aclassen

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aclassen@arizona.edu
Phone
(520) 621-1395
Office
Learning Services Building 318
Office Hours
Contact for Information (normally available every workday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and later: 520 6211395, aclassen@arizona.edu
Classen, Albrecht
University Distinguished Professor

Dr. Albrecht Classen was born in 1956 near Bad Hersfeld in Northern Hesse, Germany. He studied at the universities of Marburg and Erlangen (Germany), Millersville, PA (USA), Oxford (Great Britain), Salamanca (Spain), Urbino (Italy), and Charlottesville, VA (USA). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1986 and began his career at the University of Arizona in 1987.

He has a broad range of research interests covering the history of German and European literature and culture from about 800 to 1800, but he also pays close attention to contemporary conditions, including politics, religion, economy, sports, and literature. He is also a poet of his own rights and has so far published twelve volumes of his own texts in German, most recently: Hawaiische Impressionen (2013), Sonora: harter Klang (2015), Welterkundungen aus der Neuen Welt: Prosa und Lyrik (2021), Deep Poetic Gazes into the World (2021), and Deep Words and Epiphanies: Haikus and Word Magic (2023). Since 2016, he has also published five volumes of essays and satires (such as Amerikanische Satiren, Leipzig: Engelsdorfer Verlag, Die Welt und ich, ein etwas unausgewogenes Verhältnis: Neue Satiren aus deutscher und amerikanischer Sicht, 2020; and Wildgewordenes Amerika: Berichte aus dem Alltag in den wirklich fremden USA und andere Reflexionen (Der Lehrbuchverlag, 2020'; all available through amazon).  He is an active contributor to the literary journal Trans-Lit2, for which he had served as the book review editor from 2012 to 2020. In 2016 he was selected as a member of the PEN-Zentrum deutschsprachiger Autoren im Ausland (PEN Center of German-Speaking Authors Abroad). He is the current president of the Society of Contemporary American Literature in German (SCALG).

His publications (currently 132 books) include a monograph on Oswald von Wolkenstein and his Italian sources (1987), a post-structuralist interpretation of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Titurel (1990), a comparative analysis of 15th-century autobiographical European poetry (Autobiographische Lyrik, 1991), a monograph on the German Volksbuch (1995), a critical investigation of late-medieval songbooks (2001), an extensive investigation of the communicative community as portrayed in Middle High German literature (Verzweiflung und Hoffnung, 2002), a study on a notorious medieval myth (The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making Process, 2007), then The Power of a Woman’s Voice in Medieval and Early Modern Literature (2007), Deutsche Schwankliteratur des 16. Jahrhunderts: Studien zu Martin Montanus, Hans Wilhelm Kirchhof und Michael Lindener (2009), and (together with Lukas Richter) Lied und Liederbuch in der Frühen Neuzeit (2010).In 2011 appeared Sexual Violence and Rape in the Middle Ages and Sex im Mittelalter (both monographs). He also published translations of Moriz von Craûn (1992), Tristan als Mönch (1994), Diu Klage (1997), Mai und Beaflor (2006), and the poems by Oswald von Wolkenstein (2008). In 1999 appeared a book on late-medieval secular German women songs, followed by a monograph on religious women songs from the same time period (2002). In 1999, he edited a volume with critical articles, entitled The Book and the Magic of Reading in the Middle Ages. Other volumes that he edited are: Meeting the Foreign in the Middle Ages (2002), Violence in Medieval Courtly Literature (2004), Discourses on Love, Marriage, and Transgression in Medieval and Early Modern Literature (2004), Childhood in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (2005), Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (2008), Urban Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times (2009),  Laughter in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: Epistemology of a Fundamental Human Behavior, Its Meaning, and Consequences (2010), and, most importantly, the 3 volume Handbook of Medieval Studies (2010).  In 2011 appeared a new volume, Friendship in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age, which he edited together with Marilyn Sandidge. In Sept. 2011 also appeared the volume War and Peace, ed. together with Nadia Margolis, in 2012 a volume on Rural Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time, and in 2013 a volume on East Meets West  in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time. In 2014 followed a volume on Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion. In 2015 appeared his monograph on The Forest in Medieval German Literature and a 3-vol. Handbook of Medieval Culture (Walter de Gruyter). This was followed by a new monograph on Reading Medieval Women Literature (2016). His latest research focuses both on ecocriticism (with a book on Water in Medieval :Literature [2017]) and the myth of Charlemagne in medieval German and Dutch literature, 2022). Another book on Magic and Magicians in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time appeared in 2017, followed by Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval and Early Modern European Literature. Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture, 8 (2018), and Eros und Logos: Literarische Formen des sinnlichen Begehrens in der (deutschsprachigen) Literatur vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, ed. Albrecht Classen, Wolfgang Brylla, and Andrey Kotin. Popular Fiction Studies, 4 (Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 2018). In Oct. 2018 appeared in print Travel, Time, and Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time, ed. A. Classen (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter). His new monograph on Prostitution in Medieval and Early Modern Literature appeared in 2019 (Lexington Books), as well as his book on Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age (Walter de Gruyter). In Jan. 2020 appeared: Religious Toleration in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: An Anthology of Literary, Theological, and Philosophical Texts (Berlin: Peter Lang, 2020). His latest books are Charlemagne in Medieval German and Dutch Literature (2021) and Wisdom from the European Middle Ages: Literary and Didactic Perspectives. A Study, Anthology, and Commentary (Berlin: Peter Lang, 2022). His current research focuses on freedom, imprisonment, and slavery in the pre-modern world (book appeared under that title in 2021). Most recently, he published an English translation of short stories by Werner Bergengruen (2021) and a translation of Johannes Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst (2024). In 2023 appeared his latest edited volume on Globalism in the Middle Ages, and Turkish-German Relations in Literary History from the Fifteenth Through the Twenty-First Century (2023). A new volume on Nature in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times was published in July 2024.

