In Bonn I was the main programmer and webmaster of the Germanic Departments home page. At OSU, I worked on the database of the Foreign Language Testing Program, and redesigned Alexander Stephans home page. My current computer project is the new Germanic Departments multimedia online course materials Web page, which must be accessible in accordance to OSU and Governmental guidelines for non-discrimination. If you would like to know more about me, please visit my homepage !

Sai Bhatawadekar is currently doing PhD on Schopenhauer and his reception of Hinduism and Buddhism. She wrote her Masters thesis on the comparison between Peter Handkes Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter and Wim Wenders film of the same name. Her research interests include 20th century German literature and film, Film adaptations of literary works, Language theories and language philosophy of Romanticism and Turn of the Century, Schopenhauer and oriental philosophy. Her academic honors include an award for the best graduate research paper for Die Aesthetische Erfahrung in der Philosophie von Schopenhauer und im Hinduismus. Her paper Femme Fatale and Fallen Teacher: The Images of the Self in Der Blaue Engel (Germany) and Pinjra (India) has been published in The Images of Twentieth Century in Literature, Media and Society, Will Wright and Steven Kaplan (ed), Pueblo: University of Southern Colorado, 2000. In Summer and Autumn 2002 she will develop and teach beginning and intermediate Hindi language courses to be offered at OSU for the first time.

Kristy Boney presented "Was Thomas Wolfe Fascist?: Nazi Germany and why Thomas Wolfe can't go home again." at the Twentieth Century Literature Conference in Louisville, April 2002.

Erol Boran originates from Germany ... more precisely: from Bavaria even more precisely: from Franconia in short: from the heart of Germany. In 1996, he earned an M.A. degree at the University of Wrzburg with a thesis on post mortem, h postmodern vampire concepts in contemporary English and American novels. After an interlude at The University of Texas at Austin, he joined OSU in Fall 2001. Presently, he is spending a year in Germany more precisely: in Berlin even more precisely: the Turkish heart of Germany in order to finish the research for his dissertation on Turkish Theater and Performance in Germany

Alicia Carter presented three conference papers during the past year: Rilkes Les Saltimbanques and the Suburban Circus of Dis-integration in September 2001 at the Circus and Literature conference at Johns Hopkins University; Eine fremde Pflanze: The Gendered Garden in Adalbert Stifters Brigitta in October 2001 at the Sixth Annual Graduate Student Conference at the University of Cincinnati; and Rezept zur Sittlichkeit: The Etiquette Writings of Henriette Davidis at the Tales Told by Women: German Womens Writings of the 18th and 19th Centuries conference at the University of Georgia, May 2002. She worked with Professor Nina Berman as a teaching apprentice in the GEC course "Germany and the Middle East" in winter 2002. Her book review of the Fontane-Handbuch appeared in Colloquia Germanica. Most importantly, summer quarter she successfully defended her dissertation, "Fremde Pflanzen: The Gendered Gardens of Adalbert Stifter and Theodor Fontane." Having graduated in August, she will be joining the faculty at the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures as a Visiting Assistant Professor during the 2002-2003 academic year.

Sanna Erhardt Last year I came from Stockholms Universitet (Sweden) to OSU to teach Swedish and to get my M.A degree. After two quarters of Swedish 101 and 102, I taught German 101 for two quarters and am now back to Swedish 101. My interests are children's literature, romantic fairy tales, women's literature and perhaps above all, adult learning of foreign languages and literature. My academic career started off with Nordic languages with historical approach such as Old Norse and runology, went over to modern Swedish language and European literature with a specialization on children's and juvenile literature. I spent almost three years at Ludwig Maximilian Universitt in Munich studying German literature and philology, English and Icelandic (and working in a bakery...). Back in Stockholm, I continued with German, the major of my Fil. Kand. (Bachelor) I worked a full year as a secondary school teacher in German, Swedish and English and continued teaching in various schools while studying. For ten years, I also worked in Swedens largest chain of jewellery shops as a sales person, manager, project manager and interior designer. Before I arrived at OSU, I worked with elderly people suffering from dementia.

