Ela Eylem Gezen University of Massachusetts, Amherst German and Scandinavian Studies 161 Presidents Drive Amherst, MA 01003 Email: [email protected]
ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT
Associate Professor of German (tenured), Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, German and Scandinavian Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, September 2018– present
Assistant Professor of German (tenure-track), Department of Languages Literatures and Cultures, German and Scandinavian Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, September 2012–2018
EDUCATION
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, September 2005–August 2012 Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, PhD 2012 Dissertation: Writing and Sounding the City: Turkish-German Representations of Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin, October 1998–July 2005 Major: North American Studies; Minors: Turkic Studies, and French Magisterprüfung (master’s exams) North American Studies and French 2005, Turkic Studies 2004 Zwischenprüfung (intermediate exams) Turkic Studies 2001, North American Studies and French 2000
Indiana University, Bloomington, September 2001–August 2002 Direktaustauschprogramm (exchange fellowship) with the Freie Universität Berlin Department of Central Eurasian Studies, MA Turkish Studies, 2005
PUBLICATIONS
Books Brecht, Turkish Theater, and Turkish-German Literature: Reception, Adaptation, and Innovation after 1960 (Rochester: Camden House, 2018) Reviewed in The Brecht Yearbook, Feminist German Studies, German Studies Review, German Quarterly, Modern Language Review, Monatshefte, Studies in Twentieth & Twenty-First Century Literature
“Cultures in Migration: Turkish Artistic Practices and Cultural-Political Interventions in West Berlin, 1970–1980” [in progress]
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Edited Book Co-Editor, Minority Discourse in Germany Since 1990, Berghahn Books [forthcoming]
Edited Journals Guest Editor, Monatshefte, Special Issue on Aras Ören, 112.4 (January 2021)
Invited Guest Co-Editor, Jahrbuch Türkisch-deutsche Studien, Special Issue “Turkish-German Studies: Past, Present, and Future” (2015)
Invited Guest Co-Editor, Colloquia Germanica, Special Issue “Transnational Hi/Stories: Turkish- German Texts and Contexts” 44.4 (2011, published December 2014)
Articles and Book Chapters “Weiter Schreiben – Literary Dialogue, Collaboration, and Intervention,” MLA series Options for Teaching, Teaching German Literature of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries, eds. David Kim and Bala Venkat Mani [in progress]
Invited contribution, “Trümmerhaufen der Vergangenheit, das Mittelmeer und die Namenlosen: Merle Krögers Havarie (2015), Möglichkeitsräume, Formerweiterung und die Herausforderung des Politischen – die literarischen und audio-visuellen Arbeiten von Merle Kröger und Philip Scheffner, ed. Nicole Wolf [forthcoming]
“Einleitung: Aras Ören – Zeitzeuge, Chronist und Archivar (West)Berlins,” Monatshefte, Special Issue on Aras Ören, 112.4 (2020): 563–570.
Invited contribution, “Integration, Turkish Theater, and Cultural-Political Interventions in West Berlin: Vasıf Öngören’s Kollektiv Theater (1980–1982),” Comparative Drama, Special Issue on Performing Turkishness and Its Others: Theater and Politics in Turkey and Its Diasporas, (2018, published July 2019): 301–321.
Invited contribution, “Türkische und Türkisch-Deutsche Perspektiven in der (Re)Konstruktion von ‚1968’,” undercurrents, Special Issue on 1968 und die (Re)Konstruktion linker Jubiläen, January 2019.
“Poetic Empathy, Political Criticism, and Public Mourning: Esther Dischereit’s Klagelieder,” Gegenwartsliteratur: A German Studies Yearbook 17 (2018): 313–330.
“Brecht and Turkish Political Theater: Sermet Çağan’s Savaş Oyunu (1964),” Back to the Future. Tradition and Innovation in German Studies, edited by Marc Silberman (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2017), 173–193.
“May Ayim und der Blues,” Monatshefte 108.2 (2016): 247–258.
