GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES - DEPARTMENT OF SUMMER 2021
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DEPARTMENT OF
GERMANIC LANGUAGES
AND LITERATURES
NEWSLETTER
SUMMER 2021
lsa.umich.edu/german
LE T TE R FRO M THE C HAIR
Dear friends,
A few days ago my attracted 200 students and parents, scholarship and academic learning can
mailbox contained providing them with a public forum enrich public life.
a welcome surprise: to celebrate this important day in
the 2021-22 season their lives. This would not be a glance back at a
program of the COVID-19 year without some bad news.
University Musical We were busy in other ways as well. Perhaps most sadly, we had to suspend
Society. There will once again be Together with Assistant Professor Kristin all study abroad activities for the 2020-21
symphony concerts, piano recitals, jazz Dickison, two of our graduate students academic year. While we tried our best
music, and theater performances on worked on expanding the department’s to make up for this loss with a series of
campus! This is just one of many signs research and teaching database devoted exciting undergraduate courses, there
that life is returning to Ann Arbor. All to the work of under-represented writers is really nothing that can replace the
over downtown, sidewalks are bustling and film makers. The archive, the first of experience of living abroad. Zoom isn’t
with people drinking coffee or dining at its kind in the U.S., brings together rarely the world, even though it sometimes
outside tables; the Michigan Theater is taught and hard to find primary material, felt like that over the last 15 months.
screening movies; and on State Street complete with basic lesson plans that Let's hope we'll get to rediscover the
students pass by with ice cream cones instructors can adapt to their own difference between the two over the
in their hands or yoga mats under their courses. Questions of diversity were also next few months. Here’s to a relaxing, yet
arms. With a bit of luck, this trend will at the heart of a series of departmental exciting, “in-person” summer, away from
continue. COVID-19 rates permitting, workshops in the fall, devoted to the role the screen and in the presence of friends
our university will return to “mostly of racism and colonialism in German, and family.
in-person instruction” after the summer, Dutch, and Scandinavian culture. These
with dorms, libraries, and dining halls discussions laid the ground for our two Best Wishes,
opening up again, albeit at reduced public Grilk conversations in the Winter
capacities and reconfigured according term that were a huge success and
to three-foot distancing rules. attracted hundreds of participants from
all over the world (page 3).
We are excited to see our students—and
each other—again in real life. It’s been a Research continues to flourish as well.
long and taxing year. New technologies Our graduate students won coveted
had to be learnt, syllabi restructured, awards for their dissertations, articles,
exercises re-invented. More than ever, and teaching (pages 8-10), and Pavel
our classes served a vital social and Brunssen, a third-year graduate student,
TABL E O F C ONTENT S
emotional function, providing structure, even published a monograph. Fred Letter from the Chair 2
stimulation, and cameradie to students Amrine, Silke Weineck, and I published Highlights 3
who, cut off from campus life, often felt new books, and Silke was awarded a
at sea. Creating a sense of community Collegiate Professorship, one of the Faculty Focus 4-7
has never been more important, and University’s highest honors. While there Graduate Student Focus 8 - 10
doing so in the absence of a shared isn’t enough space to feature the varied
In the Classroom 11
physical space required patience and contributions of our faculty, which range
inventiveness. I’m proud of the work from scholarly articles to newspaper Staying Connected 12
my colleagues have done to support essays, and from radio interviews to Undergraduate Studies 13
our students over the past 15 months. exhibition work, have a look at the short
Our efforts culminated in a marvelous Dutch and Flemish Studies 14
piece by Kira Thurman (pages 6-7) for a
(virtual) graduation ceremony that particularly impressive example of how Scandinavian Studies 15
2 Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
H I G H L I G HT S
Grilk Conversations
By Johannes von Moltke, Professor
Friends of the department will be familiar with our annual Grilk Even though we regretted not being able to host our guests
Lecture in German Studies, which honors our late colleague in-person and continue these conversations across seminar
Werner Grilk by inviting leading scholars in our field to present tables and in more informal settings, we did benefit from the
their work at this marquee event. In planning for this past reduced logistical, financial (and carbon!) footprint that Zoom
COVID-19 year, we were eager to maintain affords. Having “brought” Tiffany Florvil
the momentum of this lecture series, from Albuquerque, we subsequently
which has been unbroken since it was were able to connect our other two Grilk
first endowed by an anonymous donor in conversationalists in a trans-Atlantic event
2002. At the same time, given the changed that featured Susan Neimann, director
dynamics for the production and sharing of the Einstein Forum, speaking to us
of scholarship during the pandemic, from Berlin; and Michael Rothberg from
we thought it would be wise to modify Los Angeles, where he teaches at UCLA.
