Iris Bork-Goldfield
The Cakemaker
Wesleyan’s Israeli Filmfestival starts this semester with The Cakemaker, a story about German/Israeli/Jewish relations. The film will be shown on Thursday, February 1 at 8PM at the Goldsmith Family Cinema.
We are also very fortunate to have the director of the film, Ofir Raul-Glazer, an Israeli living in Berlin, introduce the film and conduct a Q/A session with the audience after the screening.
Scholarships for Germany
Departmental Scholarships
The Helmut and Erika Reihlen Fund
In 2017 Dr. Helmut Reihlen ’55 and Dr. Erika Reihlen generously established a fund whose income supports especially meritorious student projects in German studies, including but not limited to research for theses and capstone projects.
Non-Departmental Scholarships
The Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)/ German Academic Exchange Services provides students with the opportunity to study internationally in Germany. Since its inception in 1925, DAAD has been working to promote cultural understanding and international exchange. Each year they provide financial assistance to over 67,000 students and scholars. Only the top-students are recruited for their programs. They offer multiple fellowships and scholarships to students who academically-prove they deserve them.
- Undergraduate Scholarship– seniors looking to conduct thesis research or an internship in Germany are encouraged to apply for this award. Preference is given to students whose work will be based out of a German university. These scholarships can be allotted as either an individual award or part of an organized study abroad program. This scholarship awards a monthly stipend of € 650 for a length of four to ten months.
- Study Scholarship– graduating seniors at the top of their class are eligible to receive this scholarship. It provides funding for one year of independent study or a full master’s degree program at a German university. These study scholarships are granted for one year of academic study (10 months) with the possibility of a one-year extension. Students will receive a monthly stipend of €750 plus money for health insurance and travel costs.
Cultural Vistas is focused on connecting the globe through international exchange by enriching minds, advancing global skills, and building careers. They provide both American and international students the opportunity to study abroad. Cultural Vistas offers programs all over the globe. Here are a few programs for students who are interested in going to Germany:
Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals– the CBYX program provides 75 American and 75 German young professionals the chance to change countries for a year to study, intern, and live with hosts in a cultural exchange program.
Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program– this is an intensive language training program. Students will attend top German institutions and engage in thorough work phases while meeting with leaders all across Germany and Europe. This program is only open to the most devoted of students.
Work Immersion Study Program– this three-month work-study immersion program is designed to give students studying in vocational fields the chance to advance their skills while improving their German language skills and directly experience German culture. A monthly stipend of EUR 300 is provided along with free accommodations and work authorization.
Students interested in a unique political studies opportunity may qualify for a short-term internship with the German government through the Émigré Memorial German Internship Program. Students will gain true, governmental work experience while improving their German language skills and encounter German culture firsthand.
American Graduates are eligible for the German Chancellor Fellowship Program through the Humboldt Foundation. Students that show true leadership skills in their fields such as politics or public policy, law, media, business, arts, and the non-government sector are the only ones qualified for Chancellor Fellowship Program. While in Germany, Fellows will work at their host institutions on independent projects. The topic of their research should be focused on a topic or issue within their field of interest. Only 10 students from America are selected for this award annually. Accepted applicants receive EUR 550 per month for as long as they stay in Germany and will cover the cost of traveling expenses.
The U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship is a grant program that enables students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad, thereby gaining skills critical to our national security and economic competitiveness. The Gilman Scholarship Program is open to U.S. citizen undergraduate students who are receiving Federal Pell Grant funding at a two-year or four-year college or university to participate in study and intern abroad programs worldwide.
Fellowships after Graduation
For Germany the Fulbright Program offers more grants for university study, projects in the arts, and teaching assistantships in English than for any other country. Students interested in Fulbrights should consult the Fulbright Program Advisor, Kate Smith in the Fries Center for Global Studies (ksmith02@wesleyan.edu). Only American citizens are eligible for Fulbright grants. Teaching assistantships for American citizens are also available through USTA (U.S. Teaching Assistantships at Austrian Secondary Schools).
Students of all nationalities are eligible for the study/research grants and grants in the arts sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Baden-Württemberg Exchange. The DAAD scholarship provides funding for one year of independent study or a full master’s degree program at a German university. These DAAD study scholarships are granted for one year of academic study (10 months) with the possibility of a one-year extension. Students will receive a monthly stipend of €750 plus money for health insurance and travel costs.
