Assistant ProfesSor of German, Musician, Human Being

Employment

Degrees

Selected Honors and Awards

  • 2018 NEH Summer Seminar stipend, “Culture in the Cold War: East German Art, Music and Film,” $3,300
  • 2017 Incubator Grant for a project to translate essays for edited volume, from Carleton College, $2205
  • 2017 Mellon Public Works initiative for Documentation and Preservation of the Personal Archive of the Noted German Conductor Kurt Masur, $7,060
  • 2017 "Germany Making Choices," Grant for Campus Week, from the German Embassy, $3862.50
  • 2017 "Deutsch macht Spaß" Grant, from AATG, $500
  • 2017 Broadening Bridge Exploration Grant, from Carleton College, "Collaborative program development and curriculum innovation in German at St. Olaf and Carleton," $9982.20 
  • 2017 Fellow for the Humanities Center 2017-18 faculty research seminar "Rethinking the Commons and Politics in the Democratic Public Sphere," from Carleton College, $2500
  • 2017 Broom Public Scholarship Project grant for “Kurt Masur in Conversation," from Carleton College, $500
  • 2016 With undergraduate student Briannon Carlsen ’17 among the top 5 translators of the “Children’s Books on Tour Translation Competition,” hosted by the German Book Office 
  • 2016 Global Engagement Initiative Grant for Curriculum Innovation to assess students’ proficiency in French and German for the global market, joint project with Christine Lac, from Carleton College, $3720
  • 2016 Winter Humanities Center Student Research Award to work with one student on the transcription, translation, and subtitling of interviews with conductor Kurt Masur, from Carleton College, 80 hours
  • 2016 "Germany Meets the U.S." Grant for Campus Week, from the German Embassy, $3620
  • 2016 Global Engagement Initiative Grant for the development of a Cultural Theory class and workshop, from Carleton College​, $3000
  • 2016 Broadening Bridge Exploration Grant, from Carleton College, $5523
  • 2016 Summer Humanities Center Student Research Award to work with one student on the transcription, translation, and subtitling of interviews with conductor Kurt Masur, from Carleton College, 40 hours​
  • 2014 RGSO Dissertation Support Award, from Penn State, $1260
  • 2013 Max Kade Travel Award, from Max Kade Foundation, Penn State, 2014, $1700
  • 2013 Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award, from Penn State
  • 2013NeMLA Graduate Student Caucus Paper Prize, from NeMLA 

Chaired Conference Panels

  • "College German and the Liberal Arts: Avenues for integration and Advocacy" at ACTFL in Nashville, co-chaired with Amanda Randall (Nov. 16-19, 2017)
  • "German as Tool, German as Key: Raising the Relevance of College German" at ACTFL in Nashville, co-chaired with Amanda Randall (Nov. 16-19, 2017)

Conference Presentations

  • Participation in the GSA Seminar "Not Enough Notes: Exploring the Intersections of Music, History and Cultural Studies" at GSA in Atlanta (Oct. 5-8, 2017), position paper "Speaking about Meaning"
  • "Sieben Sommersprossen—A GDR Cult Movie as Site of Memory and Criticism" at GSA in San Diego (Sept. 29-Oct. 2, 2016)
  • "D-A-CH in Kollaboration: High School SchülerInnen und Collegestudierende entdecken die Schweiz, Österreich und Berlin zusammen" at VirtualConference GETVICO (Sept. 17, 2016)
  • "Teaching Writing through Critical Thinking" at ACTFL in San Diego (Nov. 20-22, 2015)
  • "The Leipzig Gewandhaus: a Heterotopia inside the German Democratic Republic" at WiG in Banff (Oct. 22-25, 2015)
  • "The Concert Hall as Heterotopia" at GSA in D.C. (Oct. 1-4, 2015)
  • "Romanticism at the Gewandhaus? Masur, Mahler, and the Socialist Canon in the GDR" at Princeton Conjunction, Annual Interdisciplinary Conference in Princeton, NJ (May 9-10, 2014)
  • "Beyond the Couch—Coming to Terms with Political Trauma through Songs and Poems" (Poster Session), at Deutscher Kongress für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie in Berlin, Germany (March 26-29, 2014)
  • "Returning to the Urzustand—Mahler’s Second Symphony," at NeMLA in Boston, MA (March 21-24, 2013)
  • "Beyond the Couch: Coming to Terms with Political Trauma in the GDR through Songs and Poems," presented at the GSA in Milwaukee, WI (October 4-7, 2012)
  • "Heimatsehnsucht—Rammstein and the search for cultural identity" (with Nick Henry) presented at the NeMLA in Rochester, NY (March 15-18, 2012) , awarded with the 2013 Graduate Student Caucus Paper Prize
  • "Violent Love in Kleist’s Penthesilea. The Search for Harmony Through War," presented at the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Lexington, KY (April 14-16, 2011)