Invited contribution, “Aras Ören and the (West) German Literary Left,” Literature Compass
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13.5, Special Issue on Labor Travels, Art Forms, (2016): 324–331.
“Brecht on the Turkish Stage: Adaptation, Experimentation, and Theatre Aesthetics in Genco Erkal’s Dostlar Tiyatrosu,” German Life and Letters 69.2, Special Issue on Bertolt Brecht (2016): 269–284.
“Convergent Realisms: Aras Ören, Nazım Hikmet, and Bertolt Brecht,” Colloquia Germanica 45.3/4, Special Issue on “Triangular Readings,” (2012, published October 2015): 377–393.
“Staging Berlin: Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde,” German Studies Review 38.1 (2015): 83–96.
“Introduction: Turkish-German Studies – Past, Present, and Future” (with Berna Gueneli), Jahrbuch für Türkisch-deutsche Studien, Special Issue on Turkish-German Studies: Past, Present, and Future (2015): 9–13.
“Introduction: Transnational Hi/Stories – Turkish-German Texts and Contexts” (with Berna Gueneli) Colloquia Germanica 44.4, Special Issue on Transnational Hi/Stories – Turkish- German Texts and Contexts (2011, published December 2014): 377–381.
“Intersections of Music, Politics, and Digital Media: Bandista.” Colloquia Germanica 44.4, Special Issue on Transnational Hi/Stories – Turkish-German Texts and Contexts (2011, published December 2014): 438–449.
“Heimisches Berlin: Turkish-German Longing and Belonging.” Jahrbuch für Türkisch-deutsche Studien 2. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2011: 143–164.
“The Soundtrack of Migration: Tahsin Incirci and the Türkischer Arbeiterchor West Berlin,” Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur 24.2: (2010). 119–131.
Translations Emine Sevgi Özdamar. [from Turkish] “The Untimely One from Üsküdar,” Jahrbuch für Türkisch- deutsche Studien, Special Issue on Turkish-German Studies: Past, Present, and Future (2015): 115–136.
Book Reviews Sabine Hake and Barbara Mennel, eds. Turkish German Cinema in the New Millennium: Sites, Sounds, and Screens. New York: Berghahn Books, 2012. Monatshefte 105.4 (2013): 744–746.
Aysegül Acevit and Birand Bingül, eds. Was lebst Du? Jung, deutsch, türkisch - Geschichten aus Almanya. Journal der Jugendkulturen 13 (December, 2008): 111.
Hilal Sezgin. Typisch Türkin?: Porträt einer neuen Generation. Journal der Jugendkulturen 13 (December, 2008): 111–112.
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FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
Invited senior fellow, Cluster of Excellence “Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective,” Project Research Area “Writing Berlin,” at the Freie Universität Berlin, May–July 2020 [postponed to 2021]
EUME (Europe in the Middle East-The Middle East in Europe) fellowship Forum Transregionale Studien, affiliation: Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, January–July 2016
Finalist, Lilly Teaching Fellowship, University of Massachusetts, Spring 2016
CHFA Conference Grant, Spring 2016
Mellon Mutual Mentoring Grant, University of Massachusetts, Spring 2013
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship “Cultures in Transnational Perspective,” UCLA, 2012 (declined)
Horace H. Rackham Graduate School One-Term Dissertation Fellowship, University of Michigan, Fall 2011
Horace H. Rackham Graduate School Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2010–2011
Horace H. Rackham Graduate School Humanities Research Fellowship, University of Michigan, Winter 2010
Jean Monnet Graduate Fellowship for Issues on European Integration, Center for European Studies, University of Michigan, 2009
Horace H. Rackham Graduate School Graduate Student Research Grant, University of Michigan, Winter 2009
International Institute Individual Fellowship, University of Michigan, Summer 2007
Overseas Exchange Fellowship, Indiana University, 2001–2002
AWARDS AND HONORS
Nominee, Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Massachusetts, Spring 2018
Nominee, College Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, University of Massachusetts, Spring 2018 and Spring 2020
Horace H. Rackham Graduate School Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, University of Michigan, 2008
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Frank X. Braun Memorial Graduate Student Instructor Award, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan, Winter 2007
CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION
