Photo of Seth Peabody

Seth Peabody

Assistant Professor of German, German and Russian

Education & Professional History

Northwestern University, BA; Harvard University, PhD

I joined the Carleton German Program in fall 2020; before that, I taught at St. Olaf College and the University of Minnesota. My teaching at Carleton spans from beginning German to advanced seminars on literature, film, and cultural theory. I am particularly interested in how courses focused on language skills, cultural competency, and interpretation of creative texts can contribute to efforts for environmental sustainability and social justice that extend beyond the classroom.

My research interests lie at the intersection of German literature, film, and environmental studies. Beyond the schools where I’ve earned degrees, I’ve spent a year at the Universität Hamburg and am a member of the Society of Fellows at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich. I also taught English with the Fulbright TA program in Austria, had a job milking cows on an Alpine dairy farm near Salzburg, and worked for a wilderness program in southwest Utah.

I look forward to seeing you in class, at Mittagstisch (the German language table), and in office hours—please stop by! You can click on the calendar link to the left to make an appointment.

Education

  • PhD, Harvard University, 2015
  • BA and BMus, Northwestern University, 2004

Professional History

  • Assistant Professor, Carleton College (current)
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, Saint Olaf College, 2017–2020
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2016–2017
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota Duluth, 2015–2016
  • Instructor, Harvard Summer School, Summer 2015

At Carleton since 2020.

Highlights & Recent Activity

German Minor Coordinator at Carleton College

Co-Chair, Climate Emergency and Technology Committee, German Studies Association

Selected Recent Publications:

  • Film History for the Anthropocene: The Ecological Archive of German Cinema. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2023. Part of Camden House book series, “Screen Cultures: German Film and the Visual.” https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781640141612/film-history-for-the-anthropocene/
  • “Heimat for One? Spaces of Community and Disability in Arbeit und Struktur and Tschick.” In Heimat and Migration: Reimagining the Regional and the Global in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Len Cagle, Thomas Herold, and Gabriele Maier, 203–226. Berlin: DeGruyter, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110733150-010.
  • “Assessments and Accessibility: Building a Critical German Program at Carleton College.” Co-authored with Kiley Kost and Juliane Schicker. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German 55, no. 2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1111/tger.12235.

Selected Awards:

  • Mellon Periclean Faculty Leader in the Humanities, 2022-23.
  • DAAD funding to lead environmental humanities seminar in Minneapolis and Munich, 2023.
  • Student Research Partnership (Carleton College), 2020, 2021, 2022.
  • Best Article in Die Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German, 2020, with co-author Amanda Randall, for article “Unpacking Heimat: A Spiraled Approach to Identity and Belonging for Global German Studies” (2019).
  • Curriculum Development Grant (Carleton College), 2020.
  • ACTFL Small Undergraduate German Program Special Interest Group Award for Outstanding German Program Development and Advocacy, with Prof. Amanda Randall, 2019.
  • Rachel Carson Fellowship for work at Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany, summer 2019.
  • Fulbright IIE Grant, full-year research grant for study in Germany, 2013-2014.

Organizations & Scholarly Affiliations

  • American Association of Teachers of German (AATG)
  • American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
  • German Studies Association (GSA)
  • Society of Fellows, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC)