ACADEMIC PROGRAM REVIEW
SIXTH CYCLE
M.A. in German
GERMAN PROGRAM Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures College of Liberal & Creative Arts San Francisco State University
(Fall 2007 – Spring 2011)
Submitted July 2013
The enclosed self-study report has been reviewed by faculty in the German Program and is now submitted for external review.
Volker Langbehn & Ilona Vandergriff, Faculty Members Date
Drafts have been read and deemed ready for external review by:
Paul Sherwin, Dean of the College of Liberal & Creative Arts Date
Linda Buckley, Associate Vice President of Academic Planning Date
Ann Hallum, Dean of Graduate Studies Date
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ACADEMIC PROGRAM REVIEW ...... 1 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 4 1.1 Brief History of the German Program ...... 4 1.2 Brief synopsis of Previous Program Review Recommendations ...... 5 1.3 Summary of How Program Meets the Standards ...... 11 1.4 Summary of Present Program Review Recommendations ...... 13 2 PROGRAM PROFILE ...... 14 2.1 Overview of the program ...... 14 2.2 The Program in the Context of the Academic Unit ...... 15 3. ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS ...... 17 3.1 Evidence of Prior Academic Success ...... 17 3.2 Evidence of Competent Writing ...... 17 3.3 English Preparation for Non-Native Speakers ...... 17 3.4 Overview of Program Admissions Policy ...... 18 4. PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS ...... 19 4.1 Number of Course Offerings ...... 19 4.2 Frequency of Course Offerings ...... 21 4.3 Path to Graduation ...... 23 4.4 Course Distribution on ACT/GAP ...... 23 4.5 Class Size ...... 23 4.6 Number of Graduates ...... 24 4.7 Overview of Program Quality and Sustainability Factors ...... 25 5. FACULTY REQUIREMENTS ...... 26 5.1 Number of Faculty in graduate program ...... 26 5.2 Number of Faculty in graduate program ...... 26 6. PROGRAM PLANNING & QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROCESS ...... 28 6.1 Course Assessments & Program Assessment ...... 28 6.2 Faculty Meetings ...... 28 7. THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE ...... 29 7.1 Assessment of student learning ...... 32 7.2 Advising ...... 34 7.3 Writing proficiency ...... 34 7.4 The culminating experience ...... 34 7.5 Overview of student quality indicators ...... 35 8. THE PROGRAM & THE COMMUNITY ...... 37 8.1 Professional engagement of students and alumni ...... 37 8.2 Civic engagement ...... 37 8.3 Equity and social justice ...... 38 8.4 Internationalization ...... 39 9. THE FACULTY EXPERIENCE ...... 40 9.1 Faculty Statistics ...... 40 9.2 Research and Professional Engagement of the Faculty ...... 41 9.3 Supervision of Culminating Experiences ...... 43 9.4 Discipline-Specific Standards for Teaching Graduate Courses ...... 44 9.5 Interdisciplinarity ...... 44 9.6 Overview of Faculty Quality Indicators ...... 45 2
10. RESOURCE SUPPORT FOR THE PROGRAM ...... 47 10.1 Internal support: Instructional Support ...... 47 10.2 Internal Support: Resource Management ...... 48 10.3 External Funding to Support Instruction ...... 48 A. APPENDIX 1: ...... 49 Bulletin Copy ...... 49 B. APPENDIX 2: ...... 53 List of Available Courses (only courses eligible for M.A. units listed) ...... 53 C. APPENDIX 3: ...... 57 Paper Dos and Don’ts ...... 57 D. APPENDICE 4: ...... 60 Faculty Curriculum Vitae - Langbehn ...... 60 E. APPENDIX 5: ...... 68 Faculty Curriculum Vitae - Vandergriff ...... 68
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1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1 Brief History of the German Program
The German program dates back to the first half of the 20th century. Between 1930 and 1940 Beginning and Intermediate German courses were taught. In 1955, the German Baccalaureate degree was established followed in 1961 by the Master's of Arts degree in German. Since 1955 the German Program has been affiliated with six other foreign language and literature programs in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. The German additionally has offered the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing for teacher preparation in a single subject. SFSU is the only CSU campus that has a graduate program in German, whereas in Southern California CSU Fullerton and CSU Long Beach offers a Master of Art Degree program in German. At the undergraduate level, the German Program is one of only nine German B.A. programs within the 23 universities in the CSU system highlighting its unique status.
Throughout its long history the German program has demonstrated by offering a solid basis in the literary canon transmitting a set of critical skills applicable beyond the confines of conventional literary analysis. Organized around a crucial body of literary and philosophical texts, which includes canonical and non-traditional works, the program over the years has offered students a challenging course of studies. It has successfully prepared graduate students for academic and non-academic careers. As a small program the graduate program has focused on encouraging and guiding each student in designing his or her individual course of study. The program has tailored students study to make the student competitive in a constantly evolving academic and non-academic market.
The year 2002 stands as a caesura in the history of the German Program. Two of the then four active faculty members, Dr. Richard Wiseman and Dr. Anita Antler, retired. Due to California’s economic downturn and the resulting budget cuts in Higher Education SFSU was forced to hire in 2002 only one new faculty member, Dr. Volker Langbehn, replacing the two vacancies. The reduction from four to two faculty members in German had a significant impact on the diversity and number of courses offered with both faculty members teaching each four classes per semester. Because the curriculum includes courses on culture, literature and linguistics, the two current faculty members now have covered since 2002 all three areas of expertise of the retired faculty members, resulting in an unusually large number of course preparations.
However and despite the adverse development, the faculty has been very creative and successful in continuously addressing the graduate student’s needs by way of revamping the entire German curriculum to now offering two tracks – the emphasis on literature and on German Studies – leading to the B.A. and M.A. In 2006 the course load was reduced to three classes per semester. From a faculty perspective, the reduction was a welcome change, yet posed additional challenges in offering the minimum amount of courses required for graduate students to graduate. However, the German program continues to align the curriculum at the M.A. level with a German studies focus, foregrounding their interdisciplinary orientation.
The German program in the CSU system remains unique because it attracts many very diverse student groups from different departments such as History, Comparative and World Literature, Humanities, Jewish Studies, and English to name but a few. The curriculum now
4 offers new and significantly revised courses in English on German Culture, literature, historical linguistics and history. The demand for graduate courses taught in English is strong whereas literature courses taught in German at the graduate level remain low in comparison to courses taught in Spanish. To address the challenges of graduate education in German the faculty has increasingly initiated bridges between graduate studies and professional careers by soliciting internship and inviting speakers addressing the significance of the M.A. degree in German for a professional career. This in turn is another sign of a faculty staying at the forefront of cultural and educational developments with a strong focus on students. Throughout its existence at SFSU, the German Program enjoys a superb reputation highlighted by the faculty’s commitment for excellence.
1.2 Brief synopsis of Previous Program Review Recommendations
Referencing all programs in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) produced for the Fifth Cycle of Academic Program Review dated 3/23/2007 affirmed that “[t]he MA programs are known for their strong emphasis on linguistic proficiency, and some have gained reputations far beyond the State” (1). The External Reviewers’ Report noted that the “[t]he MA programs are directly linked to the lower-division portion of the BA program through the use of TAs, and to the upper- division courses through cross-listing. These relationships are sound. The reviewers are satisfied that the current number of degree programs does not need to be modified” (6). Addressing individual programs, the reviewers praised the German faculty, stating that they “are doing an impressive job of rethinking and updating their curriculum. They have introduced a German Studies focus into the program that dovetails with the University’s new European Studies minor—including new courses (some in English) on the Weimar era, the Holocaust, and the post-World-War-II era, as well as a course on Berlin (15).” Moreover, the reviewers expressed their admiration for one faculty member by stating, “[w]e were also impressed with the ambitious conference that Professor Langbehn is coordinating for next September [2007], including the funding that he has managed to secure from various agencies” (15). While the overall assessment of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures was very positive and supportive, the external reviewers, along with the University’s Academic Program Review Committee, offered some recommendations, which the German program in particular and the department as a whole have addressed or continue to address. Even before the MOU was officially signed, the German program began putting into practice the recommended course of action. Below is a point-by-point response to the MOU with a focus on recommendations made on the topic of governance, curriculum & curricular revisions, interdepartmental collaboration, courses taught in English and new FTE’s.
1. Reduction of paired courses and/or offering graduate courses with the option that advanced undergraduates (e.g., graduating seniors) are able to enroll (page 9)
The German program has started to reduce the total number of paired courses (13), such as Ger 741 (Formerly Ger 617/817), The Holocaust and Its Aftermath in Germany, now cross-listed with Jewish Studies and History to 7. While the German program seeks to reduce paired courses to fewer than 50% of the program courses offered, the faculty has to be mindful of the fact that courses offered in the target language tend to attract fewer graduate students due to their limited language skills. The German program will at this point change the German courses taught in English to graduate courses only with the option for advanced undergraduates to enroll. The courses have been and continue to be very popular and well appreciated by graduate students in the History, Comparative and World Literature,
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Humanities, and other departments, as reflected in enrollment numbers and evaluations: Ger 613/813 Weimar Republic and Its Principle of Discontent, Ger 614/814 Crisis and Quest or The Emergence of Modernism in German Literature, and Ger 616/816 Postwar German literature - The Past As Present.
In consideration of the recommendations, each semester the German program will offer a 3- unit stand-alone graduate level course taught in German, a 3-unit stand-alone graduate level course taught in English, and a 3-unit paired course taught in German (graduate students enroll in the graduate part of the pair). After 4 semesters a student who has enrolled in the above would have 12 units of stand-alone graduate level courses taught in German, 12 units of stand-alone graduate level courses taught in English, and 12 units of paired courses taught in German (graduate students enroll in graduate parts of the pairs), which would be more than the 30 units they would need, more than the 15 units of graduate stand-alone courses they would need, and more than the 15 units of courses in German they would need. The graduate courses taught in English and the paired courses taught in German with larger enrollments would offset smaller graduate level courses taught in German.
2. Revision of the curriculum – Adding more courses Taught in English, intradepartmental cooperation (page 10)
As the German program seeks to offer more interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary courses to teach German Across the Curriculum, and to attract more graduate students, the faculty will propose new courses with a focus on German colonialism, visual studies, and genocide studies to expand its existing repertoire of cutting-edge courses. However, while the faculty is eager to expand its course offerings, we have to be mindful to maintain the core mission of the German program, i.e., to offer courses in the German language.
Moreover, the faculty has to ensure that courses leading to the completion of the M.A. degree are offered regularly. Considering that there are only two faculty members offering courses from the Middle Ages to the present, from language to German studies courses, we are forced to acknowledge that we are limited by our number of faculty members. The German program would highly welcome the proposal by the reviewers to hire a colleague with joint appointments in two programs (particularly German/French) with a European focus (11). The hire would also address the issue addressed by the reviewers that intradepartmental collaboration is insufficient (10). While the German program has recommended such as a hire for many years, nothing has been accomplished, largely due to the dire economic situation of public Higher Education in California since 2008. The German faculty strongly believes that an additional appointment in two programs would significantly enhance the existing high quality of the program, making it more attractive to prospective graduate students. A roadmap and vision for the German program exists; however, support by way of an additional faculty member is essential to implement the envisioned changes. The reviewers’ and APRC’s recommendation to prune the curriculum and eliminate courses that have not been taught for years is in process. We expect the process to be completed by 2013-14 once the current moratorium on course additions/subtractions has been lifted.
It should be noted that release time, as recommended by the external reviewers, for preparing new courses among other things, has not been granted, adding to the challenges of all programs at SFSU including the German program and the Foreign Language Department face every year. While the reduction to a 3/3 teaching load was welcomed with enthusiasm in 2006, the reality of our work makes it a continued challenge to constantly adjust to the
6 currents and trends in academia and the workforce. As a program consisting of two full-time faculty members, two Graduate Teaching Associates, and occasional lecturers we face constant challenges to maintain the minimum number of course offerings. With a teaching load of 3/3, and no coordinator course release time, the combined teaching load is 12 courses per year. One faculty member teaches FL 750 every fall semester, one of several courses signifying intradepartmental cooperation, reducing the number of German courses taught by the full-time faculty in German to 11 courses per year. In addition, one faculty member teaches HUM 375 Biography of a City: Berlin every other spring semester reducing her course load in the German Program further. The course counts towards the German major and has been successful in inducing students to study German. In order to continue our interdisciplinary endeavors as well as faculty sharing within the College of Liberal & Creative Arts, the German program requires an additional tenure-track faculty member who could be shared with another program or other programs. Despite the obstacles, attributable largely to limited budget allocations, the program has been successful with respect to overall enrollment numbers and adjusting to the constant curriculum shifts in higher education.
3. Creation of Internships for students & strong encouragement of study abroad (page 12)
A major strength and recruiting tool for the M.A. in German has been its rigorous Graduate Teaching Associate program. Following satisfactory completion of FL 750, Foreign Language Curriculum and Instruction I, taught by a German faculty member with expertise in applied linguistics, M.A. students in German can apply for a T.A.-ship in German, a paid position. Teaching Associates are solely responsible for lesson planning and teaching two days a week in a 5-unit elementary language course. One of the German faculty members is the main instructor for the course and teaches three days per week. Through this team-teaching approach, Teaching Associates gain valuable teaching experiences under the tutelage of an experienced instructor. In addition, the main mentor regularly evaluates Teaching Associates with teaching and research interests in applied linguistics. It is important to note that, many M.A. applicants come with a primary interest in language teaching and develop additional academic interest in the M.A. program. As T.A.s gain teaching experience, they also practice and solidify their language competence. M.A. students who are interested in teaching but are unable to obtain a position as a Teaching Associate at SFSU can be placed into a teaching assistantship at City College of San Francisco. The cooperative arrangement has been in place for many years with fruitful results.
In conjunction with their T.A.-ships, M.A. candidates have the option of enrolling in a special study class for further professionalization. In collaboration with the language pedagogy faculty member, these M.A. students do research on a topic of German pedagogy culminating in a juried faculty-co-authored publication or professional conference workshop. In this way, M.A. graduates gain valuable publishing experience or research/presentation skills, both highly valuable experiences in the student’s path towards professionalization.
The faculty of the German program has been keenly interested in creating other professional opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. The German program has been very successful in recommending students to the ‘SFSU Study Abroad’ program as an essential experience in the study of German regardless of status (undergraduate/graduate). According to the Office of International Programs at SFSU, students of German represent one of the highest study–abroad groups, generating a significant amount of revenue for SFSU:
TABLE 1: Number of Study Abroad students in German
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2007–08 14 students 2008–09 15 students 2009–10 17 students 2010–11 35 students 2011–12 32 students
While this may be more applicable to undergraduate students, the faculty has been involved in creating internships with local German companies in the Silicon Valley, such as BMW, Siemens, Audi, SAP, and KPMG. The faculty has made contacts with local startup companies that will enable internships for undergraduate/graduate students in Berlin and Munich starting 2013-14. Moreover, the faculty has invited speakers from local companies to speak about the significance of learning foreign languages and how it impacted them in their professional careers. In fall 2013 we will have distinguished speakers like Jim Herlihy, Managing Director of Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, and Dr. Thomas Arend, who is the International Product Lead for www.Airbnb.com, a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world. Dr. Arend will not only present his professional narrative to students in the German program, but also invite students to the business headquarters of Airbnb in downtown San Francisco to show them how much one can do with knowing foreign languages, especially German. We stress the significance of both the German undergraduate and graduate degree offered insofar as Germany has both the largest national economy in Europe and the fourth largest by nominal GDP in the world. Germany has been a driver, innovator, and beneficiary of an ever more globalised economy. Germany is the world's second largest exporter, and it is precisely this tremendous impact of Germany in world economics that has motivated the faculty to fiercely engage in the local economic community for the benefits of their students and to offer thought-provoking, interdisciplinary graduate courses that apprise them of developments in European history and intellectual, cultural and economic history.
The German faculty recognizes the need for a more workforce-related approach to graduate students by way of internships. Graduate students with a M.A. in German literature or German studies have better job opportunities when exploring professional career paths vs. the traditional approach to a M.A. that encourages becoming a teacher of German or advancing to a Ph.D. program. We as a faculty are committed to making a difference and creating additional opportunities.
4. Alumni – Grant money – fund drive (page 12) The German program with the assistance of the University Development Office has created an alumni list. With the support of Andrea Rouah, Director of Development in the College of Liberal & Creative Arts, the German program now actively seeks to establish external funds in order to create additional scholarships for its undergraduate and graduate students. In the past this important aspect has been neglected due to the limited amount of faculty resources and time. Andrea Rouah will be a strong ally in updating the alumni database. The faculty is already actively involved in attracting the interest of major German companies in the Bay Area to support the program with scholarships and internships. The program expects results in the upcoming academic year. At this point we have received a $ 10,000 grant in support of scholarships and expect a significant bequest from Joseph M. and Lotte M. Dadone “for scholarships for promising graduate students pursuing the study of German language or culture...” (Letter dated 3-8-2013).
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5. Intra- and interdepartmental Collaboration/lack of cohesive governance (page 10)
The external review committee concluded that there is a lack of intradepartmental collaboration in Foreign Languages and Literatures. The German program only partially agrees with the assessment that we, as a department, lack a “sense of governance structure,” which is tantamount to the position that we, as a department, lack a vision. First of all, the report criticized the department for not producing documents regarding the election of chairs and other procedures, rights, and responsibilities. Yet such documents, approved by the Academic Senate, already exist for the entire university. Only when the need arises to specify further or to set the bar higher than University-wide rules and regulations prescribe is it necessary to devise separate departmental guidelines.
Second, we would not quarrel with the reviewers’ implied critique that the Department is fragmented. Each program stresses its own needs without attending as much as it should to the needs of the department as a whole. While we recognize this as a problem, we would, however, emphasize a matter of crucial importance: each program has to maintain some form of autonomy since, among other things, each is different in terms of size and student population (e.g., the large number of heritage speakers of Spanish and Chinese). Each program has to decide if courses the proposed by the reviewers—e.g., Introduction to German Studies or Italian Studies or French Studies—merit further consideration. The German program, as suggested under 2, supports courses across national boundaries, and would be eager to create them. While such proposals read well on paper, they ignore the most obvious problem – lack of staff. We cannot expect lecturers to offer courses like European intellectual history, European film, or European feminism that cross national boundaries. The German faculty strongly believes that the precondition of a promising approach of this sort is dependent on the joint hiring of an additional faculty member situated in two programs of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
Third, the German program has been nurturing and enjoying fruitful cooperation with the Departments of History and Jewish Studies in offering Ger 741: The Holocaust and Its Aftermath in Germany as a cross-listed course (JS 741, HIST 741). Their respective graduate students had relied in the past on courses offered in the German program to meet their professional and departmental requirements. Similar cooperative arrangements have been made between German and the English Department’s Linguistics program. GER 745: Development of the German Language has been revised to serve the needs of graduate students in German and Linguistics.
Fourth, German faculty have been part of many external M.A. exam committees, such as those of Ms. Jessica Ferguson (Comparative and World Literature, June 2007), Ms. Giovanna Montenegro (Comparative and World Literature, June 2007), Mr. Chris Disman (History, June 2007), Mr. Kevin Humbert (Humanities, May 2007), and Ms. Constance Martin (Comparative and World Literature, May 2010). Moreover, one of the faculty members, Professor Langbehn, was a keynote speaker at the History Department graduate student conference (2012). There are many other examples of the strong collaborative engagements of the German faculty, attesting as well to the overall quality of the German M.A. program.
Finally, the German program has been hugely successful in staging two major conferences in recent years. The program—in collaboration with colleagues in the departments of FLL, History, Jewish Studies Comparative and World Literature, Humanities, etc.—staged
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“Germany’s Colonialism in International Perspective,” An International Interdisciplinary Conference on German Colonialism and Post-Colonialism, September 6-9, 2007. Over 50 colleagues from all over the world presented or commented on topics related to Germany’s colonial past. The German program successfully generated roughly $20,000 in grant support from well-recognized and established institutions enabling graduate students and junior professors to attend the conference. Similarly, the German program in cooperation with the International Network of Genocide Scholars staged the 3rd Global Conference on Genocide at San Francisco State University, June 28th – July 1st, 2012, with roughly 150 national and international participants. Again, roughly $20,000 in grant support was generated for the benefit of many colleagues. The German program received support for both conferences from local and national institutions: Goethe-Institute San Francisco, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the General Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany (San Francisco), the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, and the College of Liberal & Creative Arts.