Major Conferences Co-organizer, Transnational German Studies Workshop, University of Massachusetts Amherst, May 2019
Co-organizer, Minorities and Minority Discourses in Germany since 1990: Intersections, Interventions, Interpolations, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Five Colleges, March 2017
Organizer, Medium, Method, and Message in Cultures of the Cold War, University of Massachusetts Amherst, October 2014
Co-organizer, Transnational Encounters and Interdisciplinary Dialogues, University of Massachusetts Amherst, March 2014
Panel Organization Co-organizer, “Noncitizenship and Artistic Practice,” Seminar, German Studies Association, October 2020
Co-organizer, “Literature and Refuge,” Panel Series, German Studies Association, Portland, October 2019
Co-organizer, “Refuge and Art,” Panel, Council for European Studies Conference, Madrid, June 2019
Co-organizer, “Theorizing Refugees: Pedagogy and Scholarship in German Studies and Beyond,” Roundtable, German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, September 2018
Organizer, “Theater and Migration,” Panel, German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, September 2018
Co-organizer, “Brecht in the Middle East,” sponsored by the International Brecht Society, Modern Language Association, New York City, January 2018
Co-organizer, “(Post)Migrant Theater: Past, Present, and Future,” Seminar, German Studies Association, Atlanta, October 2017
Co-organizer, “Minorities and Minority Discourses in Germany since 1990,” Panel Series, German Studies Association, San Diego, September 2016
Co-organizer, “Turkish-German Studies: Past, Present, and Future,” Seminar, German Studies
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Association, Kansas City, September 2014
Co-organizer, “Transnational Hi/Stories: Turkish-German Texts and Contexts,” Panel Series, German Studies Association, Denver, October 2013
Co-organizer “Re-orienting Brecht: Transcultural Perspectives,” Seminar, American Comparative Literature Association, Toronto, April 2013
Co-organizer “German Orientalisms,” Panel, German Studies Association, Louisville, September 2011
INVITED LECTURES AND PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS
Invited Lectures and Presentations
“Turkish Immigration to Berlin,” invited lecture for Gov 271 Global Cities (undergraduate seminar), Smith College, March 2020
Invited Participant, “Blumen für Otello” – A Reading and Conversation with Esther Dischereit, Deutsches Haus at NYU, February 2019
“Brecht, Turkish Theater, and Turkish-German Literature,” Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, June 2018
“Turkish Political Theater and Brecht,” 50th Annual Wisconsin Workshop in German Studies: Back to the Future: Tradition and Innovation in German Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison, September 2017
“Soundtrack der Migration: Der Türkische Arbeiterchor Westberlin,” August Bebel Institut, Berlin, July 2017
“Writing Berlin: Emine Sevgi Özdamar and German Literatures of Turkish Migration,” invited lecture for Critical Social Inquiry I251: Berlin! Berlin! History, Art, Culture (undergraduate seminar), Hampshire College, October 2016
Invited Participant Roundtable Discussion, “Middle of Where? East of What? New Geographies of Conflict,” Institute for Cultural Inquiry Berlin, July 2016
“Tahsin Incirci und der Türkische Arbeiterchor Westberlin,” FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum, Berlin, July 2016
“Brechtsche Theaterästhetik- und praxis im türkischen Kontext,” Institute for Turkish Studies, University Duisburg-Essen, June 2016
“Didactic Realism: Aras Ören, Nazım Hikmet, and Bertolt Brecht,” Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, May 2016
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Invited Participant WeberWorldCafe Refugees in the City, Berlin, April 2016
“Turkish Labor Migration to Germany: Political Discourses, Historic Documentation and Aesthetic Interventions,” Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, February 2016
“Aras Ören: Political Aesthetics and the Working Class in Cold War West Berlin,” Emory University, Atlanta, February 2016
“Aras Ören und die (west)deutsche Linke,” invited video lecture for German 8087: German Modernisms and Realisms after 1945 (graduate seminar), University of Missouri, Columbia, April 2015
“Aras Ören, Bertolt Brecht and Nazım Hikmet: Intersections of Aesthetics, Politics, and Literature,” Triangular Readings, University of Georgia Athens, May 2014