Invited Talks

  • “Exploring Intersensoriality at the Chelsea Music Festival,” Music & Sound Studies at University of Minnesota (Dec. 1, 2017)
  • "Drawing Connections between Fin-de-Siècle Vienna and the German Democratic Republic: Gustav Klimt and Sighard Gille” at The University of Minnesota Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch, the Center for Austrian Studies; Weisman Art Museum Minneapolis (March 29, 2017) 
  • "The Sound of Politics. Building and Destroying Socialism in east Germany through Music" with David Tompkins at Germanic American Institute St. Paul (Feb. 16, 2017)
  • "Konzerthäuser und die Gesellschaft. Können sich Sinfonieorchester sozial engagieren?," Lunch auf Deutsch at Germanic American Institute St. Paul (Oct. 7, 2016)
  • "Wie entdeckt man die Schweiz, Österreich und Berlin durch gemeinschaftliches Schreiben?" at AATG Fall 2016 Workshop, St. Thomas University (Sept. 24, 2016)
  • "How to Listen to Kurt Weill," invited lecture for the course "Brecht’s Music, Films and Afterlife(s)" at University of Minnesota (April 30, 2016)
  • "Marketing. PR. Social Media," Techno-Talk at Carleton College (Feb. 25, 2016)
  • "Sounds of Resistance: Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus vs. 'actually existing socialism' between 1970 and 1989," The Center for Global Studies Brown Bag Lecture Series at Penn State (Feb. 18, 2015)
  • "The Concert Hall as Heterotopia. The Gewandhaus in Leipzig between 1970 and 1989," The Institute for the Arts and Humanities Graduate Student Resident Talks and CGS at Penn State (Feb. 17 and 18, 2015)
  • "An Evening with Kurt Weill," Co-Moderator together with Marie Sumner Lot of a salon featuring music and conversation at Penn State School of Music (Feb. 2012)

Service

  • Reviewer for Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, since 2018
  • Faculty Advisor, Carleton College, since 2017
  • Off-Campus Studies Committee (OCSC), Member, Carleton College, since 2017
  • German Campus Weeks, Coordinator, Carleton College, since 2016
  • Initiator and coordinator for annual "Poetry Without Borders" Carleton College, since 2015
  • Social Media Coordinator, Carleton College, since 2015
  • PR and Marketing Team Member for Chelsea Music Festival under the artistic leadership of Ken-David and Melinda Lee Masur, New York City, 2014-2016
  • Board member at TanzTheater André Koslowski, audience development, 2014-2015
  • Co-coordinator for German Film Night at Penn State, 2014-2015
  • Member of the audience development committee for Music at Penn’s Woods at Penn State’s School of Music, 2013-2014
  • Co-coordinator for the bi-annual "Poetry Without Borders" Penn State, 2013-2015
  • Chair of the Music Committee at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Centre County in State College, PA, 2012-2014
  • Co-coordinator of German Day 2013 at Penn State, 2012-2013
  • Head of a search committee for the Music Director at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Centre County in State College, PA, 2013
  • Youth Advisor at the UUFCC in State College, PA, 2011-2014

Other Relevant Professional Experience

  • Tutor and substitute teacher for German and other subjects at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy, Boalsburg, PA, 2013-2015
  • Private Tutor for German as a first and foreign language, all ages, 2010-2015
  • Orientation Leader for the International Graduate Student Orientation at Penn State, Fall 2014
  • Co-developer of the new online German course for Vorsprung, section of German 1 and 2 at the Pennsylvania State University, 2012
  • Teacher for Music Readiness and German at The State College Music Academy, State College, 2011-2012
  • Redesign of the online section of the 10th edition of Deutsch Heute, 2011
  • Instructor for German at the Internationale Bund in Wernigerode, Germany, integrating people with migration background into work life, 2010 (Jan. 2010 until May 2010)
  • Teaching Assistant at the study-abroad program of The Texas Tech University German Department at their abroad campus in Quedlinburg, Germany, 2009
  • Summer Camp Counselor at Pali Overnight Adventures, Running Springs, CA, specialty: Rock Star Camp, 2008

Professional Development

Musical Involvement

  • Member of the performance choir for Leonard Bernstein’s Mass under the artistic leadership of Gerardo Edelstein and Christopher Kiver at the Penn State School of Music, 2013
  • Member of three recital choirs at the Penn State School of Music, 2012-2013
  • Member of The Keystone Society of Swing in State College, lead vocals, since 2013
  • Assistant Music Director of the musical Aida, a production of the Penn State Thespians, March/Apr. 2012
  • Member of the Adult Choir and Jazz Band at the UUFCC, since 2010
  • Lead Vocal Role in a local production of High School Musical, Wernigerode, Germany, 2007

Memberships