German Studies Visiting Assistant Professor Anna Horakova has received two grants to conduct research over the summer, one from Women in German (WiG) and one from the Max Kade Foundation. The research grant from WiG is to expand her published article on Christa Wolf into a more fully fledged book chapter with new archival research. The Max Kade Research Grant will be used to conduct research in the Contemporary German Literature Collection at Washington University, St Louis on contemporary German-language asylum and migration literature. Congratulations Anna!
Informed by a genuine pleasure in academic dialogue, Professor Sheehi’s teaching engages the nuances of identity and opens the door for his students to develop new and productive ways to think about the complex history of the Middle East. With great energy, intellectual playfulness, fresh ideas, and humor, he consistently leads civil discussions about highly contentious political issues. Students praise his “well-rounded” and confounding approach, with one writing, “The entire focus of this course was to complicate our perceptions … I am walking away from class enlightened and confused.…”
His teaching draws on an active record of research and publication, with three books published since 2014 (two more are forthcoming) on topics including translation theory and colonialism, the history of photography in the Arab world, psychoanalysis, Islamophobia, race, and class. All of which provide a fertile bed of knowledge for his wide-ranging courses about, for example, Arab visual culture, the Arab American experience, the culture of Arab food, and the trajectory from Orientalism to Islamophobia. Together these courses offer students spaces to explore the historical and cultural history of the Arabic world, and, crucially, the relationship of the United States to that world.
It is fitting that he now be recognized with the Arts & Sciences 2018 Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.
John ‘Rio’ Riofrio Assistant Professor in Hispanic Studies
Since joining the faculty in 2009, Professor Riofrio has contributed in vigorous and consequential ways to matters of governance before the faculty. His persistent voice for academic rigor, interdisciplinarity, and creative approaches helped to shape the new College Curriculum, followed by insightful service on various implementation working groups, culminating in his appointment as an inaugural fellow in the Center for the Liberal Arts. Charged with inspiring colleagues to imagine and contribute entirely new courses, this “first wave” of CLA Fellows also helped to shoulder the many administrative processes involved with moving from the conceptual stage to a functional, working general education curriculum.
He has served as director of Latin American Studies in the Global Studies Program and was recognized in 2016 for interdisciplinary innovation with selection to a Taylor Reveley Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Study. He has also been a leader in campus initiatives to address sensitive issues of inclusion and climate, including service on the University Diversity Committee, the Provost’s Committee for Latino Recruitment, the President’s Task Force on Race and Race Relations, and, currently, the President’s Implementation Team for Campus Race and Race Relations Policy.
For his many contributions, it is fitting that Professor Riofrio be recognized with the Arts & Sciences 2018 Faculty Governance Award.
Maryse Fauvel, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, retires this year after more than twenty years of teaching at W&M. During her tenure at W&M, Professor Fauvel published Exposer “l’autre”. Essai sur la Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration et le Musée du quai Branly (2014); Tâches d’encre, Maryse Fauvel, co-author, Heinle Cengage (2011); A vous de voir ! De l’idée au projet filmique (2010); and Scènes d’intérieur: Six romanciers des années 1980-1990 (2007). She has inspired her students through her innovative teaching, especially her focus on students’ writing. A fierce advocate for the faculty of MLL, she served as Chair of the department from 2013-2017. In addition to her research and scholarship, Maryse was extremely active in faculty service and governance at the University. Maryse championed student-centered learning and challenged her students at every point to become critical thinkers and polished writers. She will be sorely missed!
The newest recipient of the prestigious St. Onge Prize in French and Fancophone Studies is Rebecca Lamb, a double-major in French and Francophone Studies and International Relations. The prize is awarded to outstanding students who are continuing their studies in graduate school. Rebecca has fond memories of her courses in French, particularly with Prof. Magali Compan. From her classes on campus to an unforgettable semester abroad in Montpellier, she considers her experiences with the Program in French and Francophone Studies and MLL as essential milestones in her time at W&M. She will be attending University of Virginia School of Law this coming fall, with the hopes of one day using her French as an international lawyer. Congratulations Rebecca!
Before I started my undergraduate career at the College of William & Mary, I figure skated competitively. Taking lessons from a couple of Russian Olympians and skating to the popular Russian folk song “Kalinka” were perhaps the two main factors that launched my interest in studying Russian. Little did I know that I would decide to major in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at William & Mary or that the decision would introduce me to an entirely new world. Every class that I took was interesting, especially Russian Myths and Legends and a course on Western and Russian detective novels, as well as Russian language, cinema, history, and political courses. There is not a single class in all of RPSS that I regret taking. Moreover, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to live in the Russian House as well as study abroad in St. Petersburg! St. Petersburg is a lovely city, filled with street musicians and the aromas of fresh markets, cafes, and restaurants. I can almost hear the accordion players now just thinking about it!
During my college career, I was President of The Russian Music Ensemble, where I played the violin, prima domra, and alto balalaika. Playing with the ensemble was one of my favorite hobbies, because I loved sharing beautiful traditional Russian folk music with others through concerts and gigs, such as our performances at W&M’s Global Film Festival and the Russian Language Olympics. I am proud to say that the ensemble is now a one credit course and that all instruments and voice types are welcome. So far, the ensemble has a small talented choir and musicians who play both classical Western and Russian folk instruments. In fact, I enjoyed Russian music so much that I sought out other groups, with which I could continue playing the balalaika after graduation. These groups include the Washington Balalaika Society and the Balalaika and Domra Association of America.
This summer, I will be teaching Russian through the STARTALK Russian immersion program at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. My intense RPSS curriculum certainly helped me to find job opportunities and I am very thankful to the W&M Russian faculty for being so supportive. I definitely plan on returning to Russia to do more research on Russian symphonic orchestras, folk music groups, and concert culture.
As a student, Ms. Ferraro has had the opportunity to participate in many different programs related to Japan. She worked as a peer assistant in the Keio-WM Cross Cultural Collaboration helping Japanese students do comparative research on US and Japanese culture, and subsequently studied abroad at Keio University. At William & Mary, She lived in the Japanese House, was a TA for intro Japanese, and did anthropological research on the issue of elderly care in Japan. After graduating with a double major in English and Japanese Studies, She’ll be participating in the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program as a coordinator for international relations.
Mackenzie Neal began studying Japanese in high school and has continued to explore the Japanese language and culture during her time at the College. A Government major with a minor in East Asian Studies, her research interests include Japanese soft-power politics and Asia/Pacific security architecture. She has served as a TA for the Japanese Language Program and was the 2017 recipient of the Kinyo Prize for Excellence in Japanese at the advanced level. Mackenzie has used her Japanese language skills in internships with the U.S. Department of State and the Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations. She is currently conducting research on Japanese “apology fatigue” and international apology dynamics for her senior seminar on the political psychology of international relations. Mackenzie will continue studying Japanese in Washington, D.C. after graduation.
The study of Japanese is the skill set that Yunyi Zhu pursued during his four years at the College of William and Mary, thanks to the enthusiasm of Japanese Study program professors. He especially benefited by studying abroad at Keio University and counts that experience as one of the best memories of his life. In Keio, he found his hall and classmates to be as fascinated with Japanese culture as he. He also made many friends who worked hard with him and, together, they spent a great deal of time practicing the Japanese language and exploring the culture. They all appreciated the fact that Tokyo is a charming city that attracts people from many cultures. Upon his return to W&M, he completed the 400-level Japanese classes. However, he is excited to know that more knowledge about Japan and its culture awaits him after graduation.
Daniel Birriel is very interested in Japanese language and culture, and someday hopes to work for Nintendo localizing video games. These interests led him to focus his AMES Capstone Paper on how localization affects intercultural exchange and the response Japanese video game companies should take regarding this exchange. Understanding localization requires an understanding of how it is different from translation. While translation takes a product and moves it from one language to another, often modifying certain words or phrases to create a smooth transition between languages, localization involves adjusting aspects of a product, like culture, music, art, fashion, religion, in addition to words and phrases in order to ensure a product will be accepted and succeed in a foreign market. This is commonly seen in the video game market as some of the biggest game developers are based in Japan. To what degree Japanese culture, humor, gender norms, and marketing will need to be modified for foreign markets is always a key concern for these companies. Japanese video game companies must be more aware of the shifts in consumer markets that create this growing group of consumers seeking more and more “authentic” Japanese video games, else they find themselves losing out on potential profits. The paper also touches on the influence video game and anime has had on American pop culture, such as cartoons and film, as well as how Japan utilizes soft power politics to shape its global image.
Over the course of his research, he discovered one important way that American consumers are engaging with Japanese pop culture and media. After watching anime or playing video games developed by Japanese video game companies, they start seeking out more Japanese products and begin a search for what they deem is truly “authentic.” The way this search sometimes manifests itself is through switching a games voice acting to Japanese or by playing video games that were never released in the US and were translated by fans.
For fans, this is a great way to engage with Japanese games that they otherwise would never have been able to play. However, for Japanese game developers, these fan translated games represent an interesting problem. On one hand, they never officially released the game in the US so they lose no profit, but on the other hand, their intellectual property is being placed in the hands of people who may not translate their game in the way they would like.
The Japanese Studies Program is proud to announce the recipients of Kinyo Awards for Excellence in Japanese language study for 2017 – 2018 academic year. The prize recognizes the hard work and achievement of the top student at each level of William and Mary’s Japanese language program. The awards are made possible through the generous support of Mr. Kazuo Nakamura of Kinyo Virginia, Inc., who established the awards in 2007 and has maintained them since then. This year’s recipients are: in first year, James Stinneford; in second year, Isaelle Tsow; in third year, Victoria Park; and, in fourth year, Celia Metzger. These students have demonstrated extraordinary diligence and accomplishment in Japanese language study over the past year. Congratulations to all the winners, and keep up the good work! 皆さん、おめでとうございま
I first became interested in Russian Studies after eating at an Eastern European restaurant the summer after I graduated from high school. The food was so unlike anything that I had ever tried before, and the atmosphere was so unique and fresh that I wanted to learn more. I did some reading about Russia, Russian, and borsht, then decided to take Russian 101, thinking that if I did not like it, I could just continue with French. The rest is history! My first class at William & Mary was Russian 101 with Bella Feliksovna. Within the Russian and Post-Soviet Studies program, the quality of the teaching was so high and the feeling of community so excellent that I decided to pursue a RPSS Minor.
There are numerous opportunities to become involved with RPSS at William & Mary—weekly events, movie screenings, lectures, conversation hours, and the professors are always open to discussion if you pop by their offices. I got involved in some research that Professor Aleksandr Prokhorov was working on. One day I was just asked to come aboard and work with some linguistic data. My major is Computer Science, so it was a great opportunity to combine my interests.
After graduation, I hope to land a software engineering position.
The project that I have been working on with Professor Prokhorov is front and center on my resume. It was a large project, and without it I would be much less competitive in the interview process. Several time I have even bonded with interviewers over their own connections to Russia.
No matter where I end up, I do not think I will ever lose the appreciation for Russian culture and understanding of global context that I developed at W&M. Learning Russian has been a journey, and I would recommend it to everyone!
Arianna Afsari has received the Critical Language Scholarship, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, to study Russian. Arianna will participate in an intensive eight-week Russian language program in Vladimir, Russia this summer. Поздравляем!!! “I am so honored to receive this incredible opportunity to partake in Russian immersion this summer!,” Arianna said. “I encourage all students at William and Mary who study any critical language (Russian, Arabic, Chinese, etc.) to apply for CLS for the chance to travel to your target-language country and interact directly with native speakers. With CLS you not only take language classes, you also travel within your host country and visit various cities and fascinating sites. CLS is not only a prestigious program that will contribute to your language success and cultural understanding, it is also an all-expenses-paid experience! So, what are you waiting for? Apply for CLS Summer 2019!”
