Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences • Northwestern University
RECENT DEPARTMENTAL NEWS
OUR FACULTY 2008-2009
Sam Weber was awarded the prestigious Palmes Académiques by the French government for the outstanding work he has done in promoting the French language and culture in conjunction with The Northwestern's Paris Program in Critical Theory. The Paris Program in Critical Theory is unique and affords our graduate students a very special and profound learning experience away from our campus. The Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Order of Academic Palms) is an award for academics and educators. Dating from 1808 under Napoleonic rule, the award was established for university dignitaries to recognize their service in the field of education. Today it is conferred on educators, scholars, scientists and those in literary fields for excellence in these areas, both in France and other countries throughout the world.
OUR GRADUATE STUDENTS 2008-2009
Anna Glazova (CLS and German) has been awarded a two-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University. Her essay entitled "Poetry of Bringing about Presence" has been accepted for publication in Modern Language Notes (comparative literature issue). A book of her poems in English translation entitled Twice under the Sun (2008) has been published by Shearsman Books.
Julia Ng (CLS and German) will be chairing a panel together with Virgil Brower and Markus Hardtmann (German) on "The Political Theologies of Paul of Tarsus" at the ACLA 09 in Cambridge, MA. She will also be giving a paper entitled "Angelus Satanas. Benjamin, Paul, and the Enemy in the Flesh". Her article "Die Zeichnung und der »Goof«: Descartes Instrument, die Annahme der Unschuld, und die Verschmitzheit militärischer Architekturdarstellungen" is forthcoming in a collected volume on "Unbeholfene Geschichte" (Diaphanes).
Saein Park will present her paper on “Postcolonial Collecting in Kirim Kim’s Urban Landscape” and Henrik Wilberg will present his paper on “Nominalism and Heresy. On Pasolini’s ‘Paul’” in March at the at the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) conference. Saein and Henrik are both first-year Graduate students in the German department.
OUR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS 2008-2009
Congratulations to Northwestern Alum and German major David Dillon who has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. David graduated in June 2008 with a degree in German and Chemistry. In addition to his many other accomplishments, he was also a recipient of a DAAD Research Internship in Science and Engineering (RISE), working during the summer of 2007 at the Institut für Umweltforschung in Dortmund.
WELCOME
Professor Brad Prager from the University of Missouri is joining us this fall as a visiting associate Professor. His areas of research include Film History and Contemporary German Cinema, Holocaust Studies, and the art and literature of the German Romantics. He has authored books on the films of Werner Herzog and on Romanticism’s relationship to the visual arts and he is the co-editor of a new volume on visual studies and the Holocaust. This fall, he will be teaching a graduate class titled The Holocaust and the Visual Imagination (German 441, T, 3:30 to 6:00).
Joining us from Hamburg is Professor Christian Martin, our new DAAD professor. His research interests include the political economy of trade and finance, diffusion approaches to comparative and international politics, and agent-based computational modeling. He has published in Public Choice, Constitutional Political Economy and Electoral Studies, among others. This fall, Professor Martin is teaching a class on contemporary Germany called, Major German Cities after 1945: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich. (German 224, T TH, 9:30-10:50)
Mona Johnson will be teaching one section of first-year German this fall. She is a native speaker of German and she holds a law degree from the University of Hamburg and a Masters degree in Education from the University of Wales. She has taught German, French and English as a foreign language.
We would also like to welcome our two new graduate students into the program: Henrik Wilberg (German) and Saein Park (CLS and German).
AWARDS
Our Faculty
Distinguished Senior Lecturer John Paluch was awarded the AATG/Goethe-Institut Certificate of Merit for his outstanding work in furthering the teaching of German in schools of the United States. This award has been presented annually since 1978 by the AATG and the Goethe-Institute to a select group of educators in the field of German. Nominations for this award originate with the local AATG chapter or through individual AATG members and a panel of AATG and Goethe-Institute personnel selects the winners from those nominated. The presentation ceremony will take place during the AATG's Annual Meeting in November 2008 in Orlando, Florida and will be attended by approximately 500 AATG members (including several members of this department).
Both, Professor Peter Hayes and Senior Lecturer Ingrid Zeller were elected as Outstanding Faculty of the Year to the Associated Student Government Faculty Honor Roll for 2007-2008. This is a great honor, which is selected and presented directly by the students to professors and administrators for their quality of instruction and contribution to the academic lives of undergraduate students. Congratulations!
Denise Meuser (coordinator of first-year German) and John Paluch (study abroad adviser and adviser for German Majors and Minors) were both promoted to Distinguished Senior Lecturers. Congratulations!
Our Graduate Students 2007-2008
Markus Hardtmann (PhD German) has been appointed Visiting Assistant Professor at Centre College, KY, where he is teaching courses in German and the Humanities. He will be presenting a paper entitled "Der 15. Juli: Politics of Representation in Elias Canetti and Heimito von Doderer" at the GSA conference in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Julia Ng (PhD German and CLS) was awarded a 12 month fellowship by the Berlin Program in Advanced German and European Studies, German Studies Association and Freie Universität Berlin.
Joel Morris (PhD German and CLS) has been awarded a Fulbright Grant for the 2008/2009 academic year to study in Germany and conduct dissertation research. He also recevied a DAAD Study grant for 2008/2009.
Steven Tester (PhD German) has been awarded a Fulbright Grant for the 2008/2009 academic year to study in Germany and conduct dissertation research.
Rob Ryder (PhD German and CLS) received a Dissertation Year Fellowship for this year to finish his dissertaion. He will defend in May 2009.
Michael Koch (PhD German) taught a course at Marquette University in Milwaukee called Business German For Professionals.
Our Undergraduate Students
German Major David Leib has been selected by the DAAD to be the Young Ambassador for Study in Germany for the 2008/09 academic year. He will take part in the Young Ambassadors training session in New York City on August 22th, 23th and 24th , 2008. The purpose of the program is to give a recent study abroad returnee a chance to spread the word about study in Germany and fostering a deeper understanding of the country and its people among fellow students.
Three of our undergraduate majors won Fulbright Austrian Teaching Assistantships to teach and study in Austria during 2008/2009: Edward Gadient, Timothy Welch, and Amanda Wolfson. Edward Gadient also was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship but declined in order to accept the Austrian Teaching Assistantship.