During the past year, Kathleen Hallihan has been busy writing her dissertation, Envisioning an Ideal Nation: The Literary Politics of Bettina von Arnim in pre-1848 Prussia," which she plans to defend in Spring 2003.

In addition to dissertating, Kathleen taught four intermediate language courses in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, culminating in the German 104 Student Poster Session Presentations. Kathleen also taught the Department of Continuing Educations three-course Conversational German Series. Kathleen served as the elected graduate student representative on the Departmental Graduate Studies Committee. She was accepted into the OSU Graduate Schools Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Fellowship Program. Beginning in Summer 2002, she will assume a leadership role as the new PFF Coordinator for the Graduate School. Serving in this unique position at OSU, she will manage and expand the PFF Program for the coming year in an effort to further enhance the already excellent traditions of graduate student of professional development and education at OSU.

Andrea Heitmann presented two papers on representations of women in literary and historical texts one in April at the 55th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Lexington and one in February at the Twentieth Century Literature Conference in Louisville. At a Graduate Student Conference in Cincinnati in October, she presented a paper on the dispute about the Paragraph 218 in the Weimar Republic. In October, Andrea will be presenting a paper on German intellectuals and their reactions to September 11th at the German Studies Association convention in San Diego.

In Spring 2002, Andrea passed the Candidacy Exam and she received the departmental Graduate Student Research Paper Award for a paper on physicality, sexuality, and power structures in Sophie von La Roches Geschichte des Fruleins von Sternheim. This paper will be published in Body Dialectics in the Age of Goethe. Eds. Holger Pausch and Marianne Henn. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002.

Andrea is currently organizing an inter-disciplinary graduate student conference hosted by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, which will take place in October 2002. After that she will go to the Humboldt Universitt in Berlin, where she will spend most of this academic year to pursue dissertation research.

Norm Hirschy was the departments Blume Fellow for the year 2001-2002. Amongst his developing interests are masculinity theory and 20th-century literature. He delivered his first paper, Colored Spaces: Screen Composition in Ohm Krger at West Virginia Universitys 27th Annual Colloquium on Literature and Film, October 2002. He also began as Director of the German House in June, 2002.

Patricia Sandas interests are 20th century literature, narratology and language philosophy. Last year, she presented the paper Der Heldenplatz: Geschichte und Fiktion at the Conference Austrian Writers Confront the Past 1945-2000, University of Pennsylvania, April 12-14, 2002

Nikhil Sathe presented a paper in April 2002 at "Austrian Writers Confront the Past 1945-2000," a conference at the University of Pennsylvania. For the coming academic year, he has accepted a position as Visiting Lecturer at Ohio University. He expects to defend his dissertation in the fall of 2002.

While finishing up her dissertation, Jennifer William participated in OSU's annual Graduate Student Research Forum in April, where she won first place in the Humanities division. She has accepted a tenure-track position at Purdue University starting this Fall. She invites you to visit her, Colin, and the beagles, if you are ever in the neighborhood.

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Staff News 2001 ~ 2002

Brenda and Natascha have attended a number of workshops this past year and have continued working to improve office operations.

In May, Brenda was nominated for the 2002 Dean's Outstanding Staff Award. And in June, the Universitys Human Resources System was converted to a brand new version, which made for a busy summer quarter.

Natascha recently completed long-term projects involving keys and equipment, which allows her to spend more time updating the GLL Web site. She served as a Liaison Volunteer for Striezelmarkt 2002, has already worn out her purple shoes and now has her sights set on a plum red pair.