Over the past four years, much of my academic and extracurricular life on campus has revolved around Russian and Post-Soviet Studies. I have participated in student-led groups, such as the Russian and English language newspaper Gazeta and the Russian Music Ensemble. I lived in the Russian language house for two years. This year, I also served on the Russian Language Olympics organizing committee. My favorite courses have included Bella Ginzbursky-Blum’s language classes, Robert Mulcahy’s class on the Fantastic in Russian Literature, and Elena Prokhorova’s seminar on Russian television genres. In addition, I had the privilege of assisting Alexander Prokhorov on his Cinema and Memory research project. Conducting, transcribing, and translating interviews conducted in Russian has exponentially increased my listening comprehension and vocabulary in the Russian language.
As a double major in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies and English, I have always looked for ways to synthesize these two areas of interest. For instance, while studying abroad in St. Petersburg my sophomore year, I visited the apartment of poet Anna Akhmatova to research the impact of her living conditions on her long poem Requiem. More recently, I composed an undergraduate thesis with the help of the English and Russian departments in which I compare the works of Modernist Virginia Woolf and the Russian Futurist writer Elena Guro. The project included transliterations of Guro’s original Russian text, allusions to Slavic folklore in both works, and close reading analysis based on Russian formalist and French feminist theory.
Undoubtedly, enrolling in Russian 101 was the greatest decision I ever made as an undergraduate. My experience with the RPSS department has provided me with invaluable analytical, creative, and social skills that I will use in my future endeavors, and, perhaps more importantly, it has connected me with my most trusted friends and mentors. This fall, I will begin a Ph.D. program in Slavic Studies with a concentration in Russian Literature at Indiana University, Bloomington. I am excited to embark on new intellectual journeys while also treasuring the memories and friendships I have made at William & Mary.
Rachel Dubit graduates in Spring 2018 with a major in Classical Studies (Latin) and a minor in Italian Studies. During her time at William & Mary, she has studied abroad in Italy twice and in Greece. In addition to Latin and Ancient Greek, she continues to study Italian literature and German language and will participate in a language program through Stanford University this summer to continue her German studies at the Goethe Institute in Germany and Austria. She most recently wrote an Honors Thesis under the direction of Dr. Swetnam-Burland on the Carmen de Bello Actiaco, a fragmentary Latin epic preserved as a papyrus from Herculaneum, focusing on the cultural dynamic between Rome and Egypt during the rise of the principate. She hopes to continue her research on cultural issues in Latin poetry as a graduate student at Stanford, where she will begin her PhD studies in Classics this fall. She also hopes to promote research that bridges the gap between modern and ancient language studies in higher education through reception studies, comparative literature, and the application of contemporary literary theories (many of which she has been exposed to in her Italian classes here at W&M) to ancient texts. In April Rachel was recognized by Gamma Kappa Alpha, the National Italian Honor Society, for her outstanding undergraduate scholarship in the field of Italian Studies.
Over the past four years, much of my academic and extracurricular life on campus has revolved around Russian and Post-Soviet Studies. I have participated in student-led groups, such as the Russian and English language newspaper Gazeta and the Russian Music Ensemble. I lived in the Russian language house for two years. This year, I also served on the Russian Language Olympics organizing committee. My favorite courses have included Bella Ginzbursky-Blum’s language classes, Robert Mulcahy’s class on the Fantastic in Russian Literature, and Elena Prokhorova’s seminar on Russian television genres. In addition, I had the privilege of assisting Alexander Prokhorov on his Cinema and Memory research project. Conducting, transcribing, and translating interviews conducted in Russian has exponentially increased my listening comprehension and vocabulary in the Russian language. As a double major in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies and English, I have always looked for ways to synthesize these two areas of interest. For instance, while studying abroad in St. Petersburg my sophomore year, I visited the apartment of poet Anna Akhmatova to research the impact of her living conditions on her long poem Requiem. More recently, I composed an undergraduate thesis with the help of the English and Russian departments in which I compare the works of Modernist Virginia Woolf and the Russian Futurist writer Elena Guro. The project included transliterations of Guro’s original Russian text, allusions to Slavic folklore in both works, and close reading analysis based on Russian formalist and French feminist theory.
Undoubtedly, enrolling in Russian 101 was the greatest decision I ever made as an undergraduate. My experience with the RPSS department has provided me with invaluable analytical, creative, and social skills that I will use in my future endeavors, and, perhaps more importantly, it has connected me with my most trusted friends and mentors. This fall, I will begin a Ph.D. program in Slavic Studies with a concentration in Russian Literature at Indiana University, Bloomington. I am excited to embark on new intellectual journeys while also treasuring the memories and friendships I have made at William & Mary.
I began studying Chinese in the summer of 2011. Now, seven years later, it seems almost natural that I would major in it, but this has been a wonderful journey. I’m grateful to everyone in the Chinese department, both the professors and the students, for making the last four years so memorable. I still remember travelling with my Tsinghua study abroad group and the engaging discussions that took place in classes. I’m proud to have been a part of this close-knit community and I know that they will all do great things. I believe that the Confucius Institute has had the biggest impact on my time at William & Mary. Interning has allowed me to meet so many people who share my passion for Chinese language, and I’ve grown both professionally and personally during my time there. I’m glad that WM has access to these kinds of resources and that I was able to use them to improve my Chinese. Next year, I will be attending Carnegie Mellon University for a Master’s in Information Systems Management: Business Intelligence and Data Analytics.
When I entered William & Mary as a Freshman in the Fall of 2014, I knew that I wanted to study a subject that would allow me learn more about and connect with people and cultures around the world. After some exploring, it became clear that Chinese was the obvious fit. As a Sophomore, I fell in love with the challenge of learning Chinese; the difficulty and complexity of the language motivated me to improve my skills as much as I could, and to learn more about the parts of the world where it is spoken. As a Junior, my study abroad experience at Beijing’s Qinghua University gave me my first taste of authentic Chinese culture. Although brief, my stay in China was easily the most unforgettable and enriching experience of my college career. Now as a Senior, I am exciting to put to use the skills and knowledge that I have gained, and to further build upon them. For the next couple years, I will be serving as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in central China. I cannot wait for the challenges and experiences that lie ahead!
I am so thankful for the opportunities the French department at William & Mary has given me over the past four years. I’ve had great professors and met some of my closest friends in this department. When I was a freshman, I remember taking the French freshman seminar with Professor Magali Compan—and how incredibly intimidated I was by my fellow students. Looking back now, my freshman self had no idea just how much I would learn from professors like Professor Compan. From my classes on campus to my unforgettable semester abroad in Montpellier, I consider my experiences with the French department as essential milestones in my time at W&M. As for my future, I will be attending University of Virginia School of Law this coming fall, with the hopes of one day using my French as an international lawyer. So to everyone in the French department who helped me along the way: Merci à vous tous, et vous me manquerez énormément !
I am very happy with my decision to double major in Hispanic Studies and History. After taking Advanced Grammar and Composition with Professor Jorge Terukina Fall of my Freshman year, I decided I wanted to major in Hispanic Studies. The small class size and professor support that I encountered from my first class in the department was something I wanted to experience throughout the rest of college. As I labored through my GER requirements my first two years at W&M, my Hispanic Studies courses were always a welcome treat because of the focus on discussion and my interest in the course material. Entering W&M, I knew I wanted to study abroad for an entire year, which I was only able to achieve by majoring in Hispanic Studies. I spent my Junior year in Seville, Spain without worrying about credits because of the encouragement and support I received from the Hispanic Studies faculty. Outside the classroom, I have served as a TA for HISP 203 and am currently interning with the National Security Archive’s Southern Cone Documentation Project here on campus for Hispanic Studies credit. Finally, as my Hispanic Studies career ends, I will be interning at the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington D.C. directly following graduation.
My name is Nicole Cook and I am graduating with a double major in International Relations and Chinese Studies. I feel beyond blessed to have been a part of the Chinese Department all four years! I truly love the challenge of mastering a second language so different from English. I entered William & Mary never having studied Chinese, but the encouraging faculty and supportive environment have fostered some of my favorite college experiences. During the summer of 2016, I studied in Beijing through the W&M Summer Study Abroad program. I am excited to return to China this fall, studying for one academic year in Guilin as a Boren Scholar. I hope to apply my Chinese-language knowledge in a future career related to US national security.
I cannot imagine my college experience without the Chinese Studies program. I was nervous to transition from a high school to college level language program, but my Chinese 202 teacher worked hard to bring me up to speed with my older classmates and made me feel comfortable in a challenging learning environment. She was the first teacher to show interest in my academic progress and I looked forward to every class. After my study abroad experience at Qinghua University the following summer, I quickly declared by Chinese major. The combination of language and culture classes formed for me an appreciation of a culture I never experienced before. Though I will not be speaking Chinese in my post-graduate job, studying Chinese taught me how to pursue challenges and operate out of my comfort zone. I know that these skills will be beneficial for years to come!
The past four years in the French department at William & Mary have given me countless memories and opportunities, both inside and outside the classroom. The French classes I’ve taken here have covered a diverse range of subjects- from art history, to Francophone North America, to the portrayal of monsters in 18th century literature- which has allowed me to explore a variety of interests while strengthening my French language skills. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to spend the summer after my sophomore year abroad in Montpellier. Not only did my French improve dramatically, but I gained a new appreciation for the culture and made lasting friendships with the other students on the trip. This experience abroad pushed me to pursue a way to return to France after graduation, and I’m excited to say that I will be participating in the TAPIF program as a teacher’s assistant in the Amiens region this coming school year. Thank you to all the professors in the French program who have made my time at William & Mary engaging, exciting, and unforgettable.
I have had an amazing experience as a French and Francophone Studies major at William & Mary. Coming from a French Canadian background, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I took my first French class. After four years taking classes in the French Department, I can absolutely say that I’ve learned so much. I’ve had the chance to take French classes with a wide variety of topics ranging from learning about Renaissance art history and French Bohemian artists to learning about the current events in France. I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to have taken such rich French classes. After graduating, I plan on volunteering in India for the summer with my brother. After that, I was offered a teaching assistant position in Grenoble, France for the 2018-2019 school year, where I will be teaching English to elementary school students. Once that program ends, I plan on returning to Canada, where I will start applying to medical schools, and hopefully become a pediatrician.
I began my French major simply intending to retain some of the language I had learned in high school. However, I have learned so much during my four years of taking French here at William and Mary beyond simply becoming more fluent in the language. From Art and Culture classes, to the history of Versailles, the thing that I appreciate most about this program is that the French department offers such a variety of classes that anyone could find something interesting to explore. By far my favorite memory, not just of my major but of college as a whole, is my study abroad experience in Montpellier during the summer between my sophomore and junior years. I learned so much through that journey, about the culture and history of France, but also about independence and self-reliance, and I fully intend to return to France someday. In the meantime, I am spending the summer at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. I’ll be attending the summer publishing course there, in pursuance of my goal to become an editor of children’s books. Majoring in French has broadened my language skills in so many ways, and I am hoping to use my major in the future to do some translation work.
The Chinese Department at William & Mary was instrumental in my progress from high school to what lies beyond. I have taken Chinese every semester but one here, beginning with 301 and ending with 404. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to major or minor in Chinese, but Tang Laoshi gave me the inspiration to submit my major and I haven’t looked back since. My experience culminated in my junior and senior year, studying abroad with CET Harbin in spring 2017 and having the honor of being selected as a Chinese TA for spring 2018. Helping to teach Chinese 202 and holding individual tutoring sessions has given me an extremely rewarding conclusion to my Chinese Department experience. I would especially like to thank Qian Su and Chun-yu Lu, who have worked diligently to advise and teach me. I look forward to returning to China this summer to lead a group of American high schoolers on a month long educational trip.
Over the past four years, my French courses have pushed me to think from different perspectives and express myself in new ways. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to study and research in France twice through the French department. These experiences helped me to hone my language and interpersonal skills in and out of the classroom. I’m still figuring out my plans for after graduation, but I know that my language studies have equipped me with problem-solving and communication skills that I’ll take with me on whichever career path I choose.