In 1996, he held a visiting professorship at the University of Trieste, Italy, and Freiburg, Germany. In the summer of 1999, Prof. Classen served as Rotarian University Teaching Fellow at the Eötvös-Lorand-University, Budapest, Hungary, in November 2001 he was visiting professor at the University of Valencia, and in March 2004 at the University of Sevilla (both Spain). In 2008 and 2010 he was a guest professor at Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, South Korea, and every summer from 2010 to 2012 at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, UK. He was also a guest professor in Helsinki (Finland), Poznan (Poland), Monash/Melbourne (Australia), and Halle (Germany). In the Summer of 2013, he was a guest professor at Rikkyo University, Tokyo (Japan), and in the Summer of 2014 guest professor at the  L. N. Gumiljov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan. In March 2015 he was a guest professor at Keio University, Tokyo, in September 2015 at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, and Bristol University, UK. In July 2016 he was a guest professor at Rikkyo University, Tokyo, once again. In June 2017 and June 2018, he was a guest professor at the University of Zielona Gora in Poland, in June 2018 at the University of Usti nab Labem, in the Czech Republic, and in July 2018 at the University of Graz, Austria. In March of 2019, he was a guest professor at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. In Fall of 2023, he held a Fulbright grant at the University of Cairo, Egypt. Although a passionate philologist and medievalist, he is also fascinated by modern and medieval literary theory, and applies comparative, ecocritical, and feminist approaches to his research. Since 2010 he has been the editor-in-chief of the scholarly journal Mediaevistik, and since 2012 the editor-in-chief of the online journal Humanities Open Access. Since 2021, he is also the editor-in-chief of Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities and of Humanities and Social Science Research (ideasspread.org)

At the latest count (Aug. 2024), he has published 132 books, 802 scholarly articles, 402 lexicon and encyclopedia entries, and ca. 2920 book reviews.

He has published two CD-ROMs with readings of Middle High German and Early Modern German poetry (Chaucer-Studio).

