Dear Friends of Germanics and Alums:
Warm greetings from Denny Hall. I hope you will enjoy the stories and news items here.
We welcomed a new cohort of students, visitors, and friends earlier this fall and participated in the UW Dawg Daze events at the beginning of the quarter to connect with incoming students in a joyful, festive spirit. It was a successful joint endeavor with four other world language and literature departments in the Humanities that allowed us to showcase the richness of learning opportunities in our programs. The diversity committee organized an inspiring talk and performance by UW Alumna Hamda Yusuf and we took part in the German Embassy’s Campus Weeks initiative and the German Career Day on Campus. More interesting lectures and events are scheduled for winter and spring and we are excited about the presence of the new Goethe Pop Up in Seattle.
Congratulations to our beloved emeriti, Joe Voyles and Diana Behler, on celebrating their 80th birthdays, and my best wishes for the New Year.
Sincerely,
Brigitte Prutti
Professor and Chair
We all know of Diana's scholarly, pedagogical and administrative accomplishments: they are matters of record---published or on line. Here I will offer a few personal reminiscences--which are not published or on line: hence you can find them only here.
Diana and I are of the same generation: I was born in 1938 shortly before the Munich agreement; she in the same year shortly thereafter. Our generation has sometimes been dubbed "the silent generation". That certainly does not… Read more
Germanics kicked off the new academic year with an evening of soccer and language at Dawg Daze 2018! Organized by First Year Programs, Dawg Daze welcomes new and returning students with over 200 activities and events. This year, along with French & Italian Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, Scandinavian Studies, and Slavic Languages & Literature, Germanics hosted the soccer-themed Kick Before the Flick. Staff and faculty fielded students' questions about language… Read more
This virtual exhibition features, in English translation, short excerpts from German-language literary texts that address human-nature entanglements. The aim is to show how literature can contribute to understanding the relation between humans and nonhuman nature. What aspects of human-nature relations are… Read more
Zeitlose Themen in zeitlosen Geschichten is a course book intended for university students of German at the advanced level. While ten literary texts and films provide the main organizational structure of the course, the book follows a combination communicative, content-, and task-based approach to its syllabus design. By engaging students in a variety of themes focusing on topics such as political systems, racism, violence/nonviolence, gender issues, personal… Read more
Forthcoming: Odysseys of Recognition (due out in February 2019)
Performing Intersubjectivity in Homer, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Goethe, and Kleist
About this book: Literary recognition is a technical term for a climactic plot device. Odysseys of Recognition claims that interpersonal recognition is constituted by performance, and brings performance theory into dialogue with poetics, politics, and philosophy. By observing Odysseus figures from Homer to Kleist, Ellwood… Read more
My name is Niko Switek, in September 2018 I started as the new DAAD visiting assistant professor for German Studies (DAAD is short for German Academic Exchange Service). I am a political scientist and my main affiliation at the UW is with the Jackson School for International Studies, but I am very open to collaboration with other departments and centers.
I received my PhD from the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2015 with a work on new coalitions the German green party formed at subnational… Read more
The Department of Germanics, the Simpson Center, African Studies and the Center for Global Studies sponsored a talk and performance by 2016 alumna Hamda Yusuf. Taking the title from one of James Baldwin’s essays in his collection “Notes of a Native Son”, Hamda Yusuf spoke before a full audience about her experiences traveling in Europe as a black Muslim woman, and the feeling of being a ‘stranger in the village’. In her talk, she touched on the power of inter-cultural connections and the… Read more
Some Seattle stories are the stuff of local lore: Chief Sealth negotiating with white settlers. The removal of downtown’s Denny Hill. The rise of Starbucks and Amazon. Other stories are less well known. These are the focus of the 2018 Summer Institute in the Arts & Humanities (SIAH), a program created by the UW Undergraduate Research Program and the… Read more
During her first quarter at the University of Washington, undergraduate Cheyenne Jobe spent time with a widow who habitually murdered her husbands. “Her troubled childhood landed her in a terrible place beyond her control,” Jobe explains. Classmates were equally understanding when they spent time with terrorists, serial killers, Nazis, drug lords, and other nefarious characters.
Fortunately none of the characters were real. They were villainous “types” that the students brought to life in… Read more
After having explored the history of the German language for ten weeks, the students in History of German Language (German 452) envisioned the language’s future. As part of a week-long educational live action role play (LARP), each student was assigned a member of the German society. The fictional characters included a Turkish-German, an ardent Bayern Munich fan, an LGBQT activist, a Syrian refugee and many others. In the game’s scenario, each of them was invited by the … Read more
The Department of Germanics received a grant in recognition of our participation in Campus Weeks 2018, a promotional campaign organized by the German Information Center to introduce students and the campus community to German culture and society. Student teams engaged in research about the German energy turn from fossil to renewables on an optional basis and integrated their findings into their module team projects. These project presentations (posters, films, exhibit blue prints etc.) were… Read more
On the occasion of this year's German Embassy’s Campus Week (“Shaping Germany”), the Department of Germanics had been screening and discussing a series films about migration, immigration, and escape.