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German Cabaret

On Sunday December 1 and Monday December 2, members of the German-speaking community can combine a visit to the Striezelmarkt at Easton City Center with an entertaining cultural event co-sponsored by the Goethe Institut/InterNationes Chicago and the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. Performers Silvana Prosperi and Thomas Busse, who form the German cabaret group Faltsch Wagoni, will present Deutsch ist Dadaein Schlingerkurs durch die deutsche Sprache at the Funny Bone Comedy Club, located in the Easton Town Center. The December 2 performance is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. and is free of charge for area high school teachers and their students. The Sunday afternoon performance is from 5:00-6:00 pm and will be open to the public for a nominal entrance fee. The performance is best suited for learners with intermediate skills and above. For more information please contact Professor Corl at corl.1@osu.edu. For information about Faltsch Wagoni, visit www.faltsch-wagoni.de The Department wishes to thank former student Dave Stroupe of the Funny Bone for his support of this event.

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Alumnae/i News 2001~2002

David Caldwell (Ph.D. 1986, M.A. 1978)
David is a Professor of German at the University of Northern Colorado.
News: David Caldwell participated in the Fulbright seminar "Urban Planning in Germany," held in Berlin in the summer of 2001. He recently conducted sabbatical research at the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek and the Brecht-Archiv in Berlin, and in June, 2002 took part in the symposium "Berlin in America" at the University of Iowa, where he presented "Berlin and the Archaeology of Urban Imagination." Dr. Caldwell has helped found an interdisciplinary film studies program at the University of Northern Colorado and serves as its co-director. He also serves on the editorial board of the Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature.

Kristina L. Camp (M.A. 1999)
News: I currently live and work in Munich, Germany, where I moved after my graduation in 1999. My current position is that of a trainings 'referent' at Munich ReInsurance, where I work in the Managed Health Care division, designing and implementing trainings for our partners in foreign countries.

Glenn R. Cuomo (Ph.D. 1982)
Glenn is a Professor of German Language and Literature and Chair of the Division of Humanities at New College of Florida.
News: Professor Cuomo served as Program Director for the 20th Annual Meeting of the German Studies Association in Seattle (1996) and as the Secretary-Treasurer of the German Studies Association from 1996 to 1999.

Jenifer Cushman (Ph.D. 1996, M.A. 1994)
Jenifer is currently an Assistant Professor of German and Russian at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
News: My husband, Matt Dingo, and I are happy to report that our daughter Halina Cushman Dingo, will be turning a year old in a couple of weeks. It looks like she may be a musician, like her father. The three of us will travel to Sd-Tirol, Italy and Brasov, Romania in May 2003 to lead a study abroad opportunity: "Monsters and Monarchs of Mitteleuropa."
My recent publications include:
Essay, "Criminal Apprehensions: Prague Minorities and the Habsburg Legal System in Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk and Franz Kafka's The Trial. Literature and Law. Ed. Michael J. Meyer. Rodopi (in progress).
Essay, "'Dann sang er:' Das Marienleben from Rilke to Hindemith." Literature and Music. Ed Michael J. Meyer. Perspectives in Modern Literature. Rodopi, 2002.
Article, "Rilke's Non-Nationalism: A Bohemian Model." KOSMAS: Czechoslovak and Central European Journal . 15:2 (Spring 2002) 13-26.
Article, "Beyond Ekphrasis: Logos and Eikon in Rilke's Poetry." College Literature. 29.3 (Summer 2002) 83-108.

Robert Di Donato (Ph.D. 1977)
Professor and Chair, Department of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
News: The fourth edition of the college textbook: Deutsch: na klar! is forthcoming. Professor Di Donato is Chief Academic and Series Developer of Fokus Deutsch, a television series for learning German funded by the Annenberg Foundation and produced by WGBH Boston.

Garry Fourman (M.A. 1983)
After holding short-term teaching positions at Murray State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Nebraska and Hanover College, I completed my PhD in the German Department at the University of Cincinnati. Since 1996, I have been chairing the Department of Modern Languages at Columbus State Community College.

