Department of Germanic Studies

Troy Byler brings us up to date on both graduate and undergraduate student engagement in all things German:

“Our department’s second annual German Instructor Summer Program (GISP) was another success. Sixteen Indiana German high school teachers participated and most of them enrolled in the optional graduate course, Germany 1945, co-taught by Bill Rasch and me. State funds through the IU Advance College Project are being used to pay for the graduate tuition of these instructors, who are all working towards the 18 credit hours needed for accreditation to teach our concurrent enrollment courses. Susanne Even, and two of our graduate students, Ben Swakopf and Bettina Christner have agreed to teach a course on German Märchen for next summer’s GISP. We hope that Nina Morais will be available once again to run the logistics, which she has done so well in the past.

Our sixth annual German Theater Project for high schools brought in a record number of high school students and teachers to this year’s festival in April. Every year, I am so impressed and proud of our graduate students who not only put together a well-run event, but also shine in their workshop offerings to the participants. This year the committee also included enthusiastic undergraduates, who help spread the gospel of Germanic Studies to the festival participants. A special thanks goes to two of them, Sam Day and Emma Helfrich. We will continue to include additional undergraduate support in the years to come.

Finally, I would like to mention that this summer we had the largest group of undergraduate students attend our summer Graz program in recent memory. Sixteen of our strong and engaged German majors, business certificate and minor students spent six weeks improving their German / Austrian language skills (courses taught by current grad students Bettina Christner and John Paul Ewing) and discovering the many pleasantries of a country that has so much to offer. Many thanks to our donors and especially to Bill Goodwin, would has continued to provide the generous travel scholarships to all of our overseas students.”