“May Ayim und der Blues,” Gesellschaft für Deutsche Sprache, University of Massachusetts Amherst, February 2014
“Sounding Present, Audible Past: Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde,” German Literature, Transnational, New York University, February 2014
“Unity, Solidarity, and Labor Protest: Tahsin Incirci and the Türkischer Arbeiterchor West Berlin,” Transnational German Studies Workshop, Berlin, May 2013
Invited Participant Roundtable Discussion “Germany after 1945: A Society Confronts Antisemitism, Racism & Neo-Nazism, Baruch College, April 2013
“Alla Turca: Turkish-German Music in Berlin” invited lecture for Ger 43 Arrival Cities: The Case of Berlin-Kreuzberg, Dartmouth College, October 2012
“Emerging Voices: Minority Literature and Music in Germany” invited video lecture for Ger 430 (senior seminar) Zwischen den Welten, Kalamazoo College, January 2011
“Hip Hop Culture in Germany” invited lecture for Ger 382: Postwar German Ethnicities in Literature and Culture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, November 2009
Professional Presentations “The Kurdish-German Theater Network Nexus: Collaboration, Exchange, and Practice,” Modern Language Association, January 2021
Presenter, Inaugural Forum for Diversity, Equity and Social Justice, German Studies Association, September 2020
“Cultures in Migration: Turkish Artistic Practices,” Modern Language Association, Seattle, January 2020
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“Weiter Schreiben – Literary Dialogue, Collaboration, and Intervention,” German Studies Association, Portland, October 2019
“Comic Art and Refuge,” Council for European Studies, Madrid, June 2019
“Migration der Bilder: Die Produktion, Interpretation und Zirkulation von Bildern in der sogenannten Flüchtlingskrise,” German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, September 2018
“Turkish Theater and Cultural-Political Interventions in West Berlin,” German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, September 2018
Commentator, Baustelle Brecht II / Working with Brecht II, Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, Berlin, June 2018
“Poetic Empathy, Political Criticism, and Public Mourning: Esther Dischereit’s Klagelieder,” Transnational German Studies Workshop, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, May 2017
“Poetic Empathy, Political Criticism, and Public Mourning: Esther Dischereit’s Klagelieder,” German Studies Association, San Diego, September 2016
Commentator “Minorities and Minority Discourses in Germany since 1990: Theater and Film, Theory and Practice,” German Studies Association, San Diego, September 2016
“Translation, Adaptation, and Implementation of Brechtian Theater Aesthetics in the Turkish Context,” International Brecht Society Symposium, Oxford, June 2016
“Epic Theater in Turkey,” Roundtable: Translating and Transforming Brecht (sponsored by the International Brecht Society), German Studies Association, Washington D.C., October 2015
“In Solidarity: Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, and the Türkischer Arbeiterchor Westberlin,” Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland, Manchester, April 2014
“Convergent Realisms: Aras Ören, Nazım Hikmet, and Bertolt Brecht,” Transnational Encounters and Interdisciplinary Dialogues, Amherst, March 2014
“Intersections of Music, Politics, and Digital Media: Bandista,” Modern Language Association, Chicago, January 2014
“Songs of Solidarity and Labor Protest: Tahsin Incirci and the Türkischer Arbeiterchor West Berlin,” German Studies Association, Denver, October 2013
Commentator “Transnational Hi/Stories: Turkish-German Texts and Contexts (1),” German Studies Association, Denver, October 2013
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“‛Distant Connections:’ May Ayim’s Blues Aesthetic,” Black German Research and Heritage Association Convention, Amherst College, August, 2013
“Brecht alla Turca: The Impact of Brecht on Turkish-German Texts,” American Comparative Literature Association, Toronto, April 2013
“Traces That Won’t Go Away: Turkish-German Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of Turkish Immigration to Germany,” German Studies Association, Milwaukee, September 2012
“Orienting Berlin: Turkish-German Music in the Capital,” German Studies Association, Louisville, September 2011
“East Meets West: Connecting Istanbul and Berlin in Turkish-German Literature and Music,” German Studies Association, Oakland, October 2010
