oduroopuni

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oduroopuni@arizona.edu
Office
Learning Services Building
Oduro-Opuni, Obenewaa
Assistant Professor

Dr. Oduro-Opuni received her Ph.D. in Comparative Culture and Language and an African Studies Certificate from Arizona State University. She earned her M.A. in German from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and her B.A. in Media and Communication Sciences from the Universität Hamburg in Germany, where she was born and raised. In addition to German and English, she also speaks Twi. She is affiliated faculty with the Department of Africana Studies. Her research focuses on Black German studies and includes intersectional discussions on transnationalism, colonialism, migration, minoritized cultures, and multiculturalism. She engages German contexts by drawing on approaches rooted in Black thought and theories as well as postcolonial studies. In her current project, she explores 18th and early 19th century German-language discourses that articulate a nuanced critique of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade and are indicative of abolitionist currents. Dr. Oduro-Opuni serves as a co-chair for the German Studies Association (GSA) Black Diaspora Studies Network. She has published an article titled "German Abolitionism: Kotzebue and the Transnational Debate on Slavery" in a special issue of the Journal of Transnational American Studies on "Transnational Black Politics and Resistance: From Enslavement to Obama." In addition, Dr. Oduro-Opuni has a publication in the Goethe Yearbook volume on (New) Directions in 18th century German Studies called "Lessing and Kotzebue: A Black Studies Approach to Reading the Eighteenth Century." She has a publication in the special issue on Black German Studies in German Quarterly is called "At the Expense of Black Humanity: White Abolitionist Performativity." Her most recent publication is a co-authored chapter called "Four Black German Women: On Being Othered, Feeling Anger at Whiteness, Practicing Joy, and Finding Belonging in Solitude." She has a publication forthcoming in the German Studies Review called "Using Black Bodies in White German Abolitionist Theater" that will be published in 2025. In partnership with three colleagues, she received a Research, Innovation and Impact Challenge Grant in the amount of $49,995 for the Department of Africana Studies and the Center for Digital Humanities in Fall 2020. The grant was be used to create research opportunities for undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Currently Teaching

GER 500 – Intensive Reading German for the Sciences and Humanities

Rapid acquisition of reading proficiency in German. No prior knowledge of German is necessary. Proficiency certification obtained from this course fulfills graduate foreign language requirement is some departments (consult department for information).

GER 516 – Advanced Research Methods in Transcultural German Studies

Intended for advanced MA and PhD students in their last year of coursework (third-semester for MA students, fifth-semester for PhD students), this student- and project-centered seminar helps students bring their previous research projects to a new level of excellence. Students arrive to the seminar with a recently completed German Studies project (whether literary/cultural, applied linguistic, or both), which they wish to turn into a 'publishable' piece of research. This can be a pedagogical lesson-study, a research article, a multi-modal work, or a mixed-methods project. By mid-way in the semester, students will have brought this project to fruition in writing and by way of an oral presentation, so that the remainder of the semester can focus on cultivating advanced competence in interdisciplinary research methods in German Studies, with equal attention afforded to literary/cultural and applied linguistic/pedagogical approaches.

GER 242 – Thinkers and Dreamers: Challenges of the Imagination in German History

Grand global challenges require broad thinking. For centuries, philosophers, theologians, playwrights, and poets writing in German have been grappling with the deeper questions of the human condition. From theologian Martin Luther to the political theorist Hannah Arendt, from the philologist Friedrich Nietzsche to the dancer Pina Bausch, German thinkers and dreamers have been exploring the possibilities and limitations of the human intellect in action. This course takes a wide-angle look at what German-speaking intellectual history can tell us about the world in 2013, and about the complex cultural and social history leading up to today.

GER 303 – German through Contemporary Media

German 303 is an intermediate/advanced course designed to foster students' language abilities through contemporary cultural works, e.g. short stories, podcasts, music, and digital texts. The course emphasizes the development of literacy and intercultural awareness. This course is not open to native or near-native speakers of German. Taught in German.

GER 412 – Tales of Love

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