As a result of his passion for teaching, he has won several prestigious teaching awards, most recently the Five Star Faculty Award (2009) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 2012 Arizona Professor of the Year Award. The same year he became the Honorary Member of Golden Key International Honour Society, Arizona Chapter. In 2015 he earned the Excellence in Academic Advising Faculty Advisor Award. In 2004, the German government honored him with the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Band (Order of Merit), the highest civilian award of merit. He also received the rank of University Distinguished Professor in 2004 for his accomplishments in teaching and research. In 2006, he received the AATG Teacher of the Year Award for the College Level. In 2007, the German community of Borsum made him its honorary citizen. The South Eastern Medieval Association awarded him a prize in recognition of his research as a medievalist in 2007. In 2009 he won the Henry and Phyllis Koffler Prize for Research, the highest award given by the University of Arizona. In 2012 he was awarded the title "Friend of German Award" from the AATG. In 2016 he received the University of Arizona Excellence in Academic Advising Faculty Advisor Award, and also the NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising, Certificate of Merit (Faculty Advising Category). In 2016 he received the Michael Delhoyde Award for Distinguished Contributions in Editing, from the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association. He was knighted as Grand Knight Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Three Lions (http://bourgognevonhohenstaufen.com/chivalry) in 2017.  The same year he received the Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service, Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association (Oct.). In 2020, the German Academic Exchange Service awarded him with its International Exchange award. In 2021, he received one of the “Tulliola- Renato Filippelli” World Awards of the foreign section E (Premio Mondiale “Tulliola- Renato Filippelli” Vincitori della sezione stranieri), https://illevriero-cultura.blogspot.com/2021/03/premio-mondiale-tuollio…. In 2021, the College of Humanities at the UoA awarded him with the Chatfield Outstanding Tenured Researcher Award, in 2022 he gained a Fulbright for Egypt, and in 2022, the American Association of Teachers of German made him an Honorary Member. In 2023, the Literary Encyclopedia awarded him as the joint-winner of the Book Prize for a study on literature other than English, for his book Freedom, Imprisonment, and Slavery in the Pre-Modern World (2021). 

In 2010 he was elected Vice President and President-Elect of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, completing his third term as President as then the Past President in 2013. The Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association awarded him for his many years of service as Vice-President-Past President with its Sterling Membership in 2013. He was elected Vice President again in 2014 and was the new president (2016), and past president (2017).

In 2011 he also assumed, once again (since 1992, almost continuously), the role of President of the Arizona Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German (until 2019). He resumed that function in 2022. 

He is a dedicated volleyball player and loves bicycling. He also likes ping pong, learning foreign languages, working with international students, taking photos, and writing haikus. Follow him on Facebook. He is also on LinkedIn, Instagram, X. 

See his abbreviated Curriculum Vitae

Currently Teaching

GER 160D1 – Eroticism and Love in the Middle Ages

This course introduces students to the culture and mentality of the Middle Ages, focusing on attitudes toward love, sex, and marriage. Concepts of the body, of human relationships, and hence of eroticism in its cultural significance will be highlighted. Students should learn that the discourse on love represented the central issue of social and cultural life in medieval times. The issue of love was not a matter of private, individual concern, but rather a topic of public debate. Love in the Middle Ages was seen as a highly sophisticated matter, in fact, almost a public art form. Nevertheless, despite its different appearance in literary texts, love in the Middle Ages was of similar relevance as it is for people today, so this course will connect the past discourse with the present discourse. We will examine the differences in approaches then and the similarities in ethical and moral concerns today. Also, love as a theme served as a point of public debate within the Church and outside regarding the meaning of life and human's earthly existence. The discussion in class will center on the main aspect of how medieval authors dealt with the erotic and love, that is, how they utilized the theme of courtly love to produce their literary works. But this course does not simply linger on the idyllic nature of love in the past, but brings to light also the dark sides, such as violence, betrayal, lying, etc. because the erotic and love are fundamental issues in all human existence, bringing joy and sorrow. The discussion of eroticism and love in the Middle Ages, specifically in its physical manifestation, will also lead to insights regarding spiritual epiphany, both in the past and in the present.

GER 412 – Tales of Love

Focuses on a wide range of narratives from various historical periods dealing with representations of love. Taught in German.

GER 379 – Religion in German Culture

Introduction to major cultural figures of German speaking countries who have seen, imagined, or experienced what role religion may or can play in human life. An introduction to the religious discourse from the German Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century, with an emphasis on the emergence of tolerance.

GER 393 – Internship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of training and practice in actual service in a technical, business, or governmental establishment.