Ph.D., Associate Professor of German, German Advisor
Education
Ph.D., Germanic Studies, Indiana University, 2007
- Doctoral major: Modern German Literature & Culture
- Doctoral minor: Communication and Culture (Film and Media Studies)
M.A., Modern German Culture, Indiana University, 2001
B.A., Comparative Literature (French and German), Haverford College, 1996
Research/ Teaching Interests
- German, Austrian, and Swiss literature, film, and culture, 20th and 21st centuries
- Gender and sexuality studies
- East German and post-socialist cinema
- Critical race and ethnic studies
- Muslim studies, Islam in Europe
- Transnationalism, migration, and diversity
- Human rights, asylum politics, and refugee experiences
- Capital punishment
- Language pedagogy and online language teaching
- Crime and detective fiction
- Graphic novels
Personal Statement
As someone who began learning German in college, after growing up in a household where French and English were spoken, I view the development of linguistic and cultural proficiency as a lifelong pursuit. Learning languages and acquiring intercultural competence are collaborative endeavors in which each student develops a growing competence and teaches others (myself included), while everyone in the class shares responsibility for a supportive and inclusive environment. I seek to cultivate in students an enduring curiosity about the unfamiliar and an inquisitiveness about language, representation, and identity. Teaching with an eye to inclusivity, accessibility, and social justice, I hope to help empower students to become agents of social change and leaders in their communities and professions.
Selected Professional Achievements
Recent Awards and Grants
- 2020 – Faculty Research Award, Coalition of Women in German
- 2019 – Mini-Grant, Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, for the German Program, Department of World Languages & Cultures, Georgia State University
- 2017 – Level II Grant for Digital Humanities Advancement, National Endowment for the Humanities, for Grenzenlos Deutsch: An Inclusive Curriculum for German Studies (member of working group under the direction of project directors Brigetta Abel of Macalester College and Amy Young of Central College)
Recent Publications
- “Grenzenlos Deutsch: Co-Creating Open Educational Resources through Feminist Collaboration.” Co-authored with Brigetta Abel, Erika Berroth, Angineh Djavadghazaryans, Maureen O. Gallagher, Adam R. King, Karolina May-Chu, Simone Pfleger, and Amy D. Young. Collaboration in the Humanities, Special issue of Feminist German Studies1 (2020): 1–23.
- “In and out of Uniform: Imagining and Illustrating Queer Subjects, Institutional Spaces, and Counterpublics in Christa Reinig’s Mädchen ohne Uniform and ‘Die ewige Schule.’” Co-authored with Simone Pfleger. The Media Histories of Girls in Uniform. Edited by Ilinca Iurascu, Gaby Pailer, and Franziska Schößler. Special issue of Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies2 (2019): 166–85.
- “‘Nicht so schnell!’: Female Sexuality and Socialism in DEFA Youth Films.” New Perspectives on Young Adult GDR Literature and Film. Ed. Ada Bieber and Sonja E. Klocke. Special issue of Colloquia Germanica1 (2017/2019): 35–54.
- “Mediterranean Travels and Travails: Optimism and Crisis in Boat Refugee Narratives at the Boundaries of Europe.” Protest und Verweigerung/Protest and Refusal. Neue Tendenzen in der deutschen Literatur seit 1989/New Trends in German Literature since 1989. Edited by Hans Adler and Sonja E. Klocke. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 2018. 205–24.
- “Women of DEFA: Gender, Labor, and Precarity in (Post)Socialist Cinema.” Women’s Film Authorship in Neoliberal Times: Revisiting Feminism and German Cinema. Ed. Hester Baer and Angelica Fenner. Special Issue of Camera Obscura 99, 33.3 (2018): 20–47.
- Gender and Sexuality in East German Film: Intimacy and Alienation. Co-edited with Kyle Frackman. Volume with twelve chapters and a co-authored introduction (pp. 1–21). Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2018. 285 pages.
- “Bohemia and Socialism.” Translation of “Boheme und Beton” by Jutta Voigt (2016). Dusk: 1950s East Berlin Bohemia. Directed by Peter Voigt. DVD Release of the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst, 2018.
- Framing Islam: Faith, Fascination, and Fear in Twenty-First-Century German Culture. Co-edited with Heidi Denzel de Tirado. Special double issue with seven articles and a co-authored introduction (pp. 3–8). Colloquia Germanica1–2 (2014/2017). 179 pages.
Current Projects
- Grenzenlos Deutsch (German Without Borders), an open-access curriculum for beginning German. Member of Board of Authors and Editorial Board. Co-authored, under the direction of Brigetta (Britt) Abel and Amy D. Young, with Britt Abel, Erika Berroth, Adam R. King, Isolde Mueller, Maureen O. Gallagher, Simone Pfleger, Elizabeth Schreiber-Byers, Tessa Wegener, and Amy Young, in consultation with Ron Joslin. Piloting phase began in Fall 2019; planned completion of online publication in 2021.
- The Queer Socialist Cinematic Gaze: Censorship and Sexual Politics in East German Film. Book project.
- “Poppthority – The Politics of Dr. Bitch Ray’s Bodily Negotiations.” How to Make the Body: Difference, Identity, and Embodiment. Edited by Jennifer L. Creech and Thomas O. Haakenson. Series on Visual Culture and German Contexts. Forthcoming with Bloomsbury.
