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DEPARTMENT OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES NEWSLETTER WINTER 2018 lsa.umich.edu/german TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter from the Chair 3 Highlights 4 Faculty Focus 5 Undergraduate Student Focus 6 - 7 Graduate Student Focus 8 Staying Connected 9 Dutch Studies 10 Scandinavian Studies 11 2 Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures LETTER FROM THE CHAIR colleague Kerstin Barndt in artists, from Katrin Sieg months, and you get a sense Freiburg, where she serves (Georgetown University) and of the vitality of our program. as the 2018-19 Academic Claudia Breger (Columbia And there is much more Director of our year-long University) to prize- happening in our department. study-abroad program (p. winning Austrian author Have a look at the following 4). In fact, ever the hosts, and playwright Ferdinand pages for updates about Kerstin and Johannes just Schmalz, who, in conjunction our flourishing Dutch and organized a Thanksgiving with students from the U-M Scandinavian programs dinner for all 30 students in School of Theatre, Music and (pp. 10-11) and get to know the program! Our Freiburg Dance, offered a bilingual our new graduate students program received another reading of his recent play p.8). And please follow our big boost this summer: dosenfleisch (canned meat). department website (lsa. thanks to a large gift from umich.edu/german) to read our most generous donors, Research continues to be about upcoming events. Dear friends of the Mr. and Mrs. Sturm, we will central to our activities. There is much to look forward department, now be able to offer a full Within the last six months, to in the coming year, and scholarship to at least one Kerstin Barndt co-edited I invite you to stop by and Winter arrived early in of our students each year. a fascinating volume of see us. In the meantime, I Michigan this year, surprising essays, Object Lessons and wish you peaceful holidays even the heating system Meanwhile, we continue to the Formation of Knowledge and a guten Rutsch (“a good of the Modern Languages add new events and projects (p. 5); Elizabeth McNeill, a slide”) into the new year. Building, which took a few to our curriculum here in Ph.D. student in her third days to assume its duties Ann Arbor. In September, year, was awarded the Best and envelop us in warm air we piloted a film series Student Essay Award from — not that the idiosyncrasies that showed rarely seen The German Quarterly (p. 8); of our building have slowed German movies selected and and the Leuphana University Sincerely, us down. As the fall term introduced by a graduate in Lüneburg, Germany, draws to a close, I invite you student or faculty member hosted a day-long symposium to peruse our newsletter (p. 7); and in October, we in honor of Andy Markovits’ for a look back at a busy organized a panel featuring 70th birthday (p. 5). Add to start to the academic year. five recent undergraduate this recent talks given by alumni of our department members of our department Andreas Gailus [email protected] This is my first newsletter to who have used their degrees in France, Spain, Germany, you as the new chair of the in German Studies to Austria and the U.S., as well department. After four years launch professional careers as forthcoming books by of outstanding leadership, in a variety of industries Tyler Whitney (p. 5), Julia Hell our previous chair, Johannes (p. 6). On the graduate and myself, all of which are von Moltke, is on a well- level, we continue to host scheduled for publication deserved sabbatical. nationally and internationally within the next twelve Johannes joins my dear recognized scholars and lsa.umich.edu/german 3 HIGHLIGHTS Letter from Freiburg by Kerstin Barndt, AYF Resident Director Step out of the ordinary! their paperwork, advising As I write this, we’re already America remains present in Immerse yourself in the and registering students looking back at our first three different ways — whether in culture and language of for classes, keeping the months together. Like many terms of people pressuring a country that’s not your door to the AYF office open of the students, I suspect, I us about politics, or own. This year, twelve of our for a cup of coffee or the am surprised by how much simply at our sumptuous students — sophomores, occasional last minute I have come to feel at home Thanksgiving feast this juniors, and seniors — took homework session, and in the city, the university, past week, where everyone the leap and joined 18 more answering any question and the AYF office. Students brought fabulous side students from Michigan State regarding living and studying are busy with their course dishes to complement the University, the University of in Freiburg you can think of. work, volunteering for the turkey prepared (surprisingly Wisconsin, and the University “Inside America” program in well!) by a local caterer. of Iowa, to live and study Students