Education & Professional History
Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Germany), First State Exam; Texas Tech University, MA; Pennsylvania State University, PhD
I grew up in East Germany (when it was still the German Democratic Republic) and earned a teaching certification for Secondary Education for German and English from the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Germany) in 2008. After that, I spent 18 months teaching German to students at Texas Tech University, while also getting a Master in German and a Minor in Linguistics. I enjoyed English-speaking academia and teaching college-age students and decided to get my PhD at the Pennsylvania State University in 2015 with the dissertation “The Concert Hall as Heterotopia: Sounds and Sights of Resistance in the Leipzig Gewandhaus 1970-1989.”
I am an award-winning teacher and scholar. I received ACTFL’s 2020 national Small Undergraduate German Program Special Interest Group Award for Outstanding German Program Development and Advocacy. In 2019, I was an Alternate for the American Postdoctoral Fellowship by the American Association of University Women for her project “Sound Imagery in the German Democratic Republic.” In 2016 together with my former student Briannon Carlsen ’17, I ranked among the top 5 translators of the “Children’s Books on Tour Translation Competition.” I also received the 2013 Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award at Penn State for my work in the German classroom.
My interdisciplinary research focuses on East German music, architecture, and the fine arts during the 1970s and 1980s with an eye to questions of artistic expressions of social change, musical engagement with socio-political issues, the reception history of art in the GDR, and issues of gender and class. I have published, among other things, on works of the band Rammstein, contemporary HipHop artists, Gustav Mahler, and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In the recent past, I have been tracing the work of female rock musicians in the GDR with a special focus on the role of the working mother. All these themes inform my work in the classroom where I enjoy exploring various arguments and ideas together with my students.
Outside of academia, I enjoy the making of, and listening to, music in all its forms and variations. I love being outside, especially when the sun is shining and temperatures are above freezing. I like to see the world and meet many of its people. When you meet me on campus or in class, you can ask me any question and I will be happy to answer!
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
EDUCATION
- Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA, Dissertation: “The Concert Hall as Heterotopia: Sounds and Sights of Resistance in the Leipzig Gewandhaus 1970-1989,” 2015, with highest distinction
- M.A. in German, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA, Thesis: “Popliteratur—Das Archiv eines Augenblicks,” Dec. 2009
- First State Exam in English, German, and Secondary Education from The Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany, Thesis: “Klassenfahrten und interkulturelles Lernen,” Feb. 2008, awarded with 2007 Joseph Schmitt Special Award from the International Building Organization (IBO)
- student at The Bavarian Julius-Maximilians-University in Würzburg, Germany, 2002-2003
At Carleton since 2015.
Highlights & Recent Activity
German Major Coordinator
Organizations & Scholarly Affiliations
- Germanic American Institute (GAI)
- Women in German (WiG)
- German Studies Association (GSA)
- The American Association of Teachers of German (AATG)
- The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
TEACHING AT CARLETON
- Elementary German I (Fall 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 [online], 2022 [hybrid])
- Elementary German II (Winter 2018, 2019)
- Intermediate German (Spring 2016, 2018, 2019)
- The Sound of Germany: German Cultural History from Mozart to Rammstein (Spring 2017, 2019, Winter 2021 [online])
- Coffee and News (Fall 2018, 2022)
- What’s Under Your Bed: Ghosts, Germans, and the Uncanny (Winter 2017)
- What’s New: The Latest Works in German-Speaking Media (Winter 2023)
- German Short Prose (Winter 2018, Winter 2022 [hybrid])
- (re/ex)press yourself: Sexuality and Gender in Fin-de-Siècle Literature and Art (Spring 2018, 2022 [hybrid])
- Identity, Belonging, and Spaces of Home in the Works of Fatma Aydemir (Winter 2022 [hybrid])
- The Critical Toolbox: Who’s Afraid of Theory? (Winter 2017, 2019)
- Iron Curtain Kids—Coming of Age in East Germany (Winter 2016)
- Life Under Socialism: Culture and Society in East Germany (Spring 2021 [online])
Senior Thesis Advisor at Carleton College
- Elliot Stork ’22 “Rejecting Public Power Structures through Gender Presentation: Charlotte von Mahlsdorf’s Life in the GDR”
- Emily Wight ’21 “The Space Between: Gender Nonconformity in Weimar Queer Cinema”
- Jimmy Collazo ’19 “The Sound of Berlin: A Historical Analysis of the Techno Scene in Reunified Berlin”
- Julia Gross ’18 “Uncovering Johann van Eyck und seine Nachfolger”
- Briannon Carlsen ’17 “Translation of Juli Zeh’s Gute Nacht, Individualistinnen and Vater Staat und Mutter Demokratie
- Kate Higgins ’17 “Die Erzählungen von Oppenheimer“
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TEACHING AT PENN STATE
Graduate Student Teaching Assistant, Instructor of Record
- Elementary German I (Fall 2010, Spring 2013)
- Elementary German II (Summer 2010, Fall 2012 [online])
- Intensive German (Summer 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
- Intermediate German (Spring 2011)
- Literary Humor (Fall 2013)
- Conversation and Composition (Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Summer 2012)
- German Advanced Composition (Fall 2014)
- German Translation/Reading German (Summer 2014, 2015)
Language Coordination
- Elementary German I, Spring 2013
- Elementary German II, Fall 2012
- Summer German Intensive, 2012–2015
- Conversation and Composition, Spring 2012, Co-coordinator
TEACHING AT TEXAS TECH
Graduate Student Teaching Assistant, Instructor of Record
- Comprehensive Review of First Year German (Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009)
REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES
“Assessments and Accessibility: Building a Critical German Program at Carleton College.” (co-authored with Kiley Kost and Seth Peabody). Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German vol. 1–4. (20 April 2023).