“‘Gastarbeiter’ in Berlin: Writing and Singing Solidarity,” Graduiertenkolleg Interkulturelle Konstellationen im deutsch-türkischen Kontext, Universität Paderborn, December 2009
“Heimisches Berlin: Longing and Belonging in Turkish-German Literature,” German Studies Association, Washington D.C., October 2009
“East and West, Twain Shall Meet - An Investigation of Cross-Cultural Topographies in Turkish- German Literature,” American Comparative Literature Association, Cambridge, March 2009
“Sounding Belonging: Representations of Place in Turkish-German Rap,” German Studies Association, Minnesota, October 2008
TEACHING
University of Massachusetts, Amherst Graduate Courses Literatur und Migration: Texte und Kontexte, Spring 2020 Focusing on a variety of literary genres this course explores aesthetic representations of and engagements with migration, as well as texts born of migration. In addition to primary sources, course materials include scholarship on the labeling, classification and positioning of these texts, their public-political interventions and literary (re)conceptualizations of home, belonging, refuge, citizenship, exile, and migration (including works by Irmgard Ackermann, Heidrun Suhr, Leslie Adelson, Franco Biondi, Arlene Teraoka, Aras Ören, Sasha Marianna Salzmann, Yoko Tawada, Olumide Popoola, and Herta Müller). Finding Refuge, Fall 2018 This course examines the ways in which refugees are addressed, constructed and mobilized by writers and dramatists in their works (with primary focus on novels, poems, short stories, essays, and performances by and about refugees). Course materials include works by Damani Partridge, Werner Schiffauer, Jenny Erpenbeck, Olga Grjasnowa, Elfriede Jelinek, Maxi Obexer, Beverly Weber, Navid Kermani,
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and Die Bühne für Menschenrechte. Minorities and Minority Discourses since 1990, Spring 2017 This course explores possible intersections (and divergences) between Black German, Turkish-German and German-Jewish experiences and aesthetic interventions into German public and political discourses on memory, racism, citizenship, immigration, and history. Course materials include works by Yasemin Yildiz, Leslie Adelson, Katrin Sieg, Olivia Landry, Elizabeth Blonzen, Nurkan Erpolat, Esther Dischereit, Fatima El-Tayeb, Damani Partridge, and Feridun Zaimoğlu. Professional Development Seminar, Fall 2016–Spring 2017 This seminar focuses on the various stages and related activities of graduate student professional development, including presenting papers at conferences, applying for grants and fellowships, preparing for the academic and alt-ac job markets, learning research methodologies and tools, preparing for the PhD exams, writing the dissertation, publishing, peer review, and mutual mentoring. Transnational Hi/Stories: Turkish-German Texts and Contexts, Fall 2014 This course examines the significance of and intersections between both Turkish and German literary debates and archives in the context of Turkish-German literature specifically focusing on the influence of Bertolt Brecht’s political aesthetic. Course materials include texts by Aras Ören, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Vasıf Öngören, Bertolt Brecht, Haldun Taner, Talat S. Halman, Walter Benjamin, Terry Eagleton, Leslie Adelson, David Gramling, and Yasemin Yildiz. Transnationalizing German Culture, Fall 2013 This course investigates literature as site of cultural exchange and transnational encounter through intertextual references, the trope of travel and reimaginations of Germany. Course materials include texts by David Damrosch, John Pizer, Esther Dischereit, Mary Louise Pratt, Edward Said, Nina Berman, Pheng Chea and Bruce Robbins, Nazım Hikmet, Berkan Karpat, W.G. Sebald, Vladimir Nabokov, Kemal Kurt, Jorge Luis Borges, Amma Darko, Ilija Trojanow, and Sara Lennox. Interrogating Germanness: Minority Voices in Germany, 1960-Present, Spring 2013 (taught in German) This course examines how texts by minorities from different backgrounds voice alternative perspectives on Germany’s present, and develop unique ways of accessing and reconstructing its past. Course materials include texts by Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Leslie Adelson, Kader Konuk, Arlene Teraoka, Heidrun Suhr, Yasemin Nuhuoğlu Soysal, Barbara Honigmann, Irmgard Ackermann, Olumide Popoola, Sara Lennox, Paul Gilroy, Rita Chin, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Herta Müller, Rajvinder Singh, Yoko Tawada, and May Ayim.
