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As an educator, I aspire to empower students with critical tools of analysis to discern new aspects of language and literature and analyze and unsettle consequential texts through a praxis of close reading. To facilitate such critical involvements, fostering a safe and inclusive learning environment is imperative. Time and again, I have found that the active participation of a student (in the form of experimenting with a new grammar structure or voicing an interpretation of a text, for instance) largely determines the degree of support and inclusivity a classroom can offer. Within such spaces, students can freely explore the material at hand and discover the diversity of perspectives inherent in German studies. I have also learned, however, that the success of such an endeavor depends highly on our capacity to support and assist students struggling with course materials or otherwise beyond the classroom, acknowledging and confronting systemic factors that may affect students’ success, such as class, ability, gender, or sexuality.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Tower of Babel, 1563. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
RECENT COURSE OFFERINGS
GERMW3335: TONGUES IN CRISIS: MOTHER TONGUE POLITICS IN THE GERMANOPHONE WORLD
Spring 2025
DESCRIPTION:
This course explores the idea of mother tongue (Muttersprache) as it emerges in linguistic, cultural, and political discourses across the Germanophone world. Starting with the works of Friedrich Schlegel, who examined the origins of the German language and peoples, we will study the entanglement between language and national identity and its repercussions for contemporary debates on Germanness. Engaging a broad range of material, including manuscripts, short stories, novel excerpts, documentaries, films, and news outlets, we will trace how the concept of mother tongue evolved through time to unite or divide German people. We will further investigate how contemporary writers and filmmakers (Meral Kureyshi, Züli Aladağ, among others) address questions of language and how the complex and often turbulent journey of acquiring the German language finds artistic expression in their creative pursuits. Assignments will include students reflecting on their own personal linguistic encounters. The final weeks of the course will be devoted on journalistic sources, social platforms, and other relevant sources.
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