Dear Friends of Germanics and Alums,
Spring greetings from Condon Hall. The achievements and adventures of our students and alums take center stage in this March Newsletter issue. We are proud to feature some interesting new courses and upcoming cross-disciplinary lectures in the fall, and we extend our warmest congratulations to Japhet Johnstone on the successful defense of a stellar dissertation in December last year, and to our PhD candidate, Olivia Albiero, on her success in securing a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in German and Italian at San Francisco State University in SF. The lovely Japanese cherry trees in the Quad are beginning to bloom, and we wish you such calm and fresh spring mornings as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway used to enjoy. We also look forward to hearing from our friends and alums.
Happy Kirschblütenzeit, everyone!
Brigitte Prutti
Professor of German, Chair
Japhet Johnstone studied French and German at the University of Missouri, Columbia and Sciences Po, Paris before commencing his graduate work at the University of Washington, Seattle and the University of Münster. In autumn 2015, he completed his dissertation, “Stages of Inversion: Die verkehrte Welt in Nineteenth-Century German Literature,” which examines the literary and cultural history of inverted worlds from Hegel’s dialectical inversions to the sexual inversions used to… Read more
I am excited to share the news that, starting in Fall 2016, I will be joining the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at San Francisco State University as Assistant Professor in Foreign Languages & Literatures. It has been a great time in the Department of Germanics, where I had the opportunity to gather many experiences. Upon completing the MA program, I continued with the PhD and started working on my dissertation entitled “Moments of Rupture: Plotting, Character and… Read more
Andre Schütze, Kye Terrasi and Justin Mohler have received funding from the Simpson Center to attend the 2016 DHSI in Victoria. They will attend a course on Geographical Information Systems in the Digital Humanities, a tool that will allow them to visualize trends of diversity in the city of Berlin, to map and explore their spatial relations and to compare and contrast patterns of diversity within other urban spheres. Andre and Kye are eager to test the feasibility of incorporating this… Read more
Olivia Albiero:
Publication: "Knotty Plot and Dense Text: Crime, Detection and Epigraphs in Wolfgang Herrndorf's Sand" in Colloquia Germanica 46,2 (2013) - published in February 2016
Dissertation: My dissertation, entitled “Moments of Rupture: Plotting, Character and Narration in Contemporary German Literature,” investigates the construction of German-language novels and their use of narrative… Read more
We are very happy to announce another enjoyable “mentoring lunch” with a Germanics alum and current majors. On February 22, 2016, Gabe Verdugo (class of 2008) joined four students to chat over sandwiches in the UW Club. Gabe currently works for a prestigious law firm here in Seattle that works to protect consumers from corporate malfeasance. The firm is currently involved in the class action litigation about Volkswagen’s diesel emissions, and has even been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. You… Read more
Germanics is offering an exciting new urban humanities course in English for Spring 2016.
BERLINThe Layered City: Excavating Diversity in the Metropolis Berlin
In the past 100 years, Berlin has transitioned from an imperial city to the center of the golden twenties, to the government seat of the Nazis to a city of total ruin, to a… Read more
Summer in Berlin!
The study abroad program “Beyond the Berlin Wall” will return to Berlin for the third time during Summer Quarter 2016. Department of Germanics Affiliate Assistant Professor David Canfield-Budde will be joined by Department of Communication Professor Patricia Moy for a program focused on Culture, Communication, and Representation in Berlin.
The program brings UW students to Berlin for four weeks to explore how the past is represented in the urban landscape and how historical… Read more
Students are invited to experience language learning through performance in our annual springtime offering: GERMAN 304, Contemporary German Play
Deutschsein für Fortgeschrittene: Grenzenlos und Unverschämt(Being German for the Advanced Learner: Boundless and Bold)
This course provides the unique opportunity to incorporate your personal talents and engage with contemporary German texts by reading, discussing and (… Read more
Germanics Alum Benjamin O'Connor (BA 2011) discusses his time in Germany after receiving Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) award.
My decision to major in Germanics, having switched from health sciences, marked an empowering recognition of my own unique strengths and growing trust in myself and my abilities. I’d been wondering if all of the swearing auf Deutsch that I had done in Chemistry and Biology could lead to something more, so I took a leap of faith and turned my focus… Read more
When Andreas Höll, art journalist with the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in Germany and former student of mine at Stanford (1986-87), met Seattle artist Owen Gump at a Leipzig art event, they quickly discovered that they have something in common: both had Sabine as their professor in German classes and seminars, although in different year and places. Owen took German classes at UW and in 2002 applied for a DAAD fellowship to study art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Sabine wrote the language… Read more
Colin Marshall: Does Kant Debunk Metaphysics?
Colin Marshall (PhD, New York University) is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington. His research focuses on 17th-19th century European philosophy and contemporary meta-ethics. He is currently finishing a book defending a historically-inspired meta-ethical view entitled Compassionate Moral Realism.
Unglück und Zerstreuung: Autobiographisches Schreiben bei Franz Grillparzer, Aisthesis, Essay, Bd. 44, 2016
Franz Grillparzer ist ein begnadeter Beobachter des modernen Subjekts, der die problematische Innerlichkeit seiner eigenen Person ebenso scharf umrissen hat wie die Psychologie der Problemfiguren in seinen Dramen. „You can’t have your cake and eat it too,“ besagt ein bekanntes englisches Sprichwort. Der Wiener Schwierige weiβ es besser. Er liefert seinen Lesern… Read more
Kaffeestunde was a huge success during Winter 2016, thanks in large part to the time and committment shown by lecturers Kye Terrasi and Andre Schuetze! Our sincere appreciation to all who participated in the weekly student conversation group during Winter 2016.
What is Kaffeestunde?
KaffeestundeThe Department of Germanics is hosting a Kaffeestunde and we are delighted to offer a forum for our vibrant community of German speakers. This weekly social event provides students from all levels… Read more