The Baden-Württemberg–Connecticut Exchange grant also provides funding for one year of studying at a German university in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Travel expenses are not covered.
For the latter two categories of grants, students should consult Professor Krishna Winston in the German Studies Department (kwinston@wesleyan.edu)
German Studies students inducted into Phi Beta Kappa
German majors Christina Sickinger and Sophia Shoulson, and German minor Katherine Paterson were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. The initiation ceremony took place on December 6, 2017.
Novelist and screenwriter Merle Kröger will present her novel Havarie
The novelist and screenwriter Merle Kröger will present her novel Havarie in Professor Plass’ seminar on “Newest German Literature” on October 17, from 3:30 to 4:30, in Fisk 101. She will do so virtually, via large-screen videoconference from the University of Minnesota. Merle Kröger will first read from Havarie, a documentary-fiction thriller about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean Sea. After the reading, there will be a discussion. Reading and discussion will be in German.
Bork-Goldfield Elected to American Association of Teachers of German Council
Iris Bork-Goldfield, chair and adjunct professor of German studies, has been elected to serve as the Northeast Region representative to the Executive Council of the American Association of Teachers of German.
The American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) supports the teaching of the German language and German-speaking cultures in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education in the United States. The AATG promotes the study of the German-speaking world in all its linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity, and endeavors to prepare students as transnational, transcultural learners and active, multilingual participants in a globalized world.
Bork-Goldfield will act as an as ambassador and advocate for the AATG to both the association’s members and to external constituents; serve on one or more committees as appointed by the president; attend committee meetings; discuss meeting agenda items as necessary with key leaders in her region prior to meetings; and keep abreast of emerging professional issues.
In November, Bork-Goldfield will attend the AATG / American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Annual Convention and World Languages Expo in Nashville, Tenn. There, she will participate in two days of meetings and participate in the assembly of chapter presidents.
Bork-Goldfield has already served as president of the Connecticut AATG chapter and is a long-time member of the chapter’s executive committee.
“Iris’s election provides evidence of the support and respect she enjoys among AATG members for her many valuable contributions to teaching the German language and culture,” said Wesleyan colleague and Connecticut AATG executive committee member Krishna Winston, the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature.
At Wesleyan, Bork-Goldfield teaches German language, literature, and culture courses at all levels. Born and educated in Germany, Bork-Goldfield has lived and worked in China, England and Israel. She is the recipient of the Rosenbaum-Anderson Award for Teaching in 2009 and has received research grants from the German government, German Embassy and Wesleyan.
by Olivia Drake
Study Abroad in Germany
COME AND LISTEN TO THE EXPERTS!
Students who studied in Hamburg and Berlin or attended summer programs. Also, learn about funding for research programs.
FRIES GLOBAL STUDIES CENTER, FISK 201 Friday, September 15,2017 – 12-1PM
Lunch will be provided!
Sarah Wiliarty speaks on German Elections, Angela Merkel and Her Opponents
Please join us for Professor Wiliarty’s talk on the upcoming German election.
Wednesday, September 13 from 12:15-1:15 PM in FISK 208.
Lunch will be served!
German Studies Faculty News
Krishna Winston
Krishna Winston translated three early screenplays by Werner Herzog (Signs of Life, Even Dwarfs Started Small, and Fata Morgana) for the first of two volumes she is translating for the University of Minnesota Press.
Uli Plass
At the University of Potsdam, Ulrich Plass lectured on debates over literary realism from the 19h century to the present and led a workshop on the same theme. At the ACLA conference in Utrecht, he presented a paper on the mediations of social and aesthetic form in Schiller, Lukacs, and Adorno. He also wrote an article on liberalism, neoliberalism, and the literary representation of economic inequality for a forthcoming essay collection on literature and economics.
Martin Bäumel
Martin Bäumel’s chapter entitled “Cognitio poetica – Rational and Sensate Cognition in Hagedorn’s Poetry,” was accepted for inclusion in a collection of papers from the 2013 GSA Seminar “For a New Enlightenment,” ed. by Hans Adler and Rüdiger Campe, Random House.
Iris Bork-Goldfield
Iris Bork-Goldfield’s book Wir wollten was tun, published by Metropol in 2015 was reviewed in the German Studies Review, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2017. Her teaching materials for her book and documentary film were accepted for publication for a digital textbook to be published by EDUVERSUM, Wiesbaden, Germany.