German

Tag: German

Lawrence faculty members promoted, granted tenure

Three members of the Lawrence University faculty have been granted tenure appointments and a fourth has been promoted to the rank of full professor by the college’s Board of Trustees.

Kurt Krebsbach has been promoted from associate professor to full professor of computer science. Celia Barnes in the English department, Alison Guenther-Pal in the German department and Copeland Woodruff, director of opera studies and associate professor of music, have been granted tenure. Barnes and Guenther-Pal also were promoted from assistant to associate professor.

“I’m delighted to welcome a new faculty member to the elevated rank of professor and to congratulate our three newest tenured colleagues,” said Catherine Gunther Kodat, provost and dean of the faculty. “Lawrence sets a high bar for faculty achievement, requiring demonstrated excellence in teaching, scholarship, creative activity and service. These faculty have enhanced our community immeasurably, introducing our students to new ideas and fresh perspectives on long established truths and enriching the intellectual and artistic life of the university. I look forward to working with them for many years to come.”

Kurt Kresbach
Kurt Krebsbach ’84

Krebsbach, whose research interests include artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems and functional programming, returned to Lawrence in 2002 as a faculty member, having earned his bachelor’s degree from Lawrence as the university’s first mathematics-computer science major.

He has made research presentations and technical reports at more than three dozen professional conferences in his career. A member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence since 1987, Krebsbach spent time in 2009 at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland as a Masters of Informatics Scholar.

Prior to joining the faculty, Krebsbach spent seven years as an artificial intelligence researcher at Honeywell Laboratories in Minneapolis. He also taught two years in the math and computer science department at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

After graduating from Lawrence, Krebsbach earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Minnesota.

Celia Barnes
Celia Barnes

Barnes joined the Lawrence English department faculty in 2010 as a visiting assistant professor before receiving a tenure-track appointment the following year. Her scholarship focuses on how18th-century writers conceived of their own place in literary history. She is particularly interested in re-examining the familiar image of the professional author who writes alone and always with an eye to publication into one where writers and readers are actively and sociably engaged in an interactive process of creating text.

In addition to teaching courses such as “British Writers,” Revolutionary 18th Century” and “Gender and Enlightenment,” Barnes has collaborated with colleagues to team-teach the interdisciplinary English/physics course “Newtonian Lit: Chronicles of a Clockwork Universe” and the English/philosophy course “Enlightenment Selves.”

Barnes directed an elementary composition program at Indiana University and spent a year on the faculty at California Lutheran University before coming to Lawrence. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from The College of William and Mary with a bachelor’s degree in English and earned a Ph.D. in English with a concentration in 18th-century British Literature from Indiana University.

Alison Gunther-Pal
Alison Gunther-Pal

Guenther-Pal began her career at Lawrence in 2007, first with a three-year appointment in German and film studies through the university’s Postdoctoral Fellows program, then as visiting assistant professor and finally as a tenure track assistant professor. In addition to teaching in the German and film studies programs, she also teaches courses in gender studies.

Her scholarship interests span German cinema, 20th-century German culture, feminist film theory, queer theory and popular culture, especially stardom and fandom. Her primary research focuses on the representation of homosexuality and queerness in cinematic, scientific, lay and literary texts during the Konrad Adenauer era of post-World War II Germany.

Guenther-Pal was honored with Lawrence’s Young Teacher Award in recognition of “demonstrated excellence in the classroom and the promise of continued growth” in 2017 and was the 2015-16 recipient of the university’s Mortar Board Award for Faculty Excellence.

She studied in Germany at the University of Göttingen and the Free University of Berlin before earning a bachelor’s degree in biology and the University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Germanic studies from the University of Minnesota.

Copeland Woodruff
Copeland Woodruff

Woodruff was named Lawrence’s first director of opera studies in 2014 after spending six years as co-director of opera activities at the University of Memphis. In addition to directing Lawrence’s annual main stage opera production, Woodruff has launched a series of “micro-operas” that examine socially relevant issues and are performed at non-traditional locales. His first, “Expressions of Acceptance,” featured 13 short operas simultaneously staged throughout the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, including stairwells, bathrooms, the bar areas and even elevators. The production tied for third place in the 2015-16 National Opera Association’s Division 1 Best Opera Production competition.

