Graduate Program News (From copy submitted by Patrick Greaney.)

The German graduate program has seen a number of changes in the past year. We were happy to welcome our new assistant professor, Beverly Weber, who offered her first graduate course in the program in spring 2008. The course, titled "Islam in Germany and Europe," examined current European and German issues in mass media, films, and literary texts. We were sorry to see Professor Adrian Del Caro, one of our former graduate directors, take a position as chair of Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. Professor Del Caro was a central figure in our graduate program for many years, and our graduate students profited from his courses on Nietzsche, Goethe, Celan, and other key modern literary and philosophical topics.

Our current students have made major contributions to the intellectual life of the department. The descriptions of our many student award winners (in the student awards and honors section of this newsletter) testify to the fact that German graduate students are pursuing a wide range of rich, interdisciplinary research and teaching projects in Boulder and in Germany.

The graduate program is currently proposing an interdisciplinary PhD program in German studies that would dramatically expand the range of courses and opportunities for our students and faculty members. In our next newsletter, we hope to be able to be announce that we will be accepting applications for the PhD.

New graduate students:

The German program welcomed five new MA students in fall 2008: Ross Etherton, Stefanie Gibbs, Christina Herrmann, Anna Hunger, and Damon Roberts. Stefanie Gibbs and Damon Roberts are the recipients of Max Kade Fellowships in German studies; these fellowships are supported by the Max Kade Foundation. In addition, we are happy to welcome two exchange students: Andreas Huber from the University of Regensburg and Jan Zimmermann from the University of Göttingen.

German Program receives Max Kade Foundation Grant

The University of Colorado German Program has received a grant in the amount of $140,000 from the Max Kade Foundation in New York. This generous grant will enable us to create the Max Kade German Room in McKenna 112. Renovation of the room will take place in summer 2009.

Dr. Patrick Greaney Receives Provost Faculty Achievement Award

On Friday, October 17, Patrick Greaney received a Faculty Achievement Award for his book, Untimely Beggar: Poverty and Power from Baudelaire to Benjamin. When announcing the award, the award committee wrote, "This book" demonstrates unusual intellectual scope, tackling texts in different genres and national traditions and adopting a range of critical approaches. Professor Greaney’s book takes up modern representations of poverty and particularly how writers create what he calls an "impoverished" language to portray the poor. Already nominated for a major national award (The Scaglione Prize sponsored by the Modern Language Association), this book will have an important impact on the understanding of modern society and culture.” CU Provost Faculty Achievement Awards are presented to selected faculty who have offered recent significant publication or creative contributions in their academic field. Each awardee received a research grant and plaque recognizing their achievement. Congratulations, Patrick!

German Club (From copy submitted by Beverly Weber)

The German Club has been working hard to help organize the Angela Krauß visit. We meet every Wednesday evening at the Brewing Market on Baseline for discussion groups focused on current events. The German Club also co-sponsors the Monday evening film series. Watch the website (http://www.colorado.edu/germslav/german/club.htm) or the Facebook group (at the same address) for details on an upcoming trip to the Denver Art Museum to see the German painter Daniel Richter's first solo US exhibition. For the spring, the German Club also is working on planning a meet and greet, a workshop on professional possibilities with a German major, and a visit by German journalist Hatice Akyün.

German Film Series (From copy submitted by Beverly Weber)

We've successfully continued our fall German film series, this year with a focus on films after the Wende. Topic addressed this semester include remembering fascism and the Holocaust, immigration and racism, documentaries and forms of violence, Wende and memories of the GDR, and the RAF terrorists. A film schedule is available online at http://www.colorado.edu/germslav/german/fliers/GRMNScreeningSchedule.pdf.

Stammtisch and Kaffeeklatsch (From copy submitted by Jerome Bolton)

Students and friends are invited to partake in this semester’s Stammtisch. Our Stammtisch is now being held in the UMC from 6-8pm on Tuesday nights (in the commons area by Dominos Pizza and Jamba Juice). Please join us for German conversation, German card games, and other fun. German speakers of all levels are welcome. We will also be hosting a number of Kaffeeklatsch events throughout the semester and year. Be sure to check the McKenna building for flyers and updates and visit our website (http://www.colorado.edu/germslav/gsll/germanEvents.htm). Bis bald! (See you there!)

German Language Immersion Day (From copy submitted by Patty Schindler)

German Language Immersion Day took place at the UMC on January 23, 2008. Designed to promote the German language and culture and to have a partnership with local high schools, this was the sixth Immersion Day coordinated by Sr. Instructor Patty Schindler. Approximately 250 students came to campus to take part in German folk-arts projects and to hear and speak German.

