Departmental Newsletter for Modern Languages & Literatures at the College of William & Mary
Thomas Bettge (German Studies, ’14) checked in with us. Here is what he reported: I matriculated at Penn State’s Dickinson Law School in 2014. My background in German Studies enabled me to secure work the following summer with one of my professors, who was completing a dissertation comparing the horizontal dimension of constitutional rights in… Read More
Application for Fulbright Research Fellowships or Fulbright Teaching Assistantships are due September 6! If you are thinking of applying, please go to http://www.wm.edu/sites/scholarships/scholarshipsfellowshipsawards/byPurpose/openToInternationalStudents/fulbright/index.php, or speak with Prof. Jenny Taylor.
Author of Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the Consequences of Interpretation (1988), The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning (1993), and At Memory’s Edge: Afterimages of the Holocaust in Art and Architecture (2002), James E. Young is the one of the preeminent scholars of Holocaust and Memory Studies in the world. His… Read More
Helmut Puff, Professor of German, History, Women’s Studies, and affiliate in the History of Art and in the Program in History and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, is one of the most innovative voices in German Studies, Early Modern History, Gender and Queer Studies, the History of Sexualities, and Media Studies today. His work… Read More
Jacqui Sorg (German Studies and Linguistics, ’16) has received full support in the form of fellowships and teaching assistantships in the Department of Germanic Studies at Indiana University for the Fall. She is the recipient of the prestigious Max Kade Fellowship her first year, after which she will receive full TA support and a… Read More
German Studies, with the generous support of American Studies, Africana Studies, English and European Studies hosted independent scholar Michael Saman, who received his Ph.D. from Harvard, and has taught at William and Mary, Brown, Princeton, UCLA and, most recently, The College of the Holy Cross. He is well-known for his expertise on Goethe and Goethezeit,… Read More
Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2015! From the left, Lisa Laird (German Studies and European Studies), Mike Crumplar, Helene Melke, and Tyler Bembenek (German Studies and IR).
German House Tutor Kim Mutmann joins the German Studies Program this year from the Wilhelms-Westfaelische Universitaet Muenster, where she received her M.A. in “National and Transnational Studies: Literature, Culture, and Language,” with a focus on Post-Colonial Culture and Politics. She completed her master’s thesis on South African Poetry: “Xenophobia under the Rainbow – Migrants… Read More
The German Studies Program welcomes Dr. Veronika Jeltsch to the program this year. Veronika received her M.A. from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg and her Ph.D. from Rutgers University with a dissertation on “Silence, Speechlessness, and Body Language in Fontane’s Effi Briest, Schnitzler’s Fräulein Else and Wedekind’s Lulu.” Her primary research interest is Fin-de-Siecle literature in Germany and Austria, specifically representations… Read More
The German Studies program each year awards the German Book Prize to that student who best exemplifies the rigor, passion, and sustained engagement with the discipline during her four years at Willam and Mary. Our winner this year not only took Rob Leventhal’s German 310 Advanced Grammar and Stylistics course her very first semester at… Read More
Tyler B. Bembenek is the recipient of this year’s Award of Excellence in German Studies. Tyler’s outstanding accomplishments in German Studies and IR are known campus-wide. He has an astonishing 3.95 overall GPA for his four years at W&M. He studied at Middlebury College Summer German Academy, is the recipient of the Prestigious Robert Gates… Read More
Lisa Laird (European Studies and German Studies, ’15) has been awarded both the Fulbright ETA in Germany and the Austrian ETA (administered by the Fulbright Commission) for the 2015-2016 academic year! Lisa is no stranger to living, studying and traveling Europe. A passionate member of the fencing team, Lisa has studied in Wales and… Read More
Rob Leventhal, Associate Professor of German Studies, March 5-15, 2015 Jewish Cultural and Social Pathways in the Upper Rhine Valley We were slated to leave Thursday, March 5th, from RIC on a study-research spring-break trip, sponsored by the Meyers Stern Endowment in Judaic Studies that would take us to the Upper Rhine Valley from Basel,… Read More
The Judaic Studies Program at W&M sponsored an all-day “Jewish University” Sunday, December 7th to a sold-out crowd at the Sadler Center. Four lectures by W&M faculty presented various aspects of Judaic history, lives, and media from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible to the Nazi Genocide and Jews in American Cinema in… Read More