My name is Lawrence Thurber and I am a double major in Hispanic Studies and Finance. I really enjoyed my academic track and experience at William and Mary because I was able to combine business with intercultural communication thanks to the Hispanic Studies department to create my own international business degree. Through the Hispanic Studies department, I was lucky enough to study abroad in Spain not once, but twice and even was able to work at a tech start-up in Valencia. Hispanic Studies has not only allowed me to improve my overall Spanish skills, but encouraged me to delve into Hispanic culture learning everything from the history and cultural constructs of the Spanish speaking world to the phonetic composition of the language. While in Spain, I was also able to write a research thesis analyzing the pros and cons of international investment in the Colombian economy, which was one of the most interesting projects I have worked on to this date. Some of my favorite classes during my undergraduate career at the College were Spanish phonetics with Professor Arries, Hispanic cinema with Professor Buck, and my senior capstone class about the Spanish Civil War with Professor Cate-Arries. Next year, I will be working at the Carlyle Group in Washington D.C. as a junior analyst, where hopefully I will be placed on their Latin American or European Buyout Funds. This will give me the opportunity to standout with my international experience and Hispanic Studies degree. I also hope to be a MBA candidate at I.E. Business School in Madrid after Carlyle, where I can further advance my career in international business.
Hola a todxs! My name is Kelley Doyle and I am a Hispanic Studies and Religious Studies double major. Coming into college, I knew I wanted to continue Spanish, having begun studying the language in middle school. My first semester, I jumped right in and took a Freshman Seminar with Professor Cate-Arries called “Imaginando Madrid: Paisajes urbanos en transición, 1808-2014.” Within the first few weeks, she invited all of her students in the class to her home for a Spanish dinner. The hospitality and warmth I felt as a result of that experience has continued throughout my time in this wonderful department. I also had the opportunity to study abroad in Cádiz, combining my interests in religion and Spanish culture to develop my own research project. Professors here really know their students: I remember one time in Cádiz, Professor Buck clipped me an article from a local paper about Bob Dylan, just because she thought I would enjoy it! The Hispanic Studies faculty is committed and caring, teaching its students to care deeply about this world and its people, whether through creating literacy programs, advocating for representation, or defending human rights. I have absolutely loved my time in the department and am grateful for the way it has shaped me. In the fall, I will be starting a Master of Divinity at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, studying religion, art, and activism, as well as hopefully continuing Spanish in the Latin American Studies program!
I knew I’d found my home at the College on the first day of my freshman year in Professor Magali Compan’s French 151 seminar. I loved the chance to connect with other francophiles and to have challenging, enriching discussions together. Through the Francophone lens, I loved learning about art, history, culture, linguistics, poetry, and so much more in the amazing courses offered in our department. The Modern Languages department also provided the opportunity for me to study abroad in Montpellier, France. I benefitted tremendously from the language immersion I experienced abroad, but the chance to conduct research in this immersion environment was especially transformational. With the help of my advisor, Prof. Compan, I had the chance to study the thriving book market in Montpellier. Finally, the French program sparked my passion for education through my experience as a TA in the department. I loved the ability to connect with other students, and to come up with creative ways to teach the material. Beginning this summer, I will be pursuing my Master’s Degree in Elementary Education– ESL Endorsement at the W&M School of Education. After the program, I hope to teach in a French immersion elementary school!
I went into my Freshman year totally unsure of what I wanted to pursue. I have always been interested in my Chinese heritage, which led me take A Brand New China as my freshman seminar and enroll in the Heritage Speakers course. Every semester, I found myself wanting to make space to take more and more of the Chinese Program’s courses. After an amazing summer abroad at Tsinghua University, I knew I wanted to have Chinese as a major. I was also super invested in the Chinese Student Organization on campus and served as Secretary an then President. It made me super happy to be able to grow our presence on campus and share cultural traditions and experiences with the community. I’ve had a great college experience where I was able to learn more about myself and cross cultural communications through my studies and extracurriculars. Currently, I am working as a Marketing Operations Assistant at China Telecom Americas. I can definitely say my studies have helped prepare me for working at a company where east meets west.
In my few years here, I’ve been as active a participant in three separate departments within Modern Languages, and would have gladly done more if it was possible to cram so much into such a short period of time. My absolute favorite thing about each of these departments are the professors that are so glad to see young students taking interest in their language and that possess such a passion to help students succeed in any endeavor, whether it’s related to the subjects they teach or otherwise. I’ve gone to a few professors during their office hours with questions, and have come out with so much information that I had no idea what to do with it all, and I’m so glad to have been able to learn from such passionate and caring people. My plan for the next few years is to continue my language studies by teaching English in the countries where my target languages are spoken (per the advice of one of the previously mentioned professors) before ultimately enrolling in graduate school in order to become an interpreter and translator.
Throughout my time with the French department, I have learned a great deal about not only French culture but the cultures of other francophone countries as well. I appreciate the relationships I developed with my professors and the opportunities they gave me to pursue a variety of interests in the context of French such as cinema, literature, and creative writing. Studying abroad in Strasbourg through the IFE program proved to be one of the most exciting periods of my life and the summer research I conducted in Paris allowed to me to develop my skills as a researcher as well as the opportunity to challenge myself by undertaking the challenge of doing research for an Honors thesis. I was also able to put the years of French classes I had taken to the test and I lived in one of my favorite cities in the world. Over the summer, I will work a summer job after which I will be teaching English in the Aix-en-Provence/Marseille Region with the TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program in France) program. My experience as a student in the French department has allowed me to meet some of my most influential professors and some of my best friends at William & Mary.
My interest in Chinese language and culture began when I lived in Hong Kong and Beijing for middle school and high school. During my time at William and Mary as a double major in Chinese and Government, I was able to further expand my knowledge of China while thinking about how to aid US-China relations in the future. I enjoyed academically exploring Chinese culture and language at a deeper level in interesting classes with great faculty in the Chinese department. I hope that, with my understanding of Chinese culture and language fostered by the great Chinese program at William and Mary, I’ll be able to help foster peace and mutual prosperity between China and the United States as a diplomat.
One of the most meaningful experiences that I’ve had with the French and Francophone Studies Program has been my junior year study abroad in Montpellier. I would have never studied abroad in Montpellier and met all the incredible people I did if not for the program. I’m so grateful to all the powerful women within the program that have inspired me to dig deeper into something I’ve always loved!
I’ve been interested in Chinese ever since I lived in Beijing as a kid. It’s been interesting learning more about the language and culture these last four years. I spent my junior year studying abroad at Tsinghua, where I improved my language skills and traveled around the country. After graduation, I’m moving to Seattle to work as a software engineer at Microsoft.
Through the French and Francophone Studies program, I’ve learned invaluable communication skills and deepened my knowledge of cultures abroad. Through my courses and with the support of fantastic professors and classmates, I’ve engaged with texts, art, and film from around the world, which has enriched and diversified my education. My mentors in the department challenged me to find the intersections between language, culture, history, and art, which has fundamentally transformed my worldview.
I’m excited to take what I’ve learned through my experiences in the program with me after graduation. I will be staying at William & Mary for the next three years to complete my law degree. I am planning to practice at the intersection of public interest and family law, and I believe that my knowledge of French will open up many opportunities for supporting families with roots abroad.
The Hispanic Studies department was fundamental to my time at William & Mary. I was fortunate enough to balance humanities and business, being a Finance and Hispanic Studies double major. My background in Spanish goes all the way back to elementary school, where I was in an immersion program. Fast forward to college, and I couldn’t imagine not taking any courses in Spanish. The courses here have opened my eyes to major issues within the Hispanic community that are not typically addressed in the news. It also allowed me to study abroad in Cádiz, Spain, which opened my eyes to other cultures, and the nuances within the Spanish language itself. Studying Spanish has opened so many doors that I would never have thought possible. Breaking down a language barrier is a huge o advantage, building bridges with communities and breaking down walls with people who don’t feel quite as comfortable surrounded by others who don’t speak their language. Not to mention, it’s a great resume booster! One major thing that the Hispanic Studies department gave me, is a great group of friends. It may seem like a minor factor when deciding a major, but the people I’ve met along the way, I still keep in touch with, and plan to stay in touch with them. The Hispanic Studies department fosters comfortable classroom environments, allowing people like me to foster connections with my peers, and even feel empowered to speak up in class and share my personal insights. In short, the Hispanic Studies department played a major role in who I am today.
Before I started my undergraduate career at the College of William & Mary, I figure skated competitively. Taking lessons from a couple of Russian Olympians and skating to the popular Russian folk song “Kalinka” were perhaps the two main factors that launched my interest in studying Russian. Little did I know that I would decide to major in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at William & Mary or that the decision would introduce me to an entirely new world. Every class that I took was interesting, especially Russian Myths and Legends and a course on Western and Russian detective novels, as well as Russian language, cinema, history, and political courses. There is not a single class in all of RPSS that I regret taking. Moreover, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to live in the Russian House as well as study abroad in St. Petersburg! St. Petersburg is a lovely city, filled with street musicians and the aromas of fresh markets, cafes, and restaurants. I can almost hear the accordion players now just thinking about it!
During my college career, I was President of The Russian Music Ensemble, where I played the violin, prima domra, and alto balalaika. Playing with the ensemble was one of my favorite hobbies, because I loved sharing beautiful traditional Russian folk music with others through concerts and gigs, such as our performances at W&M’s Global Film Festival and the Russian Language Olympics. I am proud to say that the ensemble is now a one credit course and that all instruments and voice types are welcome. So far, the ensemble has a small talented choir and musicians who play both classical Western and Russian folk instruments. In fact, I enjoyed Russian music so much that I sought out other groups, with which I could continue playing the balalaika after graduation. These groups include the Washington Balalaika Society and the Balalaika and Domra Association of America.
This summer, I will be teaching Russian through the STARTALK Russian immersion program at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. My intense RPSS curriculum certainly helped me to find job opportunities and I am very thankful to the W&M Russian faculty for being so supportive. I definitely plan on returning to Russia to do more research on Russian symphonic orchestras, folk music groups, and concert culture.
My years here at William & Mary have been beyond invaluable in how they’ve changed my outlook on life and desire to affect change in the world. Between the IFE Program in Brussels, and Professor Kulick’s very practical and informative TESOL classes, I’ve learned quite a bit on the difficulties of navigating different languages and cultures in the classroom and on the streets. Teaching has become my passion, and whether it be abroad or at home, that is where I intend to make my little corner of the world brighter. Knowing how to decolonize both the material that I absorb and that I bring to my students, as Mme Compan has taught, will be instrumental in changing the educational system to teach more tolerant and critical thought processes; it will also be central to my long term goal of improving the United States’ educational system by promoting Native visibility in primary and secondary school curricula.
I had an incredible experience with the French program. I originally intended to take a few classes for fun, but after taking just one class, I wanted to keep taking classes. I learned how to critically think about literature, art, film and music. Professors in the French department provided me with a deeper understanding of French and Francophone studies. I’d say one of my most meaningful experiences was being able to study abroad in France. I learned so much about France, my French improved significantly. It also allowed me to have a new understanding of French culture and when I got back I was able to apply those same skills to classes here. I will be forever grateful for our French professors I have had because they have encouraged me to push myself to be a better student. Also through this program I have developed a deep love for France.