Professor Werner Haas
Two of my colleagues who worked with me this summer again at the American Institute of Musical Studies (Aims) in Graz Austria have OSU German Department connections: John Lalande, now Chairman of the Foreign Language Department at Suny, Oswego, NY taught in our department in the early 1980s before he moved on to Indiana University. Rebecca Thomas (Duplantier), now Associate Professor at Wake Forest University, earned her Ph.D. at our Department. I served as the Director of the Aims German program (since 1986) again.

Sharon Hamersley (M.A. 1970)
I am currently working part-time as a Learning Specialist at Mount Carmel in Columbus.
News: After many years in higher education, I took the plunge into the real world and soon became a dot com refugee. I dont really regret the move though, as it has provided me with the foundation for my long-term goal which is consulting in the area of employee training and development. And our son just finished his first year at Ohio State. Unlike his parents, he has chosen a scientific field, Natural Resources and Environmentall Science. He has an internship at the Great Lakes Environmental Center this summer. He does plan to take some German if he can fit it in with all of his other requirements. And he is keeping up his high school French since he hopes to live in Canada after he graduates. My husband, Willkie Cirker, who was also a graduate student in the department, has his own translation business. He is ATA-certified in German to English and concentrates in the technical, legal and business fields.

Elizabeth Hamilton (Ph.D. 1998)
Currently Assistant Professor of German at Oberlin College, where Im wonderfully challenged and fulfilled.
News: I now regularly teach courses on East German cinema and the New German Cinema as well as German language and literature. I continue to work in Disability Studies and developed a course last year on Deviant Bodies in German Literature and Film. Im also co-editing a study of disability and the foreign language classroom. I think fondly of the German Department at OSU and am grateful for all I learned there.

Debbie Hunsberger (Ph.D. 1983)
After working at the University of Nebraska Medical Center as a secretary for the last 11 years and teaching German off and on at night for Creighton University and Metropolitan Community College, I retired as of June 30, 2002. I plan to continue taking biology courses at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Would love to hear from any of my Ohio State classmates: dhunsber854@aol.com

Barbara Schnuttgen Jurasek (Ph.D. 1988, M.A. 1969)
Barbara is currently a Professor of German in the Department of Languages and Literatures at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.
News: Co-authored with Kathryn Corl and Rick Jurasek (M.A. Ph.D in German, OSU) Sprechen wir Deutsch (1985, 1989, 1992) and bergnge: Texte verfassen (1994); received the 1998 Outstanding German Educator's Award from the AATG; co-author and instructor (with Kathryn Corl) of the Listening Course for GOLDEN (German Online Distance Education Network), an interactive teacher development project sponsored by AATG and the Goethe Institut InterNationes; frequent reviewer of books and projects, and outside evaluator of German and Language departments; teach all levels of language courses, TESOL, and the upper-level courses (The Narrative, Drama and the Dramatic Tradition, Contemporary German-Jewish Writers), and translate texts; work in progress--an anthology of contemporary German and Austrian Jewish Writers.

David Kleinberg (B.A. 1998)
In the Spring of 2001, I received my M.A. in Germanic Linguistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I am currently a Graduate Teaching Assistant.
News: I got engaged to Miss Katja Breidt and will be married in May, 2003. I am continuing my studies toward a Ph.D. in Germanic Linguistics at UNC-CH under Professor Paul Roberge.

David Limburg (Ph.D. 1992, M.A. 1987)
Currently Associate Professor of German and Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina.
News: Professor Limburg spent the 2000-2001 academic year leading study abroad and on leave in Munich, where he developed a first-year German textbook idea. He is presently finishing and using in class his first-year German textbook: Mal was Neues: A New Approach to Learning German.

Rachel Lindsay (M.A. 1999)
I have been working as an International Scholar Advisor/Assistant Director of the Office of International Faculty & Scholars at the University of Arizona in Tucson for the last two years.
News: I was married to my partner of eight years in May 2002 in New Jersey and in July in Germany. In the Fall, we will be relocating to Konstanz, Germany, where I hope to continue my career in International Education.