In 2016, his “Straight from the Hip,” was performed at The Draw, a local art gallery. The production examined the issue of gun presence and gun awareness in the community through a series of nine mini-vignettes. His 2017 production, “Is That a Fact,” explored facts, and possibly, their alternative-fact counterparts.

Woodruff’s 2016 mainstage production, “The Beggar’s Opera,” was awarded first-place honors in by the National Opera Association. Under his direction, Lawrence also was recognized in 2015 with first-place honors in the undergraduate division of the Collegiate Opera Scenes competition and earned second-place honors in the NOA’s Best Opera Production competition for “The Tender Land.”

He earned a both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in vocal performance from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree in stage directing for opera from Indiana University.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.”  Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

 

 

Hartmut Gerlach 1929-2015: Taught in the Lawrence German dept. for 28 years

Professor Emeritus of German Hartmut Gerlach, who spent 28 years on the Lawrence University faculty,  died at his Appleton home Wednesday, March 18. He was 85.

Hartmut-Gerlach_newsblog
Hartmut Gerlach spent 28 years teaching in the Lawrence German department.

Born in Dresden, Germany, Gerlach joined the Lawrence German department in 1966, teaching language,  literature — he was especially fond of Goethe’s “Faust” — history and culture until his retirement in 1994. He was well known for his innovative courses on the art of German cinema and his observations on the changing focus of German films after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

During his tenure, he served as director of Lawrence’s study-abroad programs in Germany, first in Boennigheim in 1968 and later in Eningen and Munich. He was appreciated by a generation of Lawrentians for whom he served as a solicitous guide for students exploring a new culture.

Hartmut-Gerlach_newblog2
Professor Emeritus of German Hartmut Gerlach served as director of Lawrence’s study abroad programs in Eningen and later in Munich.

Growing up in Germany under the Nazi regime, Gerlach was forced to join the Hitler Youth Organization as a 10-year old, something he detested. At the age of 14, he was put in charge of 25 10-year olds, but rather than indoctrinate them in Nazi ideology, Gerlach taught them German folk songs during meetings as a way to subvert the Nazi regime. As a youth living through World War II, Gerlach wrote numerous poems and short stories that reflected a deep love of nature, country and family.

He studied psychology, psychiatry, pedagogy and philosophy at the universities of Zurich, Tuebingen and Goettingen and spent a year teaching at Trenton State College in New Jersey before completing his master’s and doctorate degrees in German at Indiana University.

He is survived by his wife, Diane, and four children: Bettina; Peter (Cady); Pamela (Bobbie); and Loren (Susan); and two grandchildren, Katelyn and Nicholas.

The family will hold a private service and have requested any donations in Professor Gerlach’s memory can be made to Lawrence University or any charity of the donor’s choice.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Memorial Service June 21 Celebrates the Life of Professor Emeritus Dorrit Friedlander

A memorial service commemorating the life of Lawrence University Professor Emeritus of German Dorrit Friedlander will be conducted Saturday, June 21 from 9-10 a.m. in the Nathan Marsh Pusey Room of the Warch Campus Center.

Dorrit-Memorial-Headshot
Professor Emeritus of German Dorrit Friedlander, 1925-2013.

The service will include remarks from Dave Burrows, provost and dean of the faculty, Brian Pertl, dean of the conservatory, and Friedlander’s niece Rabbi Ariel Friedlander. Several alumni will share stories from their time with her in Germany. It will also feature music from her favorite composers and a slideshow. The room will remain open until noon for faculty, staff, alumni, family and friends to spend time celebrating her special life.

One of the college’s most beloved teachers and, with 61 years, the longest-serving faculty member in the college’s history, Friedlander died peacefully Nov. 14 at her Appleton home at the age of 88 after a battle with liver cancer.