Berel Lang, Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Letters at Wesleyan University, is one of the foremost scholars on the representation of the Nazi Genocide of the European Jews in the world. His books include: Faces and Other Ironies of Writing and Reading (1983); Writing and the Holocaust (1989); Act and Idea in the Nazi Genocide (1990); The Anatomy of… Read More
Professor Stephen Brockmann, one of the world’s leading scholars on German Literature, Culture, and Film, Professor of German at Carnegie Mellon University, gave two talks at W&M in September: “German Culture, Globalization, and Transnationalism” (in English) and “DDR-Film und der Zweite Weltkrieg“ (in German). Brockmann is the author of A Critical History of German… Read More
Is there such a thing as a universal language of film? The students in German 206 “Intermediate Composition and Conversation, team-taught by Visiting Assistant Professor Jennifer Gülly and German House Tutor Carolin Wattenberg, ” were about to find out: thirteen movies covering almost 100 years of German and Austrian film history. Thirteen movies, that’s thirteen… Read More
Sierra Barnes (German Studies and History ’14) has been awarded an English Teaching Assistantship by the Austrian Ministry of Education and Women’s Affairs and Austrian-American Educational Commission (AAEC), sponsored and administered by the Fulbright Commission, for the academic year 2014-2015. This award includes travel expenses and a substantial monthly stipend to teach at two schools… Read More
German Studies and IR student Terrence Mack has received the prestigious Robert Gates Scholarship for Summer Study from the College. Terrence will spend the summer studying German language, literature, and culture at the Universitaet Potsdam. Upon hearing the news, Terrence said this: “The Robert Gates Scholarship news was amazing. When I applied for it and… Read More
Sierra Barnes (German Studies and History, ’14) has been accepted to the Helix Project Yiddishkayt for the Summer of 2014. This four-week intensive program begins in July with an intensive course of cultural and language education in L.A. Then Helixers spend two weeks exploring the heart of Jewish Europe, learning and discussing with two leading… Read More
New German Studies faculty member Jennifer Gully talks with Mike Blum about her research and teaching. Jennifer received her M.A. at the University of Vienna and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at UCLA. Her research focuses on translation as a conflicted and often antagonistic process in literature and film. The “clash of languages” has become… Read More
German Studies and International Relations major Tyler Bembenek (’15) has been awarded the first Gates Scholarship for Summer Study Abroad. The scholarship, made possible by William and Mary Chancellor Robert M. Gates (’65) and his wife Rebecca, is a merit-based award that enables outstanding W&M students to pursue their field of study during the summer…. Read More
Jennifer Gülly received her Magistra from the University of Vienna, Austria, and her PhD in Comparative Literature from UCLA. She has previously held positions at Pomona College, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of South Florida before coming to William and Mary. Her research lies at the intersection of language policy, translation theory, and literary… Read More
German Studies students have once again received a record number of Fulbright ETAs for the academic year 2013-2014. Emma Paynter and Judd Peverall have both received Fulbrights to Germany, and Brandon De Graaf has received an Austrian Fulbright ETA. Brandon will be at the Bundesgymnasium Tanzenberg in Maria Saal in Kärnten. Congratulations all!
The Sociology Department, German Studies, and Charles Center are pleased to sponsor a lecture by Prof. Rudi Leiprecht, who is a professor of Diversity Education at the Universitaet Oldenbourg in Germany. Currently, he is Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. Professor Leiprecht will present a lecture entitled “Young People in… Read More
Judd Peverall (German Studies and Philosophy, ’13) and Brandon De Graaf (German Studies and History, ’13) have all received Fulbright and Austrian English Teaching Assistantships respectively for 2013-2014. Both will be placed in a >Gymnasien where they will serve as teaching assistants in the English programs of the schools and assist in curricular and non-curricular… Read More
Ariana Berger (Business and German Studies ’11) has finished her internship in the Corporate Ratings department of Standard & Poor’s in Frankfurt, and will be working with S&P Capital IQ as an Account Manager. The position in fixed-term for one year with a relatively good chance for her to stay on afterwards. Ariana writes: “I… Read More
Senior Evan French, currently in Professor Leventhal’s GRMN 202 class, is headed to Hamburg. Evan scored a DAAD RISE paid internship with a software engenieering firm for six months beginning in June 2013. Congratulations, Evan!