Elizabeth Loentz (Ph.D. 1999)
Professor Loentz is presently Assistant Professor of Germanic Studies (tenure-track) at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
News: A new addition to the family! Olive Anna Loentz was born on October 27, 2001.

Barbara Mabee (Ph.D. 1988)
Professor Mabee has been chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan since January 1999 and has just accepted another three-year term as chair.
News: On August 15, 2002, Barbara was promoted to Full Professor. She received the 2002 Excellence Award on Founders Day at Oakland University. She co-authored another edition of Kaleidoskop with Jack Moeller, Winifred R. Adolf, and Simone Berger. Kaleidoskop. Kultur, Literatur und Grammatik. 6th edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. A book chapter is forthcoming: Die Republik ist im Kampf enstanden! Antihelden und der Wechsel der Zeit als leichte(s) Umschalten eines Relais in Kerstin Hensels Gipshut. Zur deutschsprachigen Literatur der neunziger Jahre -- Rckblicke, berblicke und Ausblicke. Eds. Christine Cosentino, Wolfgang Ertl, and Wolfgang Mller. Berlin: Europischer Verlag der Wissenschaften 2002. She published the article, Wem dient ich? dient ich nicht / Dem eigenen Schwein: Ost-West Kontraste, Erinnerungsspuren und Identittssuche in Kerstin Hensels Lyrik und Erzhlungen nach der Wende. Glossen 15 (2002) 1-13. (Sonderausgabe) and three book reviews: Georgina, Paul and Helmut Schmitz, eds. Entgegenkommen. Dialogues with Barbara Khler. German Monitor 48. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000. In German Studies Review 25.1 (2002): 208-210; Klaus-Dieter Bergner. Natur und Technik in der Literatur des frhen Expressionismus. Dargestellt an ausgewhlten Prosabeispielen von Alfred Dblin, Gottfried Benn und Carl Einstein. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1998. In German Studies Review 25.1 (2002): 153-154. Bahti, Timothy and Marilyn Sibley Fries, eds. Jewish Writers, German Literature: The Uneasy Examples of Nelly Sachs and Walter Benjamin. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1995. In Colloquia Germanica 34.3/4 (2001): 351-353. Three oral presentations: Grimm Reality: German Fairy Tales in America. 6th Annual International German-American Book Fair and Conference. Detroit 300 Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, November 2, 2001. Panel Discussion, Out of Hitlers Reach: The Holocaust and Scattergood Hostel for European Refugees 1939-1943. Oakland University, November 15, 2001. The German Poet Sarah Kirsch. A Reading from her Works at Multi-Cultural Poets Symposium. Annual Meeting of Northeast Modern Language Association, Toronto, Canada, April 11, 2002, where she also chaired a session: Post German Unification Responses in Texts and Films I: Literature(s) in Post Unification Germany. She serves on two editorial boards of international journals, Modern Language Studies and Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. Last November, she traveled with an Oakland University delegation to China to set up an exchange program with Foreign Affairs College in Beijing. Three years ago, she set up an exchange program with the University of Oldenburg (in Lower Saxony, Germany, her home state) and Oakland University.

Bob Maier (M.A. 1979) of Worthington, Ohio received the 2002 Attorney Generals Professionalism Award in July, 2002 as reported by the Worthington News. Mr. Maier is the Assistant Chief in the taxation section of the Attorney Generals Office.