the format somewhat and replace the Both Rothberg and Neiman have been
traditional, hour-long academic lecture with enormously influential and deeply engaged
a more conversational approach, pairing in ongoing debates about German and
two scholars for discussion and an ensuing transnational memory cultures—Neiman
Q&A. And so we reconceived the annual with her influential book, Learning from
lecture, taking advantage of the Zoom the Germans, which looks to the latter’s
platform to bring together an exciting Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit (coming
set of interlocutors for not one, but two to terms with the past) to ask how the
“Grilk Conversations.” Both events were United States might face up differently to
generously co-sponsored by the Center for the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow; and
European Studies. Rothberg with his work on what he calls
“multidirectional memory” and the ways
The first of these took place during Black in which we can remain implicated in the
History Month and was dedicated to the past, for example by benefiting from past
work of Tiffany Florvil (University of New Both Grilk Conversations were recorded and injustices that we did not commit. The
Mexico), who had just recently published are available for (re)viewing on the CES YouTube discussion that developed between these
her important new book, Mobilizing Black Channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/ two influential thinkers was as wide-ranging
Germany. Based on research in an array of umeurope. as it was memorable—and well-attended.
fascinating archives, some of them private Thanks to Zoom, we were able to welcome
and accessed here for the first time, the book offers the first viewers from no fewer than 29 different countries, ranging from
full-length study of the history of the Black German movement Norway to Nigeria, from Belarus to Brazil, and from India to
of the 1980s to the 2000s. Florvil was joined in conversation England.
by our own Kira Thurman, herself the author of the eagerly
awaited Singing Like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of What form the Grilk lectures will take in the future remains to
Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, forthcoming this fall from Cornell be seen. While we certainly look forward to resuming scholarly
University Press. Florvil and Thurman engaged the audience in a exchange with our colleagues in person, the conversations
lively and captivating discussion of Florvil’s findings in Mobilizing that we piloted this past term also offered more than just a
Black Germany. They examined the role of queer and straight pandemic stopgap. They turned out to be exciting and vital
women in shaping the contours of the modern Black German events in their own right, and we were happy to be able to
movement as part of the Black internationalist opposition to integrate them as a new format into the long-standing tradition
racial and gender oppression, and allowed the conversation of the annual Werner Grilk event.
to range from there to other Black internationalist themes in
German studies.
lsa.umich.edu/german 3
FAC U LT Y FO C U S
The Conquest of Ruins
University of Chicago Press Books
In 2019, we saw the release of Professor Hell’s in the 1930s and ‘40s—and sees a similar
book The Conquest of Ruins from the Univer- fascination with recreating the Roman past
sity of Chicago Press. The Roman Empire in the contemporary image. In every case—
has been a source of inspiration and a model particularly that of the Nazi regime—the
for imitation for Western empires practically ruins of Rome seem to represent a mystery to
since the moment Rome fell. Yet, as Julia Hell be solved: how could an empire so powerful
shows in The Conquest of Ruins, what has had be brought so low? Hell argues that this
the strongest grip on aspiring imperial fascination with the ruins of greatness
imaginations isn’t that empire’s glory but its expresses a need on the part of would-be
fall—and the haunting monuments left in conquerors to find something to ward off a
its wake. similar demise for their particular empire.
Hell examines centuries of European empire-
building—from Charles V in the sixteenth
century and Napoleon’s campaigns of the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries to
the atrocities of Mussolini and the Third Reich
Forms of Life: Aesthetics and Biopolitics in German Cutlure
Cornell University Press
In 2020, Professor Andreas Gailus released the eighteenth century in biological thought.
his book titled Forms of Life: Aesthetics and At the core of this vitalist strand of thought,
Biopolitics in German Culture from Cornell Gailus maintains, lies a persistent emphasis on
University Press. In Forms of Life, Gailus the dynamics of formation and deformation,
argues that the neglect of aesthetics in most and thus on an intrinsically aesthetic
contemporary theories of biopolitics has dimension of life.
resulted in an overly restricted conception of
life. He insists we need a more flexible notion Forms of Life brings this older discourse into
of life: one attuned to the interplay and conflict critical conversation with contemporary
between its many dimensions and forms. discussions of biopolitics and vitalism, while
Forms of Life develops such a notion through also developing a rich conception of life
the meticulous study of works by Kant, Geothe, that highlights, rather than suppresses, its
Kleist, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Benn, Musil, protean character. Gailus demonstrates that
and others. life unfolds in the open-ended interweaving of
the myriad forms and modalities of biological,
Gailus shows that the modern conception of ethical, political, psychical, aesthetic, and
“life” as a generative, organizing force internal biographical systems.
to living beings emerged in the last decades of
4 Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Goethe and the Myth of the Bildungsroman―Rethinking the Wilhelm Meister Novels
Cambridge University Press
Professor Frederick Amrine released Goethe problematic for critics, seeming to testify
and the Myth of the Bildungsroman (Cambridge to the novels’ disunity, become instead the
University Press) in April 2020. Goethe’s articulation points of a subtle concord between
Willhelm Meister novels, widely held to be the thematic and formal elements. Reading the
most significant and influential in all of German novels in light of the eminent criticism of
literature, have traditionally been classed as Northrop Frye, this book productively shifts
Bildungsroman, or ‘novels of formation’. In away from social commentary towards the
Goethe and the Myth of Bildungsroman, Amrine archetypal and symbolic, showing Goethe
offers a unique reading of Wilhelm Meister’s not to be an exception within world literature;
Lehrjahre and Wilhelm Meister’s Wanderjahre, rather, that he participates deeply in its
which posits the second novel as a sequel to overarching structures.
the first. Deconstructing and jettisoning the
notion of the Bildungsroman, the features
of the novels which have historically proved
Congratulations
Professor Weineck!