Next fall Lauren Shaw (German Studies, ’09) will be starting a master’s program in global migration at University College London. The program looks at the social, economic and political causes and implications of human migration, while seeking to better understand the lived experiences of local and international migrant communities. Courses are drawn from a number… Read More
Former German Studies students Mark Riggleman and Sam Thacker at this year’s Oktoberfest on the Wies’n in Munich, Germany Fall is the time of harvest, gathering together to celebrate the fruits of the earth, and for the German Studies section at W&M, the moment for Oktoberfest. Each year the German Studies Section of the… Read More
J. Richard Guthrie believed strongly in the undergraduate study of German language, literature, and culture. As part of his estate, he endowed a scholarship fund to assist undergraduates to carry out semester or summer research in German Studies. Because of this generous endowment from his estate, the German Studies Section at W&M is able to… Read More
Claire Lehnen (German Studies and International Relations, ’07), Graduate Student at the University of Michigan – Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, has assumed the position of German teacher at the German School of Ann Arbor, Michigan. After graduating, Claire spent two years in the Peace Corps in China, where she developed innovative foreign… Read More
Peter Lecce (’12), Economics and International Studies Major with strong training and interests in German Studies, will be interning in the spring at the U.S. Consulate in Munich, where he will be working in the political/economic section. Peter took part in the W&M Potsdam Summer Study Abroad Program in 2010. Peter also recently found out… Read More
Sarah Salino, who designed her own major at the College and will graduate with Honors Sunday, May 13, has been awarded a Fulbright in Germany for the academic year 2012-2013. Although she has not yet been placed yet, Sarah will be teaching at a Gymnasium, working with students and other teachers and providing curricular support… Read More
German Studies and Psychology Major Grace Brennan (’12) has received a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship to Berlin for the academic year 2012-2013. Brennan is one of two Fulbrights to Germany this year. Grace is also being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa on Friday, May 11, as a result of her stunning academic achievements at the College… Read More
Rob Leventhal, Associate Professor of German Studies, has received the 2011-2012 PBK John D. Rockefeller Award for the Advancement of Scholarship. The award is given to a faculty member who has excelled in research and scholarship and made a substantial contribution to his or her field. The award was celebrated at the annual PBK Award… Read More
Arthur Schechter (W&M, 2009-2011; Brown University, 2011-Present) has won the American Psychoanalytic Association Prize for the best essay written by an undergraduate. Arthur’s essay, “Wagnerian Volksideologie, Narcissism, and Aesthetics: A Study in the Totalitarian Imaginary,” emerged as the final paper in Rob Leventhal’s Modern German Critical Thought II: Marx to Habermas course in the spring… Read More
Lauren Shaw has been going places lately– Slovenia, the Baltic States, Carinthia/Austria — and returning to the DC area. After finishing a two-year Fulbright ETA in Austria, Lauren (German Studies, ’09) has returned to the United States and taken a job at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. as a paid research assistant. At… Read More
The Potsdam, Germany Summer Study Abroad Program 2011 June 8-July 23 was an immense success. The W&M Potsdam, Germany Summer Study Abroad program is an intensive 7 week German Language and Culture program. Students attend intensive German Language classes in the mornings from 9-12:30 and a GRMN 290/390 German Culture class in the afternoons. This… Read More
Graduating senior and Phi Beta Kappa initiate Monica LoBue (German Studies and Biology, ’11) has been awarded the Fulbright Teaching Assistantship to Germany for the academic year 2011–2012. This much sought after Fulbright provides Monica with round-trip airfare to Germany and a substantial monthly stipend to work with students learning English and American Studies at… Read More
The German Studies Section of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures is extremely pleased to announce that graduating senior Ariana Berger (German Studies and Business, ’11) has been awarded The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) full-year work-study scholarship for Young Professionals in Germany for 2011-2012. This full-year scholarship will provide Ariana with round-trip airfare, two… Read More
In 2007-2008, Rob Leventhal, Associate Professor of German Studies, directed a Group Independent Study on the reemergence of the Jewish Community in Munich, Germany and the construction of the new Jewish Synagogue, Jewish Center, and Jewish Museum at St. Jakobsplatz. During the spring break of 2007, Leventhal and then W&M Students Sam Thacker, Olivia Lucas,… Read More
German Studies and European Studies Film Screening: Night Bus 807 (Nattbus 807) (Swedish, 1997; Directed by David Flamholc) Thursday, February 24th 7pm, Blair 201 Gang violence, racism, and minority cultures collide in this 1997 Swedish film. Compared to “A Clockwork Orange” and “Trainspotting,” the film is based on a true story of the murder of… Read More
Am Donnerstag, den 10. Februar zeigt das Deutsche Haus in Zusammenhang mit German Studies den Spielfilm “Good-Bye Lenin!” um 19.30 in WASH 203.
John “Rio” Riofrio is a faculty member in Hispanic Studies. His interest in Latino and Latin American Studies influence much of his research and his courses. In this video profile, Rio discusses his class on Mexico, his research for an upcoming book, and what he likes about teaching at William & Mary. In the video,… Read More