Folke-Christine Mller-Sahling (Ph.D. 2002). Christine is now in her second year as Assistant Professor of German & Humanities at the University of Southern Indiana (http://www.usi.edu/foreign/German/index.htm). Currently, she teaches four German courses, Beginning German, Intermediate German, Modern German Drama, and Business German. Christine is also a faculty member in the USI Humanities Program, teaching a Western Civilization class every semester on "Power and Passion: Representations of Gender in Literature, Art, and Music (1400 Present)." During her first year at USI, she taught Intermediate German as a Two-Way Video-Distance Learning Course and is currently preparing to teach Intermediate German as a Distance Education Course in 2003-2004. In a German program with only one other colleague, she is serving as an advisor to over thirty German majors and minors, developing new courses, and serving on committees such as the Gender Studies Task Force. In the summer of 2002, she attended the AATG Business German seminar at the Heinrich-Heine Universitt in Dsseldorf. In November 2002, she will attend the Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop at the ACTFL Conference in Utah. Christine continues her research on intimacy and epistolary discourse. She recently presented a paper at the Purdue Renaissance Prose Conference in West Lafayette, on "The Language in the Letters of Liselotte von der Pfalz". At the 32nd Conference of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies at Oxford, UK, January 2003, she will be presenting a paper on "German Letters at the French Court." In March 2003, Christine will be presenting a paper on "Gender Discourse and Intimacy in the Eighteenth-Century" at the First International Conference on Communication Media Intimacy in Frankfurt, Germany. In her spare time she enjoys riding American Saddle-bred horses, playing the oboe, and riding her bike along the Ohio River.

Richard E Nantelle III (M.A. 1988)
Since my MA in 1988 from the department (and departmental TA Teaching award 1987, OSU Graduate Teaching award 1988), I have changed my career direction yet kept up with my contacts and activities in Germany (since then 9 transatlantic trips, including 1 to participate in the Wiedervereinigung celebrations).
News: Here are some tid-bits about my recent goings-on: After a teaching stint in Nrnberg at The English Studio, where I taught business English to german businessmen and women in 1990, I moved back to the United States and joined the Progressive Corporation, national automobile insurer, in Cleveland OH as an automobile claims representative in 1991. I have been with the Company since then and have moved back to my home state of North Carolina, where I continue with Progressive as Claims Manager for a staff of 30 adjusters and of insurance reserves of around $13 million annually. In addition to those responsibilities, I have developed and continue to deliver a myriad of insurance training courses to our new hires and have become a certified Continuing Education Instructor for the State of North Carolina. Thanks to the GLL Department and OSU for the exceptional teaching skills I acquired while there.

John Plaggemier (BA 1964)
Mr. Plaggemier attended classes in the department during the Seidlin, Gottwald, Groenke era. He has retired after 35+ years with General Motors Corporation and continues to use his language skills on trips to visit his daughter, who lives in the Hochtaunus mountains north of Frankfurt a/M, by reading a reverse translation of Heidi, which was an assignment from Professor Gottwalds class, to his granddaughters, by conversing with his GM colleagues from Opel Engineering in Rsselsheim, and at church. While attending class at OSU, I never imagined the continued opportunities I would have to apply my language skills. I certainly appreciate the years of study with the Department of German and value all your dedication and support.

Max Reinhart (PhD 1987)
Since the Fall of 1988, Max Reinhart has been a Professor of German in the Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages at the University of Georgia. He has been the Department Head there since 1999.
News: Max Reinharts major area of research is Early Modern Germany, with specialties in Renaissance, Reformation, and Baroque German and Neo-Latin Literature. He is author or editor of eight books. Currently, he is editing Early Modern German Literature (to appear in 2004), vol. 4 of the ten-volume series Camden House History of German Literature; compiling a descriptive bibliography (Ordo Norimbergensis Minor) of the secondary founding members of Nrnbergs Pegnesischer Blumenorden; editing Johann Hellwigs manuscript Sacrarium bonae memoriae Noribergensium; and investigating the reception of Cardinal Richelieu in 17th-century Germany. He has secondary interests in music history, especially the German Lied of the 19th century, and in Early Christianity and Late Empire. His articles appear in international journals, collections, and lexica. Recent studies have focused on the younger Harsdrffer, Claudian in early modern Germany, Erasmus in 17th-century Germany, and Richard Alewyn. Reinhart was the founder (1991) of Frhe Neuzeit Interdisziplinr (FNI) and its president through 1995; director (1995) of the first international conference of FNI (Duke University); president (1997) of the Society for German Renaissance & Baroque Literature; serves on the editorial board of the Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies monograph series; and is American correspondent for the Jahrbuch fr Internationale Germanistik. At the University of Georgia, he is chair of the German Exchange Committee and director of the UGA German Community.