Friedlander  joined the faculty in 1951 for what was supposed to be a one-year appointment and never left.  She taught both German and Spanish for her first seven years before focusing solely on her primary passion, German. Although she officially retired in 1993, she continued to teach at least one course each year up through the fall of 2012.

A dedicated but demanding teacher, Friedlander always held her students to high standards, both in the mastery of good German as well as the manners of good living and she insisted that civility and kindness prevail. Known affectionately to generations of students as “Tante Dorrit” or “Frau Friedlander,” she won the admiration and affection of students through the personal interest she showed each of them as well as the delicious cheesecakes she made.

Her teaching prowess was honored in 1980 when she was recognized with Lawrence’s Excellent Teaching Award. In presenting her the award, then President Richard Warch praised Friedlander for her “commitment to teaching and devotion to the university, qualities that make Lawrence a place of distinction.”

Friedlander’s love of teaching extended beyond the campus borders as well. She was instrumental in establishing Lawrence’s first foreign language study program in 1967, a venture in Bönnigheim, Germany, and was a frequent and popular director of the college’s study-abroad programs in Eningen and Munich, Germany.

She proudly embraced the role of university matriarch in various forms, overseeing faculty office assignments in Main Hall for many years and making sure the receiving line at the annual year-opening reception for new faculty moved along at an acceptable pace. Each fall, Friedlander organized the Main Hall holiday collection, providing a year-end bonus for the building’s staff in appreciation of their efforts throughout the year.

She also served as a “house mother,” first at Sage Cottage, a former women’s dormitory (now the International House) and later at Ormsby Hall. Long after the practice of house mothers ended, Friedlander continued to regularly reserve a lunch table in Lucinda’s for Ormsby students so she could stay connected. She diligently supported her students outside of the classroom as well, often attending their recitals, theatre performances and art exhibitions.

During her life, Freidlander’s genuine affection for people helped her cultivate a large and very diverse group of friends from around the world and from all walks of life.

Born in 1925 in Berlin, Germany, Friedlander and her family fled the Nazis in the late 1930s, catching one of the last boats leaving Germany and winding up in Havana, Cuba as a young teenager. She emigrated to the United States in 1940, resettling with her family in Mississippi.

She attended the University of Cincinnati, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Romance Languages and a master’s degree in German. She spent a year teaching German and Spanish at the University of Oklahoma before coming to Lawrence.

At her request, memorial contributions can be made to Lawrence’s Dorrit Friedlander Scholarship Fund.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

German Professor Brent Peterson Awarded Third NEH Grant for Seminar in Berlin

For the third time since 2009, Lawrence University Professor of German Brent Peterson has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to co-direct a seminar in Berlin, Germany. The $169,950 grant will support a five-week long professional development seminar June 22-July 25, 2014 for K-12 teachers designed to enrich their knowledge of contemporary German culture and history.NEH Logo MASTER_082010

Peterson, in collaboration with Robert Shandley, professor of film studies and German at Texas A&M University, will lead the seminar “Migration and German Culture: Berlin’s Cultural Diversity Across Two Centuries.”  This will be one of 52 seminars and institutes the NEH will support next summer for school teachers and college professors.

Brent-Peterson_newsblog
Brent Peterson

The program targets educators in language, literature, social studies and modern history, but any K-12 teacher with intermediate-mid German skills is encouraged to apply. Up to 16 teachers will be selected from a national, competitive application process. Each participant receives a $3,900 stipend to help cover their expenses.

“Although Germany has long welcomed migrants from southern and eastern Europe, France, the Netherlands and more recently, from Turkey, many Americans still imagine it to be the quaint homogeneous land of Beethoven, bratwurst and beer,” said Peterson, a scholar on the construction of national and ethnic identities. “This seminar is designed to give teachers and ultimately their students, who are also very diverse, a more accurate and more appealing picture of a society shaped for centuries by migration. We use the tools of the humanities to see what it means to be German today in the midst of Berlin, Germany’s vibrant, complex and transnational capital.”