In sum, the German program cooperates and collaborates locally with colleagues in the Department of FLL, in other departments and colleges at SFSU, as well as nationally and internationally. The program is a vibrant collaboration of two faculty members who strongly believe in and actively contribute to the university-defined goals of internationalization. The faculty is an active participant in the local, national, and international communities of research and education. We help to put SFSU on the map internationally!! Even though the 2012 conference was outside the parameters of the review, the faculty feels strongly about its undergraduate and graduate programs’ vibrant connection to SFSU and Bay Area communities.
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1.3 Summary of How Program Meets the Standards
TABLE 2 Thumbnails of Standards Met
Indicator Standard How Standard is Met Page ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS 3.1 Evidence of prior - 2.75 GPA or higher 100% of students admitted meet this 17 academic success up until Fall 2007 standard. There have been no appeals - 3.0 GPA or higher as to admit student who are below the of Spring 2008 required GPA. 3.2 Evidence of competent Analytical statement of M.A. applicants submit 500-word 17 writing purpose according to bilingual (two versions -- one in program guidelines English, one in German) analytical statements of purpose that address language aptitude, academic training, graduate study plan and career objectives. GRE test is not required. 3.3 English preparation of - TOEFL - 550 in 100% of students admitted meet this 17 non-native speakers paper-based test (PBT) standard. There have been no appeals to admit student whose English language ability is below the minimum standard required by the University. PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS 4.1 Number of course 2 graduate courses per An average of 1.26 graduate courses 19-20 offerings semester per semester over the past four years, below the university requirement of 2 courses per semester. See additional comments below. 4.2 Frequency of course At least once per 2 All required M.A. courses met the 21-22 offerings years two-year offering requirement. See additional comments below. 4.3 Path to graduation Expected graduation in Average time to degree is 3.18 years. 23 2 years with full-time attendance; graduation in 4 years with half- time attendance 4.4 Course distribution on Proper distribution of (100% of ATC/GAP forms meet the 23 ATC/GAP graduate and university distribution requirements. undergraduate courses; paired courses reduced to two electives 4.5 Class size Enrolls 5-30 students 33% of MA classes had enrollment 23 per class between 5 and 30 students. Average class size is 4 German M.A. students per class (excluding M.A. students from other Departments) 4.6 Number of graduates 5 graduates per year An average of 1.5 MA degrees 24 average over 5 years granted per year during period of review. FACULTY REQUIREMENTS 5.1 Number of faculty in Minimum of 2 2 full-time faculty plus 2 part-time 26 graduate programs faculty that taught M.A. courses during this review period because of the absence of one faulty member due to sabbatical leave
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The M.A. program meets the university and departmental grade point average and writing standards for graduate admission (see Table 2). The number and frequency of course offerings meets the university requirement of two graduate courses per semester. Please note that the program has struggled during the period of review to offer all the required courses within a two-year cycle due to the small number of faculty (2) and because of the sabbatical leave of one full-time faculty member from 2008-2010.
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1.4 Summary of Present Program Review Recommendations
We recognize the need to increase the enrollment of students in the M.A. program. Many departments of foreign language and literatures have suffered significant drops in enrollment and/or have been cut due to the severity of the economic crisis in California in particular and the US in general. Such declines, followed by periods of resurgence, have occurred periodically in the U.S. over the last several decades. We believe that the M.A. program is essential to SFSU’s mission of internationalizing its curriculum and to fulfilling the language requirement of the Comparative Literature M.A. program. Even though the numbers of the graduates fall below University requirements, the German faculty has established an outstanding reputation in the SFSU community, as well as nationally and internationally. To attract new graduate students to the M.A program, and to maintain viability and competitiveness, increased funding is a prerequisite. The faculty has been very creative and engaged in soliciting extra support and attention for its M.A. program.
As expressed in the program evaluation and in response to the external review, three core ingredients are essential to increase the graduate student numbers: a) the hiring and retention of a faculty member in conjunction with another program such as French and/or Comparative and World Literature; b) adequately funded fellowships and TAships to attract excellent students; and c) assigned time for faculty. The graduate program cannot compete with similar graduate programs without adequate support. Both faculty members work with an absolute minimum of support to offer the maximum quality and the core requirements for graduation.
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2 PROGRAM PROFILE
2.1 Overview of the program
The German program offers a comprehensive and carefully designed curriculum for undergraduate and graduate studies in the area of language, literature, culture, and linguistics.
Over the course of their graduate studies, students acquire in-depth knowledge of the literatures of German-speaking countries along with the critical skills for literary analysis. The program offers the majority of graduate courses in German. As a result, many of our M.A. candidates develop superior language competency.
The program offers students a challenging and enriching course of studies that encompasses literary and cultural history with particular emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, culture and aesthetics, and linguistics. At the end of the program, candidates take a comprehensive examination. The M.A. in German entitles graduates to teach at California community colleges and serves as preparation for entering doctoral programs at Ph.D.-granting institutions.
The graduate program takes great pride in mentoring students and advises them in designing their course of study. Students are encouraged to take courses in a related field to complement their academic preparation in German studies. We have forged strong ties to other departments such as Classics, Comparative and World Literature, History, Jewish Studies, English, Humanities, and Women and Gender Studies.
The faculty of the program engages in a wide variety of research areas, including literary theory, the history of aesthetic theory, psychoanalysis and literature, gender, nationalism and cultural politics, genocide studies, European colonialism, visual history, syntax, discourse analysis, pragmatics, and applied linguistics/second language acquisition.
Qualified graduate students have the opportunity to gain teaching experience as Graduate Teaching Associates (GTA's) in a conventional as well as partially online classroom. This paid GTA experience includes ongoing training and mentoring.
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2.2 The Program in the Context of the Academic Unit
The German Program offers a M.A. which combines traditional and cutting-edge study in the field with film studies, intellectual history, history, aesthetic theory, and genocide studies. The program also offers a minor and major in German. Students earning B.A. degrees in German are eligible to apply to the M.A. program. In contrast to classes offered at the B.A. level, courses at the M.A. level have decreased class size, and so students receive much greater individual attention. Due to the economic crisis in California the number of graduate students in the M.A. program has decreased and the program has opted to offer an increased number of paired undergraduate/graduate courses. However we are now in the process of decoupling courses and include some additional curses in translation.
At the graduate level, the faculty encourages students to become Teaching Assistants in Ger 101 and Ger 102, first year German language classes. Graduate students gain first-hand experience in teaching German, mostly to undergraduates. The faculty acts as mentors, assisting the German T.A. in developing and/or improving his/her teaching skills. The faculty mentor the T.A.s in a variety of skills, such as classroom management; planning, preparing and delivering lessons to a large class; preparing and scheduling tests, examination of papers, and exercises; marking and providing appropriate feedback on oral and written work; devising, writing and producing new materials, including audio and visual resources; and basic classroom administration, such as keeping student attendance records.
As Table 3.1 indicates, the number of full-time equivalent students (or FTES) in the graduate program has remained steady with an average of 5.19 per year during 2007 to 2011. The undergraduate program, meanwhile, has significantly increased the number of full-time equivalent students.
TABLE 3.1: FTES*, FTEF**, and SFR*** in Graduate and Undergraduate Programs - fall
2007 Fall 2008 Fall 2009 Fall 2010 Fall
FTES FTEF SFR FTES FTEF SFR FTES FTEF SFR FTES FTEF SFR LD 13.38 0.792 16.9 16.65 1.003 16.6 15.98 0.663 24.11 14.57 0.796 18.3 UD 2.55 0.697 3.66 4.45 0.453 9.82 2.25 0.267 8.43 3.3 0.505 6.53 UG 15.93 1.489 10.7 21.1 1.456 14.49 18.23 0.93 19.61 17.87 1.301 13.73 Graduate 2 0.508 3.94 1.75 0.08 21.88 0.7 0.067 10.45 2.43 0.513 4.74 All Divisions 17.93 1.997 8.98 22.85 1.536 14.88 18.93 0.997 18.99 20.3 1.814 11.19
TABLE 3.2: FTES*, FTEF**, and SFR*** in Graduate and Undergraduate Programs - spring
2008 Spring 2009 Spring 2010 Spring 2011 Spring
FTES FTEF SFR FTES FTEF SFR FTES FTEF SFR FTES FTEF SFR LD 17.82 1.079 16.51 13.43 0.53 25.35 20.42 0.77 26.52 24.15 1.132 21.33 UD 5.25 0.616 8.52 7.45 0.832 8.95 5.9 0.3 19.67 5.7 0.666 8.56 UG 23.07 1.695 13.61 20.88 1.362 15.33 26.32 1.07 24.6 29.85 1.798 16.6 Graduate 3.5 0.403 8.68 1.85 0.369 5.01 3.3 0.3 11 5.15 0.244 21.11 All Divisions 26.57 2.098 12.66 22.73 1.731 13.13 29.62 1.37 21.62 35 2.042 17.14
* FTES stands for full-time equivalent students
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** FTEF stands for full-time equivalent faculty (including lecturers) *** SFR stands for student-faculty ratio
The human resources dedicated to the graduate program are significant. As Table 3 illustrates, the student faculty ratio for undergraduates is roughly 2 times greater than for graduates, which aligns closely with the ratio devoted to the graduate and undergraduate program.
TABLE 4: M.A. Program Applicant Take-Rate (per semester)
Number of Number of Percentage Number Percentage applications acceptances accepted enrolled enrolled 2007-2008 2007 Fall 2 1 50.0% 0 0% 2008 Spring 2 1 50.0% 1 100.00% 2008-2009 2008 Fall 4 4 100.00% 2 50.00 2009 Spring 0 0 0% 0 0% 2009-2010 2009 Fall 3 1 33.33% 1 100.00% 2010 Spring 0 0 0% 0 0% 2010-2011 2010 Fall 4 3 75.00% 2 66.67% 2011 Spring 1 1 100% 1 100.00% SEMESTER AVERAGE 2 1.375 51.00% 0.875 52.01%
The disappointing numbers in the program applicant take-rate is reflective of an overall trend across US universities in German and other languages. Nonetheless, German M.A. courses are highly sought after courses for students in other disciplines, notably Comparative Literature and History, to fulfill their foreign language requirements and their academic research interests. Hence the German M.A. program provides service not only to students of German but also to students form other disciplines that have German literature, culture or history as an additional field of interest.
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3. ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
3.1 Evidence of Prior Academic Success
We generally expect students entering the program to have a B.A. degree or equivalent in German. We also give consideration to students with advanced German language competencies who have obtained a B.A. in another field. They may be admitted as conditionally classified graduate students and are required to remediate or complete all deficiencies before attaining classified status. Prior to 2008, the grade point average (GPA) requirement for admission to graduate programs was 2.75 and was subsequently raised to 3.0 starting spring semester 2008. Applicants with a minimum 3.0 GPA have to demonstrate advanced proficiency level in German; provide one set of transcripts; and submit at least two letters of recommendation from professionals familiar with the applicant’s academic and/or professional qualifications (hard copies with signature). Because of the specific nature of the subject matter, the German M.A. Program does not require applicants to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) as a condition of admission.
3.2 Evidence of Competent Writing
Applicants submit an analytical statement of purpose of approximately 500 words written in English and stating the reasons for applying to the graduate program and one written in German covering the same content; they submit a sample of analytical writing of 500 words or more written in German. The faculty uses the writings to gauge entry-level writing ability in German and English, and to evaluate the student’s capacity for logical analysis and organizational ability. The faculty instructs prospective students to respond to some basic questions such as why they want to study German, what interests them the most in studying German, what experience they have had in German and what they plan to do with their degrees upon graduation.
The faculty evaluates the statement of purpose as it pertains to the program goals, the narrative skills of the applicant, his/her language proficiency, motivation, maturity, and preparedness as well as the originality of the statement of purpose
3.3 English Preparation for Non-Native Speakers
Apart from satisfying quantitative measures for general academic performance (GPA), the program requires English language proficiency in keeping with university requirements for non-native speakers of English. Applicants who have completed a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree at a U.S. college or university are exempt from this requirement. The program has not admitted any masters students who failed to meet the aforementioned general university requirements, and has in some cases turned down applications. If students are admitted conditionally to the program, they have to see the advisor for Advancement to Classified Graduate Standing when they have completed the pre-conditional courses (such as Ger 401, Ger 510, and Ger 511). Pre-conditional course work may not be used to meet degree requirements.
The German faculty does not consider applications until all materials are complete. Failure to meet the above specifications in a timely manner generally results in disqualification of the application.
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3.4 Overview of Program Admissions Policy
The admissions policy adopted by the M.A. program has proven to be effective over the years in selecting qualified candidates. An application for admission consists of two distinct processes: (1) application to the Division of Graduate Studies (online via CSU Mentor) as specified in the University Bulletin, and (2) submission of a department packet with materials specific to the German program.
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4. PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
4.1 Number of Course Offerings
The German M.A. program periodically reviews its course offerings to ensure that required and elective courses are available to students in a timely manner, and that a balance of courses from different subject areas is available. The program also endeavors to keep course content up to date with current academic and industry standards. Over the period of review, there were a total of 11 graduate level courses offered including upper division undergraduate courses that M.A. students may take as electives, averaging out to 1,26 per semester, or 2,52 courses per year, below the University-wide requirement of 2 stand-alone courses per semester. Within this period, 59 students were served by these graduate course offerings, with an average class size at 4 students, within the range of 5-30 required by the University. Two important factors have impacted and continue to impact the course offerings negatively as stated under section 1. One faculty member teaches FL 750 Foreign Language Curriculum and Instruction I every fall semester, reducing the number of German courses taught by the full-time faculty to 11 courses per year. In addition, one faculty member teaches the undergraduate course HUM 375 Biography of a City: Berlin every other spring semester, further reducing her course load in the program. Moreover, one faculty member was on for two years (2008-09 on sabbatical, 2009-10 on unpaid leave), forcing the program to hire a lecturer in order to offer the minimum number of courses. During the academic years 2008-2010, the German program offered only two graduate courses as a result of the leave of absence. Taking a sabbatical leave or an unpaid leave to undertake research, therefore, is a double-edged sword for a small program such as German.
The German M.A. consists of 30 units of coursework, which provide advanced-level training in the areas of literature, cultural studies, linguistics and pedagogy—a solid foundation for further study and language-related careers. Students have to take Ger745 Development of the German Language (3 units), four (4) graduate courses in German (12 units) plus an additional 15 units of electives. For students interested in teaching Ger101 AND Ger102, the program requires the pedagogy course FL 750 Curriculum and Instruction in Foreign Languages I and FL 751 Curriculum and Instruction in Foreign Languages II. The courses include units on first and second language acquisition in addition to teaching methodology.
The 15 units of graduate level electives in German or related subjects (including linguistics, comparative literature, history, philosophy and other areas demonstrated by the student have to be pertinent to his/her intellectual focus). Graduate students have the option of a nine- unit "related field" as part of their 30 units requirement. Upon advisement, they are encouraged to take courses or seminars in other disciplines such as English/American literature, comparative literature, history, Jewish studies, or philosophy.
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Required Core Course
Course Number Course Title Units GER 745 Development of the German Language 3
A sample of Graduate Courses offered by the German Program
Course Number Course Title Units GER 830 Die deutsche Romantik – German Romanticism 3 GER 831 Seminar in Literary Movements or Periods (select a 3 different variant) GER 832 Idealist Tradition in German Literature 3 GER 813 Weimar Literature in English 3 GER 814 Crisis and Quest in English 3 GER 816 Postwar German Literature in English: The Past as Present 3 GER 741 The Holocaust and Postwar Germany in English 3 GER 835 Novellas and Short Stories 3 GER 831 German Baroque 3 GER 856 19th and 20th Century German Plays 3
The German faculty has posted additional information regarding M.A. course requirements online at http://german.sfsu.edu/
Upon completion of all coursework, students are required to complete the Culminating Experience, a comprehensive examination consisting of a five-hour written and a two-hour oral exam. To pass this exam successfully, students must:
• demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the major literary movements in German-speaking countries from the early Middle Ages to the present; • identify major literary genres and apply basic terms of literary analysis; • make comparisons of themes and motifs in literary texts representing the entire spectrum of German literature; • place the works studied in their historical/cultural context; • show general knowledge of the history and development of the German language; • demonstrate advanced proficiency of German oral and written communication.
Three M.A. committee members judge the examination as either “pass” or “no pass,” or in the event of extraordinary achievement, “pass with honors”
In general, students should be able to complete their M.A. program in two years. However, most of our graduate students are self-supporting and must, therefore, reduce their academic load to six units per semester. Most students who are employed should be able to complete the program in three years or less.
After completing the M.A. degree, many graduates advance to study and research at the doctoral level, while others apply skills for German-related careers, including teaching German, international business and law, translation and interpretation, government, and the IT-industry.
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4.2 Frequency of Course Offerings
University policy states that required graduate courses must be offered at least once every two years. All required courses and most elective courses in the German M.A. program are offered within a two-year rotation, as shown in Table 6. However the two-year rotation at times has been difficult to maintain because of the limited number of faculty and one faculty member’s other teaching assignments outside the German curriculum. The sabbatical leave of one faculty member from 2008 to 2010 had caused additional limitations in the two-year rotation of classes.
Nonetheless, over the period of review, the program offered an average of 2.52 graduate courses per year, below the minimum number per semester required by the University. Of these course offerings, (Table 6), the German faculty struggled to follow the two-year rotation in offering the core requirements, except FL 750 Curriculum and Instruction (I) and GER 802 Contemporary Germany. Hence, the course offerings, in addition to core and methodology requirements, were limited, and partially denied students a healthy staple of options in literature, linguistics, pedagogy, and contemporary German culture. The frequency of course offerings for the review cycle 2007-2011 supports the necessity of hiring of an additional faculty member to alleviate many concerns regarding the two-year rotation of electives. Now in the year 2013 the faculty has been able to offer the two-year rotation of core requirements.
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TABLE 6: M.A. Program Course Rotation, Number of German Graduate Students Enrolled, and Faculty Assigned (NOTE: All classes consist of one section only)
F07 S08 F08 S09 F09 S10 F10 S11 4 GER 745 Vandergriff 3 2 GER 802 Vandergriff Vandergriff 3 GER 831 Vandergriff GER 830 GER 831 GER 832 2 GER 511 R. Clarke III 3 GER 510 Vandergriff 26 26 26 9 FL 750 (e) Vandergriff Vandergriff Vandergriff Vandergriff 7 GER 813 Schechtman 4 5 R. GER 814 Langbehn Clarke III GER 816 *7/ 24 GER 741* Langbehn 6 GER 835 Langbehn 4 GER 856 4 Langbehn Langbehn *Note: Indicates cross-listed class with History and Jewish Studies, total 31 students
NOTE: Required seminars given in bold; electives given in regular print. Suffix (e) indicates possible option for satisfying core requirement.
• Total number of enrolled students (over 4 year period) = 59 (Excluding FL 750 and Ger510 & 511) • Total number of graduate classes/sections taught (over 4 year period, excluding FL 750 and Ger510 & 511) = 11 • Average class size = 4 (Note: number of graduate students in the M.A. program, not overall number of graduate students enrolled in individual classes), number excluding FL 750 and Ger510 & 511 • Average number of graduate seminars per year = 2.52 • Percentage of seminars with enrollment of 5-30 is 33%
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4.3 Path to Graduation
The path to graduation for the MA program is in the in the Bulletin at http://www.sfsu.edu/~bulletin/courses/ger.htm and the German website at http://german.sfsu.edu/. The German faculty annually updates information to include changes in policies or course requirements along with information about withdrawals from the program and re-admission: http://www.sfsu.edu/~bulletin/current/graduate_tc.htm.
For the review period the average annual (new) enrollment in the M.A. program was 1.5 new students per year producing an average of 1.5 M.A. degree recipients per year between 2007 and 2011. See Table 4 for more detailed breakdown of enrollment patterns, and Table 6 for the number of degrees awarded.
