Department of German

Past Events:

Monday, November 7, 2011

Interpersonal and Cohesive Markers in Computer-Mediated Exchanges between Learners and Native Speakers of German

with Prof. Nina Vyatkina
University of Kansas

Friday & Saturday, October 14 & 15, 2011

Technologies, Texts, and Literacies: Teaching for Semiotic Awareness
in Foreign Language Teaching

with Prof. Richard Kern
University of California, Berkeley

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Foreign Powers, Strange Attractions, and “The Turk”: An 18th-century Chess Automaton and His Literary Afterlife in Hoffmann’s “Die Automate”

with Prof. Elizabeth Bridges
Rhodes College, Memphis, TN

Monday, April 11, 2011

'The Pornographic Perspective in Jonathan Littell’s Novel Les Bienveillantes (2006)'

with Dr. Birgit Dahlke
Leuphana University, Lüneburg
Humboldt University, Berlin

Monday, February 28, 2011

'Excessive Subjectivity and the Grace of Political Escalation – A Research Project'

with Dr. Dominik Finkelde, SJ
Munich School of Philosophy

Saturday, February 12, 2011

'Colloquium on Contemporary German Film'

with Dr. Carsten Strathausen
University of Missouri

Friday, February 11, 2011

'Bio-Aesthetics. Art and Human Nature.'

with Dr. Carsten Strathausen
University of Missouri

Prof. Strathausen’s lecture was based on his book project, which examines the influence of the life-sciences (in particular evolutionary theory, genetics, and neuroscience) upon our traditional understanding of art and aesthetics.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

'The Loving Conquest and Embrace' in Annemarie Schwarzenbach's Asian and African travel writings: Constructing alternative, peaceful places by negotiating and combining discourses on intercultural coexistence and gender. 

with Dr. Sofie Decock
University of Ghent 

Sofie Decock started doing research on the Swiss writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942) in the context of her dissertation (Aisthesis, 2010). Until now, her travel writings have mainly been read as modern topographies of displacement, alienation, and conflict. By drawing attention to the practice of the 'loving conquest and embrace' as a key motif and propelling narrative force in Schwarzenbach's travel writings, Sofie Decock will partly correct and complement these previous findings. 

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Gibt es eine österreichische Literatur - und wenn ja, warum nicht?
with Sigrid Löffler

Sigrid Löffler is one of the most famous and accomplished literary critics working in Germany. Her particular passion is Austrian literature and she has defended its particularity many times. She was a co-host of a famous TV show on books (Literarisches Quartett) but left the show after an intense on-air controversy with the other host, Marcel Reich-Ranicki. As a sensitive reader and critic, Löffler continues to play a major role in the public reception of contemporary German literature.

Lunch time talk and light lunch will be available.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Kendra Mirasol
Senior Vice President of IOR Global Services

- A New Decade and Direction for Global Business Leaders:
Building Cultural and Language Competencies -

IOR Global Services, a Chicago-based company, provides intercultural & language consulting, coaching, and training for global talent management. Ms. Mirasol is proficient in German and Japanese.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Felicitas Hoppe
Writer-In-Residence

- Lesung und Werkstattgespräch -

Felicitas Hoppe las Teile ihres Buches vor. Sie berichtete auch über den Entstehungsprozess ihrer Erzählung und den Unterschied zwischen ‚besten Plätzen’ und ‚schönsten Orten’, über Folklore und Kitsch, über Sagen und Legenden als energetische Erzählkerne, über das Matterhorn Mark Twains und über den Abenteuer- und Heimatbegriff des 21sten Jahrhunderts. Und, last but not least, über das Auge des Gastes und die Unmöglichkeit, über seine Gastgeber zu schreiben.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Prof. Dr. Helmut Schneider
(University of Bonn)

- Seele und Maschine: Zur Virtuosität des poetischen Werks in der Romantik -

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Prof. Kamakshi Murti
(Professor Emerita, Middlebury College)

- To Veil or not to Veil? Shakespeare’s Dane misspeaks!
Teaching 'Germany and Islam' through 'Deliberative Dialogue' -

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Margarethe von Trotta

- A Conversation with Margarethe von Trotta (in German) -

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Col. Gail S. Halvorsen (ret.)
(US Air Force)

- The 60th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift: Personal Memories of Colonel Halvorsen, one of the 'Candy Pilots' -











Col. Halvorsen (third from left)

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Dr. Rainer Godel
(Martin-Luther-Universität Halle)
- Aufklärung und Vorurteil – Eine literaturwissenschaftliche Analyse -

Monday, April 20, 2009

Prof. James Martin
(Washington College)
- Walking Through the Publication Process with W.G. Sebald -

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Prof. Feng Xiaohu
(University of International Business and Economics, Beijing)
- Germanistik in China -

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Felicitas Hoppe (writer in residence)
- Literarische Reisen durch die Geschichte -

Monday, September 22, 2008

Prof. Michael Brenner
(Universität München)
- Jews in Post-War and Post-Wall Germany -