N. Ann Rider (Ph.D. 1992)
Currently, Professor Rider is Associate Professor of German and Womens Studies at Indiana State University. For the 2002-2003 academic year, she has been appointed Acting Associate Dean of Curricular Development.
News: Professor Rider has recently published The Journey Eastward: Helga Schtz Vom Glanz der Elbe and the Mnemonic Politics of German Unification, in Textual Responses to German Unification, ed. C. Costabile-Heming, et al (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2001), pp. 17-34. The family welcomed Ruben Debs Rider-Leck on February 25, 2002. He joins brother Sammy (11 years old).

Marvin S. Schindler (Ph.D. 1965, M.A. 1955)
Professor Emeritus, Department of German and Slavic Studies, Wayne State University.
News: Professor Schindler, along with co-editors Roslyn Abt Schindler, Joachim Dyck, and Martin M. Herman, Marvin S. Schindler published University Governance and Humanistic Schlarship: Studies in Honor of Diether Haenicke, in two volumes (Vol. 1: Studies; Vol. 2: Biographical Vignettes, Reminiscences, Tributes, and Poems). The Festschrift was published by Koenigshausen & Neumann (Wuerzburg) in 2002. His contribution to Vol. 1 (written with Roslyn Abt Schindler), his chapter "On the Junior Year Abroad Experience," is an analysis of the results of an extensive survey of former Junior Year in Germany students and reflects his 18 years of experience (1975-1993) as Director of the Junior Year in Germany Programs at Wayne State University.

Greg Schneider (M.A. 1984)
After receiving my M.A., I passed the Generals in 1986. I worked on the Dissertation for a while, but gave up German in 1989. I then received an M.S in Environmental Biology from OSU in 1992.
News: Since 1992, I have worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Natural Areas and Preserves as an Ecologist and Botanist. My main function has been to search Ohio for rare plant species and evaluate the quality of natural plant communities. We manage Ohio's State Nature Preserves. I provide advice to help protect our Natural Areas and advise on which areas to pursue for conservation. I recently graduated from Columbus State Community College with an Associate Degree in Computer Programing. I am very active in GIS (Geographic Information Systems), where we digitally map various natural features and I am responsible for our web site (ohiodnr.com/dnap). I have fond memories of my time at Cunz Hall. I have given thought to getting my German Ph.D. after I retire from Biology. I still am in contact with some good friends from that era, Garry Fourmann (Chair of Foreign Languages at Columbus State), Luke Springman (Chair of Foreign Languages at Bloomsberg PA) and Amy Kepple Strawser.

Egon Schwarz (M.A. 1951)
Professor Schwarz received his doctorate in German literature from the University of Washington in 1954. He taught at Harvard University for seven years before joining the Washington University faculty in 1961. Professor Schwarz retired from teaching in 1993. He is the Rosa May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and professor emeritus of Germanic languages and literatures at Washington University in St. Louis.
News: Professor Schwarz will celebrate his 80th birthday in 2002. His newest book is entitled, Die japanische Mauer. Reisegeschichten von Egon Schwarz (2002, Carl Bschen-Verlag).

Michael Swisher (Ph.D. 1987)
Professor Swisher is the Chairman of the Humanities Department at Truman College in Chicago.
News: Recent publications include: The Necessity of Sin and the Growth of the Inner Self: Parzivals Quest for the Grail and Beyond the Hoar Stone, both published in Neophilologus.

Susan Lancaster Vonderhaar (M.A. in German, 1978)
I'm now a news editor for the Cincinnati Enquirer.
News: I edited the book "Cincinnati Moments," a historical look at the city through photos that has been published in the Enquirer. It was a local best-seller. Im married to Alan Vonderhaar, auto reviewer for the Enquirer (and syndicated in about 100 newspapers) and live with him and three big hairy dogs outside Cincinnati. Am eager to hear about others from my era at OSU.