The German program estimates that students, based on an average full-time graduate course load of 9 to 12 units per semester, will be able to complete the required 30 unit M.A. in four semesters, given favorable course rotation schedules, and if not, in six semesters. Within the period of review, the average time to degree was 3.18 years, as shown in Table 6.2. Many of our students are not studying full-time – they are working professionals who are taking classes on a part-time basis.
4.4 Course Distribution on ACT/GAP
The German M.A. Advancement to Candidacy (ATC – formerly Graduate Approved Program [GAP]) form, reflecting the German M.A. curriculum described in Section 4.2, consists of 100% graduate level courses, in which only 20% may be paired, well above the university-wide standard of a 50% graduate unit course requirement
The German Program has started to eliminate paired courses taught in English such as Ger 617/817 now designated as Ger 741, The Holocaust and Postwar Germany. During the time of review only Ger 617/817 has become a stand-alone course. We will continue to reduce paired courses in conjunction with the pruning of the overall courses offerings, completing the process by the end of the academic year 2013-4.
Note: The Academic Senate in fall 2007 approved revisions to the German M.A. curriculum, and a subsequently revised ATC/GAP form was put in place in spring 2009. The revisions consist of changes in the two track option German literature/German Studies requirements and updates reflecting new university-wide regulations in the areas of exit-level English writing and new course offerings in teaching and research methodology.
4.5 Class Size
University policy stipulates that a program’s typical graduate class size should be between 8 and 30 students, and seminar classes should be maintained at no more than 15 and no less than 5. Table 5 illustrates the German M.A. Program’s compliance with this policy. Between fall 2007 and spring 2011, there were 59 students enrolled in 11 graduate seminars (one section per class), averaging out to 4 students per class, which is just below the range of 5-15.
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4.6 Number of Graduates
University policy states that the average number of students graduating from a degree program per year over a five-year period shall be at least five. In the four-year period between fall 2007 and spring 2011, the average number of students graduating from the program is 1.5 per year, below the minimum of 5 required by the University. In assessing these low numbers, it is important to acknowledge that the Humanities in general and Foreign Languages and Literatures in particular are faced with the cumulative effects of years of depressed family income and net worth, as well as uncertain job prospects for many recent graduates, and changing market demands; the increase in tuition does not favor an increased interest in graduate studies either. Hence, the German program aggressively seeks to enable students to participate in internship opportunities with German companies, responding to economic, demographic, marketplace and technological trends.
Table 6.1 shows the number of graduates per year for each year of the current review. Table 6.2 gives the latest available data on time to degree and graduation percentages. As each of these numbers is below range, the average time to obtain the M.A. degree is 3.18 years with an average degree completion rate of 100.00%. Even though the enrollment numbers have been below university requirements, of those admitted who chose to enroll, 100% went on to complete their degree requirements.
TABLE 6.1: Number of Graduates
M.A. degrees awarded Academic year total 2007-2008 2007 Summer 1 4 2007 Fall 0 2008 Spring 3 2008-2009 2008 Fall 0 1 2009 Spring 1
2009-2010 2009 Fall 0 0 2010 Spring 0
2010-2011 2010 Fall 1 1 2011 Spring 0
• Average number of M.A. degrees awarded per year is 1.5
TABLE 6.2: Time to Degree* (average)
Year of Matriculation Number of Time to degree Percentage graduated students (years) 2007-2008 4 2.75 100.00% 2008-2009 1 6 100.00% 2009-2010 0 - 00.00% 2010-2011 1 4 100.00%
* Elapsed time to degree in years ignoring stop-outs. Average time to degree in timeframe examined is 3.18 years
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Average degree completion rate is 100.00%
4.7 Overview of Program Quality and Sustainability Factors
Sections 4.1 to 4.6 show that the German M.A. Program is almost a sustainable program by all indicators, whether viewed through class enrollment, course level distribution, and frequency and variety of course offerings, all of which meet general university requirements. However, indicators such as program admissions and graduation rate cannot be read as favorably. As mentioned in the previous sections the teaching load and the two year sabbatical leave by one of the faculty members impacted the program. With the return of the faculty member Dr. Volker Langbehn, the German program now offers all the required courses on a regular basis, however, admissions to the M.A. program has not been favorable signifying a national trend of a decrease in interest of an advanced degree in German.
The sustainability of the German program would be enhanced by an additional tenure-track faculty position with an open specialization in German/French literature. Without an additional colleague, the German faculty remains limited in offering new courses such as The Visual Representation of German Colonialism in Literature and the Arts. Nonetheless, as elaborated in section 1, the German faculty has developed many different approaches to increase the popularity of an advanced degree in German. As mentioned under 7.5 and 8.1, half of our graduate students are highly successful in getting accepted into prestigious Ph.D. programs, which attests to the high quality of the program.
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5. FACULTY REQUIREMENTS
5.1 Number of Faculty in graduate program
University policy requires that each graduate program have a minimum of two tenure/tenure-track faculty, and that each graduate coordinator be a full-time faculty member.
Over the period of review, 2 faculty members taught classes in the German M.A. program. Both were full-time tenured faculty. The number (2) of full-time tenured faculty members matches the minimum required by the University.
The 2 full-time German program tenured faculty members at the time specialized in the areas of literature, linguistics, and pedagogy, combining to cover the German M.A. curriculum. However, one faculty member had a two-year sabbatical (2008-2010), and the program had to hire two lecturers to teach M.A. courses.
5.2 Number of Faculty in graduate program
Tenured faculty members between fall 2007 and spring 2011 were:
TABLE 7: Faculty
NAME RANK CREDENTIALS SPECIALIZATION COURSES TAUGHT Ilona Professor (2008-present) Ph.D., UC Berkeley Linguistics, Applied • Ger 831 - Seminar in Vandergriff Associate Prof (2002-08) (German) Linguistics and Literary Movements or Graduate Adviser Second Language Periods The Age of Undergraduate Acquisition; Chivalry Coordinator (shared) Early language and • Ger 745 - Development literature; of the German Culture Language • Ger 802 - Contemporary Germany • FL 750 - Curriculum and Instruction (I) Volker Professor (2012-present) Ph.D., University German Literature • Ger 830.01 – German Langbehn Associate Prof (2007-12) of Minnesota, Twin from 1700-1820 and Romanticism Undergraduate Cities (German) from 1890-present, • Ger 831.01 – Baroque Coordinator (shared) theory of literature; and Enlightenment Program coordinator the relationship • Ger 832.01 – The between psychology German Idealist and literature, Tradition history of aesthetic • Ger 511.01 – German theory, visual Literature of the 19th & studies, cultural 20th Century criticism, European Colonialism and • Ger 556/856.01* – 19th genocide studies and 20th Century German Plays • Ger 613/813.01* – Weimar Republic and Its Principle of Discontent • Ger 614/814.01* – Crisis and Quest or The Emergence of Modernism in German Literature • Ger 616/816.01* – Postwar German literature - The Past As 26
Present • Ger 841/Hist. 841/JS 841.01 – The Holocaust and Its Aftermath in Germany • Ger 535/835* – The German Novelle of the 19th and 20th- Century *Note: Indicates paired undergraduate & graduate seminars
Consistent with the practice within the College of Humanities (now “College of Liberal & Creative Arts”), all full-time tenure/tenure-track faculty were granted a 3/3 instead of 4/4 teaching load. Between spring 2007 and fall 2011, Professor Ilona Vandergriff served as Graduate Adviser for the German M.A. Program while the Program’s other tenured member, (then) Associate Professor Volker Langbehn, served as Program Coordinator for the German Program.
The Graduate Adviser serves to coordinate admissions reviews, advise new and existing students on curricular matters, oversee Advancement to Candidacy (ATC, formerly GAP) forms, and facilitate the general progress of students through the program from pre- enrolment to Culminating Experience.
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6. PROGRAM PLANNING & QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROCESS
The program as a whole is constantly engaged in self-assessment combined with short-term and long-term planning, the result of which is often organizational and curricular revisions for the improvement of the program, as evidenced in formal program revisions brought to the Academic Senate in 2007 as a partial response to the program’s 5th Cycle Review.
Assessment and planning carried out at the program level involve a number of key components: regular course assessments, cyclic program assessments, and regularly scheduled meetings between faculty of different ranks and units, each of which will be explained below. Beginning in academic year 2013-4, the German program will include a survey administered online via Survey Gizmo (www.surveygizmo.com). The goal is to survey graduate students’ experience in the program and include questions pertaining to the design of the M.A. curriculum. Mostly consisting of multiple-choice questions regarding student experience and curricular design, the survey will include open-ended questions regarding program improvement and time to obtaining the M.A. degree. The German program website has already included a testimonials page for former graduate students, offering a view of the quality of the program. See http://german.sfsu.edu/pages/students.
6.1 Course Assessments & Program Assessment
The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures requires that its language programs compile an inventory of program assessment activities on a regular basis. The last such large- scale review of the Master’s program in German was carried out in 2007, in which entry/exit level requirements and all measureable student learning outcomes were studied, all assessment procedures/methods/strategies were described, summaries of findings were presented, and uses of findings for program improvement proposed when necessary. The most substantive finding was the need for an additional faculty member to teach core courses at the undergraduate & graduate level – a need that has yet to be addressed.
In addition to department level assessments, the German program also undergoes periodic program review. The last such review was the 5th Cycle Review of 2005, for which feedback was received from external reviewers and the Academic Program Review Committee (APRC) in fall 2007. Key recommendations included the addition of a faculty member (shared with another program in the Department of FLL).
6.2 Faculty Meetings
Being a small program with only two tenured/tenure-track faculty members, the German M.A. Program is able to hold faculty meetings on very short notice, and has been doing so whenever issues arise that warrant discussion, on average meeting once every month throughout the semester.
In addition to these planning or problem-oriented meetings of M.A. faculty, the German program meets twice a semester, usually once at the beginning of the semester, and one at its end, to discuss matters pertaining to both undergraduate and graduate program.
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7. THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE
San Francisco State is not only one of the most diverse universities in the nation; its graduate programs have been nationally recognized for their multi-culturalism. As seen in table 8.1 & 8.2, the majority of students in the German Program have described their ethnicity as White and Non-Latino almost equally split in gender reflecting a rather traditional profile of students pursuing a M.A. degree in German. Nonetheless, attendance in German M.A. classes offered in English mirror the diversity of SFSU, a statistic that is not reflected in tables 8.1 & 8.2.
TABLE 8.1: Student Demographics – German B.A.
Enrollment by Gender & German BA Ethnicity Fall 2007 - Fall 2011
Female 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 # % # % # % # % # % Native 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 American/Alaska n Native African American 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Chicano, Mexican- 0 - 0 0.0 1 11.1 0 0.0 0 0.0 American Other Latino 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Asian 0 - 1 20.0 1 11.1 1 20.0 1 20.0 Filipino 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 20.0 1 20.0 Native 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Hawaiian/Pacific Islander White, Non- 0 - 4 80.0 7 77.8 3 60.0 3 60.0 Latino Two or More 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Races Other Responses 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Subtotal 0 - 5 100.0 9 100.0 5 100.0 5 100.0 Unknown 0 0 0 0 1 Non-Resident 0 0 0 0 0 Alien Transitory 0 0 0 0 0 Total Female 0 5 9 5 6 Enrollment 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Male # % # % # % # % # % Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 American/Alaska n Native African American 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Chicano, Mexican- 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 33.3 1 50.0 1 33.3
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American Other Latino 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Asian 1 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Filipino 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Hawaiian/Pacific Islander White, Non- 0 0.0 2 100.0 2 66.7 1 50.0 2 66.7 Latino Two or More 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Races Other Responses 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Subtotal 1 100.0 2 100.0 3 100.0 2 100.0 3 100.0 Unknown 0 0 1 0 0 Non-Resident 0 0 0 0 0 Alien Transitory 0 0 0 0 0 Total Male 1 2 4 2 3 Enrollment 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total # % # % # % # % # % Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 American/Alaska n Native African American 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Chicano, Mexican- 0 0.0 0 0.0 2 16.7 1 14.3 1 12.5 American Other Latino 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Asian 1 100.0 1 14.3 1 8.3 1 14.3 1 12.5 Filipino 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 14.3 1 12.5 Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Hawaiian/Pacific Islander White, Non- 0 0.0 6 85.7 9 75.0 4 57.1 5 62.5 Latino Two or More 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Races Other Responses 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Subtotal 1 100.0 7 100.0 12 100.0 7 100.0 8 100.0 Unknown 0 0 1 0 1 Non-Resident 0 0 0 0 0 Alien Transitory 0 0 0 0 0 Total 1 7 13 7 9 Enrollment
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TABLE 8.2: Student Demographics – German M.A
Enrollment by Gender & German MA Ethnicity Fall 2007 - Fall 2011
Female 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 # % # % # % # % # % Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 American/Alaska n Native African American 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Chicano, 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Mexican- American Other Latino 0 0.0 1 100.0 1 100.0 1 100.0 2 100.0 Asian 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Filipino 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Hawaiian/Pacific Islander White, Non- 1 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Latino Two or More 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Races Other Responses 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Subtotal 1 100.0 1 100.0 1 100.0 1 100.0 2 100.0 Unknown 0 0 0 0 0 Non-Resident 1 2 1 1 0 Alien Transitory 0 0 0 0 0 Total Female 2 3 2 2 2 Enrollment 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Male # % # % # % # % # % Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 American/Alaska n Native African American 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 Chicano, 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 Mexican- American Other Latino 1 50.0 0 0.0 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 Asian 0 0.0 1 100.0 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 Filipino 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 Hawaiian/Pacific Islander White, Non- 1 50.0 0 0.0 0 - 2 100.0 2 100.0
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Latino Two or More 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 Races Other Responses 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - 0 0.0 0 0.0 Subtotal 2 100.0 1 100.0 0 - 2 100.0 2 100.0 Unknown 0 0 1 0 0 Non-Resident 0 0 0 0 0 Alien Transitory 0 0 0 0 0 Total Male 2 1 1 2 2 Enrollment 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total # % # % # % # % # % Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 American/Alaska n Native African American 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Chicano, 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Mexican- American Other Latino 1 33.3 1 50.0 1 100.0 1 33.3 2 50.0 Asian 0 0.0 1 50.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Filipino 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Native 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Hawaiian/Pacific Islander White, Non- 2 66.7 0 0.0 0 0.0 2 66.7 2 50.0 Latino Two or More 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Races Other Responses 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Subtotal 3 100.0 2 100.0 1 100.0 3 100.0 4 100.0 Unknown 0 0 1 0 0 Non-Resident 1 2 1 1 0 Alien Transitory 0 0 0 0 0 Total 4 4 3 4 4 Enrollment
7.1 Assessment of student learning
The German program has established several means to examine and to insure the overall quality of its M.A. students. At present, the faculty uses the following information to evaluate the efficiency of instruction and student learning in the MA program: 1) MA comprehensive examination as the cumulative experience, 2) Evaluation of student performance through four established learning objectives, 3) mid-term, final and research term paper for each graduate seminar and in classroom oral presentation on a topic pertaining to the seminar.
As table 8, Curriculum Alignment Matrix indicates, we have established a list of learning objectives for students in the program and the courses within the curriculum in which these
32 objectives are to be introduced, developed, and mastered. The learning objectives are as follows:
1. Language. Students will be proficient in the varieties of written and oral languages that mark academic prose in German.
2. Linguistics. Students will develop a broad of knowledge of the origins and development of the German language and its relatedness to other members of the Indo-European and German language family especially English. Students will gain knowledge of the major German dialects and developments of the modern standard language.
3. Culture. Students will be able to delineate the relations that exist between literary texts and the social, political, and cultural context of German-speaking cultures in which they were written and to which they responded explicitly or implicitly.
4. Literature. Students will identify major literary movements and literary debates from the past to the present, and use basic terms of literary analysis such as themes, structure, symbolism, motifs, and style to demonstrate thorough knowledge of German literature and culture.
Learning Objective 1
Students get acquainted with the use of appropriate resources, material and format for writing research papers [see Appendix 3]. The assessment takes place in the form of research papers, lectures and discussions on research, and the use of technology to facilitate research in the discipline:
Method of assessment:
• students follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) format in writing research papers (see http://www.mla.org/style_faq1) • students are required to clearly state a thesis, explore its validity, and include a bibliography presented in the MLA format that supports their thesis • students read about various critical and theoretical approaches to literature and are asked to make presentations to the class based on their findings • students orally present a topic of their choice to the seminar using appropriate critical approaches • students read literary texts closely and critically to inform their discussion and analysis of works covered in the syllabus and the M.A. reading list, in accordance with the advanced high level requirements as set forth in the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages):
GUIDELINES: "Speakers at the Advanced level engage in conversation in a clearly participatory manner in order to communicate information on autobiographical topics, as well as topics of community, national, or international interest. The topics are handled concretely by means of narration and description in the major times frames of past, present, and future. These speakers can also deal with a social situation with an unexpected complication. The language of Advanced-level speakers is abundant, the oral paragraph being the measure of Advanced-level length and discourse. Advanced-level speakers have
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sufficient control of basic structures and generic vocabulary to be understood by native speakers of the language, including those unaccustomed to non-native speech." (See http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/public/ACTFLProficiencyGuidelines2012_ FINAL.pdf
Learning Objective 2
Students receive a detailed introduction to the development of the German language from the earliest reconstructable prehistory to the present day. In Ger745 Development of the German Language, students learn about structural aspects of the German language (e.g., how sounds and word forms and sentence structures have changed) and examine such social considerations like as who produced the texts and why, how language varied regionally and by social groups, and how changes spread through society and over geography. Students learn how knowing the history of the language can inform our understanding of German today.
Method of assessment:
• evaluation of student class presentations, mid-term and final examinations and research papers in seminars. • comprehensive M.A. examination (written and oral exams).
Learning Objective 3-4
• Students demonstrate their proficiency with reading and analyzing written texts in a variety of ways, including the culminating master’s exam. Students are expected to compose sophisticated and comprehensive analysis throughout the program.
Method of assessment:
• evaluation of student class presentations, mid-term and final examinations and research papers in seminars. • comprehensive M.A. examination (written and oral exams).
7.2 Advising
Each of the German faculty maintains three advising hours per week. MA students meet with their graduate advisor either during their scheduled office hours or by arranged time. Students who have completed the course requirements and wish to prepare for the comprehensive master's examination meet regularly with faculty committee members during the semester of the scheduled exam.
7.3 Writing proficiency
The German program follows the university’s strategic plan of 2005-2010 to ensure that graduate students write proficiently. All the details are listed under 7.1
7.4 The culminating experience
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The faculty has designed the culminating experiences of the M.A. program to promote creativity and intellectual stimulation, as well as to provide students a way of demonstrating mastery of scholarly and analytical skills. The culminating experience of the Master’s program consists of a comprehensive written (5 hrs) and oral (2 hrs) examination. Graduate students in conjunction with the advisor compile a reading list for the exam based upon faculty recommendation and student interest. The guided approach to facilitate academic enrichment ensures the overall quality of the exam and qualification of the graduate students. The German faculty determines the proficiency in the oral and written examination by following the learning objectives under 7.1.
The M.A. committee consists of both faculty members and an additional outside faculty - if requested by the student - providing guidance and support to the student throughout the preparatory stage for the examination. This is a successful model, and we do not recommend any changes.
7.5 Overview of student quality indicators
Apart from the quality indicators given under 7.1-7.4. the German graduate students during the time span of five years have been successful in getting admitted to prestigious Ph.D. programs in the United States (University of Washington, Cornell University, UCLA) or have been successful in the private sector (Apple) or obtained positions in local high schools or private schools in Germany.
