Mary-Elizabeth O'Brien, Ph.D.
Department of Foreign Lang & Lit 38 Whitney Road South Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 Saratoga Spring, NY 12866 518-587-3697 518-580-5216 [email protected]
Employment Currently Professor of German 2008-2014 Chair of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Skidmore College 2009-2014 Courtney and Steven Ross Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies 2003-2007 Director of International Affairs, Skidmore College 2005-2007 Co-Director, Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program Grant “The Building Blocks of a New International Affairs Major at Skidmore College: From Cornerstone to Capstone and Beyond” 1996-2004 Associate Professor of German, Skidmore College 1999-2000 Fulbright Senior Scholar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany 1990-1996 Assistant Professor of German, Skidmore College 1986 and 1990 Lecturer, California State University, Northridge 1989 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Whittier College 1988-1989 Lecturer, University of California, Santa Cruz 1982-1987 Teaching Assistant, University of California, Los Angeles
Education 1988 Ph.D., Germanic Languages, University of California, Los Angeles Dissertation: Fantasy and Reality in Irmtraud Morner's Salman Novels 1987 Freie Universität Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany 1986 C.Phil., Germanic Languages, University of California, Los Angeles 1984 and 1985 Wilhelm-Pieck-Universität Rostock, German Democratic Republic 1983 M.A., German, University of California, Los Angeles 1981 B.A., German, California State University, Long Beach 1979-1980 Karl-Winter-Universität Heidelberg, Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Goethe Institut Blaubeuren, Federal Republic of Germany
Publications
Books
Post-Wall German Cinema and National History: Utopianism and Dissent. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2012.
Nazi Cinema as Enchantment: The Politics of Entertainment in the Third Reich. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2004.
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Articles
“The Afterlife of the GDR in Post-Wall German Cinema.” In Virtual Walls: Balancing Political Unity and Cultural Difference, ed. Franziska B. Lys. Rochester, NY: Camden House. Forthcoming in December 2017.
“Lost at Home: Als wir träumten (2015), Liminal Space, and the DEFA Legacy.” In Andreas Dresen, edited by Julian Preece and Nick Hodgin, Contemporary German Writers and Filmmakers, NY: Peter Lang Publishers, 2017. 213-240.
“Robert und Bertram.” In German Cinema: A Critical Filmography to 1945, eds. Todd Heidt and Todd Herzog. Montreal: Caboose Books. Forthcoming.
Rev. of “The Lives of Others” and Contemporary German Film: A Companion. Edited by Paul Cooke. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013. Monatshefte vol. 106, no. 3 (Fall 2014): 542-545.
“Creative Chaos as Political Strategy in Recent German-Language Cinema.” In Cinema and Social Change in Germany and Austria, eds. Gabriele Mueller and James M. Skidmore. Waterloo, ON: Wilfried Laurier University Press, 2012.
“Teaching History through Feature Films.” Neues Curriculum: Journal for Best Practices in Higher Education German Studies (October 2011): 1-15. http://www.neues- curriculum.org/papers/Obrien2011.pdf
“National Socialist Realism and the Problem Film.” The Intersection of Politics and German Literature, 1750-2000: A Festschrift in Honor of Ehrhard Bahr. Los Angeles: New German Review and the University of California, Los Angeles, 2005.
“The Celluloid War: Packaging War for Sale in Nazi Home-Front Films.” Art, Culture and Media under the Third Reich. Ed. Richard Etlin. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2002. 158-180.
“The Spectacle of War in Die große Liebe.” Cultural History through a National Socialist Lens: Essays on the Cinema of the Third Reich. Ed. Robert C. Reimer. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2000. 197-213.
“Aesthetizing War: Eduard von Borsody’s Wunschkonzert.” Seminar 33:1 (1997): 36-49.
“Male Conquest of the Female Continent in Veit Harlan’s Opfergang (1944).” Monatshefte 87:4 (1995): 431-445.
“Das Feindbild im nationalsozialistischen Film.” Zum Thema Nationalsozialismus im DaF- Lehrwerk und –Unterricht. Eds. Joachim Warmbold, E-Anette Koeppel, and Hans Simon-Pelanda. Munich: Iudicium, 1994. 135-141.