City of Champions―A History of Triumph and Defeat in Detroit LSA’s Dean Anne Curzan
The New Press has recommended to the
Provost and the Board of
In October 2020, Professors Silke-Marie Weineck and Regents that Professor
Stefan Szymanski released City of Champions from The Silke Weineck, jointly
New Press. From Ty Cobb and Hank Greenberg to the Bad appointed in the Germanic
Boys, from Joe Louis and Gordie Howe to the Malice at the languages and literatures
Palace, City of Champions explores the history of Detroit and comparative literature
through the stories of its most gifted athletes and most departments, be awarded
celebrated teams, linking iconic events in the history of a Collegiate Professorship
Motown sports to the city’s shifting fortunes. effective September 1,
In an era when many teams have left rustbelt cities to 2021. Regents approval is
relocate elsewhere, Detroit has held on to its franchises, expected this summer.
and there is currently great hope in the revival of the Professor Weineck chose to
city focused on its downtown sports complexes—but to honor Grace Lee Boggs for
whose benefit? Szymanski and Weineck show how the her named professorship.
fate of the teams in Detroit’s stadiums, gyms, and fields While she never held an
is echoed in the rise and fall of the car industry, political official appointment at
Senate Advisory Committee upheavals ushered in by the depression, World War II, the U-M, she did receive an
on University Affairs (SACUA) 1967 uprising, and its recent bankruptcy and renewal. honorary doctorate and
has identified Silke Weineck she lectured at U-M every
as the 2021 recipient of the Driven by the conviction that sports not only mirror society
but also have a special power to create both community year for decades.
Distinguished Faculty Governance
Award. Congratulations Silke on and enduring narratives that help define a city’s sense
this well-deserved award! of self, City of Champions is a unique history of the most
American of cities.
lsa.umich.edu/german 5
Bringing The Music of Black Composers to a German Audience
By Kira Thurman, Assistant Professor
Ph.D. students Domenic today—including Macarthur to all of the art songs—in German-speaking mother,
DeSocio and Özlem Karuç “genius grant” winner English and in German. Kira and detailing her time in
put their brilliant skills Tyshawn Sorey, whose song was responsible for writing Germany in the 1960s. The last
of translation, project "Cycles of My Being" (co- all of the content for the concert focused on the history
management, and training written with poet Terrance Elbphilharmonie’s website of spirituals being performed
in Black German studies to Hayes) explores the realities of and programming. For this, in Germany, dating back to
the test in a project overseen being a Black man in America she used her knowledge the 1870s, when the African
by Kira Thurman for the in the age of Michael Brown, of African American artists, American choir called the Fisk
Elbphilharmonie this June. Eric Garner, and George Floyd. poets, musicians, and Jubilee Singers sang before
Offering some of their first live The three-day music festival intellectuals who traveled to the royal family in Potsdam.
concerts since the pandemic featured many of the most Germany to tell a transatlantic
began, the Elbphilarmonie renown musicians in the tale of musical creativity over But the sheer volume
put together a three-day classical music world today, time. For example, the first of texts that needed to
music festival celebrating the including Thomas Hampson, concert featured musical be translated quickly for
music of Black composers. Lawrence Brownlee, settings of Langston Hughes’s the Elbphilharmonie was
The purpose of the festival Michigan’s very own Louise poetry, so Kira examined the astounding: concert program
was to bring African American Toppin, and conductor first generation of Germans to notes, PR materials, and
art music to an international Roderick Cox. translate Hughes’s poetry into over 80 art songs by African
stage, performing music by German in the early 1920s. American composers.
historical composers such The task for Kira, Domenic, For the second concert, which Domenic and Özlem came
as William Grant Still and and Özlem was both simple explored the theme, “I know to the rescue! Domenic
Florence Price while also and challenging: provide why the caged bird sings,” took the helm as project
showcasing the exciting, the publicity materials for Kira revisited Maya Angelou’s manager, overseeing what
dynamic, and vibrant scene this festival, the concert memoirs describing what needed to be translated into
of young Black composers program notes, and the texts it was like being raised by a which language, in addition
to translating German
interviews into English for the
Elbphilharmonie’s publicity
materials. He also visited
Michigan’s special collections
to track down one of the
earliest editions of Langston
Hughes’s poetry that had
been translated into German
and transcribed it for the
program notes. Özlem set
to work translating all of the
English materials into German,
including dozens of art songs
and Kira’s lengthy concert
program notes.