TABLE 8.3: Curriculum Alignment Matrix / Curriculum Map
Student Learning Outcome (SLO) Place in curriculum where outcome is addressed A. Proficiency in Written English (Entry-level) Statement of purpose B. Exit-level Language Proficiency Completion of written and oral comprehensive examination C. The Use of Appropriate Resources, Materials, and FL 750 Curriculum & Instruction (1) Format for Writing a Research Paper FL 751 Curriculum & Instruction (2) D1. Knowledge of Culture, Language and Literature: Completion of written and oral comprehensive at the advanced level, student has a general examination knowledge of literary periods and movements Completion of written and oral comprehensive examination D2. Knowledge of Culture, Language and Literature: Ger 831 - Seminar in Literary Movements or Periods at the advanced level, student has the ability to place works in their cultural context Ger 816.01 Postwar German literature - The Past As Present D3. Knowledge of Culture, Language and Literature: Ger 831 - Seminar in Literary Movements or Periods at the advanced level, student has the ability to analyze works for theme, structure, style and Ger 816.01 Postwar German literature - The Past As characterization Present D4. Knowledge of Culture, Language and Literature: Ger 831 - Seminar in Literary Movements or Periods at the advanced level, student has a general Ger 816.01 Postwar German literature - The Past As knowledge of major metrical conventions and Present conventions of diction D5. Knowledge of Culture, Language and Literature: Ger 831 - Seminar in Literary Movements or Periods at the advanced level, student has the ability to Ger 816.01 Postwar German literature - The Past As express orally and in writing, in the target language, Present those abilities and areas of knowledge listed above E1. Knowledge of Language Structure: student has Ger745 Development of the German Language knowledge of the historical development of the
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German language
E2. Knowledge of Language Structure: student has Ger745 Development of the German Language knowledge of the origins and development of the German language and its relatedness to other members of the Indo-European and German language family, especially English. E3. Knowledge of Language Structure: student has FL 750 Curriculum & Instruction (1) knowledge of current theories and practices in language pedagogy Ger745 Development of the German Language
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8. THE PROGRAM & THE COMMUNITY
8.1 Professional engagement of students and alumni
The German faculty encourages its students to become involved in academic and other professional activities during their time at San Francisco State. Every year, the program hires qualified M.A. students as Teaching Associates in first-year German (Ger101 & Ger102). In addition, graduate students can apply to work as language tutors or translators. Some of our students have been interns in local German Saturday schools to gain teaching experience while completing their MA degrees. Moreover, graduate students were invited to participate in international conferences the program staged in 2007 & 2012, thereby gaining invaluable experience in the professional world and meeting established colleagues. Graduate Teaching Associates regularly attend and/or present in the regional workshops of the Foreign Language Association of Northern California (FLANC). While enrolled in FL 750 Foreign Language Curriculum and Instruction I, their participation receives extra credit in the course. Others have presented or co-presented at the Annual Meeting of California Language Teachers’ Association (see also section 1.2.3). Aside from presentation experience, these conferences and workshops have provided our graduates with access to professional networks. Others have done research in language pedagogy and published their articles in the leading journal, Teaching German/Die Unterrichtspraxis. These educational opportunities in the German program, which integrate research and professionalization, are very much a function of its small size.
As indicated under 7.5, students graduating with a M.A. in German have been very successful at translating their skills and degrees into future employment and academic careers. One graduate has become a Senior Manager at McAfee, an Intel Company, whereas another former graduate student has become a very successful events manager for DZNE, the German Center for the Neurodegenerative Diseases within the Helmholtz Association, an organization that was established by the Federal Ministry of Education (BMBF) to combat the most important widespread diseases.
The German program with the assistance of the University Development Office now has created an Alumni list. With the support of Andrea Rouah, we plan to keep more systematic data on our graduates.
We encourage successful graduates to return to campus to share their professional experiences with current students.
8.2 Civic engagement
Civic engagement always has been an important activity for our faculty. Dr. Volker Langbehn has been a frequent participant in the Day of Learning, offering workshops about Germany and the Holocaust. At the Day of Learning, students and educators from public and private schools throughout California are invited to gain a deeper understanding about the Holocaust and patterns of genocide to inspire moral courage and social responsibility. The many workshops include eyewitness testimonies from survivors of the Holocaust or genocide. The Day of Learning is a program of the Preisler Shorenstein Institute for Holocaust Education and promoted by The Jewish Family and Children's Services Holocaust Center of SF.
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Dr. Langbehn has been actively involved with the promotion of the German language. He is a school principal of the Saturday School at the German International School of Silicon Valley (www.gissv.org), creating a strong community of students. He has been responsible for the rebuilding of the Saturday School at GISSV, which now boasts an enrollment of 150 students from K-12, up from 60. He also has a very successful Facebook page informing interested readers about the German and American education systems (see https://www.facebook.com/pages/German-Saturday-School-Mountain-View- CA/379069492158701).
He has been actively lobbying in the Bay Area for a closer relationship between universities and local schools in the promotion of foreign languages in general and German in particular. In fall 2012, he introduced high school students from the German International School of Silicon Valley to life as a student at San Francisco State University. They attended classes, met with professors at SFSU, discussing their perspectives on teaching at SFSU, and had a chance to talk to the dean of the (then) College of Humanities, Dr. Paul Sherwin, in order to get a dean’s perspective on how to run a college.
Dr. Ilona Vandergriff has been a leader in the Bay Area German teacher community. She is dedicated to building bridges between K-12 and 12-16 German language education. She is a trained scorer of Performance Assessments of California Teachers (PACTs), maintains close connections with the Goethe Institute in San Francisco, has attended local and regional meetings of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG), conducted teacher workshops, and works closely with her AATG colleagues at CSU Sonoma and UC Berkeley. Beyond German, her work in foreign language pedagogy and especially teaching with technology in foreign languages, has resulted in increasing the visibility of the German program.
On campus, the German faculty regularly organizes and hosts events that highlight many links between the academic program(s) and the German community in the Bay Area. Regular visitors include the Consul General of Germany and leaders of the German-American business and cultural community.
8.3 Equity and social justice
Both faculty members of the German program are committed to the appreciation of human diversity and the fostering of cultural sensitivity. The program achieves these goals by providing a balanced curriculum, by maintaining a diverse student body, and by providing opportunities to faculty and students for engagement with discourse and activities that touch upon questions of equity and social justice in the U.S., Germany, and beyond. In line with the recommendations put forth the 2007 MLA Report on Foreign Language Education in the United States, the German program promotes transcultural and translingual competence. The report states that “the idea of translingual and transcultural competence . . . places value on the ability to operate between languages. Students are educated to function as informed and capable interlocutors with educated native speakers in the target language. They are also trained to reflect on the world and themselves through the lens of another language and culture. They learn to comprehend speakers of the target language as members of foreign societies and to grasp themselves as Americans -- that is, as members of a society that is foreign to others.” (www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/05/24/mla)
For example, in GER 802, Contemporary Germany, students analyze critically the public
38 discourse on global problems such as climate change and contrast it with the US perspective with the goal of developing an understanding of deep-rooted and largely invisible cultural perspectives that shape perceptions and the search for solutions.
All courses examine aesthetic issues with regard to fair representation, cultural politics, and subjectivity. In addition, the program offers specialized courses focused on internationally and nationally significant aspects of equity and justice. Ger741 The Holocaust and Its Aftermath in Postwar Germany examines the reception of the Holocaust in Postwar Germany in the arts, literature, film, and historical documents, enabling students to grasp concepts such as nationalism, the “Führer” principle, and how Germany tried to come to terms with its historical past. The invitation of a Holocaust survivor has made the seminar a compelling experience for students.
Similarly, in Ger 816 Postwar German Literature students discuss a statement made famous by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas that “All German history is related indirectly to Hitler. And to the Federal Republic.” Students learn about cultural politics and cultural memory. From a global perspective, questions about German historiography in post-War Germany are contextualized by way of considering how the U.S. has addressed its own historical past.
In Ger813 The Weimar Republic and Its Principle of Discontent students experience the representation of the New Woman and modern technology during the 1920s in Germany and learn about the architectural aesthetics of Bauhaus with its futuristic motto “art and technology - a new unity” and its impact on the social question of urbanization. All seminars in one way or the other address the issue of equity and social justice.
8.4 Internationalization
San Francisco State has been a national leader in educating students from all over the world. Approximately 2,000 international students from over 90 countries attend SFSU, more than any other Master’s Degree granting institution in the United States. The German program has contributed to the internationalization of SFSU by holding two international conferences (German Colonialism in an International Perspective in 2007 and Genocide: Knowing the Past, Safeguarding the Future in 2012). Over 200 scholars from all over the world attended the conferences, affording the university a rare experience of international scholarly presence. The Program provides students, faculty and staff with international experiences, perspectives, and competencies. In addition, faculty members are now seeking opportunities for intra- university partnerships that allow students and faculty to conduct research in German- speaking countries, to share resources with partner institutions abroad, and to create official channels for foreign students to make use of the resources at San Francisco State. As previously stated (see Table 1) students of German at SFSU represent one of the highest numbers of those studying abroad, contributing to the German program’s success in the internationalization of SFSU.
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9. THE FACULTY EXPERIENCE
As mentioned in section 5, between Fall 2007 and Spring 2011, 2 faculty members taught classes in the M.A. program, both of whom were full-time tenured faculty. During the absence of one faculty member, the program hired two different lecturers in 2008-9 and 2009-10 to teach required seminars. The number (2) of full-time tenure/ tenure-track faculty members has remained constant since 2002 when three faculty members retired within a short period of time (2000-2002).
The practice within the program is for all graduate level required and elective courses to be taught by its own full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty, whose respective specializations in literature, linguistics and pedagogy combined cover the full spectrum of the M.A. curriculum. In addition to teaching duties, both full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty members in the M.A. program serve on Culminating Experience committees and share the responsibility for student advising within the program. A breakdown of the statistics, accomplishments and duties of faculty members is given in the following sections.
9.1 Faculty Statistics
The breakdown of program faculty by rank, gender, age and ethnicity is presented in Tables 9 and 10. As numbers are small (2 full-time faculty members), it is not possible to make any statistically significant inferences regarding trends in the age, rank, gender or ethnic makeup of the faculty. The German Program has not yet received any comments or complaints regarding the distribution of faculty rank, gender, age or ethnicity.
TABLE 9: Faculty by Rank and Gender
Distribution by Rank and Gender (including German program faculty teaching both undergraduate and graduate classes [Lecturers in chart taught undergraduate and graduate classes in 2008-2010; regular faculty teach at both graduate and undergraduate levels])
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 Professor 1 1♀ 1♀ Associate Professor 2 ♂♀ 2♂♀ 1♂♀ 1♂ 1♂ 1.0 Lecturer 1♂ 1♂ TOTAL 2 2 3 3 2 NOTE: ♂=male; ♀=female
TABLE 10: Faculty by Age and Ethnicity
Distribution by Age and Ethnicity (including German Program faculty teaching both undergraduate and graduate classes)
40-50 50-60 60-70 TOTAL Caucasian 1♀ 1♂ 2 TOTAL 1 1 2 NOTE: ♂=male; ♀=female
Table 11 gives the distribution of graduate level teaching load of the program’s two tenured/tenure-track faculty between Fall 2007 and Spring 2011. As mentioned in Chapter 5,
40 both full-time faculty members are on a 3/3 teaching load, and on average teach one graduate course per semester. As can be seen from Table 12, faculty workload is evenly distributed.
TABLE 11: Faculty Workload Distribution (NOTE: All classes have only one section)
Vandergriff Langbehn lecturer 2007 Fall GER 802 GER 856 FL750 (e) 2008 Spring GER 814 GER 835 2008 Fall GER 510 GER 813 FL750 (e) 2009 Spring GER 745 GER 511 2009 Fall GER 802 FL750 (e) 2010 Spring GER 814 2010 Fall GER 831 GER 856 FL750 (e) 2011 Spring GER 741
9.2 Research and Professional Engagement of the Faculty
Between Fall 2007 and Spring 2011, full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty from the German M.A. program have been active on the professional front, and have been contributing their expertise to the scholarly community and to society at large.
TABLE 12: Faculty Professional Activities
2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 TOTAL Book Langbehn Langbehn 2 (1) [ed] (1) [ed] Book chapter Vandergriff Langbehn Langbehn 7 (1) (4) (1) Vandergriff (1) Journal article Vandergriff Vandergriff Vandergriff 3 (1) (1) (1) Book review/Evaluation Translation (literary) News/journalism Creative writing Presentation Langbehn (3) Langbehn Langbehn Langbehn 22 Vandergriff (2) (1) (3) (3) Vandergriff Vandergriff Vandergriff (3) (3) (4) Manuscript Vandergriff Vandergriff Vandergriff 5
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reviewer (2) (1) (2) Event Langbehn (1) Vandergriff Vandergriff Langbehn 9 host/panelist/ Vandergriff (2) (2) (2) (1) juror Vandergriff (2) Editorship/design Professional board Vandergriff Vandergriff Langbehn 7 (2) (2) (1) Vandergriff (2) Project consultations Academic Langbehn (2) 2 award/Honors SFSU-Research Vandergriff Vandergriff 2 Grant (1) (1) Sabbatical/Travel Langbehn Langbehn 3 grant (1) (1) Vandergriff (1)
Publications
During this period, German program faculty published in total 2 edited books, 7 book chapters, and 3 journal articles. In addition, both faculty members gave a combined total of 22 conference presentations; served as manuscript reviewers for journals and/or publishers on 5 occasions; played the role of discussant, panelist or juror at 9 conferences/events; served on 7 professional boards; and received 7 professional awards.
Most notably, Professor Volker Langbehn’s two edited books German Colonialism, Visual Culture, and Modern Memory (New York: Routledge, 2010) and German Colonialism: Race, Holocaust, and Postwar Germany, with Mohammad Salama (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011) have received superior reviews and by academic standards have been commercially very successful.
Professor Ilona Vandergriff’s research interests are in theoretical and applied linguistics. She has published important work in leading international and national journals (e.g., Humor – International Journal of Humor Research, Journal of Pragmatics, CALICO Journal) on pragmatics, computer-mediated communication, discourse analysis, and first and second-language use. In addition, empirical research conducted during the time period under review has subsequently been published (2 articles in 2012, 1 article in 2013). In recognition of her scholarship in German linguistics, she was elected to the Executive Committee of the MLA (Discussion Group: German(ic) Linguistics, serving from 2008-2014.
Her work on computer-mediated communication, which examines how the new media shapes language and social interaction, has had a significant impact on her teaching. In her courses such as GER 802, Professor Vandergriff uses web-based tools in a way that creates a more student-centered classroom. For example, Students write critically reflective blogs, share their work through the course management system, do peer reviews and co-author texts. The innovative use of technology in linguistics courses has allowed students in German 42 ready access to historical and contemporary language corpora. Because of her expertise in teaching with technology, students do not just use the Internet for doing what could be done without technology – albeit with reduced ease and convenience. Instead of using technology to access or present materials, her classes foster new ways of communicating and multiple literacies.
Because of her expertise in pragmatics and discourse analysis, Professor Vandergriff was a valued collaborator among colleagues from Communication and English at San Francisco State University and from the University of San Francisco in a research group on doctor- patient interaction (Fall 2009 through Spring 2012). The group received support in the form of grants each academic year (2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012) from ORSP, SFSU’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. SOLDASI – the Affinity Group for the Study of Language, Discourse and Social Interaction -- has presented its work at national and regional conferences, and two co-authored articles are currently under review at the Journal of Health Communication and the Journal of Applied Communication Research. In addition to her research activities, she has conducted juried teacher training workshops at the Annual Convention of the California Language Teachers’ Association.
9.3 Supervision of Culminating Experiences
As described in the University Bulletin, candidates for the Master of Arts degree in German must, upon completion of all coursework, undertake a Culminating Experience which consists of a comprehensive exam (written and oral exam); students cover an agreed upon reading list of German literature and culture as required of all graduate students for graduation. The written examination consists of many questions pertaining to the reading list covering German Literature and Language from the beginning to the present. The candidate is expected to demonstrate mastery of the reading list in written and oral form. A minimum of two faculty members are involved in the Culminating Experience of each graduating master’s student.
As shown in Table 13, in the period under review, the workload for Culminating Experience supervision has been spread evenly between the two tenured faculty members
TABLE 13: Faculty Supervision of Culminating Experiences (NOTE: Two faculty members required per student per culminating experience; supervision includes both written and oral exams)
Langbehn Vandergriff Total 2007-2008 8 4 12 (chaired 4) 2008-2009 1 1 (chaired 1) 2009-2010 1 1 2010-2011 2 2 4 (chaired 2) TOTAL (chaired 7) 18
Dr. Vandergriff also serves as a trained and certified scorer for the Performance Assessment for California Teachers, the culminating assessment for all single-subject candidates in World Languages as seen in Table 14.
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TABLE 14:
Vandergriff French Spanish Italian German 2008-2009 1 2009-2010 1 1 2010-2011 1 1 1 TOTAL 5
9.4 Discipline-Specific Standards for Teaching Graduate Courses
Both of the German program’s tenured faculty are qualified to teach graduate level courses, with specific qualifications in the following areas:
• Volker Langbehn (Professor): German Literature from the 17th century to the present, Holocaust and genocide studies, visual studies, aesthetic theory, popular culture studies • Ilona Vandergriff (Professor): theoretical and applied linguistics; technology- mediated language learning; early language and literature; language and culture; translation
The scrutiny of qualifications and subject area expertise is part of the hiring process. Since their hire, both German program faculty regularly engage in peer-reviewed professional activities and have undergone department and university level retention, tenure and promotion (RTP) reviews, which ensures that their knowledge and expertise is up to date.
Both tenured faculty members teach graduate level core and elective courses, which ensures that students are exposed to the specializations of each, and subsequently have a wide range of subject areas from which to gain professional insights.
9.5 Interdisciplinarity
The German Program promotes interdisciplinarity in a number of different ways: through interdisciplinary course content, aligning course content with other departments through cross-listing courses, teaching a range of courses representing different disciplinary traditions and approaches and attracting graduate students to German classes from other disciplines, whose contributions bring divergent views into the classroom
All culture courses in the program are inherently interdisciplinary. GER 502/802 Contemporary Germany takes a cultural studies perspective and integrates units on the visual arts, literature, music, as well as German perspectives on global problems such as the environment and terrorism. Some courses with a primary focus on literature are also interdisciplinary. Professor Langbehn teaches Ger741 The Holocaust and Its Aftermath in Postwar Germany, cross-listed with History and Jewish Studies and attracting 30-40 students from various disciplines. Similarly, Ger813 Weimar Republic and Its Principle of Discontent, Ger 814, Crisis and Quest or The Emergence of Modernism in German Literature, and Ger 816 Postwar German literature - The Past As Present, drew many students from other disciplines, such as English, Comparative Literature and World Literature, and History averaging about 20 students per course. GER 745 History of the German Language, has recently been revised to also meet the 44 needs of a larger student population, namely graduate students in linguistics. Previously taught in German, the course will now take a broader perspective, looking at the history of German and English within the context of Germanic languages.
In addition, German faculty teaches courses outside the program. Professor Vandergriff teaches HUM 375 Biography of a City: Berlin in the Department of Humanities, a course that highlights political, social, and aesthetic texts, feature films, documentaries, newspaper articles, graffiti, visual art, buildings, places, and maps of Berlin to create a composite picture of the place that was at the center of world politics throughout much of the 20th century. The course attracts between 50 and 60 students. Another course taught outside the program by a German faculty is FL 750, Foreign Language Curriculum & Instruction I. Although not interdisciplinary per se, this Applied Linguistics/Foreign Language Pedagogy course serves all foreign language teaching credential candidates, Graduate Teaching Associates, as well as in- service teachers through the Bay Area Teachers’ Center. The range of courses and the interdisciplinary orientation of many individual courses demonstrate clearly the German program’s interdisciplinary orientation and the faculty’s extraordinary teaching range.
9.6 Overview of Faculty Quality Indicators
Well aware of the low enrollment numbers in its M.A, the program continues to do all in its power to increase interest in graduate studies in German. However, even with the high scholarly productivity level of the faculty and the overall very high quality of the program, the faculty remains limited without an additional faculty member. While the faculty has been very creative in making German an attractive field of study, the fact remains that studying German literature, culture and linguistics in German is a challenge for many students. It is interesting to note that when German seminars are taught in English, the enrollment numbers are sound. German seminars taught in German pose a challenge to enrollment numbers. There is a similar trend nationwide, including at Stanford U. and at UC Berkeley, to name but two prominent universities. Moreover, according to the 2007 Modern Language Association survey of Foreign Language programs, foreign language departments/programs tend to be bifurcated with tenure and tenure track faculty teaching content courses in English and lectures /Graduate Teaching Assistants (TA's) teaching language courses (see http://www.mla.org/pdf/06enrollmentsurvey_final.pdf). Both tenured faculty members in the German program teach content courses and language courses as well, assuring the overall high quality of their students’ education. Both have terminal degrees from leading institutions in linguistics, literature and/or pedagogy, and remain active on the professional circuit, as witnessed by their publications and professional activities.