arrived in local high schools, playing for one year in Freiburg, a September, a full month cello and double bass in Former AYF students who beautiful university town before the start of the university orchestras or rugby live in the area joined the in southwestern Germany. German academic year. We for a local woman’s team, feast with their spouses They are now participating made use of this lead time and making music together and children and we felt in the “Academic Year in with a program jam-packed in our very own AYF combo, the warmth of yet another Freiburg” (AYF), one of with orientations, intensive the now legendary “Black AYF support network: its the longest-running study language lessons, and day Forrest Badgers.” Riding the ever-growing alumni base in abroad programs for U.S. trips to neighboring France, streetcars from the student Germany and the U.S.! Now students in Germany. Switzerland, and the Black dorms to the university and we’re looking forward to the Forest to get a sense of the city center feels like second holiday break and the New As this year’s academic amazing landscape and nature already, and we have Year, which brings a much- director, I have the honor and cultural riches that surround even warmed up to the fact anticipated class trip to the pleasure of accompanying us. Thanks to the support that all stores are closed Berlin, a semester break with the group as their teacher, of the Freiburg-Madison on Sundays. Students have plenty of opportunity to travel, mentor, and advisor. Together, society, we also got to sail on formed deep friendships and internship opportunities Ulrich (Ulli) Struve, the the crystal clear Schluchsee within the group, bonded in Freiburg next spring term. program’s administrative (a lake nestled in the with their individual language director with 16 years of Schwarzwald), and dine at tandem partners, and experience here in Freiburg, the historical Schönberghof hung out with fellow “WG” Left image: Cohort 2018-19 and I have been leading field after a leisurely hike through roommates. As they have trips supported by AYF alums woods and wineries just integrated and immersed Right Image: Thirteen German though the Hans Fabian outside Freiburg’s gates. themselves into their new majors from the University are studying in Freiburd pictured with Fund, helping students with German surroundings, Kerstin Barndt and Ulli Struve 4 Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures FACULTY FOCUS Eardrums: Literary Modernism as Sonic Warfare by Tyler Whitney, Assistant Professor of German This spring will see the streetcars, and urban "Andyfest" 2018 release of Assistant construction sites was Andrei S. Markovits, Arthur included a full day of lectures Professor Tyler Whitney’s increasingly experienced as F. Thurnau Professor and by eminent German scholars. first book, Eardrums: Literary a sonic assault on the body, Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Recognizing Professor Modernism as Sonic Warfare, one with real physical and Professor of Comparative Markovits’ upcoming 70th with Northwestern University psychological consequences, Politics and German Studies, birthday, the event featured Press. The book explores engendering many of the was honored by Leuphana speakers on five of his the various ways in which same symptoms of hearing University of Lüneburg, major research areas: labor the sonic dimension of the loss, ruptured eardrums, and Germany on October 20, and trade unions, new German-speaking world auditory hallucinations which 2018. “Andyfest” was social movements and the changed from unification had been well documented sponsored by Leuphana Greens, European anti- in 1870 to the rise of among soldiers during the University, which awarded Semitism, European anti- National Socialism in the war. Modern life became Markovits an honorary Americanism, and sports. late 1920s. This period of a war of sound, both on doctorate in 2007, and rapid modernization was and off the battlefield. characterized by the audible convergence of military Eadrums is the first book- and civilian soundscapes. length study to explore Object Lessons and the this complex interaction of Formation of Knowledge As the din of the Franco- acoustical modernity and Congratulations to Kerstin “I hope people reading our Prussian War subsided German modernism, charting Barndt on her book Object book get a sense of how in 1871, the physical a literary and cultural history Lessons and the Formation remarkable the histories of effects and affective states written in and around the ear. of Knowledge: The University these collections are,” said engendered by that war’s The result is not only a new of Michigan Museums, Barndt to LSA Magazine’s unprecedented sonic intensity way of understanding the Libraries, and Collections Brian Short. “They are tied to migrated to the urban underlying sonic impulses 1817–2017, co-edited the history of the state and spaces of Prague, Berlin, behind key literary texts from with Carla M.