German & German Studies at St. Olaf College Annual Newsletter Vol. 3 Fall 2020 St. Olaf German welcomes new faculty! outside of the language This fall, the German Department has the pleasure classroom, I have also of welcoming two new faculty members who bring always been enthusiastic fascinating and diverse expertises representing the about teaching foreign breadth of German studies. We also welcome a languages. As a teacher of new department chair, Kari Lie Dorer, who is my first language German, chairing Norwegian, as well. Amanda Randall, but also a learner of meanwhile, is taking up the role of German section different languages, I enjoy head. the experience of transformation that we Adrienne N Merritt undergo when engaging with a new language and thus new culture, as well I received my Ph.D. from as understanding the dynamic systems of the University of California, languages. This transformation takes place from Berkeley in German in day one, so I am enjoying teaching first semester 2018. My dissertation German at St. Olaf this fall and look forward to research looked at the teaching Introduction to Germanic Linguistics writings of 13th and 14th during Interim! century medieval mystics in
Flanders, Germany, and Adapting Teaching to COVID-19 the Netherlands to discuss The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has genre formation, language choice, and the question required St. Olaf faculty, students and staff alike to of audience. In the last couple years, I have shifted pivot quickly and sharply to adapt to modes of my research focus from medieval literature to learning that also protect community health. The encompass a broader temporal trajectory, from sudden shift to fully online teaching and learning German colonialism in Namibia to Afrodeutsche Hip last spring, followed by a summer spent learning Hop produced this year. I enjoy teaching German new technology and best practices for online and courses at all language levels, especially seeing hybrid teaching, has been both a challenge and an students reach that aha! moment. Although I’m opportunity for the German faculty to reimagine and teaching online this Fall, I look forward to getting to retool our teaching practices and materials. Each know the students at St. Olaf and working together Zoom, Google Jamboards, FlipGrid and Panopto with them to develop new programming and events. are now all part of our teaching toolkits. But, we are I also look forward to the fairy tales course final finding that online teaching has not necessarily LARP projects! hindered community building. The weekly
Stammtisch via Zoom is well attended. Students Nora Vosburg are producing fantastic creative works through I received my Ph.D. in German Applied Linguistics multimedia group projects. And, with a and Language Science from The Pennsylvania video-conferencing interface, we still get to State University in 2020. While my research looks see everyone’s smiling faces! at language maintenance and natural acquisition
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Student response to the challenges and significance of transnational cooperation across the opportunities associated with the “new normal” for political boundaries of the late Cold War period. German courses has been largely positive. Randall will undertake additional research visits Comments from our mid-semester survey include: over the next year (pandemic permitting) to support ● “It is nice to be able to utilize [Zoom] breakout preparation of a scholarly article and an eventual rooms to discuss class material in small groups book manuscript. and speak German with my classmates!” ● “Now I find myself applying German language Adrienne Merritt focuses her research on the more in my personal time, not just in the question of identity and cultural production. Current classroom.” research projects include the expansion and ● “The German Department has done an revision of her dissertation into a monograph-length work tentatively entitled Silvae Memoriae: Nature excellent job in regard to providing viable courses during these confusing times. They and Memory in Hadewijch of Brabant’s Visioenen. have managed to somehow succinctly digitize A second major research project looks at the works themselves.” of Black and Afro-German writers and artists and the question of creating space both within society Faculty Research and the visual and textual landscapes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Tentatively titled Schwarz auf Weiss: Race, Memory, and Black Nora Vosburg’s research focus lies primarily in Identity in German-Speaking Cultures, the study heritage and minority linguistics, and in particular on bi- and trilingual speech communities in the employs revisions of genre and queer theories to Americas. Her approach to language contact develop new theoretical lenses to highlight the situations combines theoretical and sociocultural complexity and intersectional nature of Black perspectives. Some current or recent projects identity expressed within the works of hip hop include the role of political activism as an indicator artists, poets, and activists in contemporary of language shift towards English among so-called German-speaking areas. Russian Mennonites in Kansas, the structure and semantics of do-support in the Plautdietsch variety Germanic Linguistics Course of these same communities, the documentation of Moundridge Schweitzer German as a moribund language, and an analysis of long-distance wh-movement in heritage and second language grammars.