Screenings are free and open to UW students, faculty, and staff. Snacks and refreshments will be provided, courtesy of the German Embassy’s 2018 Campus Week.
Film titles/details can be found below, in the attached pdf, and on the department's calendar of… Read more
Students of all German levels enthusiastically attended the Fall 2018 Kaffeestunde, making it an exceptionally lively and exciting event. Every Monday afternoon, students participated in interactive activities and discussions, led by our fantastic graduate students. The department offers special thanks to Jorma Huckauf, Dominik Winkel, Matthew Childs, Dominik Alamanni and Jeffrey Jarzomb for their help and commitment to making language learning such a fun experience. With each… Read more
I graduated from the University of Washington with a double Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and German literature. Directly after graduating in March 2014 I moved to Tübingen, Germany to be closer to my then boyfriend (now husband). I had met him while doing my junior year at UW abroad at the University of Tübingen.
After moving to Tübingen I was able to make the first hand experience of seeing how difficult it is to get one's credits and degree accepted in another country. But for… Read more
This quarter marks the start of German Club’s second year since its rekindling by enthusiastic undergraduate students last Autumn. In this time, it has served as a relaxed social environment for students of German to meet up, play language-based board games, organize events, and practice their German skills.The club has organized a series of “Study Slams” each quarter, where students can come together to prepare for their finals as a group, with help from volunteer graduate students and… Read more
From November 2018-19, Germany’s Goethe-Institut will promote cultural exchanges across the United States as part of Deutschlandjahr USA: “The Year of German-American Friendship.”
Throughout the year, the new Goethe Pop Up Seattle in Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row will host and support gallery showings, music performances, film screenings, food events, discussions and more.
As Managing Director of the Goethe Pop Up Seattle, Arabelle Liepold is excited to be working with partners in Seattle and… Read more
On November 30, the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and the Goethe Pop Up Seattle organized a German career fair at the Husky Union Building (HUB) on the UW Seattle Campus. The all-day event was set up within the framework of the current Deutschlandjahr (Year of German-American Friendship). Representatives of universities, companies and exchange organizations informed high school and college students about opportunities to study, work and intern in Germany. Workshops and panel… Read more
The Honorary Consulate of Austria for WA, ID, MT in Seattle assists Austrians in consular issues, and promotes cultural and business opportunities. Events throughout the year are organized by the Honorary Consulate together with the Austria Club of WA, demonstrating the rich history and culture such as the recent commemoration of “100 Jahre Republik Österreich”, featuring Prof. David Large from UC Berkeley’s Austrian Studies Program. A special highlight is the annual Viennese Ball, coming up on… Read more
Professor Stecher will lay out the theoretical groundwork of her current book project (Nordic War Stories) with an eye to the shifting preoccupations of WWII scholarship and representation. She will survey the different fates (occupation, resistance, neutrality, military engagement) experienced by the five Nordic countries in the periphery of World War II and the principal historiographical narratives negotiated in the postwar decades, which serve as the basis for postwar literature… Read more
The Department of Germanics offers several exciting literature and culture courses in English this winter:
GERMAN 210 A: Classics of German Literature and Thought
Frankenstein read Goethe. Shouldn’t you?
GERMAN 285 A: Representation and Diversity
Fairy Tales and the Environmental Imagination
… Read more
Thank you to our donors!
Thanks to the following donors for their generous support of the Department of Germanics. Private contributions help us support undergraduate and graduate students, sponsor public lectures, and provide resources for faculty and student research. If you would like to donate to the department, please visit Support Us for more information.
Cheryl and Hellmut Ammerlahn
Ursula Bannister
The Boeing Company
Monika Boos
Eva Carleton
Tobias Dang
Eli Lilly & Company Foundation
Kathleen Ellsbury
Ursula M. Erdmann
Vincent Erickson
Georgiana B. Graf
Andrea Haugen
Lesley Hogan
Myra Huestis
Charles J. Kenlan
Joseph Edmund Lowry
Marsha Martin
Ryan Maves
Max Kade Foundation Inc.
Bruce Miller
Katalin Molnar
The Placzek Family Foundation
Robin Proebsting
William W. Rasch, Jr.
Robin Reagan
Bianca G. Rosenthal
Michael Schmitt
Gerd K. Schneider
Karla Schultz
The Seattle Foundation
Christopher H. Shea
Melissa Reddish Storr
Heather Sullivan
Charles H. Thulin
Heidi R. Tilghman
Christopher Turchin
Rosie and Joe Voyles
Vielen Dank und frohe Feiertage -- Happy holidays and best wishes for 2019!