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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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
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!
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!
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.
Kamryn Wolf ’12 Recently, Kamryn was accepted at Union Theological Seminary in New York and will be starting her graduate studies this fall.
Madalene Smith-Huemer ’14 Since graduating from Wesleyan in 2014, Maddy has lived in Washington, DC, where she works as Assistant Director for Campaigns and Stewardship at the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank that promotes constructive US engagement in global affairs. At the Atlantic Council, Maddy has led fundraising campaigns for various programs and centers, including the Atlantic Council’s Future Europe Center and Middle East Center. This summer, Maddy is backpacking through Spain, Portugal, France, Austria, and Germany, where she hopes to brush up on her German. In the fall, she will enroll in the Master of Science in the Foreign Service program at Georgetown University, where she hopes to concentrate in global politics and security with a focus on immigration in Europe.
Colin O’Connor ’15 Currently, Colin is living in New York working for an environmental organization on state policy. He also runs a website on patient-centric care for people with Parkinson’s Disease.
Philip Katz ’17, a German Studies and College of Social Studies double major, received the German Studies Blankenagel Prize for his excellent work in German. He wrote a senior essay entitled Germany’s Sickness Funds during and after the Nazi Seizure of Power, 1933-1938, which he presented at our annual end-of-semester party in May. This summer, he will be heading back home to Taiwan for a short while before starting work as a paralegal in New York.
Ezra Kauffman ‘17, a German Studies and History double major, received the German Studies Blankenagel Prize for his excellent work in German. He wrote a senior essay, which examines how environmentalism played a role in economic and political decisions in both Germanys during the Cold War. This summer, he will be traveling in Asia, before taking data analysis courses in New York in the early fall. In October, he will depart for Innsbruck, Austria, where he will be an assistant English teacher under the aegis of Fulbright Austria.
Toys Koomplee ’17, a German Studies and Psychology double major, will be returning to Thailand. There he will be working in the Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection, under the Ministry of Justice for the Royal Thai Government in Bangkok. His work involves both researching and developing the programs for rehabilitation and education for juveniles in detention centers.
Lisa Shepard ’17, a German Studies and Earth & Environmental Science double major is planning to go to Munich until the end of the summer to work as a program coordinator with Education First. Her subsequent plans involve moving to either Durham, North Carolina, or New York to spend time with family and to pursue a Master’s in Earth Science. Eventually, she hopes to find a long-term job in Germany.
Ethan Yaro ’17, a German Studies and College of Letters double major, wrote an honors thesis entitled Herder: A World that We Each Create by Ourselves. He shared his work with us at our end-of-year party in May. This summer he is working with Professor Jesse Torgerson on a data analysis project where they are mapping a Byzantine manuscript, looking at the geographical nature of the text, and ascertaining how the geography in the text changes over time.
Luisa Chan ’18, a German Studies and Anthropology double major and Lizzie Whitney ’19, a German Studies and College of Letters double major, have been studying in Hamburg, Germany, since March. They write from Germany: “…This program has been a great choice so far. It offers enough support to make taking classes in German at the University of Hamburg not only possible but enjoyable; yet we still have plenty of freedom and time to explore Hamburg and the rest of Germany on our own. The relatively small program facilitates close friendships with students from other colleges, and yet Smith has enough history in Hamburg that people at and around the university recognize the name and are willing to help us succeed.”
Carter Deane ’18, a College of Social Studies major with a German Studies minor, will spend his summer in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, to investigate the history of Islamic religious education in German schools. Carter will also look at the legal challenges Muslim communities have faced in their efforts to organize these classes, and at the recent critiques of these classes by the ascendant right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Carter received funding for his project from several sources, among them the German Studies Arthur Schultz fund.
Hannah Fritze ’18, an Astrology major and German Studies minor, will be spending this summer on campus, conducting astronomy research with professor Roy Kilgard. Her research focuses on characterizing extremely bright X-ray sources both inside and outside the Milky Way, primarily in an attempt to find black holes of a particularly interesting mass. This research will likely be the topic of her senior thesis. Later this summer Hannah will be taking a road trip to see the total solar eclipse this August.
Jack (Hans) Guenther ’18, a German Studies, College of Letters, and History triple major, will spend the end of his summer in Hamburg, Germany researching the Hamburg’s development as one of Europe’s leading port cities. It will be the topic of his honors thesis. Until then, Jack will be in his native Washington, D.C., working for the National Endowment for the Humanities, where he is helping the Endowment evaluate and award research fellowships. Two of Jack’s colleagues are native Germans, and he has been delighted to find German is the office’s unofficial second language!
Katherine Paterson ’18, a Theater and Environmental Studies double major with a German minor, received the Prentice Prize for her excellent work in German. Katherine will be spending the summer doing research for her honors project in New York City. She will be working at community gardens and gathering information and data on how they build community. She will use this information to devise a theater performance in the spring that explores community building in community gardens and in theater. Katherine is also looking into a project for the fall that will introduce the Wesleyan community to the Swiss drama Biedermann und die Brandstifter by Max Frisch.
Sophia Shoulson ’18, a German Studies and College of Letters double major will spend this summer at the Steiner Summer program in Amherst, MA, learning Yiddish language and culture. She also works as an intern at the center on the “Wexler Oral History” project. She listens to interviews in Yiddish of people from all over the world and describes the content of the interviews. Sophia received the Scott Prize this year for her excellent work in Germany.
Chris Steidl ’18, a German Studies and History double major, will spend this summer in Boston working for a non-profit organization, Community Rowing Inc. (CRI). His future intentions include traveling to Germany and teach English.
Anna Apostolidis ’19, a German Studies and Anthropology double major, sang Lieder by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann beautifully at our end-of-semester party. She was accompanied on the piano by Olivia Backal-Balik ’20. Anna will be spending this summer in Berlin studying German at the Humboldt University and traveling through Germany.
Will Bellamy ’19, a German Studies and English double major, will be driving across country over the summer and spending some time in Los Angeles before attending a one-year study abroad program in Hamburg, Germany. Undoubtedly, he will improve his German and learn about the city and its culture there. He is hoping to get an internship in Hamburg in some field related to translation, as that is what he hopes to be doing after graduation.
Joanna Paul ’19, a Psychology and Sociology double major with a German Studies minor, will spend the first month of her summer interning at a therapeutic preschool called LEEP Forward in Chicago that helps children who experience challenges with social communication, sensory, and emotional regulation. She will spend the remainder of her summer working at their Wediko Summer Program in New Hampshire, a program for young people 9-19 years old that provides social, behavioral, and academic support. She will then be returning to campus two weeks early for her third year as an Orientation Leader, welcoming incoming students to Wesleyan.