Amanda Randall continues her research on the history and historiography of German folklore studies. Her current project, based in Freiburg im Breisgau, is a community ethnography of [Illustration/Marion Deuchars] institutional memory formation. Working in close collaboration with Freiburg folklorists, she is helping Our new faculty member, Nora Vosburg, will offer a to preserve unpublished written artefacts in a course on German Linguistics this Interim in private archive while analyzing the social and collaboration with the Norwegian Department and ethical implications of archiving itself. The focus of Linguistics Program. In the quote illustrated above, her analysis is a collection of letters pertaining to a Chaucer hits the nail on the head in his early controversial initiative among folklorists to observation about how words, speech, and document their field’s entanglements in National language change over time. In this class, students Socialism. Her research thus far has revealed the 2 look at changes in the Germanic language family. instance, it starts off very calm and peaceful and by What are the Germanic languages, why are they the second page becomes loud and assertive. The considered to be “a family”, and how did they piece itself revolves around a woman who longs for change over time? While this class focuses on the the one she loves. It is a very passionate and deep Germanic language family, the engine behind work of art from the opera Mignon. As I started my language change is universal: Language is journey in learning this short piece, I realized I inherently social and since society changes, so knew many different pronunciations before does language. Students learn to apply the beginning. Usually, when I learn music in a fundamental methods of comparative historical language foreign to my own, English, I research the linguistics and sociolinguistics to analyze the pronunciations of each word. However, my development of modern Germanic languages (e.g., experience in German 111 has given me the English, German, Norwegian, etc.) from a common knowledge to understand the language of the piece ancestor and to further understand the processes I will perform. For example, before German 111, I underlying language change and variation. would not have known that the word 'weiß' is Students also learn to critically engage with pronounced similar to the English word 'vice.' With linguistic scholarship through text, film, and speech the help of German 111 I have been able to data sets, and develop their research and writing establish a connection with my music. Overall, it skills through a project on a topic of their choosing. has been a joyful experience for me to participate in The German Department is thrilled to be able to German and Music simultaneously. St Olaf college offer a course that meets growing student demand gives all of their students the opportunity to create for German linguistics study. meaningful connections across all of their interests. It is less about the individual subjects and more Cross-campus Connections about how we as human beings can take our St. Olaf students regularly connect their German passions and meld them together to create a better studies with their other disciplinary learning on you.” We in the German Department agree campus. Recent German FLAC (foreign language wholeheartedly! across the curriculum) sections in the departments of education and political science, as well as in German-speaking Oles transdisciplinary English-language courses taught The German Department is fortunate to have not by German faculty make those connections explicit. only a regular exchange student from the But students also tell us about connections they Universität Konstanz, but also a number of regular discover on their own. Most recently, German 111 degree-seeking students from German-speaking student Darby Wilson, Class of 2024, shared: countries. One such student, Fricka Lindemann, “As a student with an undecided major at St. Olaf Class of 2022, has College, I am currently pursuing a possibility of been especially active entering into the music education major. To pursue in supporting students’ this program, a helpful class to enroll in is voice German learning this lessons. I am currently taking lessons with the year. wonderful Professor Karen Wilkerson. In the “Hallo! Ich bin Fricka, beginning of the semester she assigned me komme aus Berlin und multiple musical works to learn, keeping in mind the bin dieses Jahr ein new language I am pursuing. One piece, in Junior. Ich bin zu St. particular, that she chose is a German song called Olaf gekommen, um ‘Lied der Mignon’ composed von Franz Schubert. einen neuen Kontinent This piece that I have been learning for the past kennenzulernen und month of the fall semester has contrasting "den Westen" besser dynamics that further the theme of the piece. For zu verstehen. Letztes 3
Jahr sind wir mit der Deutsch-Fakultät anlässlich both to the culture and coursework of German des Mauerfalljubiläums zu einer Veranstaltung am environmental sustainability, and she continues to Germanic American Institute gefahren, wo wir auch value the skills she gained in Germany in her den Botschafter von Deutschland in Chicago current life and work. Katie also credits her German getroffen haben - sehr interessant! Deutsch zu study at St. Olaf for helping hone her analysis of lernen heißt, einen essentiellen Teil der Geschichte stories, something she uses every day in her job as des Westens, seiner Kultur und Auswüchse besser Communications Coordinator for Faith in Place. verstehen zu lernen. She lives in a vibrant neighborhood in Chicago where she connects with the area’s German Featured Alumni immigrant culture through local cultural centers, Bethany Guse, Class of 2016, graduated with theater, and food. Katie would be happy to connect majors in German and Russian Area Studies, as with students interested in study abroad or life as a young professional (LinkedIn). well as a Film and Media concentration. Bethany has enjoyed using her German language skills after Brian Nevins, Class of 2019, graduated with graduation, spending two majors in Physics, Mathematics and a years living in Linz, concentration in German Studies. At St. Olaf, Brian Austria teaching English appreciated the immersive language learning in the through the Austrian context of culture that he experienced in the Ministry of Education German department. As a STEM-focused student, (USTA Program). At St. he appreciated Germany's historical and modern Olaf, she recalls being leadership in many scientific impacted by her fields, but found that he most experiences living in the enjoyed developing an German House and understanding for another rooming with the German culture and broadening his exchange student from the University of Konstanz, overall perspective on life who ultimately convinced her to spend a semester that goes beyond a abroad in Konstanz. Now, Bethany lives in professional context. Brian Madison, WI and works at the University of recently finished his first year Wisconsin, Madison in the School of Education at of graduate studies in his WIDA, where she helps develop English Language work towards a Ph.D. in Learner assessments and tools for educators. She Physics from Michigan State University and has would love to talk to anyone interested in teaching been working on a summer research project English in Austria after graduation. (LinkedIn) studying neutron star formation. Kathleen Maxwell, Class of 2017, graduated with Visit https://wp.stolaf.edu/german/alumni/ majors in German and Environmental Science and for more alumni news. a concentration in Management Studies. Katie decided to major in German at St. Olaf as a way of continuing to improve her Guten German skills and gain an excellent perspective on Rutsch understanding ins neue sustainability. Her study abroad semester in Jahr! Konstanz introduced her 4