Peterson and Shandley first taught their Berlin seminar in 2010 and co-directed the program again last summer. It incorporates 19th- and 20th-century literature (children’s and adolescent), contemporary films and television programs. Two Turkish German authors will lead sessions on their own writing and the seminar also includes several walking tours of Berlin’s diverse neighborhoods.

Conducted in German, classes are held in the mornings with afternoons and weekends free for participants to explore the diverse city of Berlin on their own.

Teachers interesting in participating in the 2014 seminar can apply online after Oct. 28 at https://www2.lawrence.edu/fast/petersob/NEH/.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

German Professor Brent Peterson Awarded $149,000 NEH Grant for K-12 Teacher Seminar in Berlin

Lawrence University Professor of German Brent Peterson has been awarded a $149,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities for a summer seminar in Berlin, Germany for K-12 school teachers designed to enrich their knowledge of contemporary German culture and history.

Professor of German Brent Peterson

Peterson, in collaboration with Robert Shandley, professor of film studies and German at Texas A&M University, will direct the seminar “Berlin’s Cultural Diversity Across Two Centuries” June 17 – July 20, 2012.

Aimed primarily at language, literature, social studies and modern history teachers, the grant will enable as many as 16 educators to participate in the five-week long seminar. Selected from a national, competitive application process, each participating teacher will receive a $3,900 stipend to help cover their expenses.

“Although Germany has long been at the crossroads of European culture, many Americans still imagine it to be the quaint land of Beethoven, bratwurst and beer,” said Peterson, whose scholarship includes the construction of national and ethnic identities. “The seminar is designed to give teachers and ultimately their students a more accurate and, at the same time, more appealing picture of a society shaped for centuries by migration. We use the tools of the humanities to see what it means to be German today in the midst of Berlin, Germany’s vibrant, complex and diverse capital.”

The NEH grant is the second Peterson and Shandley have received for this seminar, which they first directed in the summer of 2010. The program incorporates 19th- and 20th-century literature, including children’s and adolescent literature, with contemporary films and television programs. Conducted in German, classes are held in the mornings with afternoons and weekends free for participants to explore the diverse city of Berlin on their own.

Teachers interesting in participating in the seminar can apply online here.

Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a world-class conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. Ranked among America’s best colleges, it was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,520 students from 44 states and 56 countries.

Lawrence University German Professor Awarded NEH Grant for Summer Seminar in Berlin

APPLETON, WIS. — A Lawrence University German professor has been awarded a $141,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities for summer seminar in Berlin, Germany for K-12 school teachers to enrich their knowledge of German history and contemporary German culture.

Brent%20Peterson_web.jpgBrent Peterson, in collaboration with Robert Shandley, associate professor of film studies and German at Texas A&M University, will direct the seminar “Germany’s Cosmopolitan Capital: Berlin and the Myth of German Monoculturalism” in June, 2010.

Aimed primarily at language, literature, social studies and modern history teachers, the grant will enable up to 16 educators to participate in the five-week long seminar. Participating teachers each will receive a stipend of $3,900 to help cover their expenses.

“The phrase ‘Cosmopolitan Capital’ in the seminar title refers both to the rich cultural life of this multi-national city and to the multi-faceted human capital that enabled the growth and development of the German economy,” said Peterson, a scholar of the construction of national and ethnic identities. “By using the tools of the humanities, we will explore how German culture has been challenged, defined and redefined by its encounters with migrants. The seminar is intended to provide participants the knowledge and skills necessary to fully engage contemporary Germany’s complex social and cultural reality in their classrooms.”

According to Peterson, the seminar will incorporate literature of the early 19th century, including children’s and adolescent literature, as well as contemporary films and television programs. Conducted in German, seminar sessions will be held in the mornings, with afternoons and weekends free for participants to explore Berlin on their own.

“This seminar is a wonderful opportunity for interested teachers to study a fascinating and important city,” said Lawrence Provost David Burrows. “Learning about major cosmopolitan areas is a very effective way to develop global knowledge and intercultural competence. We are very proud of Professor Peterson and his colleague. NEH grants are extremely competitive and this award is a testament to their skill, knowledge and creativity.”

Teachers interesting in participating in the seminar can apply online here.