Fall 2008 Alumni Newsletter
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Membership Matters. This publication is paid for in part by dues-paying members of the Indiana University Alumni Association. Vol. 16 • Fall 2008 Alumni Newsletter Letter from the chair A word from the editor Ave atque vale A pleasurable past and As you read the Faculty Notes, you’ll promising future be struck, as I was, by how many speak of being or beginning to feel “at One might think that being a chair of a they, the staff members, manage to retain home” here. Some are referring to the small but growing department presents an extraordinary humor and esprit de corps Midwest or Hoosierland as a whole. an onerous chore for a scholar who enjoys that even my outbursts of frustration cannot Others mean the vibrant community teaching and treasures the solitude that hu- extinguish. we have here in Bloomington or the manist research demands. One hears distant Now, put all of this and all of us in the department. Those of us who have and not-so-distant rumors of discontent same space, and one might expect inevitable been here for a while (I’ve been part among the faculty members of Germanic combustion. One might think, in other of this community for 43 years now) studies departments around the country and words, that I would consider being chair need to be reminded once in a while other units nearer to home, one understands a burden, a chore, a mere duty. As I begin how strongly we should treasure our that state governments have abdicated their my sixth and last year as chair of Germanic cultural-intellectual community. financial responsibility for funding higher Studies at Indiana University, however, I The Alumni Newsletter not only education, and one appreciates the odds can honestly say that it has been a joyful and serves to remind us of what we share, stacked against traditional programs in light emotionally satisfying experience precisely it forms a sort of micro-community of new needs and new fields of knowledge. because of the remarkable, and remarkably of its own. This is where many of us One also has experienced the interaction casual, harmony that has prevailed, even meet once each year. This past year I of highly intelligent, cleverly ironic, and under acute pressure. I could have wished ran into, among others, Andy Morse, fiercely independent colleagues. Each of our nothing to have been substantially differ- MA’78, who took the Dutch course 14 tenured and tenure-track professors and ent — except, of course, for some of my from me thirty years ago and since all of our five lecturers (including two pro- amateurish mistakes that, thank goodness, then has been living in Atlanta GA gram directors) has a unique intellectual and proved not to have been fatal. Still, despite along with his wife Elaine Hall. pedagogical profile. Each, quite obviously, all we have accomplished over the past Each year I enjoy being asked to has a well-defined personality etched by decade, there is much yet to be done. Let put the newsletter together, and one purpose, ambition, desire, and clear visions me begin with the latest good news before of the greatest rewards is the many of what counts as academic and intellectual I wring my insecure hands and make a plea words of thanks I get for bringing quality. for help. us all into contact with news and Furthermore, our graduate students are Hildegard Keller is now officially a full anecdotes. This year I received two precocious, witty, nervous, ever watch- member of our department, having started kind comments from former gradu- ful for praise and censure, yet also driven spring semester 2008. You will recall that ate students, one of whom said, “I by intellectual curiosity and the hunger to she came to us first as a Max Kade Distin- edited our newsletter last year … become full members of this occupation guished Visiting Professor in 2005. Her spe- and now I know how much work it we call, in our more hopeful moments, the cialty is, shall we say, the loooooong Middle is. Thank you for all the energy you life of the mind. Our undergraduates are Ages, since she teaches everything up to the have put into these newsletters over equally precocious but, perhaps above all, beginning of the 18th century, and many the years!” The other said, “I’ll miss anxious about the future, wondering how things after that. She brings to the depart- your touch (and your drawings) in the best to balance their passion with the neces- ment more than a specialty that we have Alumni Newsletter” (in this issue too, sities of embarking upon a viable, socially needed ever since, first, Sid Johnson and I couldn’t resist letting an amusing and personally rewarding career in what is then Steve Wailes retired; she brings a fever- remark inspire my final cartoon). becoming an ever more unsure future. And ish enthusiasm and exuberance to everything (continued on page 3) our woefully underpaid staff labors under — from her research and her teaching to increased burdens and pressures to make all a casual conversation over a cup of coffee of this cohere for everyone’s benefit. Indeed, (continued on page 2) Polaschegg. A junior professor at the and the department have been altered in From the chair Humboldt University in Berlin, Polaschegg profound ways. (continued from page 1) is a many-faceted scholar with an outgoing As a whole, not many Americans are personality. Directly upon hearing that I was exposed to foreign lands and cultures, and or glass of wine. A remarkable presence, teaching parts of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, the effect of this impoverishment of experi- Keller’s wit and intelligence form fabulous she passed on to me sound clips of The Trac- ence is not, in my opinion, a happy one. The flashes of lightning that brighten the often tatus Suite, composed and sung by the Finn- opportunity to study, work, intern, and just baleful corridors of Ballantine Hall. (Indeed, ish avant-garde musician M.A. Numminen travel for extended periods of time in foreign she has painted her office furniture bright — a quite unexpected surprise to me and lands affords new ways of looking at the colors, to the astonishment of the mainte- the members of the seminar. As with most world and our place in it. Perhaps more than nance crew.) of our visiting professors from Germany, she ever before, our students need a “global Brigitta Wagner is the newest member of was relieved by the small number of students education,” which means not only knowl- the department. A graduate of Dartmouth in our seminars and pleased by the quality edge of languages and cultures attained in and Harvard and sometime resident of Ber- of work done by these students, all of whom the classroom, but also the concrete local lin, she is trained in German studies and as were in their first or second year. Profes- experience of interacting with people who a film studies scholar, and is passionately de- sor Polaschegg delivered a paper on Kafka may not share the same assumptions about voted to German film. Her expertise ranges which provoked a stimulating and detailed life, work, and leisure that we may take for from silent film and early German film discussion afterward. Her lively personality granted. To understand others is neither to theory to the contemporary German cinema energized those members of the depart- convert them nor be converted by them to a scene, with which she connects every year ment who interacted with her academically particular way of life; it is simply to experi- at the Berlinale and which she can observe and socially. I ordered fabulous fall weather ence differences in manners, customs, and every summer in her Kreuzberg neighbor- for our visitor and the gods delivered. They basic predispositions. Overseas studies can hood. With good reason we expect her to have been kind to us all so far this year. provide our students the opportunity for this have an enormous impact on our program, If you have been reading the chair’s letter basic, necessary exposure. not only because of what she knows but also every year over the past half-decade or so, IU supports a host of overseas studies because of who she is as a person, namely you have experienced my unabashed cheer- programs. Nearest and dearest to the De- intelligent, confident in her knowledge and leaderism for this department. (Sometimes partment of Germanic Studies of course are purpose, and filled with that most necessary I have to check my feet just to make sure the summer program in Graz, Austria, and of all ingredients — humor. You, too, will I’m not wearing saddle shoes.) It may seem the year-long program in Freiburg, Ger- get to know and appreciate her as the years excessive, it may seem like normal, run-of- many. Perhaps the most important program, go by. the-mill boosterism. It is, however, not only however, is the IU Honors Program every We welcomed new students into our fold genuine (i.e., how I actually feel about the (continued on page 3) on Max Kade Fellowships, a slightly smaller department), but accurate. My day-to-day class than in the immediate past, which self more resembles a wannabe curmudgeon speaks to our increased selectivity. Carlos than a Mouseketeer, so it means something Gasperi comes to us from Venezuela by way when I say how comfortable working in Germanic Studies of Chapel Hill, N.C., where he received his this department is and how rewarding my BA from the University of North Carolina.