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“>Ich war verkleidet als Poet … Ich bin Poetin!!< The Masquerade of Gender in Else Lasker- Schüler’s Work.” The German Quarterly 65:1 (1992): 1-17.
Lectures
Co-Organizer of Workshop on “Women on Men: Female Filmmakers Look Back,” German Studies Association Conference in Atlanta, Oct. 5-8, 2017.
“Desire for the Unobtainable: A Critique of Hegemonic and Non-Normative Masculinities in Iris Gusner’s Films” for the workshop “Women on Men: Female Filmmakers Look Back,” German Studies Association Conference in Atlanta, Oct. 5-8, 2017.
Commentator, “Deviant Masculinities in Contemporary German Culture.” German Studies Association Conference, September 29-October 2, 2016, San Diego, CA.
“Andreas Dresen’s Als wir trä umten (2015) and the Realist Legacy of DEFA Studios,” for the workshop “East German Cinema and TV in a Global Context: Before and After 1990,” German Studies Association Conference, Washington, D.C. October 1-4, 2015.
“Lost at Home: Heimat as Void and Rupture in Recent Films by Dresen and Qurbani,” European Cinema Research Forum Conference, National University of Ireland, Galway, July 7- 9, 2015.
“The Other in Recent Berlin School Films,” German Studies Association of Australia Conference, “Das Fremde und das Eigene,” University of Sydney, Australia, November 26-28, 2014.
“The Other as Unreachable in Recent Berlin School Films.” European Cinema Research Forum on The Other in European Cinema,” Edinburgh University, Scotland, July 1-3, 2013.
“Magical Idealism: Herwig Kipping‘s Aesthetic Program and Filmic Practice.” German Studies Association Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from October 4-7, 2012.
“An Aesthetic Anarchist at the DEFA Studios: Herwig Kipping‘s Concept of Authorship” European Cinema Research Forum Conference, Adaptation, Authorship, and Ownership,” Edge Hill University, Great Britain, June 16-18, 2012.
“Teaching History through Film,” German Studies Association Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, September 22-25, 2011.
“Michael Haneke’s Das weiße Band and the Question of European Art Cinema.” European Cinema Research Forum Conference, “Is There Such a Thing as European Cinema?” University of Exeter, England from July 2-4, 2010.
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“Women Warriors or Victims? Feminine Transgressions in Volker Schlöndorff’s Die Stille nach dem Schuss.” Terrorism and German Film. German Studies Association, Oakland, CA from October 7-10, 2010.
“Female Desire in Nazi Cinema: Consumerist and Sexual Fantasies.” Invited lecture at Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, October 23, 2008. Expenses paid by Bishop’s University.
“Cinema of Consciousness or Trapped in the Matrix? Hans Weingartner's Counterculture Critique.” “Representative Trends in Contemporary German Cinema: The Work of Petzold, Dresen, and Weingartner.” German Studies Association Conference in St. Paul, MN, October 2-5, 2008.
“The New Heroes of the GDR Past: Recent Developments in German Cinema and Cultural Policy.” European Cinema Research Forum Conference on European Cinema: Past and Present in Dublin, Ireland, July 12-13 2008.
“Creative Chaos as Political Strategy in Recent German Cinema.” Cinema and Social Change in Germany and Austria Conference at the University of Waterloo, Canada, May 1-3, 2008.
Panelist for “Three Political Films by Margarethe von Trotta: Rosa Luxemburg, Rosenstrasse and The Other Woman.“ Margarethe von Trotta Film Festival and Symposium, sponsored by Salmagundi Quarterly at Skidmore College, April 12, 2007.
“Trendy Terrorism: The Uneasy Relation between Fact and Fiction in Christopher Roth’s Baader.” New Europe at the Crossroads Conference, Berlin, Germany, July 3-5, 2006.
“Amnesia and Nostalgia as Response to the Wende in Post-Wall German Cinema,” “Nation and Myth Making in Contemporary German Cinema” South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Atlanta, Nov 4-6, 2005.
“Ostalgie and the Re-Making of German National Identity in Good Bye, Lenin! (2003).” German Studies Association Conference. Washington, D.C. October 6-10, 2004.