When I came to college, I originally planned to minor in Hispanic Studies as a casual way to keep up with the Spanish I studied in high school. However, after earning so many credits through the Cádiz summer program in 2015, I decided to pursue the Hispanic Studies major alongside Public Policy, and I am so glad I made that decision. The Hispanic Studies classes I’ve taken have widened my understanding of other cultures, increased my confidence in speaking and writing in Spanish, and sharpened my analytical skills. I have been pushed and challenged by my professors and peers, but I have become a better student because of it, and I have learned so much from them. Professor Cate-Arries has been especially integral to my Hispanic Studies experience: from jumping into her freshman seminar my very first semester of college, to developing an original research project with her in Cádiz, to learning the practical skills of Spanish-to-English translation and creating subtitles for a documentary, and finally rounding out my college years in her senior seminar on Francoism and its legacy, she has encouraged and challenged me to become a better student these past four years. I also especially enjoyed Hispanic Cinema with Professor Buck, Spanish Phonetics with Professor Arries, and Advanced Grammar and Composition with Professor Greenia. Another one of the highlights of the Hispanic Studies program has been the small class sizes, enabling me to develop relationships with other students and having at least a few familiar faces in my classes from semester to semester. I can’t wait to bring the analytical, communicative, research, and writing skills that I’ve learned in the Hispanic Studies department with me to law school at the University of California, Irvine starting in Fall 2018 and into the legal profession.
The Hispanic Studies department gave me the unique opportunity to spend an extended time in Argentina, fostering a passion for music and human rights issues, as well as the connections between the two. I was able to meet some incredible, motivated people who have a hunger for life, learning, and justice. My hope is to return to South America to pursue music while promoting human rights in the region.
My name is Eleanor Morrison and I am truly indebted to the Hispanic Studies faculty at William and Mary. I began to take Spanish classes in elementary school, but I did not fully develop an interest in the language until college. My courses at William and Mary taught me that the Spanish language is much more than a useful skill: it is a necessary tool to truly understand our nation, our culture and our neighbors. My Hispanic Studies courses have sent me back in time by reviewing 16th century manuscripts in Swem Library’s Special Collections; they also engaged me with current issues such as memory and trauma in Latin America. In addition, the Hispanic Studies department broadened my worldview when I left the country for the first time to live in Cádiz, Spain for two months. I am particularly thankful for the freedom the Hispanic Studies faculty gave me to research topics I felt were interesting and important, from Mexican social media to the Spanish-speaking world’s view of the present Russo-American relationship. For all these reasons and more, I am very grateful to the Hispanic Studies staff for their guidance throughout my time at William and Mary.
However, perhaps the most useful direction that I received from the Hispanic Studies faculty was career-based. In my Junior year, I took a Spanish translation course which completely opened my eyes to the importance and complexity of translation work. This course then inspired me to seek other translation opportunities. Since that semester, I took another Spanish translation course, interned as a Russian translator and I am currently studying to become a translator full-time.
Although saying goodbye to the Hispanic Studies program is bittersweet, I am so grateful and happy to have been a part of it for the past few years! Despite my naive freshman intentions to only take a couple of Spanish-related classes during college, I just couldn’t stay away. The incredible faculty members have pushed me to learn things I never would have imagined about my own interests and future possibilities. In addition to studying abroad in Sevilla and being a TA in the department, every one of my courses has opened me up to new ways of thinking about the world.
Coming into college, I knew I wanted to continue taking Spanish to keep up my language skills, but didn’t expect to become a Hispanic Studies major. This changed from the very first class I enrolled in, a Freshman Seminar with Professor Cate-Arries. I saw that a major in Hispanic Studies would do much more than just improve my Spanish. I had the opportunity to engage critically with a variety of subjects from literature to history to politics to cinema. As a freshman, the class was a challenging one, but each day I was encouraged by a professor who pushed me to produce the very best work I was capable of. This class was indicative of a future that held many more hours of engaging material taught by professors who not only cared deeply about their subjects, but also their students.
One of the most transformative experiences of my college career was studying for a semester in Seville, Spain. Immersing myself in a new culture was both challenging and exhilarating. I pushed my own boundaries of language use and said yes to as many new opportunities as could from volunteering at a local pool, to running a nighttime 10k with thousands of Spaniards in neon orange shirts, to traveling around Spain solo. I gained a deep appreciation for paella and a serious case of the travel bug, but more importantly a sense of confidence and independence that I have carried with me since. I am immensely grateful for my time in the Hispanic Studies department that has allowed me to grow not only as a student, but also as an individual.
When I started at William & Mary, the only thing I thought I was going to do was study English. But during the spring of my freshman year, I took a Spanish conversation course, and it launched me into the world of Hispanic Studies full-time. My experience in Hispanic Studies is inextricably linked with the Hispanic House, where I lived for two years and made some of my best friends and favorite memories of college. I was even able to spend a semester abroad in Seville, immersing myself fully in the culture and landscape of Spain. When I returned, I felt prepared to take some of the most interesting–and challenging!–courses that William and Mary had to offer, like Prof. Buck’s “Hispanic Cinema” and Prof. Cate-Arries’ “El franquismo y sus fantasmas”. I even got a head start on my future plans by working as a TA for the 203 class, learning to introduce the Spanish culture and language to my first students.
My current goal is to experience the rest of the Spanish-speaking world that I’ve only had a taste of so far. I’m not quite ready to give up travelling and learning just yet–I plan to work as a English teacher in Spain, and maybe later on in countries in South America, all while continuing to perfect my own Spanish so that I may someday achieve my dream of working as a Spanish-to-English (and vice versa) literature and film translator. I’ll always be grateful for the amazing teachers and influences I’ve had in the Hispanic Studies department, and I can’t wait to face what will come.
I struggle to find the words in either English or Spanish to accurately describe my gratitude and relief that I chose a Hispanic Studies major. I transferred to William & Mary my junior year and was immediately introduced to an entirely different approach to learning Spanish; I was also immersed in social justice, art, history, literature, and government. Over the course of my time at William & Mary I studied abroad in Argentina which was a truly life changing experience; I was able to travel all over South America and also worked with a human rights NGO. I earned a research grant from the department to share my experience on a blog which helped me put all the questions and new lessons into words. This major provided me the background to think beyond facts and figures. It has taught me an entirely new method of thinking in which I can apply ideas and concepts to new situations: I spent this semester researching the Franco dictatorship in Spain in which I studied the rise to power and the years in which the fascist regime was able to maintain control for so many decades, important lessons applicable not only to Spain. I have also studied the US-Mexico border and contemporary issues in the US such as SB 1070 and Arizona’s ethnic studies ban, important topics that relate to race, class, and even gender in deeply important ways. Most importantly I am able to discuss, write about, and even present these topics in a second language. I am leaving William & Mary confident in the skills I have acquired here. I recently found myself interviewing for a position entirely in Spanish, and left the office feeling confident and secure in how I was able to convey my academic and professional background. I am positive and excited to see where my Hispanic Studies degree will take me.
When I came to William & Mary as a freshman I had originally planned on minoring in Hispanic Studies. After taking a couple of Hispanic Studies courses that year, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Cádiz, Spain. Guided by Professor Cate-Arries, I had the most amazing experience while abroad, and now regard Cádiz as one of my favorite cities in the world. Many classes and a few years later, I am now a Hispanic Studies Major and Marketing Minor. I am thankful to all of my professors and experiences at the College for further developing my skills as a creative and analytical thinker and as an effective communicator. Upon my graduation, I plan to pursue a career in marketing and public relations, and hopefully my career opportunities will allow me the ability to maintain my Spanish.
Arriving as a freshman at the College of William and Mary, I decided I wanted to challenge myself. My first idea to do so was to learn a new language, and Chinese felt like the evident answer. The highlight of my time as a Chinese Studies major is, without a doubt, the opportunity I was given to study abroad in Beijing. That summer, I had the most amazing time. Spending all my days practicing Chinese in both a classroom and a life setting was utterly invigorating, and my experience was undoubtedly highlighted by the presence of Professor Tang, who was a motivation and a joy to us all during this trip. Overall, having that added Chinese major has been a blessing both to my life, and hopefully my future career.
Before coming to William and Mary, Spanish had always been one of my least favorite subjects, and I could not wait to be done with language requirements forever upon graduating from high school. However, I hadn’t taken enough Spanish classes to meet the GER language requirement at W&M, so I chose to “get it over with” as soon as I could by taking Combined Intermediate Spanish my first semester of freshman year. The impossible happened, and I immediately fell in love with the Spanish language. Since that first semester, both my professors and peers in the Hispanic Studies department have taught me the importance of studying cultural and historical context along with the grammatical aspects of a language. I discovered that there is no true “pure” form of Spanish and that the cultural variations of language are what make it so beautiful, because they give us a glimpse into the values held by its speakers. During my junior year, I participated in both the La Plata, Argentina and Sevilla, Spain study abroad programs, where I ultimately became fluent in Spanish and greatly expanded my perspective on the world and my program of study. This summer, I will be transitioning to a full-time position at an immigration law firm in Alexandria, Virginia, where I will be primarily working with Central American refugees fighting asylum cases. After a year or two of working, I plan on applying to law schools and eventually becoming an immigration attorney.
I knew as soon as I entered William and Mary that I wanted to major in Hispanic Studies, but I couldn’t have imagined how much the past four years of being a student in the Hispanic Studies department would mean to me. Since my first day at William and Mary, the classes and the professors of Hispanic Studies have consistently been my favorites and the ones that have pushed me to my academic and personal potential.
As a major in the program, I’ve been privileged to be able to do research at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library in Minnesota with Prof. Greenia, walk the Camino with Prof. Riofrio, be a TA for Profs. Carrion and Terukina, and do an independent study with Prof. Terukina about Grandeza mexicana (1604). Some of my favorite classes have dealt with the medieval and early modern Hispanic world, translation, and the early 20th century in Spain.
Since sophomore year, I’ve researched 16th and 17th century private libraries in the archives in Pamplona, Spain, which after a summer full of research has culminated in my senior honors thesis “‘A qué manera de libros y letras es inclinado’: las bibliotecas privadas de Navarra en los siglos XVI y XVII” about the expression of personal identity through private libraries.
Next year I will begin an MA in the History of the Book at the University of London, and even though it will be the first time in 13 years that I won’t have a Spanish class, I will always hold what I’ve learned in Hispanic Studies close to my heart.
I began studying Chinese in high school, and William & Mary’s program served as a perfect continuation for my study of Chinese language and culture. With the help of W&M faculty, who recommended me to the program, I was able to study abroad in Beijing during Fall 2016 through Middlebury Schools Abroad. Both language and culture faculty in the Chinese department have cheered me on and improved my language skills immeasurably, and I’ve developed a love for Chinese culture, history, and politics because of their help. I plan to use Chinese in my future career, and I’ll be studying in Shanghai for a year beginning this fall, thanks to the advising and mentorship I’ve received from the Chinese department.
Nicole Cook is graduating with a double major in International Relations and Chinese Studies. About her undergraduate experience in the Chinese Studies Program at W&M and herplans for the future, Nicole states: “I feel beyond blessed to have been a part of the Chinese Studies Program all four years! I truly love the challenge of mastering a second language so different from English. I entered William & Mary never having studied Chinese, but the encouraging faculty and supportive environment have fostered some of my favorite college experiences. During the summer of 2016, I studied in Beijing through the W&M Summer Study Abroad program. I am excited to return to China this fall, studying for one academic year in Guilin as a Boren Scholar. As a Boren Scholar, I will be taking 20 weekly hours of one-on-one Mandarin classes taught by the Chinese Language Institute, a small Mandarin Learning Center affiliated with Guangxi Normal University. I hope to achieve professional fluency through my studies. In particular, I hope to focus my studies on topics that will be of future relevance to a career in US-East Asian security policy, such as Chinese economic development and CCP leadership.”
MLL and the Japanese studies program are proud to announce inductees into the Japanese National Honor Society for 2017 – 2018 academic year. Among this year’s graduating class, three students have met the Society’s demanding criteria: completion of five semesters of Japanese language study (or their equivalent), all taken for a grade (rather than audited or pass-fail); a grade-point average of at least 3.5 in Japanese language courses; and an overall GPA of at least 3.0. You will recognize our new inductees at commencement by their red and white tassel cords; please join us in congratulating Daniel Birriel, Mackenzie Neal, and Yunyi Zhu: 皆さん、おめでとうございます! Thank you for setting an example for others studying the language. We hope you will continue to build your Japanese language skills, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors!