Gregory H. Wolf (Ph.D. 1996, M.A. 1991)
Currently Assistant Professor of German in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO.
News: Publications: The Survival of a Culture. An Interview with the Sorbian Author Jurij Brezan. World Literature Today 1.1 (2001): 42-53. [Refereed scholarly journal] Die Wahrung einer Kultur: Gesprch mit dem sorbischen Autor Jurij Brezan. glossen 14.1 (2001). [Refereed scholarly journal] Teaching German Culture Through Literature in Schatzkammer. Accepted and to appear in the 2002 volume. Publication date: January 2002. [refereed scholarly journal A Reevaluation of the Language House: Foreign Language Curriculum, Advocacy, Articulation, and Outreach, ADFL Bulletin 33.2 (2002). [Refereed scholarly journal] Koblenz. Medieval Germany. An Encyclopedia. Ed. John M. Jeep. NY: Garland Publishing, 2001. 424. Lucerne. Medieval Germany. An Encyclopedia. Ed. John M. Jeep. NY: Garland Publishing, 2001. 475-476. Meissen. Medieval Germany. An Encyclopedia. Ed. John M. Jeep. NY: Garland Publishing, 2001. 513-514. Schwerin Medieval Germany. An Encyclopedia. Ed. John M. Jeep. NY: Garland Publishing, 2001. 710. Worms. Medieval Germany. An Encyclopedia. Ed. John M. Jeep. NY: Garland Publishing, 2001. 834-836. A Reflection on SLU2000 Inquiry Courses, CTE Notebook 4.2 (2001): 2.
Reviews: Review of Henry Riess Photographien 1946-1949. Berlin: Nicolaische Buchhandlung, 1998, in seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies XXXVII.4 (2001): 367-369. Review of Bodo Plachta and Winfried Woeslers, eds., Sturm und Drang. Geistiger Aufbruch 1770-1790 im Spiegel der Literatur. Tbingen: Niemeyer, 1997, in seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies XXXVII.1 (2001):75-77. Review of Hans-Dieter Fronzs Verfehlte und erfllte Natur. Variationen ber ein Thema im Werk Heinrich von Kleists. Wrzburg: Knigshausen & Neumann, 2000, in The German Quarterly 74.3 (2001): 312-313. Review of Holger Dainat and Wilhelm Vokamps, eds., Aufklrungsforschung in Deutschland. Heidelberg: Winter, 1999, in The German Quarterly 73.4 (2000) 424-425. Review of Jurij Brezans Ohne Pa und Zoll: Aus meinem Schreiberleben. Leipzig: Kiepenheuer und Witsch, 1999, in World Literature Today 74.4 (2000): 855-856. Review of Christoph Heins Willenbrock. Frankfurt, a.M.: Suhrkamp, 2000, in World Literature Today 75.1 (2001) 145-146. Review of Hanns-Josef Ortheils Die Nacht des Don Juan. Munich: Luchterhand, 2000, in World Literature Today 75.2 (2001): 366-367. Review of Elfriede Jelineks Das Lebvewohl: 3 kl. Dramen. Berlin: Berlin Verlag, 2000, in World Literature Today 75.2 (2001): 369. Papers/Lectures delivered: Maintaining the Momentum: Retaining Students after the Language Requirement, delivered at the annual meeting of the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages in Washington, D.C., November 2001. The Manipulation of Death: Execution as Suicide in Kleists Prinz von Homburg, delivered at the annual German Studies Association Meeting in Washington, D.C., October 2001. Organized and chaired the session Schillers An die Freude in Beethovens Ninth Symphony, at the annual German Studies Association Meeting in Washington, D.C., October 2001. Phantasien und Aberglauben oder Realitt: Die Betrachtung des Todes in der deutschen Kultur, at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. July 2001.

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