Elbphilarmonic in the Bringing
the Music of Black Composers
6 Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
The German Origins of
Marian Anderson’s Career
By Kira Thurman, Assistant Professor
In February, Kira Thurman appeared on the American
Experience PBS documentary, “The Voice of Freedom,”
which detailed the life and career of famed African
American contralto and civil rights icon Marian
Anderson (1897-1993). Anderson spent much of the
1930s living in German-speaking Europe, where
she studied and performed the music of German
composers such as Franz Schubert, Johannes
Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. Although many people
Elbphilarmonic in the Bringing the Music of Black Composers
associate Marian Anderson’s fame with her legendary
performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
This was a huge undertaking. Domenic and Özlem’s solution in 1939, Kira pointed
And it was also complicated. was to keep the original out that she had
Both Domenic and Özlem English word while translating actually become an
used their linguistic and anti- the rest: Hughes’s 1920s international sensation
racist training to translate the poem “The Negro Speaks of much earlier: in
materials thoughtfully and Rivers” became “Der Negro* 1935 at the Salzburg
carefully. The conversation spricht von Strömen,” with Festival in Austria.
over how, or if to, translate an asterisk offered to explain There, the conductor
the word “Negro” offers to the concert-goer why the Arturo Toscanini told
one example of why their term appeared in the English Anderson that she had
expertise as scholars in original. a voice “heard once
German studies was essential every hundred years.”
to this project. While “Negro” The Elbphilharmonie’s three- As Kira explained in the
in an African American day music festival was a huge PBS interview and also
context—used by Langston success, and it is already in an article she wrote
Hughes, James Baldwin, and getting international media for The New Yorker in
others—has no derogatory coverage by newspapers such July 2020, Anderson consistently used her musical
inflection, the German as Deutsche Welle and The New performances to protest against racism—first, in
translation of that term does York Times. It also highlighted Germany and Austria against the rising tide of Nazism,
not have the same affirming why having trained scholars in and later in America facing white supremacy and
context. Contemporary German studies is essential to institutional racism. Marian Anderson’s life in Germany
conversations in Germany building a more just, vibrant, and Austria is one of the topics that appears in Kira’s
illustrate a sea of change, in and harmonious world. forthcoming book, Singing like Germans: Black Musicians
which many white Germans in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms (Cornell
are recognizing how harmful University Press), which debuts this fall.
most words attributed to
people of African descent
have been in German history.
lsa.umich.edu/german 7
GR A D UATE S T U D ENT FOCU S
Welcome New Graduate Student!
Martin Amesquita
Martin Amesquita joined our department in Fall 2020. His research interests include
the discourses of Jewish assimilation and antisemitism in German-speaking Europe,
the impact of globalization on German and Austrian migration literature, and antiracist
performance art and pedagogy.
Martin is a two time graduate of Northwestern University (A.B. in German and M.S. in
Education). As an undergraduate, he focused on Holocaust representation in German-
language media and the impact of global political institutions on migrant identity
as expressed in literature. As a masters student, he worked as an educational intern
at the German International School of Chicago, a full-time dual-language school in
Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. His Masters Project investigated the identities and
metalinguistic resources of German-learning students in a suburban high school.
Before coming to U-M, he taught high school German in Oswego, IL for four years.
Graduate Student publishes monograph
By Pavel Brunssen, Current Ph.D. Student
Graduate Student Pavel stereotypes centered on expressions. Brunssen’s book
Brunssen published a the hatred of modernity is an important contribution
monograph entitled and globalization which, in to the study of fan cultures
Antisemitismus in Fußball- and of themselves, bespeak by elucidating the dangers
Fankulturen: Der Fall RB Leipzig a disdained inauthenticity. and pitfalls of fan culture’s
(Beltz Juventa) with a preface The book contributes to localism, traditionalism, and
by Prof. Andrei S. Markovits. the academic discourse on tribalism. Brunssen elucidates
The book analyzes the singular contemporary antisemitism many key resentments and
hatred directed against by showing how antisemitic ugly sides of the so-called
the German soccer club RB ways of thinking and feeling “Beautiful Game” that pertain
Leipzig by an entire country. are ingrained into German well beyond the particular
Brunssen’s innovative and society. While many of the fan case at hand. By applying
thought-provoking study of groups position themselves an interdisciplinary and
antisemitism and fan cultures as anti-antisemites, they intersectional perspective,
in contemporary Germany nonetheless express the study provides an
shows that although RB antisemitic tropes in their important contribution to
Leipzig is not seen as explicitly enmity towards RB Leipzig. the fields of German studies,
“Jewish”, the incessantly By using hundreds of primary popular culture, the study of
hostile bombardment of the sources, the study focuses antisemitism, the history of
club by the German soccer on antisemitism in textual, emotions, and gender studies.
public is full of antisemitic visual, and performative
8 Department of Germanic Languages and LiteraturesCongratulations
Katy Holihan!
Congratulations! Katy Holihan graduated
in Summer 2020. Her
dissertation is titled,
Ph.D. Alumni Awards Staging the Somatic: The
Popular Hygiene Exhibition
in Germany, 1882-1931.
Katy accepted a 3-year
position as a Visiting
Assistant Professor at
Rhodes College in
Memphis, Tennessee.
Emma Thomas, Katy Holihan, Mary Hennessy, Ph.D. Andrea Rottmann,
Ph.D. Summer 2019 Ph.D. Summer 2020 Forthcoming Ph.D. Fall 2019
Summer 2021
U-M History Dept.’s ProQuest Berlin Program for Women in German (wiG) Dissertation
Dissertation Prize Dissertation Advanced German Prize and Arbeitskreis Historische
and Fritz Stern Award (see & European Studies Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Dissertation Prize highlighted Postdoctoral (working group for historical women’s
for her dissertation, box for Katy’s Fellowship 2021-22 and gender research) Dissertation Prize
Contested Labors: New dissertation title) for her dissertation, Queer Home Berlin?