Participating schools and their teachers were: Monarch High - Debbie Singer; Fairview High - Betsy Pingen; Boulder High - Helena Shirai; Broomfield High - Becky Freeman; Summit Middle School - Sondra Barton. Students chose three activities out of twelve, including painting German coat of arms, folk-art painting, old German script, decorating gingerbread cookies with a German saying, painting Easter eggs, folk dance, techno disco, painting and carving a Hampelmann, and folk paper cutting. During lunch we watched "Der Herr der Ringe.” All BVSD teachers as well as the German faculty and graduate students put much time and effort to make this day as enjoyable and cultural as possible. Patty Schindler received grants from the CU-Boulder Outreach Committee and the Dean's Fund for Excellence. GSLL also contributed to the fund.

Zertifikat Deutsch Exam (From copy submitted by Saskia Hintz)

In April 2008, 11 German program students participated in the highly respected, internationally recognized Goethe Institute’s “Zertifikat Deutsch” exam. All 11 students passed this exam with high grades and this wonderful result was praised by Annette Liebergesell from the Goethe Institute San Francisco as a “tolles Ergebnis.” The students passing the ZD this year are: William Gunther, Caelen Cann, Sterling Moody, Keely Richardson, Dean Lockhead, Paige Northway, Marni Spott, Melinda Weed, Lydia Van Vleet, Lucie Zikova, and Bradley Kloewer. Congratulations to all of you!

Phi Beta Kappa

Three German majors, Kelly Bendelow, Anastasia Griffin and Lucie Zikova were invited to join Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and best known academic honorary society. This is a high honor, with their selection based upon study in the liberal arts with a very high academic level of achievement at the University of Colorado at Boulder and upon their trust in the high moral standards of those they consider. Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest national undergraduate honor society in the United States. The University of Colorado's chapter, the first in the state, was founded in 1904, and the first six members were elected and initiated in spring, 1905. Membership in Phi Beta Kappa is by invitation. Congratulations to all three students!

CU-Regensburg Exchange

The CU-Regensburg exchange will be 40 years old in the 2009-2010 academic year, and International Education will be celebrating by holding an alumni gathering at CU. Watch our website for information regarding this celebration throughout this next year.

Lectures, Seminars and Talks

Thomas Eder:
In November 2007, the German Program hosted Dr. Thomas Eder, who teaches literary theory in the Department of German at the University of Vienna and runs the literature program at the arts center “kunsthaus mürzzuschlag.” He is the recipient of a number of awards for his writing on literary theory and post-war Austrian literature, from the “Wissenschaftspreis” of the Austrian Society for German Studies in 2002 to the Theodor Körner Prize in 1996. Dr. Eder is the author of the 2003 book Unterschiedenes / ist gut: Reinhard Priessnitz und die Repoetisierung der Avantgarde, and he has published over fifty essays and articles and edited or co-edited ten books.

Dr. Eder delivered two lectures during his visit: one in English titled “Self Attribution, Introspection, and Narratology in Woolf, Musil, and Valéry” and one in German on “Kristallisationspunkte von, Gestalt, 1800 – 1900 – 2000: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christian von Ehrenfels, George Lakoff.” Dr. Eder also enjoyed lunch with German graduate students and met with faculty members in the German Program and in the Departments of French and Italian and English.

J. Gordon Finlayson:
"The Ethics of Resistance and the Problem of Normative Foundations: Adorno and Habermas" was presented by J. Gordon Finlayson from the University of Sussex on April 10, 2008. Professor Finlayson is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sussex, U.K.

Udo Hebel: Prof. Udo Hebel from the University of Regensburg spoke on “American-German Relations in Light of the November Presidential Election” on Friday, Oct. 10, 2008. Following a reception, he spoke with students interested in the CU Study Abroad Program in Regensburg.

Angela Krauß:



On October 27th, 2008, GSLL hosted a reading by Angela Krauß from Wie weiter? (2007) and Die Gesamtliebe und die Einzelliebe. Frankfurter Poetik-Vorlesungen (2004). The reading was held in both English and German. Ms. Krauß, who also had the opportunity to meet with the senior seminar course and to have dinner with the German Club and with graduate students, was very impressed with the CU students!

Angela Krauß’s visit was co-hosted by the University of Denver; this reading was sponsored by the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, the German Club, and the Graduate Council in the Arts and Humanities.

German Public Radio Interview (From copy submitted by Beverly Weber)

Members of the senior seminar had a unique opportunity to practice their German when Deutschland Radio (German National Public Radio) journalist Klaus Remme visited Boulder to interview the students in German about their thoughts on the upcoming election. This interview will be included in a four part series on the US elections which will be streamed online - watch the website and the Facebook group CU German Club for details. Remme has repeatedly emphasized that he found this group of students a lively, interesting group with an impressive command of German! To listen to the story (in German) incorporating the interviews with the students, go to the DeutschlandRadio website at: http://www.dradio.de/portale/usawahl2008/, and scroll down to the story: "Wahlkampf-Reportage Colorado: Im Westen nichts Neues."