“Gender, Sex, and the Socialist Personality in Herrmann Zschoche’s Sieben Sommersprossen (1978).” Feminist German Studies, vol. 38, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2022): 26–49.
“The Concert Hall as Agonistic Public Space—The Gewandhaus in Leipzig.” New German Critique, vol. 49, no. 2 (146) (August 2022): 77–106.
“Beyond Heimatsehnsucht: Rammstein’s approach to Vergangenheitsbewältigung and German Identity.” (co-authored with Nick Henry). Popular Music and Society, vol. 44, no. 4 (2020): 397–415.
“Musical Imagery and the Canon in Sighard Gille’s Gewandhaus Mural Gesang vom Leben.” Monatshefte, vol. 112, no. 3 (2020): 479–506.
“Teaching Writing and Grammar through Critical Thinking in a Genre-Based Upper Level Undergraduate German Class.” Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, vol. 51, no. 1 (Spring 2018): 63–75.
“Straight Outta Marzahn: (Re)Constructing Collective Memory in East Germany.” (co-authored with Michael Putnam). Popular Music and Society, vol. 37, no. 1 (2014): 85–100.
“Die Beeinflussung der Jugend durch den nationalsozialistischen Sprachstil. Eine Analyse ausgewählter Liedbeispiele aus der Jungen Gefolgschaft.” Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik, vol. 162 (2011): 152–64.
BOOK CHAPTERS
“Beyond the Gewandhaus—Mahler in the GDR.” Classical Music in the German Democratic Republic: Production and Reception. Kyle Frackman and Larson Powel (eds.). Rochester: Camden House, 2015. 135–156.
“Heimatsehnsucht—Rammstein and the search for cultural identity.” (co-authored with Nick Henry). Fire, Flames and Ashes: New Perspectives on Rammstein. John Littlejohn and Michael Putnam (eds.). Jefferson and London: McFarland & Company, 2013. 99–119.
BOOK REVIEWS
German Pop Music in Literary and Transmedial Perspectives (2021). Edited by Uwe Schütte. Monatshefte, vol. 115, no. 3 (2023).
Mehr als Rock‘n’Roll: Der Radiosender AFN bis Mitte der sechziger Jahre (2014). By Anja Schäfers. Society for German-American Studies Yearbook, vol. 50 (2015): 231–234.
“Das ist unsere Party:” HipHop in der DDR (2014). By Leonard Schmieding. Society for German-American Studies Yearbook, vol. 49 (2014): 272–274.
Word and Music Studies: Essays on Performativity and on Surveying the Field (2011). Edited by Walter Bernhart in collaboration with Michael Halliwell. Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 51, no. 3 (2014): 519–524.
WEB-BASED PUBLICATIONS
“Her View From Work: One Professor’s Thoughts on Burnout and Questions of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” Diversity, Decolonization, and the German Curriculum Blog. May 20, 2022.
“Interview with Jorge Brioso Bascó.” Third Generation Ost USA. 19 April 2022.
“Beginning Language, Complex Topics: German 101.” Critical German Studies: A Blog. 1 November 2021.
“Coursework: GERM 150 German Music and Culture.” Critical German Studies: A Blog. 1 April 2021.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
DEFA Film Library. “DEFA Close-Up” (Five Posts). Instagram, Juliane Schicker, November 2022.
“Teaching Guide: The Architects.” (co-authored with Carol Anne Costabile-Heming), DEFA Film Library, 2022.
Sara Sadik. Eine außergewöhnliche Auszeit. Translation, Eifrig Publishing, 2022. (Original title: The Extraordinary Pause, 2021)
Gruhl, Jason and Genjō Yorke. Jeder weiß, was ein Baum ist. Translation, Eifrig Publishing, 2022. (Original Title: Everybody Knows What a Tree Is, 2021)
Herzog, Heather. Badehasen. Translation, Eifrig Publishing, 2022. (Original Title: Bunny Bath, 2021)
Roettiger, Laura. Aliana greift nach dem Mond. Translation, Eifrig Publishing, 2021. (Original Title: Aliana Reaches for the Moon, 2019)
Gelberg, J.N. Eine unerwartete Freundin. Translation, Eifrig Publishing, 2021. (Original Title: An Unexpected Friend, 2014)
Youmans, Charles (ed.). Mahler in Context. Translation of various essays, Cambridge University Press, 2020.
“Masur in Conversation” (digital humanities project), transcription and translation of private media of the Masur family, to be used for the archive of the International Kurt Masur Institute in Leipzig, Germany, 2019.
“Third Generation Ost—An Online Symposium 30 Years After the Fall of the Wall.” 2019, Translation, with Katrin Bahr.
Sands, Benjamin. Metamorphosis oder eine Verwandlung von Bildern mit poetischen Erklärungen. Translation, University Park, PA: Penn State, 2014.