I took German for the first time my freshman year and had the opportunity to study abroad twice. My experience at the University of Potsdam, led by our own German Studies program, showed me both the challenges and the opportunities of language learning. I met some of my best friends, both from William and Mary and abroad, and this experience led me to spend six months in Berlin with IES. Here, I enrolled in two courses at Humboldt University, enjoyed an internship in Sustainable Planning over the summer, and grew exponentially in my ability to speak and understand German. The support and knowledge that I have gained from the German Studies program at W&M ultimately allowed me to achieve the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Berlin, Germany, where I will spend my next year. Additionally, I will be pursuing my Master’s in Historical Urban Design at the Technical University of Berlin.
My time in the German Studies Program at W&M has contained some of my favorite experiences of my college career, including learning from some of the finest professors and meeting some of the coolest people. As a freshman, I decided to begin taking German courses even though I had already fulfilled my language requirement. Little did I know that despite the grueling task of constant class participation, German classes would become some of the ones I most looked forward to. Once I participated in the Potsdam summer program after my sophomore year, I finally made the decision to undertake a German Studies major to supplement my Anthropology major. Although I will pursue a career in archaeology after graduation, I sincerely hope that I’ll be able to continue incorporating German into my life, whether it be watching episodes of Tatort or working at a German archaeological site.
As a major in German Studies at William & Mary, I had the opportunity to spend a year abroad through the exchange program we have with the University of Münster. I would not trade my time in Münster for anything; it brought me friendships with people from around the world, I got to immerse myself in the culture, and I experienced what it meant to take a course load entirely in German. In Germany, I learned independence and how to adapt quickly to new situations. In the near future, I hope to work doing freelance photography before applying to grad school. I believe the skills I acquired through my time abroad will translate well to my work as a photographer, and if a grad school opportunity arises in Germany, all the better.
Michelle Hermes is graduating as a Government and German Studies double major at the College, and hascompleted an honors thesis in the Government department. Through William & Mary’s German Studies Program, she has worked as a teaching assistant and a grading assistant for the department at the German 101-202 level. Through these experiences, she had the opportunity to form close relationships with many of her professors. With Professor Jennifer Gully’s encouragement, she applied for and was accepted to the Austrian Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship program for the 2018-2019 academic year. Since she did not have the opportunity to formally study abroad, she is looking forward to the experience of returning to Europe. After my year in Austria, she hopes to attend law school in the United States and work in international law.
During my time at William and Mary I had the opportunity to study abroad with the German Studies Program at the Universität Potsdam in Potsdam, Germany in the Summer of 2016. While taking nine German credits I was able to immerse myself in German culture and further my German language skills in a natural environment. Staying with a German host family I got to truly experience everyday German life and this experience influenced me to continue my pursuit of German studies. I will be graduating from William and Mary with a major both in German Studies and European Studies. My immediate plans following graduation are to save money while applying to opportunities both locally and abroad. In the next year I will be applying to graduate school in Europe, hopefully in Germany, where I can continue my studies of German language and culture.
I came to W&M having never taken German before and am leaving it a German Studies major. The German Studies Program at W&M instilled in me a love for the German language that ultimately led me to study abroad twice for a total of 6-7 months and even that was not enough. I participated in the W&M Summer Study Abroad Progam in Potsdam in 2016. When I came back to campus I was more determined than ever to work my way back to Germany at some point and with the help of my professors and the courses I’ve taken here I feel as though I’m one step closer to going back. I can’t thank each and every member of the German Studies Program faculty enough for the role they played in getting me to where I am today.
Jonathan Arries has been an inspiration to everyone in MLL and the W&M community. He has been called a “pedagogical frontiersman” and described as “restless, adventurous, unafraid to take risks and enthusiastic about charting new curricular paths.” His energy and vision have, in fact, transformed our community. He is retiring after 23 years of research, teaching, and service to W&M and the greater community.
More than 20 years ago, Jonathan took his freshman seminar students to the Eastern Shore to visit medical clinics serving thousands of Spanish-speaking migrant farmworkers laboring there each summer; and he went on to develop the course in medical interpretation and 4-week, residential summer externship program for undergraduate students who have been providing their services to migrant laborers ever since. This is but one example of many: as the Sharpe Professor for Civic Renewal, Jonathan developed W&M’s CPAL program (Community Partners for Adult Literacy), a student-run tutoring service; over the years he supervised small teams of student-researchers in Central America—initially in Honduras, and more recently in Nicaragua—and partnered with native Managua-based elementary school teachers working in low-income school systems; and when Latin American Studies created the Border Program, he jumped in, teaching “Field Research in the Borderlands” and leading teams of students along with faculty in Philosophy and Anthropology to investigate issues related to the cultures of immigration, displacement, and human rights abuses. Last, but not least, Jonathan’s intrepid nature led him across campus to work with the School of Education long before interdisciplinary cross-school initiatives were being championed by the administration. As co-founder, with Katherine Kulick, of the department’s program for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), he built a minor that awards dual certification in ESL (English as a Second Language) and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), and that has served both School of Education Master’s students and undergraduates seeking that certification.
The depth and breadth of Jonathan’s contributions in faculty governance over the years is truly inspiring. In addition to assuming the coveted role of Hispanic Studies Program Director several times, he served on some of the most labor-intensive committees in the department, chaired its Personnel Committee, and contributed to the critical work of the College’s Judicial Council, Committee for Academic Status, International Studies Committee, and the Faculty Assembly.
In recognition of Jonathan’s deep and abiding contributions to undergraduate education at William & Mary, he was appointed University Professor for Teaching Excellence and the Robert F. Sharpe and Jane A. Sharp Associate Professor of Civic Renewal and Social Entrepreneurship. Most recently, in 2015, Jonathan was honored with the distinguished Thomas Ashley Graves, Jr. Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching. A
This article has been excerpted from Silvia Tendeciarz’s remarks at Jonathan’s Retirement Party at the Muscarelle Museum of Art on May 2, 2018.
Three W&M students from the Chinese Program went to Boston to participate in the 17th Chinese Bridge Speech contest (East USA Preliminary) last Saturday at U Mass Boston. We achieved a great success! Michael Briggs (白杨)won the 2nd place and Grace Klopp (格蕾丝)won the 3rd place in the Beginners Group. Emily Pearson-Beck(李美丽) won the 2nd place in the Advanced group.We are really proud of the students and wish to thank the Confucius Institute which has generously sponsored students’ trip to Boston!
Stephen Sheehi, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Chair of Middle East Studies, Professor of Arabic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, has received the 2018 Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence, celebrating exemplary achievements of William & Mary faculty in teaching, research, and service.
Prof. Sheehi’s work meets at the intersection of cultural, visual, art, and social history of the modern Arab world, starting with the late Ottoman Empire and the Arab Renaissance (al-nahdah al-‘arabiyah). His scholarly interests include photography theory, psychoanalysis, post-colonial theory, Palestine, and Islamophobia.
Prof. Sheehi’s forthcoming book, Camera Palaestina: The Seven Photography Albums of Wasif Jawhariyyeh (University of California Press, forthcoming) is co-authored with Salim Tamari and Issam Nassar. His contribution to the book, “On the Emergence of a Palestinian Spectator,” reevaluates the relationship between the Palestinian and the photographic archive, between the colonized and the colonizer and between the settler-Zionist and the native Palestinian. This research also serves as the theoretical foundation for a larger and broader, single authored book project, entitled Decolonizing Photography.
Prof. Sheehi is also writing along with Dr. Lara Sheehi, Psychoanalysis under Occupation. The research is an exploration of the intersubjective experience of Palestinians living under violent and violating Israeli occupation as interpreted not only by Palestinian psychoanalysts but cultural “workers,” artists, and film-makers. An early sample of the project can be found in Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. Prof. Sheehi has received a NEH-FPIRI Fellowship to research the topic in Palestine in 2018.
The Arab Imago: A Social History of Indigenous Photography 1860-1910 (Princeton University Press, 2016) is Prof. Sheehi’s most recent book. It is a ground-breaking study on the history of photography in the Arab world. The research is the first to comprehensively research native studios in Alexandria, Beirut, Cairo, Jaffa, and Jerusalem as well as early Hajj photography in al-Hijaz during the late Ottoman period. In doing so, the book investigates and theorizes the relationship between indigenous photography, social transformations and the creation of modern Arab society in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine before World War One.
Prof. Sheehi’s most recent book is Islamophobia: The Ideological Campaign Against Muslims (Atlanta: Clarity Press, 2011). The book examines the rise of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiments in the West following the end of the Cold War. Sheehi analyzes the relationship between United States foreign and domestic policies, cultural representations, and political discourses in mainstreaming of Islamophobia. The book has been translated into Arabic as al-Islamufobia: al-Hamlah al-idiulujiyah dud al-Muslimin translation by Fatimah Nasr (Cairo: Dar al-Sutour, 2012).
Foundations of Modern Arab Identity (University of Florida, 2004) is Prof. Sheehi’s first book, offering a new paradigm for thinking about the 19th century Arab Renaissance or al-nahdah al-`arabiyah. The book discusses how reformers such as Butrus al-Bustani, Salim al-Bustani, Farah Antun, and Jurji Zaydan offered a powerful cultural self-criticism alongside their advocacy of Arab “progress and civilization” in the face of European imperialism. In doing so, these Arab intellectuals established the epistemological foundation for Arab modernity that would always gauge their “failure” and “success” against ideals of colonializing Europe.
Prof. Sheehi has published in a variety of venues on Middle Eastern photography, art, literature, and intellectual history in venues such as Third Text, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Critical Inquiry, The British Journal of Middle East Studies, Discourse, The Journal of Arabic Literature, Alif: Journal of Compartive Poetics, Critique, Jouvert, The Journal of Comparative South Asian, African, Middle Eastern Studies and Encyclopedia of Islam along within a number of other books. He has published commentaries in Psychoanalytic Activist,Common Dreams, Mondoweiss, Jadaliyya, and al-Adab.
Gabrielle Hibbert (German Studies, Honors, ’17) has just accepted a position as a researcher/intern at the Library of Congress’ European Division (mainly working within the Russian, German, and Rare Books Sections). She will be working at LoC for the duration of my gap year. The director liked her honors thesis so much so that she will be helping to create and organize their punk section within the Soviet sphere. Additionally, they want Gabi to catalog her experience in a blog format for them.
Thomas Bettge (German Studies, ’14) checked in with us. Here is what he reported:
I matriculated at Penn State’s Dickinson Law School in 2014. My background in German Studies enabled me to secure work the following summer with one of my professors, who was completing a dissertation comparing the horizontal dimension of constitutional rights in German, Canadian, and American law, and needed a research assistant capable of working with legal academic literature published in German.
During my second year, I discovered an interest in tax law. My undergraduate experience naturally led me in the direction of international tax, and in addition to completing coursework in that area, I secured a summer position after my second year with a transfer pricing group, helping multinational clients to navigate tax disputes and invoke tax treaty protections when the IRS and a foreign tax authority disagree on pricing matters. After graduation, I joined the same group of attorneys as an associate, married my fiancée of almost six years, and moved to Houston.
Application for Fulbright Research Fellowships or Fulbright Teaching Assistantships are due September 6! If you are thinking of applying, please go to http://www.wm.edu/sites/scholarships/scholarshipsfellowshipsawards/byPurpose/openToInternationalStudents/fulbright/index.php, or speak with Prof. Jenny Taylor.
Author of Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the Consequences of Interpretation (1988), The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning (1993), and At Memory’s Edge: Afterimages of the Holocaust in Art and Architecture (2002), James E. Young is the one of the preeminent scholars of Holocaust and Memory Studies in the world. His teaching, writing and public engagement have been concerned primarily with post-war literary, artistic, architectural, cinematographic and memorial responses to the Nazi genocide of the Jews. Professor Young taught Rob Leventhal’s Freshman Seminar Responses to the Holocaust on Art Spiegelman’s MAUS and delivered a lecture on his current research/book project: The Stages of Memory, the making of the 9/11 Memorial.