Seminars are offered at almost regular intervals within the University’s two-year limit so that students are able to complete the degree in a timely manner – average time-to-degree is 3.18 years for master’s students. However, students in the program tend to work part-time and thus take more time to complete their graduate studies than the preferred two-year frame.
The program places great emphasis on mentoring its incoming graduate students and guiding them throughout their studies at SFSU. The Graduate Adviser sends a personal email to each student and meets with her/him for new graduate orientation prior to the first day of instruction and, again, regularly during the first few week Faculty are available at least 4 days each week, making sure students are knowledgeable about program expectations and are able to complete their coursework in an acceptable and timely manner. Access to faculty is easy and straightforward.
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Both faculty members regularly collaborate with colleagues from other programs and departments, as demonstrated through the cross-listed courses, and seminars taught in English. The faculty has reached out to the community, establishing links between local organizations such as the Jewish Community Federation and K-12 educational institutions. The faculty has been successful in organizing two major international conferences; both have lent their expertise in German to other programs as committee members of master’s examinations.
Both faculty members are well-established and active scholars in their respective fields, having produced scholarship issued by well-respected publishers. Sabbaticals and awards are additional indicators of the quality work produced by both German faculty members. Dr. Volker Langbehn had a two-year leave (2008-2010) that resulted in two edited books and several articles. Dr. Vandergriff has been on a sabbatical leave in Spring 2013 while finishing her book in applied linguistics/second language acquisition. In Spring 2013, she also finished three articles for leading peer-reviewed journals, with one published, one in press, and the third under consideration.
The program has addressed all the points raised in The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) produced for the Fifth Cycle of Academic Program Review. The faculty remains highly confident that the continuing changes in the program and the suggested link with local industries will have an impact in attracting new graduate students. With respect to comments from its 5th Cycle Review, the German faculty continues to advocate for a new hire with a split appointment in a different program such as French to better serve the distinct needs of the German program and community. At the undergraduate level, the program is also making changes in the areas of general education, writing across the curriculum (GWAR), complementary studies, and culminating experiences to bring its curriculum in line with the University’s new baccalaureate degree requirements.
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10. RESOURCE SUPPORT FOR THE PROGRAM
10.1 Internal support: Instructional Support
Although heavy teaching loads and miscellaneous responsibilities unrelated to teaching tax the energies of the faculty, in the area of instructional support the German program is very well served. It has benefited from support provided by the Foreign Language Laboratory, the University Library, and our very able clerical staff.
Foreign Languages Language Laboratory
Located in the Humanities building Room 404, the Foreign Languages Language Laboratory assists students by providing computer and media services. Since her initial appointment in Spring 2001, Foreign Languages Laboratory director Sue X. Li has been of tremendous help in facilitating a number of measures aimed at assisting students taking courses in German and has worked closely with the faculty to upgrade and expand the existing visual material for course equipment, hardware and software. Currently, the Foreign Languages Language Laboratory, is equipped with 27 Windows-based workstations and has acquired nine more stations in May of 2013.
Library/Information Technology Resources
The J. Paul Leonard Library collections of German-language books and journals, as well as materials about Germany in English, are excellent for a university with a primarily undergraduate teaching focus.
The collections show particular strength in fields related to our course offerings: for example, German literature (a keyword search yields 2019 entries), German language (927 entries), German history (3875 entries), German art (815 entries), and German philosophy (397 entries). The library also houses approximately 475 Germany-related journals and many electronic journals and books relevant to the study of the German-speaking countries.
If a title is not available in the J. Paul Leonard Library, students and faculty also have access to over 9 million titles that are collectively held and made available cost free by the participating libraries in the LINK+ system. Even more comprehensive is the global Inter Library Loan service (ILL), which is administered with great efficacy through our able library staff and through which faculty can request books cost-free from other libraries and library systems. Extensive searching through the most important electronic databases, such as J- Store or Academic Search Premier, is also available.
Besides use of the collections, the J. Paul Leonard Library provides indispensable services for both faculty and students of German. We are extraordinarily well supported by Librarian David Hellman, who ably oversees the development of the German collections. The German program receives approximately $1,000 per annum for new purchases.
Besides the usual class reserve materials service that all college/university libraries provide, the J. Paul Leonard Library also offers electronic reserves: faculty may bring articles or sections of books to the reserve desk, which the staff will scan and make available (by means of a password, which obviates copyright difficulties) on a website for the relevant class. This service is particularly well-suited to SFSU, as many students are commuters who find on-
47 campus reserves inconvenient; further, many are from lower-income families, and frequent use of reserve services can keep their textbook costs down.
More recently, the introduction of iLearn, a moodle-based class management system, has made the electronic distribution of texts to students even easier. By storing links, pdfs, visual and audio materials on a central server that is accessible exclusively to the San Francisco State community, students have access to resources from any location with internet connectivity. Besides providing easy access to materials, the CMS facilitates communication between the instructor and students and among students, allows for sharing student work and for collaborations. Most German courses have an iLearn page. Finally, the Audio Visual/Instructional Television Center holds a limited collection of English-language documentary and feature videos for class use relating to Germany and Europe.
Clerical Staff and Availability of Facilities
The faculty is strongly supported by the office clerical employees of the Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures. Staffed by Administrative Assistants Ayan Jiggetts and Caterina Mariotti and student assistants under their supervision, they offer a superior support system. Always flexible, courteous and friendly, the staff is highly efficient in supporting faculty members’ instructional needs, and assisting the Department Chair to implement university, college, and departmental policies.
10.2 Internal Support: Resource Management
The German program has received a $ 10,000 grant in support of scholarships and expects a not yet defined bequest for the Joseph M. Dadone and Lotte M. Dadone “for scholarships for promising graduate students pursuing the study of German language or culture...” (Letter dated 3-8-2013). The Robert Bosch Corporation Graduate Student Scholarship, the German Educational Association (Arbeiterbildungsverein) Scholarship, and the Kurt Liedtke Scholarship provide additional support. In cooperation with Senior Development Officer Andrea Rouah, the faculty is actively involved in attracting the interest of major German companies in the Bay Area to support the program with further scholarships and internships.
10.3 External Funding to Support Instruction
During the period under review, the Department has not received any federal grants to support instruction.
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A. APPENDIX 1: Bulletin Copy
FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES – GERMAN College of Liberal & Creative Arts Dean: Paul Sherwin Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures HUM 475 Web Site: http:// http://german.sfsu.edu/ 415-338-1421 Chair: Mohammad Salama Program Coordinator: Volker Langbehn Undergraduate Advisers: Volker Langbehn (A - L), Ilona Vandergriff (M - Z) Graduate Adviser: Ilona Vandergriff
Faculty Professors – Volker Langbehn, Ilona Vandergriff
Programs B.A. (major) in German B.A. (minor) in German M.A. in German
Program Scope
The German Program at San Francisco State University offers a comprehensive and carefully designed program for undergraduate and graduate studies in the area of language, literature, culture, and linguistics.
The program addresses the needs of students at all levels, from those without prior knowledge of German to those with advanced, near-native or native competency in German. The curriculum is designed to enable students to develop language proficiency in accordance with the nationally recognized ACTFL standards. Learning German will open up new cultural perspectives and allow students to communicate with 120 million people in the German-speaking countries.
The program serves students from the entire University. Many of the students enrolled are double majors, who concurrently pursue a degree in disciplines such as International Relations, Humanities, History, Psychology, Creative Writing, Communication Studies, and Music. Students can also opt for a European Studies Minor.
In cooperation with the Office of International Programs we encourage students to study abroad. Through the California State University (CSU) International Program, students may study, for example, at the Universität of Tübingen, Universität of Heidelberg or other institutions of higher learning. Such opportunities give students an immersion experience, helping to build and reinforce language skills while earning units towards graduation. The program also facilitates paid summer internships in German-speaking Europe.
BACHELOR OF ARTS IN GERMAN
The academic program leading to a B.A. in German offers a wide range of courses to meet the diverse needs of today's student population. The undergraduate curriculum includes coursework in language, literature, linguistics and culture. In addition, students can select courses in translation and German for business. To ensure that all students develop advanced language competency, the German Program places great importance on small-sized participatory classes, which maximize opportunities to communicate in German. 49
Innovative teaching methods, films, multimedia and online materials enhance classroom interaction and enrich the academic experience. In addition, excellent computer facilities and a Foreign Language Multimedia Lab provide support for our academic program.
The German major consists of 30 units of upper division coursework. Up to 16 units of prerequisite coursework or demonstrated language proficiency is required to begin the major.
Writing in the Major: Students must complete the University's GWAR requirement by taking FL 400 GW or CWL 400 GW
Program Course Title Units GER 305 Advanced Grammar and Composition 3 GER 325 Applied German Linguistics: Phonetics and Phonology 3 GER 401 German Culture and Civilization 3 GER 510 German Literature I 3 GER 511 German Literature II 3 Upper division electives on advisement: 15 units Total: 30 units
Note: A minimum of 40 upper division units must be completed for the degree (including upper division units required for the major, general education, electives, etc.). A student can complete this major yet not attain the necessary number of upper division units required for graduation. In this case additional upper division courses will be needed to reach the required total.
Minor in German The minor consists of 30 units of upper division coursework. Up to 16 units of prerequisite coursework or demonstrated language proficiency is required to begin the major.
Program Course Title Units Choose two courses from the following: 6 GER 301 German in Review GER 305 Advanced Grammar and Composition GER 335 German Through Cinema GER 341 Intensive Language Practice and Analysis Choose one course from the following: 3 GER 325 Applied German Linguistics: Phonetics and Phonology F L 325 Linguistics and Foreign Language GER 330 German Language and Society Choose one course from the following 3 GER 401 German Culture and Civilization GER 502 Contemporary Germany HUM 375 Biography of a City: Berlin Choose two course from the following 6 GER 510 German Literature I GER 511 German Literature II GER 556 19 th and 20 th Century German Plays 50
GER 613 Weimar Literature in English
Electives on advisement: 3 units Total: 21 units
Up to 12 units may be taken through the CSU International Program in Germany. These units must be upper division and must be approved by a German advisor.
Master of Arts in German The graduate program in German offers students a challenging and enriching course of study that encompasses linguistics as well as literary and cultural history from the Middle Ages to the present. Over the course of their graduate studies in German, students acquire a rich interdisciplinary perspective and in-depth knowledge of the literatures of the German-speaking countries along with the critical skills for literary analysis. The program offers many graduate courses in German. As a result, many of our M.A. candidates develop superior language competency.
Admission to the Program It is generally expected that students entering the program will have a B.A. degree or equivalent in German: however consideration will be given to applicants with advanced German language competencies who have a B.A. in another field. These applicants may be admitted as conditionally classified graduate students and will be required to remediate or complete all deficiencies before attaining classified status.
To apply to the program:
• Applicants must also have a minimum 3.0 GPA • Demonstrate advanced proficiency level in German • Submit an analytical statement of purpose written in English of approximately 500 words, stating the reasons for applying to the graduate program • Submit a sample of analytical writing of 500 words or more written in German • Provide one set of transcripts • Submit at least two letters of recommendation.
If you have any questions, please contact the program’s graduate advisor to discuss academic preparation for the M.A.
Program Course Title Units GER 745 Seminar in the Development of the German Language 3 Graduate courses in German. 12 units.
Upper division/graduate courses in German language, literature, or civilization. 6 units Upper division/graduate courses in German language, literature, or civilization, or in related subjects with approval of graduate advisor. 9 units
Minimum total: 30 units and Master's Comprehensive Written and Oral Examinations
The student is admitted to the oral examination upon passing the written examination. Both examinations may be attempted not more than two times.
Written English Proficiency. Students have to submit an analytical or argumentative writing of 3,500 words or more written in English, such as a graduate seminar paper. The writing will be
51 evaluated by the German Academic Review Committee using ten criteria in four categories: (1) structure/organization, (2) conclusions grounded in theory and research, (3) knowledge and understanding, and (4) academic discourse which is comprehensive, logical, and consistent.
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B. APPENDIX 2: List of Available Courses (only courses eligible for M.A. units listed)
GERMAN All upper division courses are conducted in GERMAN, unless otherwise indicated. Page references for the Department of Foreign Languages and GERMAN statements can be found in the Index.
GER 510 : German Literature I Prerequisites: GER 206 and 207 or equivalent. Description: Literary development from the Middle Ages through the Age of Goethe. General Education: Segment II Area - Humanities and Creative Arts Area (HCA) Units: 3
GER 511 : German Literature II Prerequisites: GER 206 and 207 or equivalent. Description: Literary development from early 19th century to the present. General Education: Segment II Area - Humanities and Creative Arts Area (HCA) Units: 3
GER 530 : Die Deutsche Romantik Prerequisites: GER 510 and 511 or equivalent. Themes, symbols, and structures in German romantic writers and their Description: position within the larger context of their times and modern thought. A voyage into the self and out into the cosmos. General Education: Segment II Area - Humanities and Creative Arts Area (HCA) Units: 3
GER 532 : The German Idealist Tradition Prerequisites: Upper division standing or consent of instructor. Introduction to the rich intellectual history of the literary movement Strum und Drang (literally, "Storm and Stress") (1770-1784 that mark the beginning of Description: literary and philosophical idealism in Germany culminating in Weimar Classicism (1786-1832). Paired with GER 832. Students who have completed GER 532 may not take GER 832 for credit. Units: 3
GER 556 : 19th and 20th Century German Plays Prerequisites: GER 510 and GER 511 or equivalents. Major works of representative playwrights of the 19th and 20th centuries. Description: Paired with GER 856. Students who have completed GER 556 may not take GER 856 for credit. General Education: Segment II Area - Humanities and Creative Arts Area (HCA) Units: 3
GER 613 : Weimar Literature in English Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent or consent of instructor. Introduction to Weimar Republic and its representation in exemplary works of Description: literature in English translation. [Taught in English.] Paired with GER 813.
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Students who have completed GER 613 may not take GER 813 for credit. Units: 3
GER 616 : Postwar German Literature in English: The Past as Present Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent or consent of instructor. A study of common themes in postwar German literature to the present. Authors included are Grass, Mann, Koeppen, and Maron. [Taught in English.] Paired with Description: GER 816. Students who have completed GER 616 may not take GER 816 for credit. Units: 3
GER 617 : The Holocaust and Postwar Germany Taught in English Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent or consent of instructor. Holocaust in Postwar Germany as seen in exemplary works of literature, historical Description: documents and Nuremburg trials. [Taught in English.] Units: 3
GER 699 : Independent Study Prerequisites: Consent of department chair and instructor. Written projects requiring critical analysis and interpretation of linguistic or Description: literary problems. Material adapted to individual needs and interests. May be repeated. Units: 1-3
GER 741 : The Holocaust and Postwar Germany Taught in English Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor. The Holocaust in Postwar Germany as seen in exemplary works of literature, historical documents and Nuremburg trials. Plus-minus letter grade only. (Taught Description: in English) (Cross listed with HIST/JS 741. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.) Units: 3
GER 745 : History of German Language Prerequisites: GER 330 or FL 325, or equivalent. Focusing on the history of German language in the context of its Germanic Description: relatives (including English, Gothic, Icelandic), introduction to the study of historical linguistics, and discussion of universal language issues. Units: 3
GER 786 : Great Theorists: Walter Benjamin Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor. Cross listed with PLSI 786/HUM 725. For course description, see PLSI 786. Description: (May not be repeated under alternate prefix.) Units: 3
GER 802 : Contemporary Germany Admission to German M.A. program, GER 301 or equivalent, or consent of Prerequisites: instructor.
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For course description, see GER 502. Paired with GER 502. Students who have Description: completed GER 802 may not take GER 502 for credit. Units: 3
GER 813 : Weimar Literature in English Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent or consent of instructor. For course description, see GER 613. Paired with GER 613. Students who have Description: completed GER 813 may not take GER 613 for credit. Units: 3
GER 814 : Crisis and Quest in English Prerequisites: Admission to German M.A. program or consent of instructor. Works by Kafka, Rilke, Musil, and Heidegger which reflect deep changes, social Description: dilemmas, and new ethics in the 20th century. [Taught in English.] Units: 3
GER 816 : Postwar German Literature in English: The Past as Present Prerequisites: Graduate status or consent of instructor. Paired with GER 616. For course description, see GER 616. Students who have Description: completed GER 816 may not take GER 616 for credit. Graduate students must complete reading and writing assignments in German. Units: 3
GER 830 : Die Deutsche Romantik Prerequisites: Admission to German M.A. program, GER 301, or consent of instructor. Themes, symbols, and structures in German romantic writers and their position Description: within the larger context of their times and modern thought. A voyage into the self and out into the cosmos. Units: 3
GER 831 : Literature of the Age of Chivalry Prerequisites: Admission to German program or consent of instructor. An introduction to Middle High German (language) with reading, analysis, and Description: interpretation of three to four works from the genres of heroic and court epos by major authors, and a brief survey of Minnesang. Units: 3
GER 832 : The German Idealist Tradition Prerequisites: Graduate standing in German or consent of instructor. Paired with GER 532. For course description, see GER 532. Students who have Description: completed GER 832 may not take GER 532 for credit. Units: 3
GER 856 : 19th and 20th Century German Plays Prerequisites: GER 510 and GER 511 or equivalents. For course description, see GER 556. Paired with GER 556. Students who have Description: completed GER 856 may not take GER 556 for credit. Units: 3
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GER 899 : Independent Study Graduate status in German; consent of graduate major adviser and supervising Prerequisites: faculty member. Study is planned, developed, and completed under the direction of a member of Description: the departmental faculty. Open only to graduate students who have demonstrated ability to do independent work. Enrollment by petition. Units: 1-3
Independent Study (1) Independent Study (2) Independent Study (3)
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C. APPENDIX 3: Paper Dos and Don’ts
Dear student(s),
Here is a brief overview for writing your term paper.
1. Make an appointment during my office hours to discuss your topic (Mondays and Wednesday). Prior to our meeting, I expect a brief summary / outline of your paper send via e-mail. This will help me to be constructive in responding to your topic. I will not accept a term paper without prior consultation! 2. The deadline for submitting a paper is 5/20/2011. Please submit a hard copy to my office and send an electronic file to my e-mail account: [email protected] 3. I will write you a detailed feedback, which I will send you via e-mail. 4. If you miss the deadline, I will not offer any feedback nor will I grade your paper. 5. You can write your paper in English or German. I am flexible. 6. The topic has to be part of the scope of the seminar: such as holocaust & colonialism & cultural politics in its broadest sense.
Here are some requirements for your paper:
Dos
1. Always check for structure: beginning, middle, and end; organize your thoughts and begin with an outline. a. Provide an introduction of about 3-4 pages: it should include first an introducing of the issues at stake, and once you have established the frame, b. The next step is to offer a brief overview of existing research c. Thereafter you should state your thesis. It is important that you situate YOUR thesis / argument in context of other critics / and how your reading expands / contradicts / confirms / or offers new insights. Always remember: As a reader I have to ask myself, why shall I bother reading the text, if you cannot state the significance of your research? d. Secondary sources should be introduced in overview style briefly listing some of the key arguments of other research. e. At this stage of your paper, you wish to situate your essay in the context of some methodological approach. It is sufficient to address your “take” on the subject matter by writing, “My reading of Hoess is informed by Klaus Theweleit, who has argued …... “. Keep the reference to your “theory” at a minimum. You do not want to apply a “theory,” common mistake among students!! The theory informs your reading; when analyzing film or text you pinpoint aspects of the film / text that echo the aforementioned theoretician, and you insert brief reference in your endnotes. Not the other way around. f. Once you have established the introduction (topic, research, theoretical frame, thesis, social historical context), you start your actual analysis. Stick to the film / text as close as possible, offer some filmic / textual evidence that supports your argument. Be a close reader. g. When using secondary literature make sure that you list the references in the endnote including the page number. I always advise my students that they should weave other arguments, philosophies or theories into their running discussion as a means to support, clarify, contextualize or juxtapose the points made in the main text. Work with the information and point out similarities / differences. If you follow this approach, you give yourself credibility and validity as a writer & critic. h. Use only a few quotations or paraphrased references from secondary sources and only to emphasize a significant aspect of your own argument. Remember LESS is MORE. Generally speaking keep quotations from secondary sources to a minimum. Use them only, if
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it is a really important aspect that enhances / illuminates your argument otherwise place the information in the endnotes and paraphrase the main points in the body of the text. i. Offer a conclusion – conclusion means NOT to repeat your key findings. Conclusion means to offer an outlook for future research.
