Interests
Modern German literature, cinema, German cultural history, theater, writing

Selected courses: undergraduate
Senior seminars: Weimar Culture, Interwar
Introduction to German Literature
German Literature in Translation
German Culture and Civilization
Contemporary Germany
Elementary Language and Culture I & II
Composition and Conversation I & II

Selected courses: grad/undergrad
Survey of German Cinema
German Drama Workshop (including full productions in German)

Selected courses: graduate
Graduate seminar in American Culture Studies and German: Berlin and Hollywood
Introduction to Graduate Studies in German
German Culture and Civilization

Notes on approach
Ideally each course has a point at which the student suddenly realizes that the subject under review might actually matter more than it seemed at first glance. The reality of that moment depends predominantly on the student her/himself as a thinking subject, but the possibility of its coalescence also hinges on the tactics of the teacher. Getting students to that moment triggers a process of more thorough and rewarding engagement with the material, and fostering that engagement is my primary objective as an educator. The attainment of other goals (e.g. broadening linguistic, cultural, and historical knowledge and improving critical-interpretive abilities) depends, after all, on that initial success.

Whether coaching students as they wrestle with the rudiments of German grammar, discussing with them the distinctions between (and fusion of) poetry and journalism in Joseph Roth’s Weimar-era essays, or drawing connections between their opinions on the breaks and continuities apparent in the Fritz Lang films M (made in Germany in 1931) and Fury (made in the USA in 1935), I look constantly for ways to show students that I respect their intellectual potential and value their thoughts, even as I push them to develop a more sophisticated grasp of the subjects at hand. I believe that much of what manifests itself as student apathy is rooted in students’ underestimation of their own abilities, which is often reinforced by their perception of aggressively postured instructor superiority. Creating a “student-centered” learning atmosphere thus entails challenging students to take the initiative and showing them that their ideas are worthy of articulation (oral and written), discussion, and refinement.

Our times call for critical, open-minded engagement with a wider, more complicated world, and our society generally fails to answer that call. At BGSU, we work with thousands of students whose previous life experience, while rich in its own way, has not been particularly cosmopolitan. We thus have the chance to make a serious impact here; the notion of opening new worlds is not clichéd. Moreover, many of these students really come to us as open books, curious about yet unknown cultures and histories. A specific interest in improving German language skills, developing a more intellectually rigorous way of responding to cinema, or finding out more about the life and work of Irmgard Keun can thus be read as evidence of an awakening general interest in exploring new cultural territory. Such exploration sets students on the path to a more critical understanding of the ideas, attitudes and practices (personal and social) that define their own worlds, and ideally, the very boundaries and contours of those worlds are re-drawn in the process. It is students’ own volition that carries down that path, but teachers—crucially—can catalyze the desire and point the way.