Undergraduate Courses Capstone Seminar – German Cultural Studies: Methods, Approaches, and Concepts, Spring 2018, 2021 Course on the interdisciplinary field of German cultural studies with key text selection drawing on students’ fields of study, incorporating a variety of activities ranging from in-class discussion and presentations, peer-review, and multiple writing
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formats to a capstone project. Course materials include texts by Irene Kacandes, David F. Crew, Sara Lennox, Fatima El-Tayeb, Celia Applegate, Claire Kramsch, Fatima El-Tayeb, Max Czollek, Sharon Dodua Otoo, and Stuart Hall. Berlin: Global City (General Education course fulfilling the Global Diversity designation), Spring 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 Course on representations of Berlin as global city with connections to other cultural contexts focusing primarily on the city’s migrant and minority voices since the postwar period; course materials include texts, songs, films by Stuart Hall, Can Candan, Pepe Danquart, Fatima El-Tayeb, Audre Lorde, May Ayim, Zafer Şenocak, Michael Rothberg, Yasemin Yildiz, as well as virtual tours of art installations and memorials. Germany Today, Fall 2012 and 2017 Course on historical, political, social and cultural developments, movements, and transformations in Germany since reunification; course materials include texts and films by Brian Ladd, Peter Schneider, Katharina Oguntoye, Irene Kacandes, Deniz Göktürk, Yüksel Pazarkaya, Andreas Huyssen, Wladimir Kaminer, Christa Wolf, Jana Hensel, Randall Halle, Wolfgang Becker, Sander Gilman, Aysun Bademsoy, James Young, and Karen Till. Sounds of Germany from Mozart to Rammstein (General Education course fulfilling the Arts and Literature designation), Fall 2013 Course on interrelation between music, culture, and society from the late 18th century until the present; course materials include texts by Celia Applegate, Pamela Potter, Simon Frith, Edward Said, Nora Alter, Michael Kater, Uta Poiger, Seth Howes, Cyrus Shahan, Kira Thurman, and Maria Stehle, music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Fehlfarben, The Clash, Advanced Chemistry, Rammstein, Sido and films by Walter Ruttmann, Thomas Schadt, Slatan Dudow, and Wilhelm Pabst. Topics in German Studies, Spring 2013 and 2014, Fall 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020 German language course required for majors focusing on building on and expanding skills acquired in previous courses by practicing complex syntax, expanding vocabulary for cultural and discourse analysis, reflecting on a wide range of global issues, and expressing opinion in a variety of formats and to different audiences. Offered with changing topics (Memory, Migration, Home; Postwar German Literature; Berlin, Berlin; Comics; The Refugee Experience in Comics and Graphic Novels); course materials include a variety of genres ranging from literary texts, podcasts, comics, to videos. Advanced German, Fall 2012 Fifth semester German language course focusing on expanding reading, listening and writing skills; course materials include em neu Hauptkurs Kursbuch Niveaustufe B2 in tandem with songs, short films, internet podcasts, and newspaper clippings.