“The Films of Helmut Käutner and the Limits of Aesthetic Resistance.” Twenty-Eighth Colloquium on Literature and Film at West Virginia University. September 18-20, 2003.
“National Socialist Realism and the Problem Film.” The Intersection of Politics and German Literature, 1750-2000: A Conference in Honor of Ehrhard Bahr. UCLA Center for Seventeenth- & Eighteenth-Century Studies and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. May 17, 2003.
“History, Utopia, and the Social Construction of Happiness in Nazi Cinema.” German Studies Association Conference. Houston, TX. October 8, 2000.
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Co-presenter with Cindy Evans. “From Virtual to Real: Theory and Practice in Remote Collaboration for German Language Learners.” “Usages des Nouvelles Technologies dans l'Enseignement des Langues Etrangères (UNTELE 2000).” Compiegne, France. March 22, 2000.
“Das Reich der Fantasie: Der NS-Unterhaltungsfilm und die Volksgemeinschaft.” Historisches Seminar, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. December 17, 1999.
“Film und visuelle Kultur in einer dialogfähigen Web-Umgebung” and “Die Computerbrücke: Ein Versuchsprojekt für DaF-Unterricht.” Deutsch als Fremdsprache am Institut für deutsche Sprache und Linguistik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. December 1999.
“Remote Collaboration for Foreign Language Learners: A Web-based Project for Advanced German.” CTW Conference on “Technology and Language Teaching in New England and New York: A Look into the Future.” Wesleyan University, CT. May 25, 1999.
“Computer Technology in the German Classroom.” NEALL Conference. Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs. March 7, 1998.
“The Celluloid War: Nazi Home-Front Films.” German Studies Association Conference. Seattle, WA. October 11, 1996
Commentator, “Nazi Cinema.” German Studies Association Conference. Seattle, WA. October 12, 1996.
Commentator, “The Life and Works of Gertrud Kolmar (1894-1943).” German Studies Association Conference. Dallas, TX. October 1, 1994.
“Discontented Domesticity: Containment of Female Desire in the Nazi Melodrama.” UCLA Art History Symposium, “The Politics of Representation.” Los Angeles, CA. May 6, 1994.
Moderator, “Weimar Identities in Crisis.” German Studies Association Conference. Washington, D.C. October 9, 1993.
“Transgression and the Law in Nazi Cinema.” Philological Association of the Pacific Coast. San Diego, CA. November 13, 1992.
“Das Feindbild im nationalsozialistischen Film.” Nationalsozialismus im DaF-Lehrwerk und – Unterricht. Tel-Aviv, Israel. October 8, 1991.
“>Ich war verkleidet als Poet … Ich bin Poetin!< The Masquerade of Gender in Else Lasker- Schüler’s Prose.” Modern Language Association Conference. Chicago, IL. December 30, 1990.
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“The Politics of Genre and Medium: A Comparison of Georg Büchner and Georg Herwegh.” Pennsylvania Foreign Language Conference. Duquesne University, Pittsburg, PA. September 8, 1989.