2. Your paper must be typed (double-spaced) and at least 15 written pages long (max. 25 pages) with an additional bibliography of at least 5 books and 5 articles you have consulted for your paper. 3. Include at least 5 endnotes in your paper indicating where you differ from/agree with/other authors. 4. Follow the writing conventions of The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. Pay attention to the mechanics of quoting, on how to write the bibliography, and how to write endnotes (my preference). I care a great deal about the format/structure of a paper. In short, follow the professional standards. You can also look up specific issues about writing conventions at http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html. 5. Avoid the passive construction – a good writer prefers clarity, succinctness, short sentences, avoids jargons and the use of the present tense. This is a very important aspect! The use of the passive voice weakens your arguments and suggests vagueness!! Simply be straightforward in your writing, indicate who is doing what.
Hints for Writing an Analytical Paper
ü Avoid summary! Structure your paper like an argument and offer evidence via a close reading and analysis of passages from the text / images / film you discuss. Read the text several times very carefully before you begin writing. Pay attention to the actual language of the passages of the text / film you wish to analyze. What particular metaphors are used, and what are the implications of their use for the poem, story, text or image? What sort of narrative (storytelling) perspective(s) or narrative strategies do you see in the text, and how do they become apparent? Do not shy away from contradictions: they are often among the most interesting parts of any text / images. What contradictions do you see in the text, and in what ways do they seem to be resolved--or in what ways not? ü Remember, you want to write about is the text / image / film! You should neither speculate about the author’s intentions nor write about your own reactions to the text. ü Before you begin writing the paper, make sure you can answer the following three questions in writing: a) What is the thesis you wish to argue?; b) What sections / images / or passages of the text / film will you focus on in making your argument? Why are you picking these particular passages?; c) What is the conclusion you ultimately wish to arrive at? (This may of course not be the actual conclusion, but it is helpful to have some idea of where you are heading before you begin writing.) As your ideas often change during the writing process, you may find it helpful to try to answer these questions again once you are in the middle of writing. ü Do not feel that you have to do all this completely on your own. Again, discuss your topic with me before beginning, and during the writing process. It is my job to help you! ü Give your paper a title. The title of your paper should of course be different from the title of the text you are discussing. ü Your paper is supposed to represent original work. When choosing secondary literature, it should not constitute a major portion of your argument as stated above. You must of course cite all secondary literature or reference works with endnotes naming the author, title, publisher, year and place of publication, and page numbers. Again, for proper reference format consult The Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition).
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ü Use the MLA Bibliography as one source to get the latest publications on your topic. See http://0-collections.chadwyck.com.opac.sfsu.edu/home/home_mla.jsp
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D. APPENDICE 4: Faculty Curriculum Vitae - Langbehn
VOLKER M. LANGBEHN Curriculum Vitae
Academic Employment
8/2012 – present Professor of German. Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures, San Francisco State University. 8/2006 – 8/2012 Associate Professor of German. Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures, San Francisco State University. 9/2009 – 2/2010 Visiting Associate Professor (Gastdozentur). Institut für Kulturtheorie, Kulturforschung, Leuphana Universität, Lüneburg, Germany. 8/2002 – 8/2006 Assistant Professor of German. Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures, San Francisco State University. 8/2000 – 5/2001 Visiting Assistant Professor. Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures, Iowa State University. 9/1990 – 6/1998 Teaching Assistant. Department of German, Scandinavian, and Dutch, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. 9/1997 – 7/1998 Instructor. Institute of International Relations, Foreign Language Immersion Program, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. 9/1989 – 6/1990 Teaching Assistant. Department of Germanic, Slavic, and Oriental Languages and Literatures, University of California, Los Angeles.
Other Employment
8/2011 – present Principal of the Saturday School of the German International School of Silicon Valley (www.GISSV.org)
Research Concentrations
Literary Avant-garde; Theories of Modernity; History of Aesthetics; Intellectual History; German literature & culture of 18th to 20th century with emphasis on gender and nationality, German Colonialism, Post-Colonialism and nationalism, Genocide and Holocaust Studies, and Visual & Media Studies.
Education
Ph.D. German Literature, University of Minnesota (1998) Minor: Comparative literature M.A. German Literature, University of Minnesota (1992) M.S. Education, Cornell University (1989) Minor: German Studies
Additional Education
German Literature, University of California, Los Angeles (1989-1990) American Literature, German Literature, and Education, Universität Hamburg (1984- 1987)
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Publications
BOOK • Arno Schmidt’s Zettels Traum: An Analysis. Columbia: Camden House, 2003. 210 pps.
BOOK IN PROGRESS • The Visual Representation of Cultural Identity in German Mass Culture Around 1900 – completion fall 2015
EDITED BOOKS • German Colonialism: Race, Holocaust, and Postwar Germany, with Mohammad Salama (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011) • German Colonialism, Visual Culture, and Modern Memory, ed. Volker Langbehn (New York: Routledge, 2010)
ARTICLES
• “Der Sarotti-Mohr.” Koloniale Erinnerungsorte, eds. Jürgen Zimmerer (Frankfurt a.M.: Campus Verlag, 2013) – forthcoming fall 2013 [invited contribution] • “Ferdinand Oyono’s Flüchtige Spur Tundi Ondua and Germany’s Kamerun.” Theories and Methodologies: An African Classic in Twelve Languages, PMLA, Vol. 128, No. 1 (January 2013), 142-148[invited contribution] • with Mohammad Salama “Introduction: Reconfiguring German Colonialism.” German Colonialism: Race, Holocaust, and Postwar Germany, eds. Volker Langbehn and Mohammad Salama (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), viii-xxxi. • “Greetings from Africa” - The Visual Representation of Blackness during German Imperialism.” War, Genocide, and Memory, eds. Jürgen Zimmerer and Michael Perraudin (New York and London: Routledge, 2010), 90-100. [Juried article for Book contribution] • “Disciplining the Black Body: German Colonial Identity and Visual Violence.” Europe and its Others. Interperceptions Past, Present, and Future, eds. Gifford and Tessa Hauswedell (London: Peter Lang, 2010), 133-152. [Juried article for Book contribution] • “Satire Magazines and Racial Politics.” German Colonialism, Visual Culture, and Modern Memory, ed. Volker Langbehn (New York and London: Routledge, 2010), 105-123. [Juried article for Book contribution] • “Picturing Race: Visuality and German Colonialism.” German Colonialism, Visual Culture, and Modern Memory, ed. Volker Langbehn (New York and London: Routledge, 2010), 1-33. [Juried article for Book contribution] • “The Lacanian Gaze and the Role of the Eye in Early German Romanticism.” European Romantic Review 16:5 (2005) : 613-626. [Juried Journal] • “Deadly Identity Formations in Gert Heidenreich’s Füchse Jagen.” Violence, Culture and Identity in Germany and Austria, ed. Helen Chambers (Oxford, Berne : Peter Lang Publishers, 2005), 307-325. [Juried article for Book contribution] • “Watching TV with Arno Schmidt.” International German Media Studies, January 1998 at http://www.surrey.ac.uk/LIS/GMS/schmidtlangbehn.html. [Juried Journal] • “The Decentering of Female Subjectivity in Nietzsche’s Writings.” Platte Valley Review 22 (Winter 1994) : 95-106. [Juried Journal] • “Fritz von Unruh.” Twentieth-Century German Dramatists, 1889-1918, eds. Wolfgang Elfe and James Hardin (Detroit, London: Bruccoli Clark Layman Book Gale Research Inc., 1992), 246-251. [Juried article for Book contribution] • “Vom Feminismus zum Postmarxismus? Christa Wolfs Nachdenken über Christa T.” New German Review 5 & 6 (1989-90) : 43-55. [Juried Journal]
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BOOK REVIEWS • Review of Sabine Kyora and Uwe Schwagmeier, eds. Pocahontas revisted. Kulturwissenschaftliche Ansichten eines Motivkomplexes in Internet Review Arno Schmidt (IRAS), December 2005 at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ip/robertweninger/iraskcl.html • Review of Michael Manko, “Die Roten Fäden in Zettels Traum. Literarische Quellen und ihre Verarbeitung in Arno Schmidts Meisterwerk.” Monatshefte 95 (Spring 2003) : 156-8. • Review of Timm Menke, “Die Goethe-Rezeption Arno Schmidts.” Monatshefte 94 (Winter 2002) : 567-8.
TRANSLATION • Hassan Melehy, “Das kartesische Netz: Foucault und Derrida.” KultuRRevolution 31 (1995) : 14-21. In cooperation with Prof. Birgit Tautz (Bowdoin College, Maine).
Conferences
Co-organized international, interdisciplinary conference Genocide: Knowing the Past, Safeguarding the Future. 3rd Global Conference on Genocide by the International Network of Genocide Scholars at San Francisco State University, San Francisco, USA June 28th – July 1st, 2012. Organized international, interdisciplinary conference held in September 2007 on German Colonialism and Post-Colonialism.
Honors and Awards
• Unpaid Sabbatical Leave (2009-10) - competitive • Paid Sabbatical Leave (2008-9) - competitive • San Francisco State University Vice President’s Assigned Time Award (Fall 2007) • San Francisco State University Summer Stipend (Summer 2007) • Presidential Award Leave with Pay for Probationary Faculty (Spring 2005) for book The Visual Representation of Cultural Identity in German Mass Culture Around 1900.
Scholarly Presentations
• “Marketing the Colonial Past: Race and Revisionism in Weimar Visual Culture.” German Studies Association, Oakland, September, 2010. • “Visual Eroticism – The Male Gaze of German Colonialism.” Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association, San Francisco, March, 2008. • “Images of Alterity” - Postcards and German Identity around 1900.” German Studies Association, San Diego, October, 2007. • “Disciplining the Black Body: German Colonial Identity and Visual Violence.” International Conference on Europe and Its Others, St. Andrews, Scotland, July 2007. • “Visuality and Caricature - Cartoons and German Colonialism.” German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, September, 2006. • “’Greetings from Africa’ - The Visual Representation of Blackness during German Imperialism.” War, Genocide and Memory. German Colonialism and National Identity. University of Sheffield, Great Britain, Sheffield, September, 2006. • “The German Colonial Empire and Its Visual Representation in Caricatures and Cartoons.” The Image of Power in Literature, Media, and Society, Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, Colorado Springs, March, 2006. • “Early German Romanticism and the Lacanian Gaze.” Twentieth-Century Romantics, University of London School of Advanced Study, London, May, 2005.
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• “Authoritarian Nostalgia: Gustav Frenssen’s Cultural Protestantism.” Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, December, 2004. • “Violence as the Other of Reason.” International Conference on Violence, Culture and Identity, St. Andrews, Scotland, June 2003. • “Death in the Name of God and Civilization - Gustav Frenssen's Peter Moors Fahrt nach Südwest.” German Studies Association, New Orleans, September, 2003. • “The Shaping of A Colonial Imagination in German Travel Literature.” International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Cultures in Motion: The African Connection, Knoxville, February, 2003. • “Disciplining the Mind - Martin Opitz’ Buch der deutschen Poetery (1624) and the Emergence of a Cultural National Consciousness in 17th - century German Literature.” Modern Language Association, New Orleans, December 2001. • “The beautiful losers of ’67 or How to fail and still come out as the Winner – Uwe Timm’s Heißer Sommer.” German Studies Association, Washington. D.C., October 2001 • “It is the law, stupid” – Germany’s Nationality Law and the Principle of Belief.” Manifestations of National Identity in Modern Europe, Minneapolis, May 2001. • “The Lacanian Gaze and the Role of the Eye in Early German Romanticism.” German Studies Association, Houston, October, 2000. • “The Construction of Subjectivity” or “How the Self Learned to Become the Self” in Arno Schmidt’s Zettels Traum.” Second International Arno Schmidt Conference, Portland, September 2000. • “Use and Abuse of Weimar Classicism in Postwar German Literary Criticism.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis, November, 1999. • “The Nation as an Imagined Community in Wolfgang Menzel’s Deutsche Literatur (1828).” Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis, November, 1999. • “The Subject that never was: the Role of the Imagination in Peter Weiss’s Abschied von den Eltern.” European Memories: The Migrant Images of Peter Weiss’s Modernist Imagination, Duke University, November, 1998. • “Revisiting the Avant-Garde in Postwar Germany.” German Studies Association, Washington, D.C., September, 1997. • “Watching TV with Arno Schmidt.” Modern Language Association, Washington, D.C., December, 1996. • “Reading Arno Schmidt’s Zettels Traum or What does it mean to speak of a literary text.” German Studies Association, Seattle, October, 1996. • “Subjectivity and Identity: Textual Politics in Arno Schmidt’s Zettels Traum.” 49th Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, April, 1996. • “Morality, Reality, and the Construction of the Body in the Work of Art in Kant’s Critique of Judgment.” Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis, November, 1995. • “Deadly Identity Formations in Gert Heidenreichs Füchse Jagen.” 48th Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, April, 1995. • “Narrative Identity and the Construction of the Self in Paul Ricoeur’s Time and Narrative.” The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms. Fourth Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas. Karl-Franzens–Universität, Graz, Austria, August, 1994. • “Althusser and the Significance of Ideology.” The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms. Fourth Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas. Karl-Franzens- Universität, Graz, Austria, August, 1994. • “The Decentering of Female Subjectivity in Nietzsche’s Writings.” Modernity, Postmodernity, and the Problem of Reception: Nietzsche and the Consequences: 1993 International Nietzsche Conference. University of Nebraska, April, 1993.
INVITED SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS
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• Key Note: "The Continuity Debate Reloaded: German Colonialism and the Holocaust." Collective Memory: The Voices of Remembering and the Silences of Forgetting, The History Students Association, SFSU, May, 2011. • “Die Visuelle Kultur um die Jahrhundertwende in Deutschland.” Historisches Seminar, Universität Hamburg, June, 2011. • “Picturing Race: Visuality and German Colonialism” Institut für Kulturtheorie, Kulturforschung und Künste (IKKK), Leuphana Universität, Lüneburg, January, 2010. • “Picturing Race: German Colonialism and Visual Culture.” Frobenius-Institut at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, June 2009. • “Adorno’s ‘How to come to terms with the Past’” Adult Learning Program, Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco, January 2007. • “Going Postal or How to Conquer the World - German Colonialism and Postcards.” International Education Week, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, October 2006. • “A Laughing Matter – Visuality and Politics in Satire Magazines during Germany’s Colonial Empire.” International Education Week, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, October 2006. • “Blacks and German Culture.” International Education Week, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, December 2003. • “The Legality of the Nuremburg Trails and its Aftermath.” 60plus at San Francisco State University, November, 2003 • “The PISA Study or How to Produce Finger Pointing Among Educators.” International Education Week, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, November, 2002.
INVITED PANELIST • “Reflections on Jewish Life in Berlin Today.” Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, September 12, 2005. • “The Faust legend and its numerous reincarnations in literature and the performing arts.” The Magic Theatre, San Francisco, March 7, 2004.
Teaching Experience
Courses taught at San Francisco State University (2002 – present)
Graduate & undergraduate literature • Ger 830.01 – German Romanticism • Ger 831.01 – Baroque and Enlightenment • Ger 832.01 – The German Idealist Tradition • Ger 511.01 – German Literature of the 19th & 20th Century • Ger 524/824.01* – German Novella of the 19th & 20th century • Ger 556/856.01* – 19th and 20th Century German Plays • Ger 613/813.01* – Weimar Republic and Its Principle of Discontent • Ger 614/814.01* – Crisis and Quest or The Emergence of Modernism in German Literature • Ger 616/816.01* – Postwar German literature - The Past As Present • Ger 841/Hist. 841/JS 841.01 – The Holocaust and Its Aftermath in Germany
*Note: Indicates paired undergraduate & graduate seminars
Undergraduate language • Ger 101.01 – First Semester German • Ger 206.01 – Intermediate German Conversation • Ger 207.01 – Intermediate German Composition
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• Ger 301.01 – German in Review
Courses taught at Leuphana Universität, Lüneburg (Fall 2009)
• Visual Representation of (Post) – Colonialism • Theory and History of European Colonialism and Post-Colonialism • Colonial Imagination in Literature and Film • Film und Kultur der Weimarer Republik
Courses taught at Iowa State University (2000 – 2001)
Undergraduate literature • Ger 440 – Blacks and German Culture • Ger 442 – “Wenderomane” or Reflections on a Time Gone by Undergraduate language • Ger 102 – Beginning German Language • Ger 201 & 202 – Intermediate German Language • Ger 305 – Advanced Conversation and Listening Comprehension
Teaching Interests
German Literature and culture from the Enlightenment to the present, including: − Literature and Culture of the 18th to 20th Century − German Intellectual History − German Jewish relations with emphasis on the reception / representation of the Holocaust in Literature and Film − Visuality and Otherness − The Image of the Foreign in German Literature and film − Weimar Republic − European Colonialism and Post-Colonialism − The ‘Visual’ in German Literature and philosophy − Race and European Literature − Literary Theory
Contributions to Campus and Community
COMMITTEES AND SERVICES • Chair of Leave With Pay Committee (Fall 2010 – present) • Chair of search committee for non-tenure track position in Turkish (Fall 2012) • Member of Professional Development Council (2010-2011) • Chair of search committee for tenure track position in the Spanish Program (Fall 2006 / Spring 2007) • Undergraduate Co-Advisor of the German program (since Fall 2005) • CSU Advisor for the Sally Casanova California Pre-Doctoral Program (2005-6) • Advisor to collaborative research and teaching project between the Technical & Professional Writing Program at SFSU and the University of Applied Sciences, Giessen-Friedberg (Germany) - (2005-2007) • Member of mid-term review committee of the chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (Spring 2006) • Member of Professional Development Council (2003-2008)
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• Member of Scholarship Committee, College of Humanities (2005-present) • Graduate advisor and Coordinator of the German program (Fall 2004) • Single Subject Matter Credential Advisor of the German program (Fall 2004) • Member of the Ad Hoc Department of Foreign Language and Literature Chair Election Committee (Spring 2004) • Member of search committee for tenure track position in the Spanish Program (Fall 2003 / Spring 2004) • Member of mid-term review committee of the chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (Spring 2003) • Co-Advisor at San Francisco State University Eta Alpha chapter of Phi Sigma Iota, the International Foreign Language Honor Society (Spring 2003 and 2004) • Field Marshall for Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures (College of Humanities) at Graduation ceremony (Spring 2003, 2004, and 2007) • Undergraduate Co-Advisor of the German program (since Spring 2003)
COMMUNITY SERVICES • “Speaking Volumes. Gift of Nuremburg Transcripts Enriches Teaching, Research” by Anne Bourke in San Francisco State University Magazine (Spring/Summer 2003), Vol. 3, 20-23. • “SFSU professors elated by gift of Nuremburg trials transcripts” by Abby Cohn in Jewish Bulletin News of Northern California, April 25, 2003. • “Nuremberg volumes land at S.F. State” by Nanette Asimov in San Francisco Chronicle, pages B1 & B5, April 24, 2003 • “Archive Offers Campus New Era” by Josh Richman in Forward, May 2, 2003. • Appearance on Channel Five report on the gift given to SFSU, April 23, 2003.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES • Ursula Kals, “Die Studenten lieben den Magic Mountain” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 27th, 2005, 52. (Dr. Kals has written an article about my academic career and teaching at San Francisco State University - The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) is one of the most influential high-quality national German newspaper, with a circulation of over one million – the equivalent to The New York Times) http://www.faz.net/s/Rub030AB00D0F714884B4E619E1C0A54ECF/Doc~EE1E7204FE 01D4EFFA8FBB42084ADE127~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html • Adrianne Bee, “People on Campus : Volker Langbehn” CampusMemo, Vol. 52, No. 24, February 28th, 2005. http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/cmemo/spring05/feb28people.htm
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE ACTIVITIES • Commentator for the Thyssen-German Historical Institute lecture on German Colonialism by Rebekka Habermas, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, at UC-San Diego, October, 2011. • Commentator, “Germany’s Colonial Legacy in Weimar and the “Third Reich,” German Studies Association, Oakland 2010. • Session Organizer of “German Colonial Politics and National Identities in West Germany and post-reunification Germany,” German Studies Association, San Diego, October 2007. • Session Organizer of “German Colonialism and Its Visual Representation,” German Studies Association, San Diego, October 2007. • Session Organizer of “Educating the People - German Colonial Literature from the Wilhelminian Empire to the Weimar Republic,” German Studies Association, San Diego, October 2007. • Session Moderator of “Colonialism Revisited: Interdisciplinary and Transnational Trends in German Colonial Studies,” German Studies Association, San Diego, October 2007.