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Language Courses German 101 (1st semester) Summer 2008, Fall 2005
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Text: Thomas A. Lovik, J. Douglas Guy, and Monika Chavez. Vorsprung. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. German 102 (2nd semester) Fall 2007, Spring 2006, Winter 2006 Texts: Vorsprung; Janosch Oh wie schön ist Panama. Landsberg: Beltz Verlagsgruppe, 2002. German 231 (3rd semester) Spring 2007 Texts: Thomas Brussig. Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee. Easy Reader Series. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Verlag, 2003; Franz Kafka. Die Verwandlung [Book & CD]. Ed. Achim Seiffarth Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Verlag, 2007 and Coursepack.
Topics Courses (designed and taught) German 232 (4th semester) Classics of German Literature, Winter 2007 Final course in four semester German language sequence; course materials include texts by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Heiner Müller, Ingeborg Bachmann, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Bertolt Brecht, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, and Franz Kafka. German 232 (4th semester) Introduction to Minority Literature, Winter 2008 Final course in four semester German language sequence; course materials include texts by Franco Biondi, Gino Chiellino, Latif Dastbos, Feridun Zaimoğlu, Dilek Güngör, Jose F.A. Oliver, Kerim Pamuk, Zehra Çırak, Gabriele Willbold, Adel Karasholi, and Selin Prakash-Özer. German 232 (4th semester) Transnational Berlin, Winter 2012 Final course in four semester German language sequence; course materials include texts, films and songs by Carmen-Francesca Banciu, Peter Zach, Yoko Tawada, Can Candan, Fahimeh Farsaie, Rajvinder Singh, Herta Müller, Aziza-A, Aras Ören und Peter Schneider.
ADVISING
Dissertations Emir Benli (Comparative Literature, UMass Amherst, committee member), defended 2015 Catherine McNally (German Studies, UMass Amherst, committee member), defended 2020 Karolina Hicke (German Studies, UMass Amherst, chair)
PhD Exams Karolina Hicke (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst, chair) Tiarra Cooper (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst, committee member) Ester Gonzalez (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst, committee member) Kevina King (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst, committee member) Katrin Bahr (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst, committee member) Catherine McNally (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst, committee member) Inci Sariz (Comparative Literature, UMass Amherst, committee member)
MA Thesis Alyssa Madeira (German and Scandinavian Studies and Musicology, UMass Amherst, committee member), defended 2015
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MA Exams Kevina King (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst, committee member) Catherine McNally (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst, committee member) Victoria Yam (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst, committee member)
Undergraduate Capstone Project and Honors Thesis Advisor Nina Listopadzki (Biochemistry, German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst) Doris Nyamwaya (Public Health, German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst) Kelly Champine (German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst) Rachel McDermott (Accounting, German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst) Anna Moreland (Italian, German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst) Ian Stanley (English, German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst) Gregory Mascherino (Music, German and Scandinavian Studies, UMass Amherst)
ACADEMIC SERVICE
Service to the Profession Advisory Board, Monatshefte, January 2020–2023
Modern Language Association, Executive Committee, LLC 20th- and 21st-Century German forum, January 2021–2026
German Studies Association, Executive Board, January 2021–2023
Series Co-editor, “Transnational Approaches to Culture,” De Gruyter, January 2021–present
Member (German Studies Association representative), German Studies Vision and Advocacy Working Group, December 2020–present
Editorial Team, The German Studies Collaboratory, July 2020–present
Editorial Board, Brecht Yearbook, July 2018–present
AATG Massachusetts Chapter President, June 2020–present
Co-organizer New England Poetry Slam Contest, April 2021