Courses
Courses Taught in English IA 101 Introduction to International Affairs
Courses Developed and Taught in English LS2.109/FL 249 The Image of the Enemy in German Film, 1919-1945 FL 250 Culture, Heimat, Nation: The Quest for German Identity FL 251 Contemporary German Cinema FL 255 Film Theory and Criticism TX 201-202 From Marx to Coca Cola: Travel Seminar to Germany and Poland TX 201-202 Waltz, Coffeehouse, Dreams: Travel Seminar to Vienna
Courses Developed in English TX 201 International Affairs Regional Topics TX 202 International Affairs Faculty-Led Travel Seminar IA 375 Senior Seminar in International Affairs TX 201-202 Glitter and Doom: Travel Seminar to Berlin
Courses Taught in German FG 101, 102, 103 Elementary German FG 201, 202 Intermediate German FG 208 German Conversation and Composition FG 211 Classicism, Romanticism, and Realism FG 341 The Age of Goethe FG 371, 372 Independent Studies FG 374 Senior Thesis
Courses Developed and Taught in German FG 206 German Language and Culture FG 213 Introduction to German Literature: Enlightenment to Pre-March FG 214 Introduction to German Literature: Poetic Realism to the Present FG 215 Introduction to German Literature: Enlightenment to the Present FG 220 German Language Across the Curriculum FG 271 German Language and Literature Discussion FG 304 Advanced German Composition and Conversation FG 340 Advance German Language Across the Curriculum FG 357 German Literature of the Twentieth Century FG 363 Special Topics: Contemporary German Literature, 1983-2004 FG 363 Special Topics: After the Wall: German Literature, 1989-1997 FG 363 Special Topics: German Cinema, 1919-1945 FG 363 Senior Seminar: The Nazi Entertainment Film O’Brien 7
FG 376 Senior Seminar: GDR Literature FG 376 Senior Seminar: Post-Wende German Cinema FG 376 Senior Seminar: Contemporary German Literature: From Pop to the Novel Prize
Multimedia Materials and Web Materials developed
http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/fll/german/ http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/fll/German/mobrien/enemy/enemy.html http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/ia/index.htm
Developed 7 multimedia Elementary German Lessons with X-Engine Templates from Middlebury College. Supported by a Mellon Foundation Grant in Spring 1998
Developed with John Danison a web-based video database delivery system for the course “The Image of the Enemy in German Film, 1919-1945.” Digitized 33 video clips and embedded them in an interactive web environment with HTML, Javascript, Composer, and Media Database on Mac, IBM and Silicon Graphics machines. Funded by a Mellon Foundation Grant in Summer 1998
Co-organized with Cindy Evans a faculty workshop on “Digitizing Film for the German Language Curriculum.” American Association of Teachers of German, Hudson Valley Regional Meeting, June 1, 2002 at Skidmore College. Prepared web-based exercises, film clips, and audio clips for Lola rennt
Seminars, Grants, and Honors
2009-2014 Courtney and Steven Ross Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies 2007-08 Full-Year Sabbatical, Skidmore College 2005 Skidmore Faculty Development Research Grant 1999-2000 Fulbright Senior Scholar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Bundesarchiv- Filmarchiv, Berlin 1999-2000 Full-Year Sabbatical, Skidmore College 1997 Skidmore International Affairs Minor Summer Workshop 1996 NEH Summer Seminar, “Nazi Cinema,” with David Bathrick at Cornell University 1995 Skidmore Faculty Development Research Grant 1994 Loyola College Berlin Seminar 1994 Skidmore Faculty Research Initiative Grant 1993 Semester Sabbatical, Skidmore College 1992 DAAD Study Visit Research Grant for Faculty 1992 Skidmore Faculty Research Grant 1991 NEH Summer Seminar, “Modernity and its Discontents: Film, Literature, and Popular Culture in the Weimar Republic” with Anton Kaes at the University of California, Berkeley
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Skidmore College and Professional Activities
Member of the Berlin Program Fellowships Selection Committee, which awards grants for dissertation and postdoctoral research in the social sciences and humanities, 2013-2015
Chair, Foreign Languages and Literatures, 2008-2014
Director of International Affairs Program, 2003-2007
Coordinator of Self-Instructional Language Program (Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, and Portuguese) 1991-1996
College-Wide Committees: Curriculum (2003-2004, Spring 2005), Educational Policies & Planning (CEPP) Sub-Committee on Diversity and Study Abroad (Fall 2003), Information Resource Council (2004-05), Integrity Board (2001-2003). Pre-tenure: Academic Computing, Liberal Studies III Curriculum, Liberal Studies I Self-Study, Year of Education on Racism and Genocide
Department Committees: Post-Tenure: Assessment; Curriculum; Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum; Mellon Foundation Grant; Reconfiguration; Technology. Pre-Tenure: Faculty Evaluation; Faculty Recruitment, Tenure and Reappointment Guidelines; Academic Standards and Expectations; Placement Examinations; Language Lab Resources; Lecture; Research
Freshman Advisor, German Minor and Major Advisor, International Affairs Minor and Major Advisor
Memberships Fulbright Alumni Association, German Studies Association, Modern Languages Association