Helmut Puff, Professor of German, History, Women’s Studies, and affiliate in the History of Art and in the Program in History and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, is one of the most innovative voices in German Studies, Early Modern History, Gender and Queer Studies, the History of Sexualities, and Media Studies today. His work is characterized by its far-reaching interdisciplinarity, its precise philological and textual analyses, its nuanced grasp of terms and their uses, and an astonishing breadth of knowledge of the institutions and the social, legal, political and medial contexts within which such terms are deployed. Helmut Puff is the author of Lust, Angst und Provokation: Homosexualität in der Gesellschaft (1993); Von dem schlüssel aller Künsten / nemblich der Grammatica”: Deutsch im lateinischen Grammatikunterricht, 1480-1560 (1995); Sodomy in Reformation Germany and Switzerland, 1400-1600 (2003); and Miniature Monuments: Modeling Destruction and German History (2014) in addition to numerous edited volumes, book chapters, and articles. At W&M, he spoke on his new book project, Towards a History of Waiting, and led a workshop in German on Textuality and Visuality around 1500.
Jacqui Sorg (German Studies and Linguistics, ’16) has received full support in the form of fellowships and teaching assistantships in the Department of Germanic Studies at Indiana University for the Fall. She is the recipient of the prestigious Max Kade Fellowship her first year, after which she will receive full TA support and a dissertation-writing fellowship — seven full years of support total. Of her experience at W&M, Jacqui writes:
“My foray into German Studies at William & Mary has been fast-paced and thoroughly rewarding: after my first year I enrolled in the six-week summer abroad program in Potsdam where I tested into the more advanced course and subsequently went on to more advanced literary courses in the following semesters despite beginning to study German at university. I found equal traction in the considerable scope of Linguistics (from social to psychological to theoretical). It was immediately evident that I enjoyed discussing socio-linguistics but my real ambitions were sparked in syntax and phonology which appealed to the early ich-laut challenge: How does one say ‘tschechisches streichholzschächtelchen’? The invaluable time I’ve spent at the College of William & Mary is defined not just by the academic material but also by the community of engaged faculty and enthusiastic classmates and teammates. Such an environment so fully outfitted to tackle the challenge of the ever curious mind, it has been a beautiful chapter of my life and has sketched an inspired picture of where my next steps lead.”
German Studies, with the generous support of American Studies, Africana Studies, English and European Studies hosted independent scholar Michael Saman, who received his Ph.D. from Harvard, and has taught at William and Mary, Brown, Princeton, UCLA and, most recently, The College of the Holy Cross. He is well-known for his expertise on Goethe and Goethezeit, philosophy and literature, and Modern German Thought. He has received awards from ACLS, the Fulbright Commission, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Goethe Society. He has co-edited, with Charlotte Szilaghyi and Sabrina Rahman, Imagining Blackness in Germany and Austria (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012), and is currently preparing his book Peculiar Analogues: Goethe as a Reader of Kant for publication. He has many articles already published, forthcoming and in progress — on Schiller and Hegel, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Goethe and the origins of structuralism, Constructions of Kant and Goethe in German Intellectual Culture at the beginning of the 20th century, just to name a few. Michael presented “On Faust and theSouls of Black Folk: Goethe, W.E.B Du Bois and the Ethics of Progress.”
Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2015! From the left, Lisa Laird (German Studies and European Studies), Mike Crumplar, Helene Melke, and Tyler Bembenek (German Studies and IR).
German House Tutor Kim Mutmann joins the German Studies Program this year from the Wilhelms-Westfaelische Universitaet Muenster, where she received her M.A. in “National and Transnational Studies: Literature, Culture, and Language,” with a focus on Post-Colonial Culture and Politics. She completed her master’s thesis on South African Poetry: “Xenophobia under the Rainbow – Migrants in Post-Apartheid South African Fiction.” Before Muenster, Kim studied at the University of Maastricht, and at Salford University in Manchester, England. She has had numerous editorial internships, enjoys jogging and tennis.
The German Studies Program welcomes Dr. Veronika Jeltsch to the program this year. Veronika received her M.A. from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg and her Ph.D. from Rutgers University with a dissertation on “Silence, Speechlessness, and Body Language in Fontane’s Effi Briest, Schnitzler’s Fräulein Else and Wedekind’s Lulu.” Her primary research interest is Fin-de-Siecle literature in Germany and Austria, specifically representations of silence, gender and emancipation in literature and film. Veronika comes to us with a stellar teaching record from SIU at Carbondale and, most recently, Hendrix College, and will be teaching introductory German 101-102, GRMN 205 Children’s Literature, and a 300-level topics course in the spring.
The German Studies program each year awards the German Book Prize to that student who best exemplifies the rigor, passion, and sustained engagement with the discipline during her four years at Willam and Mary. Our winner this year not only took Rob Leventhal’s German 310 Advanced Grammar and Stylistics course her very first semester at W&M, she also studied at the RWTH Aachen after her first year at William and Mary, doing independent research on Arnold Gehlen, and went on to study at the Universities of Muenster and Cardiff her junior year. Two weeks ago, Lisa defended her very fine Honors Thesis, a comparative study of the Sinta and Roma in Wales and Germany, THE MODERN EUROPEAN: AN ANALYSIS OF ETHNIC MINORITY IDENTITY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, achieving High Honors. This year’s German Studies Book Award goes to Elisabeth A. Laird. Congratulations Lisa!
Tyler B. Bembenek is the recipient of this year’s Award of Excellence in German Studies. Tyler’s outstanding accomplishments in German Studies and IR are known campus-wide. He has an astonishing 3.95 overall GPA for his four years at W&M. He studied at Middlebury College Summer German Academy, is the recipient of the Prestigious Robert Gates Scholarship, with which he was able to study at Oxford University. He graduates with Honors in International Relations and German Studies – no small feat in itself – and has recently been awarded the Alumni Association Student Academic Prize in International Relations. Congratulations Tyler!
Lisa Laird (European Studies and German Studies, ’15) has been awarded both the Fulbright ETA in Germany and the Austrian ETA (administered by the Fulbright Commission) for the 2015-2016 academic year! Lisa is no stranger to living, studying and traveling Europe. A passionate member of the fencing team, Lisa has studied in Wales and Germany (Muenster and Aachen), and is currently finishing an honors thesis “The Modern European: An Analysis of Ethnic Minority Identity in the Twenty-First Century” with Prof. Bruce Campbell. Congratulations Lisa!
Rob Leventhal, Associate Professor of German Studies, March 5-15, 2015 Jewish Cultural and Social Pathways in the Upper Rhine Valley
We were slated to leave Thursday, March 5th, from RIC on a study-research spring-break trip, sponsored by the Meyers Stern Endowment in Judaic Studies that would take us to the Upper Rhine Valley from Basel, Switzerland to Cologne Germany in eight days. Time was of the essence. On Monday of that week, it became clear that winter snowstorm Thor was going to hit the mid-Atlantic hard. On the assumption that our flight from RIC to Dulles would be cancelled, and working together with Dean Lu Ann Homza and Covington Travel, we decided to drive to Dulles in the hope that our flight to Frankfurt would be able to depart. We were right! The RIC-Dulles flight was cancelled, and our Frankfurt flight, although delayed four hours by the blinding snow – it reached 10 inches at Dulles that afternoon and eve – was finally de-iced and took to the sky at 9:45pm.
Day 1: Frankfurt
Our first stop was Frankfurt am Main, a major center for Jewish life from the early modern period until the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. Our destination was the Frankfurt Jewish Museum, in particular the special exhibition “Im Lichte der Menora” (In the Light of the Menora), about the Jews in Roman settlements in the Upper Rhine Valley dating from the 4th century CE. Here, we were able to view, for example, the famous “menorah” ring from the 4th century CE found at the Augusta Raurica just outside of Basel. This exhibit gave the students and me the very real sense of Christians and Jews living together in communities throughout the Rhine Valley as the Empire began to dissolve. Decisive information about temples, worship, family, the Rabbis, gender, communality and governance (and self-governance!) helped us construct a vivid portrait of Jewish life in medium- sized and even smaller communities in the Rhine Valley from the 4th century CE until 1200.
The Menora Ring, Augusta Raurica, 4th century CE
Star of David bowl, 11th century CE
Days 2 and 3: Basel
Central SynagogueHebrew Bible translation, Basel 1546
The next stop was Basel, Switzerland, where for centuries Jews were forced to live outside of the City gates and could only gain entrance on specific days with a special pass. We visited the Augusta Raurica, one of earliest and best-preserved Roman archeological sites north of Alps, where many Jewish artifacts from the period 4th – 5 th c. CE have been found. The Jewish Museum of Switzerland provided the perfect example of what is called the “back room” museum, very rich in materials but with literally no “storefront.” It is hidden in an inner courtyard in one of Basel’s upscale neighborhoods. Our guide took us into the Basel Synagogue, built in the second half of the 19th century, designed by a German (Christian) architect. Basel was one of the premier book-printing centers of Europe in the 1500s, and we saw beautiful examples of translations of the Hebrew Bible from the mid 16th century. Basel was also the home to the First World Zionist Congress in 1897, and Herzl’s presence could be felt by the large photograph of him at the bridge overlooking the Rhine. Two key Jewish communities outside of Basel, Lengau and Endingen, survived. Our guide was an Israeli who had married a man from one of these surrounding Jewish communities.
Days 4 and 5: Freiburg / Sulzburg/ Staufen
The Jewish Cemetery of Sulzburg
On Sunday, we took the train to Freiburg-im-Breisgau, at the foot of the Black Forest in Southwestern Germany. Freiburg itself was the launching pad for our excursion to the tiny village of Sulzburg in the Black Forest, where a Jewish community thrived until it was deported to the French Concentration Camp Gurs, and from there to the killing centers in the East. In the beautiful Synagogue, plundered by the Nazis but not destroyed as it was too close to the surrounding homes, restored and now housing a small museum dedicated to the Jews of Sulzburg and their history, we saw evidence of how Jews lived in the late 18th, 19 th and early 20th centuries with Christians side by side as neighbors. A map showed us how the Jewish homes were spread throughout the small village; other images and objects revealed the life of Jews: merchants, tradesmen, traveling salesmen of kitchen and farm wares, Rabbis, schoolteachers, physicians. We saw evidence of a Jewish Swim Club from the 1920s, and the amazing cemetery just outside of the village itself on the side of a hill, still standing – not desecrated –covering the entire side of a hill. The tales of Jacob Picard (“The Marked One”) of Landjuden in the late 19th and early 20th century accompanied us as we made our way up the beautiful valley into the Black Forest to an Inn where we enjoyed cake and tea. In Freiburg, we met with Daniela Schaffart, the director of the wonderful documentary film Geschichte ganz nah — Eine Reise zu den Gedenk¬stät¬ten in mei¬ner Hei¬mat (History Close-Up: A Journey to the Memorial Sites of my Homeland).
Jewish Life in Sulzburg in the Black Forest, circa 1920
Jewish Swim Club, Sulzburg, circa 1920
The “Team” in front of the New Synagogue, Mainz, from left to right: W&M students Sarah Wall, Casey Neary, Claire Etheridge, Natalie Morgan, Mary Andino, Chloe Wang, Matthew Noah Baker
Days 6 and 7: Magenza: Mainz / Speyer / Worms
Heiliger Sand in Worms
Mikveh/Speyer
Entrance to Mikveh
Old Synagogue, Worms
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we were in Mainz, where we took in the new Synagogue and visited the Chagall Windows at St. Stephens Church. We also went to Speyer to view the ShPIRA Museum, the remains of the Old Synagogue (1185, and still in use today), and its incredible Mikveh (Ritual Bath), the oldest one of its kind north of the Alps (1120). The story of the curator was that when the Synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis during Kristallnacht in 1938, the exploded stones from the Synagogue covered up the entrance to the Mikveh so thoroughly that it went unharmed for the remainder of the War. In Worms, the great Bible scholar/commentator Rabbi Schlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi) lived and taught during the Middle Ages, roughly 1060-1105.
