News from our Alums: Seth Berk (PhD 2016)

Submitted by Michael Neininger on
Seth Berk

Since finishing my Ph.D. at the Department of Germanics this past spring quarter, I am now back in Germany participating in the Teach@Tübingen Program at the Eberhard Karls Universität as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow. The teaching stipend is funded by the university's Exzellenzinitiative, and--as part of its internationalization effort--I am currently teaching an undergraduate proseminar at the Deutsches Seminar... aber auf Englisch! The class is titled Strong Women in German Literature from the Enlightenment to the Present, and the syllabus is based on my dissertation research, which I expanded to include a broader range of authors, including several great women writers who have unfortunately been excluded from the literary canon. I can only say that the class has been exceedingly rewarding thus far! The students have been very eager to engage in feminist debates, critically interact with texts, and present their ideas via very thoughtful in-class presentations. I've also planned another undergraduate proseminar for the coming summer semester, moving away from the topic of gender studies, based on the concept of intermediality in contemporary German literature (thinking of works that utilize multiple forms of media, like W.G. Sebald's incorporation of images into his fictive narratives). But returning back to the main point, teaching here in Tübingen would not have been possible without the great intellectual growth and pedagogical opportunities provided by the Department of Germanics: from instructing language classes and learning to utilize a communicative learning method, to assisting professors like Sabine Wilke and Richard T. Gray with their innovative interdisciplinary courses, and, yes, even teaching upper-level English courses at the Sprachenzentrum in Münster!

Many thanks for your indelible friendship and support over the years und mit ganz lieben Grüßen aus Tübingen,

Seth Berk  

News Topic
Share