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• Session Moderator of “The ‘Multicultural Subject’ and the Politics of Identity,” German Studies Association, Washington. D.C., October 2001. • Session Organizer of “Humor and Power in Modern German Literature,” Midwest Modern Language Association, Kansas City, November 2000.
Languages German: Native fluency English: Near native fluency French: Reading knowledge Latin: Reading knowledge
Memberships Midwest Modern Language Association (M/MLA) Northeast Modern Language Association (NE/MLA) American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Modern Language Association (MLA) The Lessing Society International Network of Genocide Scholars (INOGS) Deutscher Germanistenverband
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E. APPENDIX 5: Faculty Curriculum Vitae - Vandergriff
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures PH: 415.338.1106 San Francisco State University FX: 415.405.0588 1600 Holloway Ave. [email protected] San Francisco, CA 94132 http://www.sfsu.edu/~german
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Germanic Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, 1995 M.A. in German with Honors, San Francisco State University, 1990 Zwischenprüfung (B.A. equivalent) in German and English, Free University Berlin, Germany, 1987
Research Areas
Pragmatics, specifically Interpersonal Aspects of Language Usage – On- and Offline; Discourse Analysis; Teaching Language with Technology; First and Second Language Usage Phenomena; Construction Grammar (CxG)
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
Since August 2008 Professor of German, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, San Francisco State University August 2002 - May 2008 Associate Professor of German, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, San Francisco State University August 1996 – May 2002 Assistant Professor of German, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, San Francisco State University August 1988 – May 1989 Graduate Student Assistant, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, San Francisco State University January 1994 - May 1996 Part-time Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, San Francisco State University, Spring 1990 August 1991 – May 1992 Graduate Student Instructor, Department of German, University of California at Berkeley August 1990 - May 1991 Part-time Instructor, Department of Foreign Language, City College of San Francisco
COURSES TAUGHT AT SFSU
GER 101.01 First Semester German GER 102.01 Second Semester German GER 206.01 Intermediate German Conversation GER 207.01 Intermediate German GER 301.01 German in Review GER 305.01 Advanced Grammar and Composition GER 325.01 Phonetics and Phonology GER 326.01 Morphology and Syntax GER 330.01 German Language and Society GER 335.01 German Through Film GER 341.01 Intensive Language Practice and Analysis GER 350.01 German Translation Workshop GER 390.01 German for Business
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GER 401.01 German Culture and Civilization I GER 402.01 German Culture and Civilization II GER 502.01 Contemporary Germany GER 510.01 German Literature I GER 745.01 Seminar: Development of the German Language GER 802.01 Contemporary Germany GER 831.01 Literature of the Age of Chivalry HUM 375.01 Biography of a City: Berlin FL 750.01 Foreign Language: Curriculum and Instruction I
Master’s Degree Committee Membership
Comprehensive 3-hour written and two-hour examinations on two days.
2012-2013 Bernadette Ferriter (Chair: Vandergriff) Thomas Lynch (Chair: Vandergriff) Allan Webb (Chair: Vandergriff) 2010-2011 Beate Stopfer (Chair: Vandergriff) Matthew Stoltz (Chair: Vandergriff) 2009-2010 Constance Martin (Chair: Peel) 2008-2009 Sarah Dewey-Reith (Chair: Vandergriff) 2006-2007 Lejla Cizmic (Chair: Vandergriff) David Driscoll (Chair: Vandergriff) Elizabeth Zirk (Chair: Vandergriff) 2005-2006 Kimberly Mueller (Chair: Vandergriff) Alexandra Georgiev (Chair: Vandergriff) 2004-2005 Cat Trap (Chair: Vandergriff) Karina Marie Ash (Chair: Vandergriff) 2003-2004 Nancy Corbin (Chair: Vandergriff) Sylvie Nguyen (Chair: Vandergriff) Linda Van Ekelenburg (Chair: Vandergriff)
Scoring for Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT)
2011-2012 Laura Dunn (French) Elisabeth Louie (French) Christopher Overton (French) 2010-2011 Morgan Benz (French) David Haupert (Spanish) Amelia Fitzgerald (Italian) 2009-2010 Eric Berson (French) Adam Groshong (Spanish) 2008-2009 Chloe Eng (French) 69
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AND GROWTH
Publications Articles and Book Chapters
(under review at Journal of Applied Communication Research) (Sabee, Christina M., Koenig, Christopher J., Wingard, Leah, Fischer, Jamie, Chivers, Nick, Olsher, David & Vandergriff, Ilona) Practices for managing patient-centered communication in type 2 diabetes visits: A grounded practical theory of interactional sensitivity [juried journal]
(under review at Journal of Health Communication) (Sabee, Christina M., Koenig, Christopher J., Wingard, Leah, Fischer, Jamie, Chivers, Nick, Olsher, David & Vandergriff, Ilona) Re- Thinking the patient-centered approach in health communication: Conceptualizing and measuring interactional sensitivity [juried journal]
(under review at Language at Internet) "A pragmatic investigation of emoticon use in nonnative speaker/native speaker text chat" [juried journal]
2013 Vandergriff, Ilona. "'My major is English, belive it or not:)' – Participant orientations in NS-NNS text chat." CALICO Journal. [juried journal]
Vandergriff, Ilona. "Emotive communication online: A contextual analysis of computer- mediated communication (CMC) cues." Journal of Pragmatics 51, 1–12. [juried journal]
2012 Vandergriff, Ilona. “Taking a Stance on Stance: Metastancing as Legitimation.” Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines 6(1). 53–75. [juried journal]
Vandergriff, Ilona & Fuchs, Carolin. “How to Laugh Online - Humor Support in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC)” HUMOR. International Journal of Humor Research 25(4). 437–458. [juried journal]
2010 Vandergriff, Ilona. “Staging dialogue – Commenting wenn ‘if’-constructions in German persuasive discourse” Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis 15(2). 163-202. [juried journal]
Vandergriff, Ilona. “Humor and Play in CMC.” In: Rotimi Taiwo (ed.). Handbook of Research on Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction. IGI Global Publishing. Chapter 15. [chapter for book contribution]
2009 Vandergriff, Ilona. “Conditionals and Mental Space Set-up: Evidence from German Word Order.” In: Alexander Bergs and Gabriele Diewald (eds.). Contexts and Constructions (Constructional Approaches to Language CAL) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 193-212. [chapter for book contribution]
Vandergriff, Ilona & Fuchs, Carolin. “Does CMC promote language play? Exploring humor in two modalities.” CALICO Journal 27(1). 26-47. [juried journal]
2008 Vandergriff, Ilona, Mueller, Kimberly & Barry, David. “Authentic Models and Usage Norms: Gender Marking in First-Year German Textbooks.” Teaching German/Die Unterrichtspraxis 41(2). 144-150. [juried journal]
2006 Vandergriff, Ilona. “’weil der schmeckt so gut’ – The Learner as Linguist.” Teaching German/Die Unterrichtspraxis 38(1). 61-73. [juried journal]
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Vandergriff, Ilona. "Negotiating Common Ground in Computer-Mediated Versus Face-to- Face Discussions.” Language Learning and Technology 10(1). 110-138. [juried journal]
2005 Vandergriff, Ilona. “Designing an Online Environment for Crosscultural Collaboration,” Proceedings of the 7th Annual Digital Stream Conference on Emerging Technologies in Teaching Languages and Culture. ISSN 1946-1526. http://wwwfiles.csumb.edu/wlc/ojs/index.php/ds/index/ [juried collection of conference proceedings]
2004 Vandergriff, Ilona. “Putting Business German Online. A CSU Consortial Project.” In: Yoshiko Saito-Abbott, Richard Donovan and Thomas Abbott (eds.). Language on the Edge: Implications for teaching foreign languages and cultures. (Emerging Technologies in Teaching Languages and Cultures, Vol. 4). San Diego: Larc Press. 227-252. [juried collection of conference proceedings]
2001 Vandergriff, Ilona & Listen, Paul. “PC Aspects of Human Nouns in German.” In: Irmengard Rauch and Gerald F. Carr (eds.). New Insights in Germanic Linguistics II, (Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotics 38). New York: Peter Lang. 95-134. [chapter for book contribution]
1998 Vandergriff, Ilona. “Against all Odds. Biographical Notes on a German Philologist.” In: Humanities Magazine. San Francisco: San Francisco State University Press. 183-189. [non- juried in-house journal]
1997 Vandergriff, Ilona. "Two-domain Conditionals: Verb-First, Integration, Politeness". In: Irmengard Rauch and Gerald F. Carr (eds.). Insights in Germanic Linguistics II, Classic and Contemporary (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 94). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 257-274. [chapter for book contribution]
Rauch, Irmengard et al. "BAG V: PC German." In: Irmengard Rauch and Gerald F. Carr (eds.). Insights in Germanic Linguistics II: Classic and Contemporary. (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 94). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 207-226. [chapter for book contribution]
1995 Rauch, Irmengard et al. "English Phonetic Contrasts in San Francisco Bay Area German". In: Irmengard Rauch and Cornelia Moore (eds.). Across the Oceans: Studies from East to West in Honor of Richard K. Seymour. (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs). Honolulu: College of Language, Linguistics, and Literature, University of Hawaii. [chapter for book contribution]
1994 Vandergriff, Ilona. "Clausal Integration in German Speech-Act Conditionals." In: Peter Bosch and Rob van der Sandt (eds.). Focus and Natural Language Processing. (Working Papers of the IBM Institute for Logic and Linguistics), Vol. III: Discourse, Heidelberg. 659-668. [chapter for book contribution]
Book Reviews and Book Notices
2003 Review of Werner Abraham and J. Jac Conradie. 2001. Präteritumschwund und Diskursgrammatik. Präteritumschwund in gesamteuropäischen Bezügen: areale Ausbreitung, heterogene Entstehung, Parsing sowie diskursgrammatische Grundlagen und Zusammenhänge. [‘Preterite Decay and Discourse Grammar in pan-European Contexts: Areal Dispersion, Heterogeneous Origination, Parsing as well as Discourse Factors and Relationships.’] Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 148pp. In: Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis. 140-143.
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2001 Review of Eismann, Volker. 2000. Wirtschaftskommunikation Deutsch. [‘Business Communication German’] Vol. I. Berlin, München: Langenscheidt. In: Die Unterrichtspraxis 34(1). 96-97.
1998 Review of Margret Selting and Barbara Sandig (eds.). 1997. Sprech- und Gesprächsstile. [‘Styles of Talk and Conversation’]. In: Pragmatics 8(3). 471-472.
1997 Review of Thomas Lovik, J. Douglas Guy and Monika Chavez. 1997. Vorsprung. An Introduction to the German Language and Culture for Communication. In: Die Unterrichtspraxis 30(2). 218-219.
1995 Review of Jan Terje Faarlund. 1990. Syntactic Change. Toward a Theory of Historical Syntax. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. In: American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures 7 (1). 96-100.
Translation
2006 Biller, Maxim. “My Prague” [‘Mein Prag’]. In: David Farley and Jessie Sholl (eds.) Travelers' Tales Prague. Palo Alto, CA: Travelers’ Tales. 3-10.
Work in Progress
Monograph
(in preparation). Computer-mediated language, discourse and interaction in language learning The manuscript explores how new communication tools such as blogs, wikis, Instant Messaging, text and video chat shape the language, discourse and social interaction between foreign/second language learners and their interlocutors in language education. (expected completion Spring 2015)
Scholarly Presentations (Juried unless noted otherwise)
2013 (Wingard, Leah, Koenig, Christopher J., Sabee, Christina M., Vandergriff, Ilona, Olsher, David) “The Blood Sugar Solicitation Sequence: An Opening Inquiry to the Diabetic Patient about Relative Blood Sugar”, National Communication Association, NCA 99th Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA, November 2013
(Sabee, Christina M., Wingard, Leah, Koenig, Christopher J., Vandergriff, Ilona, Olsher, David) “Interactional Sensitivity Coding in Healthcare – Conceptually and Operationally Defining Patient Centered Communication”, National Communication Association, NCA 99th Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA, November 2013
“The emerging L2 voice of the interacting subject– Evidence from EFL SCMC”, Computer- Assisted Language Instruction Consortium, 30th Annual Symposium, Honolulu, HI, May 2013.
""My major is English, believe it or not:)" – Facework and identity in NNS-NS chat", American Association for Applied Linguistics, Dallas, TX, March 2013.
“Affordances and constraints of computer-mediated communication in language learning contexts”, Berkeley Language Center, UC Berkeley, February 2013. (invited talk)
2012 (Sabee, C.M., Koenig, C.J., Wingard, L., Foster, J., Chivers, N., Vandergriff, I. & Olsher, D.) "Rethinking the patient centered approach in health communication: Conceptualizing 72
and measuring interactional sensitivity." American Academy of Communication in Healthcare's annual forum on research and teaching: Providence, RI, October 2012.
(Wingard, L., Koenig, C.J., Sabee, C.M., Foster, J., Chivers, N., Vandergriff, I. & Olsher, D.) "Interactional Sensitivity: Practices for Counseling Patients with Type II Diabetes. Language and Social Interaction (LANSI), New York, NY, September 2012.
“Interaction in Synchronous CMC”, Computer-Assisted Language Learning Consortium, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, May 2012 (accepted, not presented)
“A discursive approach to facework in L2 CMC”, Annual Meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Boston, MA, March 2012
“The Early New High German Elucidarius – What can we learn about historical spoken syntax? ” The Berkeley Germanic Linguistics Roundtable, Berkeley, CA, April 2012
“Towards a Syntax of the Eye? – The Verbal Frame in Early New High German Dependent Clauses,” Modern Language Association 2012, Seattle, Washington, January 2012
2011 (Koenig, Christopher J., Sabee, Christina M., Wingard, Leah, Vandergriff, Ilona, Olsher, David) “Contrasting the Voice of Medicine with the Voice of the Lifeworld: Blood Sugar Solicitations in Routine Diabetes Visits,” National Communication Association, NCA 97th Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA, November 2011
(Wingard, Leah, Koenig, Christopher J., Sabee, Christina M., Vandergriff, Ilona, Olsher, David) “Multiple-methodological Voices that Contribute to Understanding Patient-Centered Care in Doctor Patient Interaction about Diabetes,” National Communication Association, NCA 97th Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA, November 2011
(Sabee, Christina M., Koenig, Christopher J., Wingard, Leah, Vandergriff, Ilona, Olsher, David) “Relationship-Centered Communication as Dialectic in Routine Diabetes Visits: A Multi-Methodic Approach,” 2011 International Conference on Communication in Healthcare, Chicago, IL, October 2011.
“Hmmm :) – Quasi-Nonverbal Cues in Computer-Mediated Interaction,” International Pragmatics Association 2011, Manchester, United Kingdom, July 2011.
“Assessments as a Resource for Patient-Centered Communication: Balancing Biomedicine with the Lifeworld in Type II Diabetes Visits” International Communication Association, Virtual Online Conference Overlay, May 2011.
"Im-(Politeness) Online: The Interpersonal Side of Classroom Chat," CALICO (Computer- Assisted Language Instruction Consortium) 2011, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, May 2011(accepted, but did not present)
“CMC Cues: Emoticons, Nonprescribed Punctuation and the Role of Silence,” American Association for Applied Linguistics 2011 Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 2011.
2010 ““It’s Only a Class”: Relational work and disagreement in the computer-mediated classroom,” LIAR II - Linguistic Impoliteness and Rudeness, Universität Basel, Switzerland, July 2010.
2009 “Grammar and the Language of Dictatorship,” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA), San Francisco, November 2009.
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“Politeness in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication ("Chat")”, LIAR II - Linguistic Impoliteness and Rudeness II, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, July 2009.
“The Weapon of the Oppressed? Subversive Humor in the Foreign Language Classroom,” American Association for Applied Linguistics 2009 Conference, Denver, Colorado, March 2009. [accepted but not presented]
2008 “Humor in Computer-mediated Communication,” AILA 2008 – The 15th World Congress of Applied Linguistics, Essen, Germany, August 2008.
“Staging Dialogue: Commenting Conditionals in German Political Speeches,” Berkeley Germanic Linguistics Roundtable, Berkeley, California, April 2008.
“Humor Support in Computer-mediated Communication,” with Carolin Fuchs, 2008 Conference of the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium, San Francisco, California, March 2008.
2007 “The Persuasive Power of Conditionals,” 2007 Convention of the Modern Language Association, Chicago, Illinois, December 2007.
“Foreign Language Play and CMC,” with Carolin Fuchs (University of California, Berkeley), Colloquium on Foreign Language Play, American Association for Applied Linguistics 2007 Conference, Costa Mesa, CA, April 2007.
2006 “Dueting, Loser’s Humor, and Trumping: Playing together within L2 in computer-mediated versus face-to-face discussions,” Conversation Analysis and Language Learning Seminar, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, August, 2006.
“Social Talk in Computer-Mediated Second-Language (L2) Discussions”(title change: “Just kidding!!!!” – Playing within L2 in CMC”), with Carolin Fuchs (University of California, Berkeley), Joint American Association for Applied Linguistics and Association canadienne de linguistique appliquée/Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics 2006 Conference, Montréal, Canada, June 2006.
“Content and Speech-Act conditionality: A Closer Look at Evidence from German,” Berkeley Germanic Linguistics Roundtable, Berkeley, California, April 2006.
2005 “Grammar in Propaganda: German Quotative Conditionals and the Rational Argument Frame”, 2005 Convention of the Modern Language Association, Washington D.C., December 2005.
“Constructing Conditionality in German”, 9th International Pragmatics Conference, July 2005, Riva del Garda, Italy.
“Just Goofing off? – Social Talk in Computer-mediated L2 Discussions” CALICO (Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium) 2005, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, May 2005. (accepted, but did not present)
“Developing Intercultural Competence: A Project-based German-American Telecollaboration. 2005 DigitalStream, California State University Monterey Bay, Monterey, California, March 2005.
2004 “Neue Medien: Der Chat im Fremdsprachenunterricht” (‘New media: Chat in Foreign Language Instruction’) Expolingua, 17th International Fair for Languages and Cultures, Berlin, Germany, November 2004. 74
“Developing Intercultural Competence: Notes on a Project-Based Intercultural Telecollaboration,” Annual Symposium of the Consortium for CALICO 2004. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 2004. (accepted, but did not present)
2003 “Moving Business German Online”, Annual Meeting of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Philadelphia, PA, November 2003.
“.. weil der schmeckt so gut. – Is German losing its verb-last word order?” Annual Meeting of the American Association of Teachers of German, Philadelphia, PA, November 2003.
“Why chat? A comparison of language learner discourse in computer-assisted versus face-to- face discussions?” Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, The Spring 2003 Foreign Language Colloquium Series, April 2003 [non-juried presentation]
“Putting Business German Online. A CSU Consortial Project”, copresented with Marjorie Tussing (CSU Fullerton), 2003 DigitalStream Conference, CSU Monterey Bay, March 2003.
2002 "Moving ’Listening’ online: Interactive reception strategies in computer-assisted vs. face-to- face L2 discussions”, coauthored with Lynne H. Frame (University of California at Berkeley), Annual Meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Salt Lake City, UT, March 2002.
2000 "Social Talk in Online Discussions", Annual Meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, University of California Los Angeles, November 2000.
“Getting to Yes Online: Consensus-building discourse in computer-mediated vs. traditional L2 classrooms”, coauthored with Lynne H. Frame (University of San Francisco), Annual Meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Vancouver, British Columbia, March 2000.
1998 “What’s computer-mediated communication good for? Small group discussions and computers in the foreign language class”, coauthored with Lynne H. Frame (University of San Francisco) Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association, Division of Applied Linguistics, December 1998.