Guinean Women and Making Queer Selves and Spaces in the
the German Colonial Divided City, 1945-1970.
Indenture, 1884-1914.
Graduate Student Awards
Domenic DeSocio Todd Maslyk Erin Johnston-Weiss Onyx Henry Lauren Beck Elizabeth McNeill
Rackham’s Cottrell Prize Frank X Braun Berlin Program for Freie Universität Institute for
Outstanding Best Paper Written Graduate Student Advanced German Berlin Exchange Humanities
Graduate Student in a German Instructor Award & European Student 2021-22 Fellowship
Instructor Award Studies Seminar Studies Fellowship 2021-22
2021-22 and
Frank X Braun
Graduate Student
Instructor Award
lsa.umich.edu/german 9Alamanya Events
By Özlem Karuç, Current Ph.D. Student
The 2020-21 academic year
was a very productive year
for Alamanya Transnational
German Studies Workshop
Rackham Interdisciplinary
Workshop (RIW), despite
pandemic-related restrictions
and budget cuts. Following
are highlights from three
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
(DEI)-related events that were
particularly successful.
Alamanya: Transnational
German Studies is a Rackham
Interdisciplinary Workshop
that emphasizes the diversity
of artistic expressions in Teaching Database that lessons more easily. During a presenters and about 40
communities marked by was created by Domenic second round of group work, attendees from various
migration and calls for inter- DeSocio in 2019. Professors, experts from previous groups universities, both from the U.S.
disciplinary collaboration lecturers, and graduate met to present their outcomes and abroad. The event was
at the nexus of nation, race, students of our department to each other. This way, all divided into three interrelated
ethnicity, gender, sexuality, first explored in group participants were able to learn panels, during which graduate
class, and religion in the work either a song, a piece about various DEI-related students and professors
German sphere. During the of literature, a film scene, materials within a short period presented 5-minute flashtalks
academic year of 2020-2021, or an excerpt of an essay of time and develop several followed by 10-minute Q&As.
graduate students Özlem produced by traditionally teacher’s manuals for future
Karuç (German) and Rhiannon underrepresented use. All outcomes were later Thank you to all participants
Muncaster (German) served communities in the German- added to our German Studies who attended the DEI-
as co-coordinators and Kristin language sphere. Then, by DEI Research and Teaching related events that were
Dickinson (Assistant Professor filling out the worksheets Database on Canvas. Since organized by Alamanya, for
of German) was the faculty they received, they developed then, we have received ample their ongoing handling of the
sponsor. teacher’s manuals for these feedback about the success distinguished task of showing
materials that consisted of these materials in our how power operates, helping
In Fall 2020, Alamanya hosted of keywords pertaining to undergraduate and graduate us understand oppression
two department-wide virtual each material, a summary classes. in its multifaceted ways, and
workshops with about of the given material, and giving us clues about the ways
30 attendees each. These some discussion questions On May 5, 2021, we hosted in which we need to rethink
teaching-oriented workshops that would help students our culminating event on how our institutions function,
were designed to help people anticipate, understand, “German Transnationalism what they value, and what
facilitate diversifying course analyze, and interpret the and Issues of Racism in they should value to make
content and to expand the materials, as well as possible Germany,” which attracted more equitable institutional
resources on the German answers to these questions attention beyond our practices.
Studies DEI Research and to help teachers prepare their anticipation with twelve
10 Department of Germanic Languages and LiteraturesI N TH E C L A S SRO OM
Through a Glass Darkly: German Science Fiction and Fantasy
By Mary Rodena-Krasan, Lecturer and Undergraduate Advisor
The addition of my German 325 Science the result of circumstance; and the push-pull
Fiction and Fantasy course to the under- of the powerful versus the powerless has
graduate curriculum addresses the growing long been a topic of speculation in German
interest these genres have had in Germany science fiction and fantasy.
since the turn of the 20th century. Despite
that steady audience, there is not an From such films as Fritz Lang’s canonical
immediate association between science Metropolis (1927), and the lesser known
fiction/fantasy genres and Germany even Damir Lukacevic’s film Transfer (2010),
amidst avid science fiction/fantasy fans. questions of class disparities, conflicting
Nevertheless, in terms of intercultural ideologies, and issues of race addressed
inspiration, Fassbinder portrayed the mind- in such films afford platforms upon which
bending possibility of a computer-generated difficult discussion can be built. The filter
world in his 1973 film of the fantastical or
Welt am Draht well “[T]he powerful employ extrapolated futurism
before Keanu Reeves allows an analysis
was aware of his
futurists and draw power of socio-cultural
simulated world in the from the future they endorse, norms that takes
Wachowskis’ 1999 film thereby condemning the the imagined vistas
The Matrix. In addition and applies them
disempowered to live in the
to the cross-pollination to contemporary
of ideas, the impact the past. The present moment is landscapes. In so
German imagination stretching, slipping for some doing, hard questions
has had on our reality is into yesterday, reaching for —such as, “How can
indelible. For example, society reconcile
the “countdown”, as we others into tomorrow.” 2 opposing ideological
know it, originated from forces? How will
Fritz Lang’s 1929 film Die Frau im Mond. It is we negotiate the relationship between
even rumored that film inspired the making hierarchically structured Eurocentrism and
of the V2 rocket.1 the rest of the world?”—can be posited
through a less “high stakes” and contentious
In short, never underestimate the influence framework. Those discussions are essential,
of imagination upon reality. As Kodwo Eshun especially now as world demographics shift
states: “[T]he powerful employ futurists and and the consequences of our assorted global
draw power from the future they endorse, troubles of everything from intertwined
thereby condemning the disempowered economies to climate change are felt.