German Studies Association, Program Committee, September 2018–2020
German Studies Association, Arts Night Committee, September 2017–2020
AATG Massachusetts Chapter Vice President, January 2018–2020
Organizer of Theaterfest, a German outreach and immersion event, March 2019 and April 2020 [postponed due to Covid 19]
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Project Review for the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG), 2020
Manuscript Review for Lexington Books, 2020
Review of research for tenure case at a private liberal arts college, 2019
Co-organizer of Berlin, Berlin Teacher Workshop, University of Massachusetts Amherst, May 2018
Project Review for American Academy in Berlin, 2015
Article referee for The Brecht Yearbook (2019), Colloquia Germanica (2016, 2018), Food and Foodways (2014), Gegenwartsliteratur: Ein germanistisches Jahrbuch (2017), German Studies Review (2015, 2017, 2020), Journal for European Studies (2019), Monatshefte (2019), PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies (2012), Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, (2016, 2018, 2019), Theatre Journal (2018)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst General Education Council, Spring 2017–present
Five College German Studies Faculty Seminar, co-chair, Fall 2013–present
Undergraduate Program Director for German Studies, Fall 2017–present
Co-organizer of Campus Weeks digital lecture series “Diversity in Germany Today,” Fall 2020
Organizer of Tanja Dückers virtual reading, April 2020
SPARK Lab Director, January 2020–present
General Education Council Diversity Review Subcommittee, January 2018–Spring 2019
Search Committee for Associate or Full Professor of German, member, 2018–2019
Organizer of Esther Dischereit visit, March 2019
Founding organizer of the Five College German Studies Undergraduate Research Symposium, March 2018
Organizer of a series high school visits, Spring 2018
Organizer of guest lecture by Dr. Fatima El-Tayeb, April 2018
Co-organizer of Merle Kröger reading, October 2017
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Founding organizer of “Diversity within and beyond LLC” event series, Spring 2017–Fall 2018
Search Committee for Director of Translator Training and Distance Education, member, Fall 2016
Search Committee for Assistant Professor of German, member, 2014–2015
German and Scandinavian Studies AAA (Admissions, Assistantships, Awards) committee, member, Spring 2014–present
German and Scandinavian Studies Graduate Studies Committee, member, Fall 2012–Fall 2017
German and Scandinavian Studies Personnel Committee, Fall 2012–present
Organizer of guest lecture by Dr. Yasemin Yildiz and Dr. Michael Rothberg, October 2014
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Personnel Committee, member, Fall 2013–Spring 2014
Organizer of German and Scandinavian Studies Open House, Fall 2013 and Spring 2014
Co-organizer of Helen Tartar visit, December 2013
Organizer of Ilija Trojanow reading, November 2013
Co-organizer, Graduate Mentoring: Job Market Preparation Workshop, September 2013
Organizer of Esther Dischereit reading, September 2013
Organizer of Tanja Dückers reading, April 2013
Organizer of Zafer Şenocak reading, February 2013
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Graduate student coordinator of the Turkish-German Studies Group Alamanya, Fall 2005– Spring 2012
Graduate Student Instructor Teaching Orientation Facilitation for the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, Fall 2011, Winter 2010, Fall 2009, Winter 2009 and Fall 2008
Student co-coordinator for the Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop the Interdisciplinary Music Forum, Fall 2008–2010
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Co-organizer of guest lecture by Dr. Michael Long, May 2010
Co-organizer of Fahimeh Farsaie reading, October 2009
Co-organizer of guest lecture by Dr. Phil Bohlman, May 2009
Co-organizer of Zafer Şenocak reading, April 2009
Participant in the Graduate Workshop on European Studies, Winter 2009
Representative for the Rackham Graduate Student Forum, Fall 2008–2009
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Modern Language Association German Studies Association International Brecht Society Women in German American Association of Teachers of German
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
German (native speaker) Turkish (native speaker) English (near-native fluency) French (intermediate) Spanish (intermediate) Arabic (basic reading knowledge) Ottoman (basic reading knowledge)
Ela E. Gezen, January 2021 16