“Politically Correct Usage in the Former East Germany”, with Paul Listen (University of San Francisco) at the Berkeley Germanic Linguistics Roundtable, Berkeley, April 1998.
1996 "On Epistemic Conditionals in Modern German", presented at the Berkeley Germanic Linguistics Roundtable, Berkeley, April 1996.
1995 "A Discourse-based Analysis of Verb Position in German Conditionals", presented at the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, Los Angeles, November 1995.
1994 "Verb Position and Pragmatic Function: German Conditional Consequents", presented at the Berkeley/Michigan Germanic Linguistics Roundtable, Berkeley, April 1994.
"BAG V: PC German", with Bay Area German Research Group, Berkeley/Michigan Germanic Linguistics Roundtable, Berkeley, April 1994.
1992 "English Phonetic Contrasts in San Francisco Bay Area German", with Bay Area German Research Group, Berkeley/Michigan Germanic Linguistics Roundtable, Berkeley, April 1992.
Linguistic Fieldwork/Collaborative Research 75
2009-2012 SOLDASI – Affinity Group for the Study of Language, Discourse and Social Interaction – Verilogue Group, SFSU, Fall 2009–Spring 2012 2010-2011, collaborative grant application, “Discursive Descriptions and Indicators of Empathy Between Patients and Physicians Managing Diabetes”
1998-2004 “Does the Medium Change the Discussion? Foreign Language Discussions in the Computer- Mediated and Face-to-Face Environment”, fieldwork project conducted in collaboration with UC Berkeley. Eighteen students of advanced German participated in this study in subsequent semesters. Students completed comparable consensus-building tasks in the traditional classroom face-to- face and in the networked classroom. My collaborator and I audio- /video-recorded and subsequently transcribed the face-to-face discussions resulting in two parallel learner corpora: computer-mediated communication (= 4,941 words) and face-to- face communication (=12,663 words).
1997-1998 “After the Wall: ‘Politically correct’ usage among Eastern German students”. Fieldwork project conducted in collaboration with University of San Francisco. Data were gathered among a group of 65 political science students between the ages of 18 and 36 at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. All informants were asked to respond in writing to a questionnaire.
1994-1995 "Bay Are German (BAG) VI: E-mail Language", Bay Area German Project. UC Berkeley, German Department.
1993 "German Dialect Interactive Multimedia Project", UC Berkeley, German Department.
1992-1993 "Bay Area German (BAG) V: PC German", Bay Area German Project. UC Berkeley, German Department.
1991-1992 " Bay Area German (BAG) IV: English Phonetic Contrasts in San Francisco Bay Area German", Bay Area German Project. UC Berkeley, German Department.
Workshops Conducted
2009 “Quatschen, schnacken, schwätze or babbele? A Workshop on German Dialects,” co-presented with Beate Stopfer (M.A. candidate in German, SFSU), 2009 Convention of the California Language Teachers’ Association, Sacramento, CA, February 28, 2009
2007 “Why knowing the right words and correct grammar is not enough or are the French more polite than the Spaniards?” co-presented with Lejla Cizmic and Claudia Weller (M.A. candidates in German, SFSU), 2007 Convention of the California Language Teachers’ Association, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, March 31, 2007 [juried workshop]
2006 “Language in motion: New trends in the German language,” three-hour double interest session, co-presented with David Barry and Kimberly Mueller (M.A. candidates in German, SFSU), 2006 Convention of the California Language Teachers’ Association, Fresno, CA, March 25, 2006 [juried workshop]
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2004 “Voices, dialects, gestures from within: A language learning module for a film-based curriculum,” co-presented with Julia Koch (Goethe Institute San Francisco), Nancy Corbin and Sylvie Nguyen (M.A. candidates in German, SFSU), Annual Meeting of the California Language Teachers’ Association, Monterey, April 16, 2004 [juried workshop]
2000 "Why chat? Online discussions in the L2 classroom" co-presented with Lynne H. Frame (University of San Francisco), California Language Teachers' Association, Oakland, April 2000 [juried workshop]
1998 “Daedalus Workshop”, Foreign Language Association of Northern California, March 1998 [juried workshop]
1997 “Teaching Writing in the Electronic Classroom: Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment.” Foreign Language Association of Northern California, San Francisco, October 1997 [juried workshop]
1996 “Teaching Intercultural Business Communication”, Annual conference of the Foreign Language Association of Northern California, Stanford University, November 1996 [juried workshop]
Conference Chairing/Organizing
2013 Session Chair, Discussion Group Germanic Philology, Modern Language Association, January 2013
2007 Session Chair, “Language and Technology,” Annual Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics 2007, April 22, 2007, Costa Mesa, CA.
2006 Session Chair, “Analysis of discourse and interaction,” Joint American Association for Applied Linguistics and Association canadienne de linguistique appliquée/Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics 2006 Conference, June 2006, Montréal, Canada.
2001 Session Organizer and Presiding Officer, Linguistics Session, Annual Meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, Santa Clara University, November 2001
2000 Session Organizer and Presiding Officer, Linguistics Session, Annual Meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, University of California Los Angeles, November 2000
2000 Session Chair, Annual Meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, March 2000
1999 Session Organizer and Presiding Officer, Linguistics Session, Annual Meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, Portland State University, November 1999
1998 Session Organizer, Linguistics Session, Annual Meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, November 1998
1997 Session Organizer and Presiding Officer, Linguistics Session, Annual Meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, CSU San José, November 1997
1996 Secretary, Linguistics Session, Annual Meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, UC Irvine, November 1996
Workshops/Colloquia Participation 77
Virtual Portfolios, Post-Conference Half-Day Workshop at CALICO, Honolulu, HI, May 25, 2013
Summer Institute, Academic Technology, SFSU, June 12-13, 2012
Digital Media in Foreign Language Instruction, 2-week advanced seminar, Berlin, Germany, August 2009 [sponsored participant]
Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) scoring training, San Francisco State University, March 23, 2009
A National Colloquium on US Language Educational Policy, UC Berkeley, October 21-22, 2005 [sponsored participant]
Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, Portland, OR, July 16 – 19, 2004
Student, HIST 661: Introduction to SPSS, SFSU, Spring 2004 (class provides an introduction to using a statistical software package in the social sciences; useful for corpus linguistics)
Workshop on Teaching Cross-cultural Competence, Monterey Institute of International Studies, February 27-29, 2004 and March 19-21, 2004
Certificate, National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research on human subjects, February 19, 2004
CSU-Online Business German meeting, San Francisco, February 17, 2003
CSU-Online Business German meeting, Language Acquisition Research Center (LARC), January 21-22, 2003 [sponsored participant]
CSU-Online Business German meeting, CSU-Fullerton, June 2002 [sponsored participant]
CSU-Strategic Language Initiative Workshop and CSU-German Consortium Meeting, Sacramento, May 18-20, 2001 [sponsored participant]
CSU-German Consortium Meeting, San Francisco, February 24, 2001, CSU-German Consortium Meeting, San Francisco, April 6, 2001 [sponsored participant]
"Workshop for Using Instructional Technology in the Teaching of Business Foreign Languages", Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), University of Illinois, Chicago, Oak Brook, Illinois, November 3-4, 2000; (CSU- Strategic Language Initiative) [sponsored participant]
"Wirtschaftsdeutsch" (Business German), invited guest and stipend recipient, two-week workshop, Goethe Institute, Düsseldorf, July/August 2000 [sponsored participant]
CSU- Strategic Language Initiative, Technology Workshop, CSU Monterey Bay, March 22- 25, 2000 [sponsored participant]
“Restructuring Foreign Language Education”, Working Conference organized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, CSU Pomona, February 1998 [sponsored participant]
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CIBER-Consortium Meeting, Center for International Business Education and Research CIBER/California State University International Business Consortium, CSU Fullerton, February 1995 [sponsored participant]
Workshop on Business German, Goethe Institute, Denver, Colorado, October 1994 [sponsored participant]
Honors, Grants and Awards
Leave-with-Pay (Sabbatical Leave), Spring 2013
Research Grant, Office for Sponsored Research and the College of Humanities at San Francisco State, Affinity Group Discourse and Social Interaction (SOLDASI), 2009-2010, Collaborative Grant Application (funded by SFSU - Office of Research and Sponsored Programs) 2010-2011, “Discursive Descriptions and Indicators of Empathy between Patients and Physicians Managing Diabetes” (funded by SFSU - Office of Research and Sponsored Programs) 2011-2012, "Conceptualizing Patient-Centered Communication Through Discourse." (funded by SFSU - Office of Research and Sponsored Programs)
Goethe Institute Stipend, “Digital Media in Foreign Language Instruction”, 2-week advanced seminar, Berlin, Germany, August 2009
Travel Awards from College of Humanities and/or Faculty Affairs, 2012-2013, 2011-2012, 2010-2011, 2009-2010, 2008-2009, 2007-2008, 2006-2007, 2005-2006, 2004-2005, 2003- 2004, 2002-2003
National Foreign Language Resource Center Stipend, University of Hawai’i, “Conversation Analysis & Language Learning” Summer Institute Seminar, Honolulu, HI, August 7-11, 2006
Leave-with-Pay (Sabbatical Leave), Fall 2004
CSU-Strategic Language Initiative Stipend, "Workshop for Using Instructional Technology in the Teaching of Business Foreign Languages", Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), University of Illinois, Chicago, Oak Brook, Illinois, November 3-4, 2000
Goethe Institute Grant, German for Business Workshop (2 weeks), Düsseldorf, Germany, 31 July - 12 August, 2000
Summer Stipend, “Getting to Yes Online: Consensus-building discourse in computer- mediated versus traditional second language classrooms,” San Francisco State University, June 2000
Affirmative Action Award (3 WTUs release time), “’Politically correct’” usage in the Former East Germany, San Francisco State University, Spring 1998
University Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1994-1995
Vice Chancellor for Research Fund Award, University of California, Berkeley, 1994
University Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1991-1992
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SERVICE TO CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY
Service to the German Program
Coordinator, Fall 2002-Spring 2004, Spring 2005-Fall 2007, since Fall 2008-2010
Graduate Adviser, Fall 2002-Spring 2004, Spring 2005-Fall 2012
Undergraduate Co-Adviser, Fall 1998-Spring 2004, Spring 2005-Fall 2012
Credential Adviser, Spring 2001-Spring 2010
Graduate Teaching Associate (GTA) Supervisor, trained, mentored and supervised all GTA’s, since August 1995
Chair, German Program Scholarship Committee
Chair, Kurt Liedtke Scholarship Committee, Spring 2004-Spring 2007
Chair, Bosch Scholarship Committee, since Fall 1996
Chair, Arbeiterbildungsverein (Workmen’s Educational Association) Nominating Committee, represent SFSU’s German Program at annual event, since Fall 1996
Faculty Adviser of Treffpunkt Deutsch, a campus organization for students of German, since September 1998
Developer, web site for the German program (http://www.sfsu.edu/~german), August 1997; maintenance of the web site since August 1997; co-developed new website in collaboration with Prof. Volker Langbehn, Spring 2003, update and maintenance of web site
Co-author with Prof. Anita Antler, Re-certification of SFSU's German Program by the California Commission for Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) as a subject matter preparation for teaching credential candidates, 279-page document, October 2000
Service to the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Departmental Committees
Chair, Promotion Committee, since Fall 2008-Spring 2012
Member, Retention/Tenure/Promotion Departmental Guidelines Drafting Committee, Spring 2007
Member, Leave-With-Pay Committee, 1997-2000; 2006-2009
Member, Retention/Tenure Committee, Fall 2005 – Spring 2007, Fall 2010
Member, Retention/Tenure/Promotion Committee, Fall 2002-Spring 2004
Member, Ad-hoc Foreign Language Multimedia Lab Committee, since Fall 2000
Scholarship Committees
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Member, Anita Antler Scholarship Committee, Spring 2003-Spring 2005
Member, Antoinette Finke Forgivable Loan Committee, Spring 1998- Spring 2001
Member, Foreign Language Alumni Scholarship Committee, Spring 1998- Spring 2001
Chair, CLTA Foreign Language Scholarship Committee, Spring 1998-Spring 2001Faculty Representative of Summer Seminar on Foreign Language Teaching in Santa Barbara (California Language Teachers’ Association), advertised Summer Seminar, supplied information, reviewed scholarship applications, conducted interviews and ranked applicants, Fall 1998- Spring 2002
Co-founder San Francisco State’s Eta Alpha chapter of Phi Sigma Iota, the International Foreign Language Honor Society, August 1996, served as co-advisor, selected candidates, created and maintained a webpage (http://www.sfsu.edu/~german/phisigmaiota.htm), organized annual Spring ceremony, Fall 1997-Fall 2002
Organizer and host of campus events in Foreign Languages
"German Perspectives on the Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change," Bernhard Abels, Deputy Consul General, Consulate General of Germany, November 2012
“German Rock and Pop," Arndt Peltner, Founder & DJ Radio Goethe, April 2012
“The Magnetic Power of Berlin: Germany's Capitol in the 21st Century,” Michael Ahrens, Consul Cultural and Press Affairs, Consulate General of Germany, February 2012
“Working Abroad: Internships Abroad for Foreign Language Students," Günter Seefeldt, International Cooperative Education, February 2012
“Translating Friedrich Hölderlin,” Maxine Chernoff , Department of Creative Writing, October 2011
“The Magnetic Power of Berlin: A Look at Culture, Music and Art in the 21st Century,” Michael Ahrens, Consul Cultural and Press Affairs, Consulate General of Germany, Arndt Peltner, Founder & DJ Radio Goethe, April 2010
“Translating and Editing Selected Poems by Friedrich Hölderlin,” Drs. Maxine Chernoff & Paul Hoover, Department of Creative Writing, March 2009
“Western Perceptions of the Orient and Islam,” Dr. Shirin Khanmohamadi, Assistant Professor, Department of Classics/World and Comparative Literature, April 2007
“What is it about ‘Yes’ you don’t understand? Communicating across cultures,” Dr. Ingrid Rose-Neiger, Director of the Institute for Intercultural Communication, Fachhochschule Karlsruhe, Germany, February 2007
“A Short History of Icelandic”, Tonya Kim Dewey, Ph.D. Candidate in Germanic Linguistics, UC Berkeley, March 30, 2006
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“Europe and the U.S. – Where to we go from here?” Dr. Hans Arnold, Former Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, October 2005 (event co-sponsored by the Colleges of Humanities and Behavioral and Social Sciences)
“Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication,” Dr. Ingrid Rose-Neiger, Director of the Institute for Intercultural Communication, Fachhochschule Karlsruhe, Germany, April 2005
“Islam in Germany,” Thomas Lenferding, Consul for Cultural Affairs, Federal Republic of Germany, November 2003
Faculty Representative, Commencement Exercises and Celebration, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002
Campus Service
Participant and Collaborator, Affinity Group Discourse and Social Interaction (SOLDASI), since Spring 2009
Organizer and moderator, “Exploring Doctoral Studies: An Orientation and Panel Discussion,” developed, organized, and moderated graduate orientation/panel discussion, College of Humanities, Spring 2007, 2008, 2009
Workshop leader, “SF Promise,” outreach program to San Francisco Middle schools, March 21, 2009
Campus Committees
Member, Academic Senate, Teacher Credentialing Committee, August 2012 - May 2012 (elected but did not serve due to scheduling conflict)
Member, Academic Senate Library Advisory Committee, August 2001 - May 2003, Fall 2005-Spring 2009
Member, Faculty Interview Committee for International Program, February 2001
Member, Liberal Studies Council, 1997-1999
Member, Liberal Studies Council Subcommittee, December 1998-January 1999
Member, Faculty Interview Committee for International Program, February 1999
Department Faculty Representative, Honor’s Convocation, May 2000
Faculty Representative, Alumni Association Awards Banquet, September 1999
Executive Board Member, SFSU University Women’s Association
SFSU-Families Representative, since Fall 2007, represented UWA at Honor’s Convocation 2008
President, University Women’s Association, chaired Executive Board meetings, acted as liaison for donors contributing to the Gloria Spencer Scholarship Fund, co-organized and hosted campus events such Back-to-Campus and Honor’s Convocation reception, 82
co-organized and hosted app. 10 - 12 on- and off campus events for the SFSU campus community, coordinated annual scholarship with Scholarship Chair, represented UWA at Undergraduate Honor’s Convocation in the President’s platform party, initiated UWA- membership drive, contributed to the newsletter, responsible for outreach, website renovation and maintenance, May 2001-September 2007.
Faculty Representative, University Women's Association, Fall 2000 - Spring 2001
SFSU Delegate, CSU Lower Division Transfer Pattern (German Program), November 2005 - January 2006
Member, CSU Foreign Language Council, Fall 1998 - Fall 2000, Fall 2000 – 2002
CSU Foreign Language Council Nominating Committee, Spring 1999, Fall 2000, Spring 2002
Invited Panelist on Country-Specific Panel, Pre-Departure Orientation Program, CSU- International Program, May 2004.
Community Service and Service to the Profession
Advisory Board Member, Advisory Board on Curriculum, Instruction and Testing, San Francisco State University Flagship Program, Chinese Program, National Security Education Program, since Fall 2008
Conference Chairing/Organizing Chair, MLA Discussion Group in Germanic Philology, Executive Committee at the Modern Language Association, 2013 [elected office]
Secretary, MLA Discussion Group in Germanic Philology, Executive Committee at the Modern Language Association, 2012 [elected office]
Member, MLA Discussion Group in Germanic Philology, Executive Committee at the Modern Language Association, 2008-2014 [elected office]
Reviewer for Peer-Reviewed Journals or Books
Reviewer, CALICO Journal, since May 2013
Reviewer, Journal of Pragmatics, July 2011
Reviewer, Vorsprung, July 2011
Reviewer, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, May 2010
Reviewer, Teaching German/Die Unterrichtspraxis, December 2006, January 2008, January 2010
Reviewer, Handbook of Research on Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction (ed. by R. Taiwo), March 2009
Reviewer, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, November/December 2007, April, 2010, August 2012
Reviewer, Belgian Journal of English Language and Literature (BELL), April/May 2006 83
Representative at Professional Meetings
Representative of the Foreign Language Association of Northern California (FLANC) at the Annual Business Meeting of the American Association of Teachers of German (Northern California), November 10, 2007SFSU Representative, Professional Development Workshop for the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program, San Francisco, February 18, 2006
SFSU-Representative to the American Association of Teachers of German, attended local meetings twice a year, facilitate contact between pre-service and in-service teachers, since 2004
CSU-Representative, Network Steering Committee for California, sponsored by the Goethe Institute. The committee is comprised of representatives from K-12, postsecondary institutions, the National Standards Committee, the Department of Education, and the California Language Teachers’ Association. (http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/lhr/nfd/enindex.htm), Fall 2003-Spring 2007
Co-presenter with Dr. Julian Randolph, “How Students Become Teachers Now,” CSU Sacramento, April 2003.
Community Liaison
German Consulate of San Francisco, since 1994, invited guest at German functions
Goethe Institut San Francisco
Deutscher Arbeiterbildungsverein (Workmen’s Educational Association), invited guest at the annual dinner in May, delivered annual address, since1998
German Saturday Schools of the Bay Area
Invited Speaker, “Who cares about German? A Guide for Parents for learning German in the USA”, German-American School in Palo Alto, January 2004
Volunteer, German Language School of Marin, Fall 2003 - Spring 2004
Crosscultural Facilitation
Trainer, “Crosscultural Training for U.S. Nationals”, Cendant Mobility HR Firm, March 17, 2004
Consultant, Crosscultural Facilitation, since Spring 2004
Volunteer, Checkpoint Charlie Foundation (http://www.cc-stiftung.de/en/), an organization to build and develop German-American relations, Berlin, Germany, Fall 2004
Membership in Professional Organizations
International Pragmatics Association (1994- present) American Association of Teachers of German (1998-present) Foreign Language Association of Northern California (1996-present) 84
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (2003-present) Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (1999-present) Modern Language Association (2005-present) California Language Teachers’ Association (2005-2007) American Association of Applied Linguistics (2001-present) California Alumni Association Life Member University Women’s Association (1999-present)
Languages
German – native English – near-native French – fair Spanish – reading and listening competency Gothic, Old Norse, Old English, Old Saxon, Early New High German, Old High German, Middle High German, Latin – reading competency
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