to live in the past. The present moment is Imagining possible futures can help steer
stretching, slipping for some into yesterday, us away from the more deadly results of our
reaching for others into tomorrow.” 2 Who continued fractious interrelationships and
gets a seat at the proverbial table in future formulate potential solutions by which a
iterations of our society is just as much a more equitable and inclusive future can be
result of our collective imagination as it is created—in Germany and beyond.
1 Horeis, Heinz: Rolf Engel - Raketenbauer der ersten Stunde. Hrsg.: TU München. München, pgs. 14, 19, 26.
2 Eshun, Kodwo. “Further Considerations of Afro-Futurism.” CR: The New Centennial Review 3, no. 2 (2003), p. 289.
lsa.umich.edu/german 11S TAY I N G C O N N E C TED
Coming Full Circle
By Sarah Lime, Incoming Ph.D. Student, A.B. German Honors, International Studies, and Women's Studies, 2019
As an incoming freshman, I remember feeling eager, yet at the Goethe Institut at Schwäbisch Hall; both of which were
overwhelmed, by the wealth of opportunities available at the supported by a Sturm Family Scholarship. Throughout these
University of Michigan. As I created my first-semester schedule stints abroad, I experienced the unwavering support of the
at new student orientation, I decided to enroll in a German department, whose investment in both my academic and
language course, having studied it abroad in Austria for a personal well-being was apparent.
semester in high school.
As a senior, I was fortunate to work with Dr. Peter McIsaac
A few months later, I timidly made my way to my very first and Dr. Julia Hell to craft an honors thesis. Throughout this
German class, a course taught in the Burton Memorial Tower experience, I was encouraged to combine my interests in
by Dr. Helmut Puff entitled “Mozart’s Magic Flute.” The class, German Studies with other academic areas that excited me.
taking place from 5-7 PM on Tuesdays Upon graduating, I felt a sense
and Thursdays, consisted of only of gratitude for my professors,
five students. Despite the lack of peers, and advisers in the German
our musical talent and background, department, who had helped
my peers and I sang along to “Der cultivate my interest in the field
Vogelfänger bin ich ja” as Professor and instill a sense of curiosity
Puff played the piano and directed within me.
us with a jolly demeanor. Needless to
say, this was not the German course I When it came time to apply to
had anticipated. I had rather expected doctoral programs, I was
a formal classroom setting directed admittedly hesitant to apply to
by a strict, humorless professor U-M. Though undoubtedly a
with a harsh insistence on proper highly esteemed program with an
German grammar. But to my pleasant innovative approach to the field, I
surprise, Professor Puff encouraged questioned if I wanted to return to
us to practice freely our German Ann Arbor. Ultimately, it felt silly to
and examine the complex historical pass up the opportunity to apply,
narratives embedded in German as I knew of the exceptional
Studies. This would be the case nature of U-M’s German depart-
with other professors I experienced ment from my experience as a
during my undergraduate career as a junior scholar. Additionally, I was
German major. It quickly became apparent that U-M’s German aware of the wide network of scholars in the department with
department encouraged interdisciplinary exploration and a which I had yet to engage. Now, I could not be more excited to
nontraditional approach to German language learning, while return to Ann Arbor. As with any new experience, I feel some
still maintaining a commitment to excellence. nerves for this upcoming fall. However, I feel so welcomed by
the community, whose commit-ment to both my personal and
Despite being a painfully indecisive person, I felt confident intellectual growth is palpable.
in my decision to declare a German major following my
first weeks at U-M. I continued to be impressed by the level Additionally, I look forward to collaborating with the ambitious
of support the department provided its students, as well as students which constitute one of the nation’s largest under-
the opportunities offered. Following my sophomore year, I graduate German departments to cultivate an environment of
took advantage of the department’s study abroad offerings support, passion, and inquiry similar to the one I experienced as
and made my way to Dresden for an intensive language an aspiring academic. I am delighted to return to this commu-
course Goethe Institute followed by another intensive course nity, this time as a doctoral student.
12 Department of Germanic Languages and LiteraturesU N D ERG R AD UATE S T UD IE S
Introducing Schriftlich
By Martina Villalobos (A.B. French and German, 2021) and Laura Stahl (A.B. German, History, and International Studies, 2021)
Schriftlich is an undergraduate magazine founded in 2021 and housed in U-M’s Department of
Germanic Languages & Literatures. The aim of this platform is to provide a space where students
can publish their work related to the field of German Studies in a semi-professional manner.
In particular, we are dedicated to highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of the humanities.
