Associate Professor of German
Classical & Modern Languages / Academic
- Office:
- Caruth Administration 304
- Mailbox:
- 61597
- Phone:
- 903.813.3093
Education:
M.A., Ph.D. in German, Department of Germanic Languages, University of California, Los Angeles
C. Phil. in History, University of Arizona, Tucson
M.A. Equivalents in Latin and History, Westfälische Wilhelms-University in Münster, Germany
Faculty Bio:
As an avid lifelong foreign language learner, I know that foreign language competency enriches intercultural experiences and deepens our knowledge about other cultures and about ourselves. During the many years I have taught foreign language and literature courses at Austin College, I have tried to foster in my classrooms an atmosphere of openness and mutual support and understanding. I encourage students to develop new language-related identities because in those identities they are often freer to discover and develop new and valuable skills without the constraints learned within their mother tongue. I am a strong believer that in spite of all technological advances, in a global and interconnected world, skills in communicating in a foreign language are essential and contribute to peace.
Research Interests:
I approach my research in an interdisciplinary way. In the past years, I have focused on translating and editing German texts of historical significance in order to make them more accessible to the English-speaking world. My interests span from pamphlet writing and polemics in medieval and modern times, to German immigration to Texas in the 19th century and World War II letter writing. More recently, I have worked on texts from the early days of psychoanalysis.
Courses Taught:
- GER 101: Beginning German I
- GER 102: Beginning German II
- GER 201: Intermediate German I
- GER 202: Intermediate German II
- GER 226: German Language House
- GER 335: Explorations in German Cultures and Literatures
- GER 336: Advanced German Conversation and Composition
- GER 354: Studies in Literature and Society through the 18th Century
- GER 495: German Senior Seminar
- GER 100B: Wars, Walls, and World Cups: German History and Culture through Film (Jan term)
- HUM 100F: Explorations in Arabic Language, Culture, and Film (Jan term)
- C/I 101: Intercultural Communication and Identity Formation
- C/I 101 Language Discovery as Self-Discovery (includes language and culture studies in Arabic, German, and French)
- LAT 101: Beginning Latin I
- LAT 102: Beginning Latin II
- LAT 202: Intermediate Latin II
- FR 101: Beginning French I
- FR 102: Beginning French II
Publications:
BOOKS
 The Essential Writings of Sabina Spielrein: Pioneer of Psychoanalysis includes the first English translation of Spielrein’s 1911 medical dissertation, entitled “On the Psychological Content of a Case of Schizophrenia (Dementia Praecox),” a new English translation of her seminal 1912 essay entitled “Destruction as the Cause of Becoming,” and an English translation of her 1913 paper entitled “Contributions to Understanding the Child’s Mind,” one of the earliest publications on child psychology. Coeditor: Raymond Burt. Biographical introduction by John Launer.Publisher: London, UK: Routledge (Taylor & Francis, Relational Perspectives Book Series), 2019 |
 New World View. Letters of a German Immigrant Family in Texas, 1854 to 1885. Bilingual and annotated edition in German and English of a letter collection written by Christian Friedrich Bergmann (1817-1888). Includes a historical introduction.Publisher: New York, NY: Peter Lang (New Directions in German-American Studies), 2014. |
 The Jews’ Mirror by Johannes Pfefferkorn. Bilingual and annotated edition in Standard German and English of the 16th century anti-Jewish pamphlet Der Juden Spiegel (Jews’ Mirror, 1508), written by Johannes Pfefferkorn, a German Jewish convert.Publisher: Tempe, AZ: MRTS (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies), 2011 |
 Youth at War: Feldpost Letters of a German Boy to his Parents, 1943 to 1945. Bilingual annotated edition in German and English of a large collection of letters and postcards (Feldpostbriefe), written between September 1943 and February 1945. Includes a historical and biographical introduction.Publisher: New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2010 |
 The Last Monk of Tibhirine. A True Story of Martyrdom, Faith, and Survival. Co-Translator (into English) of the German book Der letzte Mönch von Tibhirine by Freddy Derwahl (Munich, Germany: adeo Verlag, 2012). The book centers on the monastery of Tibhirine, where nine Trappist monks lived in harmony with the largely Muslim population of Algeria, a former French colony in North Africa, until seven of them were kidnapped and assassinated in 1996 during the civil war in Algeria.Publisher: Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2013 |
 Das französische Ungewitter. Goethes Bildersprache zur Französischen Revolution. An analysis of Goethe’s figurative language of the French Revolution.Publisher: Heidelberg, Germany: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1991 |