2008-09 has been a very active, busy, and productive year for the German Studies Department. In addition to the seven tenured members in the Department, we started the year with two new assistant professors, one adjunct professor, six M.A. students and seven students preparing for the Ph.D. in Transcultural German Studies.
Departmental faculty and teaching assistants – including four SLAT Ph.D. students – have taught 86 courses with 1594 students enrolled. Four of our faculty members are teaching and mentoring students in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) in addition to the departmental doctoral program. Departmental faculty has been actively involved with the Partnership across Languages (PAL), a COH-sponsored advocacy group consisting of language educators from all educational levels. The department hosted a 6th international conference, this time on ―Laughter in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times" as well as the spring meeting of the Arizona chapter of the AATG. We participated in the College of Humanities Colloquium Series and in the Humanities Week, and faculty and graduate students served as judges in the annual Southern Arizona Language Fair. Our approximately 51 majors and 52 minors, in addition to the many students in our lower division language program enjoyed a number of social activities hosted by the Department during the academic year. The department continues to serve as a testing center for the examinations administered by the Goethe Institute. The departmental film and colloquium series continue to attract students and faculty from across the campus and community. The only sad news to report is the death of Babette Luz (93), former professor in the department, who died on May 24, 2008.
You can read more about the department in the attached Newsletter with over 20 pages of up to date information. Enjoy!