Thematically we accept content from a wide range of genres, including literature, poetry, translated
excerpts, theory, history, etc. We will publish bi-annually at the end of each term. This coming semester we hope to recruit new
members interested in social media, design, editing, and writing. We look forward to accepting submissions and publishing our
first edition at the end of the Fall 2021 semester!
Writing an Honors Thesis
Congratulations to our four honors thesis writers this past year, which we celebrated at
our virtual graduation ceremony. They spent countless hours of research and writing to
investigate contemporary and historical issues in German culture and society. Congrats
Class of
2021
The department hosted
a virtual graduation
reception this April to
celebrate our graduates
and their achievements.
We had close to 200
participants join us in
Martina Villalobos Julia Marie Ebben Laura Stahl
our festivities! We even
Martina Villalobos was the Julia Marie Ebben wrote Laura Stahl wrote her thesis
utilized the breakout
winner of the best honors her thesis on Protesting on Writing Identity: the Turkish
room feature to provide
thesis in German Studies, (or not?) the Establishment: German Female Protagonist
a platform for students
the Martin Haller Prize, for her A comparative look at the from Özdamar to Aydemir. Her
and their families to
thesis on the Theater of Crisis: founding, progression, and faculty advisor was Kristin
spend time with faculty
Art, Politics, and the Production trajectory of Germany’s Greens Dickinson. Laura will continue
members who impacted
of Community in the Nazi and AfD. Her faculty advisor her studies at the University of
their educational
Thingspiel (1933-1936). Her was Peter McIsaac. She will Michigan in our Ph.D. German
experience. The video
faculty advisor was Julia Hell. teach English in Austria for Studies program.
recording of our event
She plans to do research at the U.S. Teaching Assistants
the Goethe University in at Austrian Secondary Schools Carmen Rosa Rida can be viewed at
Carmen Rosa Rida’s faculty https://lsa.umich.edu/
Frankfurt via a Fulbright grant (USTA). The program is
advisor was Johannes von german/news-events/
and then will be pursuing her organized through Fulbright
Moltke. Her thesis was titled all-events/2021-
Ph.D. in German Studies at Austria and the Austrian
The Many Faces of Integration: graduation.html
Cornell University. Federal Ministry of Education,
Science and Research Understanding the Role of Art
(BMBWF). and Community in the Creation
of Refugee Identities. She
graduated in December.
lsa.umich.edu/german 13D U TC H A N D FL EM IS H S T UD IE S
Connecting during a pandemic
By Annemarie Toebosch, Director of Dutch and Flemish Studies
Warning: Police violence became a bigger priority than Anne Frank course, where our
ever. We taught from three normal instructor walkout to
In mid-March 2020, Dutch and countries: Liesbeth Vicca in protest Holocaust denial
Flemish Studies went online in Belgium, Pavel Brunssen in became a virtual walkout.
the early stages of the Germany, and Hannah You can visit our website,
COVID-19 pandemic. At the Boettcher, Daniel Guttenberg https://lsa.umich.edu/german/
same time, Tony Holten died and Annemarie Toebosch in undergraduate-students/
after prolonged pressing on the U.S. Holocaust survivors dutch-flemish-studies/
his face, neck and back by visited via Zoom, and Anne yom-hashoah-address.html,
police officers and Frank House researchers to see a detailed description
collaborating civilians in the Gertjan Broek and Willem of the Anne Frank course and
Dutch town of Zwolle. He was Wagenaar zoomed in from walkout. Students reflected:
unarmed, and video evidence Amsterdam, with students
showed him struggling to receiving a virtual tour of the “Today in class we were
breathe. While Tony’s death secret annex. In our language protesting and the whole class
Tony Holten
went almost entirely curriculum, we expanded our was just sitting there in
unreported, the Netherlands materials of Afrikaans, Sranan silence. This means a lot to
took to the streets to protest Tongo, and Papiamento. We me… [there’s] been a lot of
the killing of George Floyd a added many of our own police brutality going on.”
few months later. In March translations of anti-colonial
2021, on the anniversary of texts to the language and “Being left in silence was
Tony’s death, with no police culture curriculums, one of instrumental to the process of
officers prosecuted, Tony’s them our translation of the reflection…, being able to see
brother Mondy Holten made investigative journalism by other students' faces as they
an appeal to students in our Leendert van der Valk about grappled with the confusion
Anne Frank course to bear the 1619 “Dutch Man-of-War” of the walkout and began to
witness to his brother’s death that brought the first African digest what was
where the Netherlands was people to Virginia. Students happening…”
not.1 For students, his Zoom learned that U.S. slavery was
visit created connections founded in a network at the “The silence acted as a
between worlds, teaching highest institutional levels symbol of our collective
them the relevance of that included the royal Dutch understanding…”
struggle against anti-Black Orange family.
racism beyond the U.S. We wish all our Dutch and
In all, we learned there was Flemish Studies friends a
With students learning alone power in the silence of our connected year.