Day 8: Bacharach: Legend and Living History
Bacharach am Rhein was our next stop, where we stayed in the castle Burg Stahleck high above the river, which has been converted into a Youth Hostel. The students had read Heine’s famous Novella, The Rabbi of Bacharach, and the Sankt Werner Kapelle, which 20 years ago was on the verge of collapse, was on the trail up to the Castle. Sankt Werner is named thus as the supposed sanctified victim of a Blood Libel, a so-called Ritual Murder, one of the chief myths that circulated from the Medieval into the Early Modern Period and beyond of Jews murdering a Christian child for the use of their blood. The Catholic Church of the region wanted to allow the Saint Werner Chapel to collapse, and thus all memory of the sanctification and its ongoing effect erased, but a grassroots organization led by local Lawyer Peter Keber, whom Professor Leventhal met while on the mountain path going back to the Castle, raised 6m EURO to have the Chapel transformed into a site of Christian-Jewish Reconciliation work, a series of ongoing lectures, workshops and talks on German-Jewish Relations. Peter came by Friday morning to drop off the volume Toleranz vor Augen (Tolerance before Our Very Eyes) [Mainz, 2010], which contains documentation of the project and Das Forum 2008-2009.
Day 9: Cologne
Cologne was our last stop before heading back to Frankfurt and then home. Unfortunately, the entire archeological zone is now closed due to the construction of the New Jewish Museum and Jewish Center. However, we visited the Olympics Museum to look for traces of the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which eleven Israeli athletes were killed in a shootout after they were held hostage and then abducted by members of Black September. To our amazement, we found only one small “black box” and a small plaque commemorating the massacre. The next morning, we went to the Stadtmuseum (The City Museum), where detailed histories of the Jews of Cologne provided us with an in-depth sense of Jews’ lives from the Middle Ages until the Nazi Genocide. In 1941, all avenues to escape the Nazi reign of terror were shut down, and by late 1942, most of the city’s 11,000 Jews had been deported to the concentration camps and killing centers in the East. The anti-Semitic figure of the Judensau (a mockery of Judaism and Jewish Dietary law) is found on a seat in the Cologne cathedral dating from 1210; the first pogrom against the Jews had occurred in 1348-49; and the Jews were expelled from the city in 1478, only allowed to return in the late 18th century.
This was an amazing trip. We all saw and learned so much. To experience these memorials, museums, and sites of remembrance/commemoration first hand enabled us to get a fuller, richer, more textured sense of Jewish History in Germany, the relations between Germans/Christians and Jews, and the ties that connected them since the Early Middle Ages. Most interesting for the group was to be able to question the well-rehearsed figures of the Ghetto Jew and Hofjude, to learn about Landjuden, and to place alongside the history of oppression and victimhood (to be sure, a very important vector of German-Jewish History) another history of periodic but significant co-existence, even flourishing. We experienced the pre-history of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment and the drive for emancipation in the second half of the 18th century.
The Judaic Studies Program at W&M sponsored an all-day “Jewish University” Sunday, December 7th to a sold-out crowd at the Sadler Center. Four lectures by W&M faculty presented various aspects of Judaic history, lives, and media from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible to the Nazi Genocide and Jews in American Cinema in the 20th century: Professor Michael Daise: The Essenes and the Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls;Professor Julie Galambush: “Who is Like You among the Gods?” – Understanding Israelite Polytheism; Professor Rob Leventhal: Forms of Antisemitism from the 18th Century to the Present; Professor and Director Marc Lee Raphael: The Jew in American Cinema.
Berel Lang, Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Letters at Wesleyan University, is one of the foremost scholars on the representation of the Nazi Genocide of the European Jews in the world. His books include: Faces and Other Ironies of Writing and Reading (1983);Writing and the Holocaust (1989); Act and Idea in the Nazi Genocide (1990); The Anatomy of Philosophical Style (1990); Heidegger’s Silence (1996); Writing and the Moral Self (1991); Holocaust Representation: Art within the Limits of History and Ethics (2000); Post-Holocaust: Interpretation, Misinterpretation, and the Claims of History (2005); Philosophical Witnessing: The Holocaust as Presence (2009) and, most recently, Primo Levi: The Matter of a Life (2013). Berel Lang gave a public lecture based on his new book — “Primo Levi: The Matter of a Life” (Yale, 2013) — and taught Rob Leventhal’s GRMN 387 class “Germans and Jews since 1750”.
Professor Stephen Brockmann, one of the world’s leading scholars on German Literature, Culture, and Film, Professor of German at Carnegie Mellon University, gave two talks at W&M in September: “German Culture, Globalization, and Transnationalism” (in English) and “DDR-Film und der Zweite Weltkrieg“ (in German). Brockmann is the author of A Critical History of German Film (2010); Nuremberg: the Imaginary Capital (2006); German Literary Culture at the Zero Hour (2004) and Literature and German Reunification (1999).
Is there such a thing as a universal language of film? The students in German 206 “Intermediate Composition and Conversation, team-taught by Visiting Assistant Professor Jennifer Gülly and German House Tutor Carolin Wattenberg, ” were about to find out: thirteen movies covering almost 100 years of German and Austrian film history. Thirteen movies, that’s thirteen individual stories: the story of a young couple whose life is torn apart by the Berlin Wall (The Promise); the story of a son who keeps the GDR alive in an attempt to save his mother’s life (Good Bye, Lenin!); the story of a boy who refuses to grow up out of contempt for his elders and their ready compliance with the Nazi regime (The Tin Drum) or the multiple stories of Turkish, Russian, and other immigrants and their struggles behind, between, or across physical and psychological borders.
The range of movie plots, characters, themes, and styles put us in a very fortunate position: they provided us with a sheer endless source of material to discuss with our students. It was not just the fact that they made it possible for us to cover a variety of vocabulary but the movies also provided us with visual representations of Germany’s history and culture. We would spend one week on each movie; first giving students an introduction into its specific historical background and context, before moving on to a more specific discussion of the movies’ themes, plots, character developments, cinematography or scenery.
The students actively led class discussions by doing three oral group presentations each. The purpose of these was not so much to provide a synopsis of each movie but for them to think of crucial questions and issues that they’d want to discuss with their classmates. Presentations challenged them to practice speaking German freely and in front of an audience, while also actively managing their classmates’ responses and reacting to them in real time.
Homework consisted of additional grammar exercises geared to the specific movie contexts. Compositions of three to four pages required students to analyze the movies in greater detail, compare them to each other or to creatively elaborate on a given theme from the perspective of one of the characters, e.g. through diary entries, inner monologs or letters.
For their final assignment, students will work on their own subtitling projects. They will produce English subtitles for one of the movies we discussed in class. They’ll be introduced to both technological as well as linguistic aspects of creating movie subtitles. Apart from the mere translation of individual words from German into English, students will face the challenge of grasping the core of each dialog, its irony, humor, context, and even more importantly, its subtext. They’ll realize that it’s more than just words they’ll have to translate and that it can be very challenging to lend an American voice to characters who are very much determined by their German language. In the end, students will have to find an answer to the question that has accompanied us all semester long: Is the language of film really universal or always inextricable from its national context?
Sierra Barnes (German Studies and History ’14) has been awarded an English Teaching Assistantship by the Austrian Ministry of Education and Women’s Affairs and Austrian-American Educational Commission (AAEC), sponsored and administered by the Fulbright Commission, for the academic year 2014-2015. This award includes travel expenses and a substantial monthly stipend to teach at two schools located in the Danube Valley about 31km from Linz: the Europagymnasium des Schulvereins Europagymnasium in Baumgartner and the Bundes-Oberstufenrealgymnasium BORG in Perg, Austria. Congratulations Sierra!
German Studies and IR student Terrence Mack has received the prestigious Robert Gates Scholarship for Summer Study from the College. Terrence will spend the summer studying German language, literature, and culture at the Universitaet Potsdam. Upon hearing the news, Terrence said this: “The Robert Gates Scholarship news was amazing. When I applied for it and asked my German professors Robert Leventhal and Bruce Campbell for letters of recommendation, I didn’t really believe I would be chosen. I was only trying to make sure I pursued every possible avenue to study abroad since I have never been outside the country before. This scholarship has opened many new doors for me. Now I can spend an entire summer working on my fluency in the language, immersed in German culture. I am incredibly grateful to Robert Gates and the German Studies faculty for all the support and lessons they have taught me the last 3 years. It was the best decision I have made in College to double major in International Relations and German. I owe Bruce Campbell and Robert Leventhal a majority of the credit for my success. Without their support and guidance, I wouldn’t be where I am right now.I would advise any student at the College of William and Mary interested in a language to spend time in the German Department. The teachers are the most supportive group I know and invest everything they have in making sure their students succeed.” Well, the credit goes to you, Terrence, for your incredible accomplishments in German Studies at W&M in the last two years!
Sierra Barnes (German Studies and History, ’14) has been accepted to the Helix Project Yiddishkayt for the Summer of 2014. This four-week intensive program begins in July with an intensive course of cultural and language education in L.A. Then Helixers spend two weeks exploring the heart of Jewish Europe, learning and discussing with two leading scholars of Jewish history. Students follow in the footsteps of Jewish poets in Belarus, activists in Poland, and partisans in Vilnius.
New German Studies faculty member Jennifer Gully talks with Mike Blum about her research and teaching. Jennifer received her M.A. at the University of Vienna and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at UCLA. Her research focuses on translation as a conflicted and often antagonistic process in literature and film. The “clash of languages” has become a fascinating area of discussion and research as multi-lingualism increasingly calls into question the hegemony of the one national language, often an illusion to begin with, and the very unity of understanding and communication are placed under pressure. Jennifer is teaching German Language, Literature, and Film at W&M, and she uses in her work such examples as diverse as Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards and W.G. Sebald’s haunting novel Austerlitz to show how various languages in conflict and the difficulty of translation persist even still, or precisely, in the era of unprecedented anglicization and globalization.
German Studies and International Relations major Tyler Bembenek (’15) has been awarded the first Gates Scholarship for Summer Study Abroad. The scholarship, made possible by William and Mary Chancellor Robert M. Gates (’65) and his wife Rebecca, is a merit-based award that enables outstanding W&M students to pursue their field of study during the summer. Tyler elected to study medieval history at St. Peter’s College, Oxford, during the summer of 2013. “The English tutorial system has definitely helped me develop my research skills,” Bembenek said: “Now I have more confidence initiating my own research and engaging with academic sources outside of my comfort zone.” In the spring of 2013, Tyler was able to meet with Chancellor Gates, whom he sees as a model of serving the nation. Congratulations Tyler!
Jennifer Gülly received her Magistra from the University of Vienna, Austria, and her PhD in Comparative Literature from UCLA. She has previously held positions at Pomona College, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of South Florida before coming to William and Mary. Her research lies at the intersection of language policy, translation theory, and literary aesthetics, and she is currently working on a project tentatively titled Territories of Language: Law, Literature, and the Nation-State. In addition to all levels of German language classes, she teaches courses on German literature and German film, Vienna 1900-2000, the Holocaust in Literature and Film, World Literature, and on the history and theory of translation.
German Studies students have once again received a record number of Fulbright ETAs for the academic year 2013-2014. Emma Paynter and Judd Peverall have both received Fulbrights to Germany, and Brandon De Graaf has received an Austrian Fulbright ETA. Brandon will be at the Bundesgymnasium Tanzenberg in Maria Saal in Kärnten. Congratulations all!
The Sociology Department, German Studies, and Charles Center are pleased to sponsor a lecture by Prof. Rudi Leiprecht, who is a professor of Diversity Education at the Universitaet Oldenbourg in Germany. Currently, he is Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. Professor Leiprecht will present a lecture entitled “Young People in Germany and Experiences of Discrimination and Racism” and show his documentary on the same topic. The lecture is open to the public.