in their rooms this year, Zoom-year. Nowhere did this
bringing the world to them become as clear as in our
13.5 per 1 million people die in police custody in the US versus 0.5 per million in the Netherlands. However,
the disproportionality by race of such deaths is magnitudes higher in the Netherlands: Dutch people of color
die at 11.6 times the rate of white Dutch people; in the US this number is 2.4. https://www.oneworld.nl/
lezen/essay/nederlands-politieracisme-is-wel-te-vergelijken-met-de-vs/?fbclid=IwAR3z7xkgcLHPGinkxPIZZ5
gcHdmFW3iksfSSN_FyWuz5LUr4g0PhlL-buwM
14 Department of Germanic Languages and LiteraturesS CA N D I NAV IA N S T UD IE S
Scandinavian Program Zoomester
By Johanna Eriksson, Director of Scandinavian Studies
The 2020-21 academic year from hours of staring at
was a challenge. We had to Zoom squares, while also
figure out ways of making the giving us the ability to work
winter semester interesting with our hands. Passionate
since our classes were held about traditional crafts and
online, and for the first time in historical reenactment,
twenty years, fourth-semester Ann showed us examples
Swedish could not go to of historical needlebinding
Sweden for spring break. In from Scandinavia and other
connection with the second- places around the world.
year students’ group history Personally, I am proud to have
projects, we met for weekly needlebound a pair of mittens
workshops with local artist and a pair of socks.
Ann Asplund from Sweden.
She taught us nålbindning Third-year Swedish made
(needlebinding), a Viking style personal podcasts, where Third-Year Students: Asa Huffaker, Daniel Frechette, Malin Andersson,
Rachel Kushner and Erin Andrews
knitting or crocheting. The the scripts and pronunciation
only materials needed are a were workshopped carefully.
darning needle, which Ann The format was based on a right before the last snow of then forced to return early
popular Swedish public radio the year at the end of April. to Michigan due to the
program, which since 1959 has Emily Wogaman is graduating pandemic. They are eager to
given interesting and more with a minor in Scandinavian return to Uppsala again for
or less famous Swedes one Studies and major in Mathe- studies in bio-chemistry and
and a half hours of airtime to matics in August 2021. During biology in the fall of 2021.
talk about anything they’d her time at U-M, Emily was
like. The students produced a very engaged student in The Scandinavian Club stayed
biographical pieces on the Scandinavian program. active all year with weekly
struggles, as well as joys, in In addition to taking every Zoom meetings. At times they
their lives and it turned out to Swedish class that was invited Zoom-guests from
be a very meaningful project. offered, she volunteered at Scandinavia. In the spring,
other Swedish events, such the club members also met
Once small gatherings outside as the Jenny Lind Club Lucia, for hikes and walks, and
made for us out of lilac wood, were allowed, I was very and last year she studied held small outdoor picnics
and untreated wool yarn. After happy to celebrate the end at Uppsala University for a in accordance with U-M and
some initial frustration and of the term with an outdoor semester. Lycka till med allt i CDC guidelines for small
struggles, everyone learned Swedish fika. All third-year framtiden, Emily! gatherings. Karena Holmstrom
the basics of the technique. students baked wonderful is the elected president of the
Textile-, wood- and metalwork Swedish pastries, from Two of our recent minors club for next academic year.
are still compulsory at school cardamom buns to blueberry- were accepted to Uppsala Tack för ditt jobb, Karena!
in Sweden from grades 3 and raspberry tarts. Second- University for MA studies:
to 9, so it was great to add year Swedish also bid farewell Daniel Frechette and Kari Glad sommar! We are looking
a “slöjd-“element to our in-person, as we met on Seres. They were both on forward to a semester in
Swedish language classes. the diag to play the popular exchange to Uppsala in the person in the fall!
It gave us a welcome break Swedish lawn game Kubb, winter of 2020 and were
lsa.umich.edu/german 15Department of Germanic Languages
and Literatures
812 East Washington Street
3110 Modern Languages Building
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 -1275
(734) 764-8018 • www.lsa.umich.edu/german
Cover Images
Top Left: Ryan Grady, Cochem, Germany
Bottom Left: Joseph Sun, Munich, Germany
Right: Simon Maisch, Königssee, Schönau am
Königssee, Germany
Chair: Andreas Gailus
Asst. Editor: Jennifer Lucas
Layout: Laura Koroncey
The Regents of The University of Michigan
Jordan B. Acker
Michael J. Behm
Mark J. Bernstein
Paul W. Brown
Sarah Hubbard
Denise Ilitch
Ron Weiser
Katherine E. White
Mark S. Schissel (ex officio)
CLASS OF 2021
In this unprecedented time, you have accomplished a truly remarkable feat. Congratulations, we are so proud of you!
Please keep in touch. We would love to hear how you are doing and what steps you will take in your future endeavors.
You can reach us at germandept@umich.edu or give us a shout-out on Facebook or Twitter. Best wishes to you!
This year´s virtual German Day, “Grenzenlos Deutsch” (German without Borders), turned out to
be a great success. German Day is an annual event of competitions and fun for middle and high
school German students sponsored by U-M’s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures.
This year´s theme sought to exemplify not only the lack of geographical borders the German
language has crossed over the course of history, but the technological ones as well. This theme
was more than appropriate given our current global situation and that it was hosted via Zoom.
Stacy Swennes and Silvia Grzeskowiak, the coordinators, are proud of all this year’s participants
and submissions, deeply appreciate everyone’s continued support of this special annual event,
and are very much looking forward to next year’s —hopefully—in-person German Day 2022.You can also read