Judd Peverall (German Studies and Philosophy, ’13) and Brandon De Graaf (German Studies and History, ’13) have all received Fulbright and Austrian English Teaching Assistantships respectively for 2013-2014. Both will be placed in a >Gymnasien where they will serve as teaching assistants in the English programs of the schools and assist in curricular and non-curricular activities with students. Congratulations!
Ariana Berger (Business and German Studies ’11) has finished her internship in the Corporate Ratings department of Standard & Poor’s in Frankfurt, and will be working with S&P Capital IQ as an Account Manager. The position in fixed-term for one year with a relatively good chance for her to stay on afterwards. Ariana writes: “I think it is a great opportunity for me and I will very much enjoy it! It is more client and sales oriented, which I prefer over the very analytical position I had for the last 6 months.” Upon graduating from W&M, Ariana was awarded The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) full-year work-study scholarship for Young Professionals in Germany for 2011-2012. Congratulations on your new position in Frankfurt, Ariana!
Senior Evan French, currently in Professor Leventhal’s GRMN 202 class, is headed to Hamburg. Evan scored a DAAD RISE paid internship with a software engenieering firm for six months beginning in June 2013. Congratulations, Evan!
Next fall Lauren Shaw (German Studies, ’09) will be starting a master’s program in global migration at University College London. The program looks at the social, economic and political causes and implications of human migration, while seeking to better understand the lived experiences of local and international migrant communities. Courses are drawn from a number of disciplines, including geography, anthropology, economics and political science, and students benefit from UCL’s connections to NGOs, governmental and community-based organizations in London. Lauren, who spent two years in Austria as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, is particularly interested in youth migration, educational opportunities and challenges for children with a migration background, and rural vs. urban areas as places of immigration and integration.
Since returning from Austria in 2011, Lauren has been working as a research associate at the German Historical Institute in Washington DC. She is part of the research project Transatlantic Perspectives: Europe in the Eyes of European Immigrants to the United States, 1930-1980, for which she does research, editing and website management. She is currently helping with the planning for a workshop entitled “Migrants as ‘Translators’: Mediating External Influences on Post World War II Western Europe, 1945-1973”, which the GHI is organizing in cooperation with the Institut für die Geschichte der Deutschen Jüden and will be held in Hamburg in October 2013.
Former German Studies students Mark Riggleman and Sam Thacker at this year’s Oktoberfest on the Wies’n in Munich, Germany
Fall is the time of harvest, gathering together to celebrate the fruits of the earth, and for the German Studies section at W&M, the moment for Oktoberfest. Each year the German Studies Section of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures rallies the members of the German House and all German Studies students to take part in a ritual that has been a powerful sign of German hospitality and sociability since the 19th century: gathering on the Theresienwiese in Munich to share a beer, and a table, often with strangers, to participate in the world’s largest fair, with over 6 million in attendance.
Oktoberfest is a 16 day event held from mid-September to the first week in October. It began with a royal marriage. On October 12, 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, celebrated his wedding to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the royal event. The fields were named Theresienwiese (“Theresa’s meadow”) in honor of the Crown Princess, today abbreviated as die Wies’n. The beers at Oktoberfest must be brewed by one of the authorized Munich breweries: Augustiner-Bräu, Hacker-Pschorr-Bräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner-Bräu, Spatenbräu, and Staatliches Hofbräu-München. Only beer conforming to the German Beer Purity Laws (Reinheitsgebot), with a minimum of 13.5% original wort (Stammwürze, approximately 6% alcohol) may be served at Oktoberfest. And Oktoberfest itself is a registered trademark of the Club of German Brewers.
Carolin Wattenberg, German House tutor from Münster, Germany, with students at the Oktoberfest
At W&M, of course, we have do without the essential element of beer, but we can create a sumptuous table of savory sausages and kraut, pretzels, hamburgers, potato salads and an assortment of cakes, to bring in the fall. This year, we had over sixty students, faculty and staff and their families attend the festival.
An Oktoberfest table of home-baked Kuchen
Carolin Wattenberg, the German House Tutor from Münster, Germany 2012-2013, Rob Leventhal, Associate Professor and Section Head, and Maria Morrison, Visiting Assistant Professor of German Studies, spent the day preparing for the festival, which began at 4pm. A perfect fall Saturday greeted the guests at the outdoor commons area and grill at the Randolph Complex. When we ran out of Bratwürste halfway through the festival, Maria and Carolin made a heroic trip to the store so we could feed the hungry students, faculty and families who gathered at the Randolph Complex. It was a wonderful day and a good time had by all.
Elaine Vega (’13) and Anna Kim (’13) on their way from Potsdam to Berlin, Germany, both recipients of Guthrie scholarships for German Studies Research Abroad during the summer of 2011
Kai Simenson (’12), recipient of Guthrie Award, Summer 2011
J. Richard Guthrie believed strongly in the undergraduate study of German language, literature, and culture. As part of his estate, he endowed a scholarship fund to assist undergraduates to carry out semester or summer research in German Studies. Because of this generous endowment from his estate, the German Studies Section at W&M is able to award a limited number of scholarships to qualified undergraduates in German Studies.
A native of Hilton Village who attended Hilton Elementary, J. Richard Guthrie was graduated from Warwick High School in 1958 where he was elected the “Wittiest” in the class, a personality trait which stood him in good stead throughout his life. He held a B.A. Degree in French and German from William and Mary, an M.A. from Middlebury College Graduate School of French at the Sorbonne in Paris. There, as the elected Student Body President, he was presented the symbolic key to the city by the then mayor of Paris, later to become the president of the French Republic, Francois Mitterand.
Later, he continued on with his education earning the Ph.D. in Romance Languages with an extensive German minor, granted by special permission of the Graduate Committee from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He was the recipient of numerous grants for study at the Universities of Munich, Cologne and the Free University of Berlin in Germany. He was honored to have been chosen as one of 15 Americans to participate in a conference in West Berlin sponsored by the West German government in 1981 and a special grant for 12 university teachers nation-wide to attend a conference on the “New Germany” in Berlin in 1991, one year after reunification.
Elaine Vega (’13) and Anna Kim (’13) on their way from Potsdam to Berlin, Germany, both recipients of Guthrie scholarships for German Studies Research Abroad during the summer of 2011
He was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus from Christopher Newport upon his retirement in May of 2002 after 35 years where he was responsible for the construction, inauguration and implementation of the German major and minor programs from their beginnings until his retirement. He served three elected three-year terms as Chairman of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. He traveled extensively throughout all of Europe: northern, central and southern, and the Mid-East, including Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Greece.
Professor Guthrie was passionate about German Studies, and he channeled that passion into creating opportunities for W&M undergrads to follow their passion. Thanks to his generous gift, German Studies undergraduates at W&M will be able to carry out research in German Studies in the United States or abroad for years to come. Recent recipients of Guthrie scholarship funds have included Kai Simenson, Anna Kim, Elaine Vega, Judson Peverall and Sierra Barnes.
Claire Lehnen (German Studies and International Relations, ’07), Graduate Student at the University of Michigan – Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, has assumed the position of German teacher at the German School of Ann Arbor, Michigan. After graduating, Claire spent two years in the Peace Corps in China, where she developed innovative foreign language instruction methodologies by creating and adapting interactive curriculum with projects and assignments that met students’ language learning needs and multi-skill level for Oral English and English Writing at a large accredited university in industrial China. Claire also interned at GM, supported policy agenda for vehicle model year 2012 labeling requirements by researching, editing and responding to communication, white papers and memoranda from federal agencies and auto alliances. She has just completed a group project at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy “Combating HIV-AIDS in China: Is there a place for NGOs?”
Peter Lecce (’12), Economics and International Studies Major with strong training and interests in German Studies, will be interning in the spring at the U.S. Consulate in Munich, where he will be working in the political/economic section. Peter took part in the W&M Potsdam Summer Study Abroad Program in 2010. Peter also recently found out that he was granted an interview for the Bundestag internship (the International Parlaments-Stipendium) in Washington this November. Finally, Peter is applying for the prestigious DAAD Fellowship for 2013-2014.
Sarah Salino, who designed her own major at the College and will graduate with Honors Sunday, May 13, has been awarded a Fulbright in Germany for the academic year 2012-2013. Although she has not yet been placed yet, Sarah will be teaching at a Gymnasium, working with students and other teachers and providing curricular support in American Studies to students getting ready for Unversity study. Sarah is also being initiated into Phi Beta Kappa on Friday, May 11.
In designing her own interdisciplinary major in Geography Sarah combined courses from Geology, Government, and Sociology that together give her the tools to ask the question, “Where?” of social, cultural, and physical phenomena.
For her thesis, she explored the use of an area-based socioeconomic measure, in this case the percentage of residents of a particular census tract who live at or below the poverty line, as an indicator of chlamydia risk. This research, done in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health, used a methodology intended to produce policy-relevant results that will contribute to state- and national-level efforts to address health disparities attributable to socioeconomic inequalities.
German Studies and Psychology Major Grace Brennan (’12) has received a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship to Berlin for the academic year 2012-2013. Brennan is one of two Fulbrights to Germany this year. Grace is also being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa on Friday, May 11, as a result of her stunning academic achievements at the College in both of her fields of study.
Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2015! From the left, Lisa Laird (German Studies and European Studies), Mike Crumplar, Helene Melke, and Tyler Bembenek (German Studies and IR).
German House Tutor Kim Mutmann joins the German Studies Program this year from the Wilhelms-Westfaelische Universitaet Muenster, where she received her M.A. in “National and Transnational Studies: Literature, Culture, and Language,” with a focus on Post-Colonial Culture and Politics. She completed her master’s thesis on South African Poetry: “Xenophobia under the Rainbow – Migrants in Post-Apartheid South African Fiction.” Before Muenster, Kim studied at the University of Maastricht, and at Salford University in Manchester, England. She has had numerous editorial internships, enjoys jogging and tennis.
Jewish Swim Club, Sulzburg, circa 1920
Cologne was our last stop before heading back to Frankfurt and then home. Unfortunately, the entire archeological zone is now closed due to the construction of the New Jewish Museum and Jewish Center. However, we visited the Olympics Museum to look for traces of the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which eleven Israeli athletes were killed in a shootout after they were held hostage and then abducted by members of Black September. To our amazement, we found only one small “black box” and a small plaque commemorating the massacre. The next morning, we went to the Stadtmuseum (The City Museum), where detailed histories of the Jews of Cologne provided us with an in-depth sense of Jews’ lives from the Middle Ages until the Nazi Genocide. In 1941, all avenues to escape the Nazi reign of terror were shut down, and by late 1942, most of the city’s 11,000 Jews had been deported to the concentration camps and killing centers in the East. The anti-Semitic figure of the Judensau (a mockery of Judaism and Jewish Dietary law) is found on a seat in the Cologne cathedral dating from 1210; the first pogrom against the Jews had occurred in 1348-49; and the Jews were expelled from the city in 1478, only allowed to return in the late 18th century.
Is there such a thing as a universal language of film? The students in German 206 “Intermediate Composition and Conversation, team-taught by Visiting Assistant Professor Jennifer Gülly and German House Tutor Carolin Wattenberg, ” were about to find out: thirteen movies covering almost 100 years of German and Austrian film history. Thirteen movies, that’s thirteen individual stories: the story of a young couple whose life is torn apart by the Berlin Wall (The Promise); the story of a son who keeps the GDR alive in an attempt to save his mother’s life (Good Bye, Lenin!); the story of a boy who refuses to grow up out of contempt for his elders and their ready compliance with the Nazi regime (The Tin Drum) or the multiple stories of Turkish, Russian, and other immigrants and their struggles behind, between, or across physical and psychological borders.
The students actively led class discussions by doing three oral group presentations each. The purpose of these was not so much to provide a synopsis of each movie but for them to think of crucial questions and issues that they’d want to discuss with their classmates. Presentations challenged them to practice speaking German freely and in front of an audience, while also actively managing their classmates’ responses and reacting to them in real time.
