Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth and the SU German Club hosted a group of visitors from Germany on campus on April 15. Students and teachers from a high school in Augsburg enjoyed their campus day, participating in classes and discussions over lunch during a stroll to the square and on their campus tour. The visitors are in Texas for their German American Partnership Program (GAPP). Founded in 1972, GAPP supports school-to-school exchanges between the U.S. and Germany. With a network of over 775 U.S. schools and more than 400,000 alumni, GAPP is the largest bilateral exchange program between the U.S. and any other country. SU’s German Program regularly contributes to connecting students, educators, families, and communities – supporting learners of languages and cultures in building lifelong friendships and global connections.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned two grants from the German Foreign Office and German Academic Exchange Service – Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). The grants cover curated collections of German language publications, including selected literary works published in 2025 and a collection of learning-teaching materials. Students will engage with the collections in their studies of German language, literature, and cultures at all proficiency levels and in their training as educators, some in preparation for Fulbright ETAs. Continued success with DAAD materials grants is made possible through Berroth’s commitment to community engagement as a DAAD Ortslektorin.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth shared her research at the AATG/ACTFL conference in New Orleans on November 21. Her presentation, “Advocacy and Leadership through Universal Design for Learning: UDL and Transparency in Learning and Teaching: TILT,” contributed to the panel “Single Faculty German Programs – Best Practices.” This well-attended session focused on German language programs in higher education, bringing together experienced single faculty instructors to discuss the challenges they face and the strategies they use to sustain and support their programs. German educators from Rice University, Belmont University, and Midwestern State University joined Berroth in sharing their best practices.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth co-organized and hosted the 6th biennial joint conference of the three Texas Chapters of the American Association of Teachers of German at Southwestern on Sept 12-13. German educators from the Houston, South Texas, and North Texas chapters presented and collaborated on the conference’s dual focus topics: the uses of AI in teaching and learning, and best practices for recruitment and retention in German programs. Hueber Publishing, one of Germany’s premier textbook suppliers, provided an extensive book table and expert guidance to their K-16 materials. Representatives from the Houston Sängerbund promoted their scholarship for study abroad opportunities. Berroth’s SURF students Kendyl Feuerbacher ’27, Rylee Morris ’28, and Maglor Williams ’27 presented their summer research project on the Perry Rhodan science fiction collection, including reflections on how high impact experiences (HIEs) contribute to recruitment, retention in the German Program and beyond, and to their trajectories of personal and professional development. Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone and Berroth shared insights into the benefits of collaborations among faculty and staff in integrating DISCO into the curriculum and providing and mentoring HIEs. Over 30 participants from middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities emphasized the importance of vertical alignments in curricular developments for teaching and learning languages and cultures. Participants could earn continuing education credits. This marks the third time Berroth brought the joint conference to SU’s campus, a significant commitment to community outreach, to increasing the visibility of SU’s Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, and to invigorating recruitment efforts.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in two international conferences this summer. She presented her research paper, “Memory, Objects, Landscapes: Ecosystems in Marica Bodrožić’s Texts,” at the FrideL (Frauen in der Literaturwissenschaft) conference in Stuttgart, Germany. The Conference offered a focus on gender in/and nature in German studies. At the XV Convention of the Internationale Vereinigung der Germanisten (IVG) in Graz, Austria, Berroth contributed to “Section 32: Narratives of Psychological Crises in Contemporary German Language Literatures.” Her research paper, “Pantherzeit und Lockdown-Lyrik: Kreativität und Reflexion in der Pandemie,” contributed to a series on literary representations of crisis experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Active since 1951 in international collaborations in German studies, the IVG meets every five years, bringing together 1,700 German studies professionals from over 60 countries worldwide.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned two materials grants from the German Foreign Office and the German Academic Exchange Service, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). The grants cover two curated collections of German language publications: German language poetry across the ages, and German language texts in natural history, climate science, and the anthropocene. Students will engage with those collections in their studies of German language, literatures, and cultures at all proficiency levels. Success with DAAD materials grants is made possible through Berroth’s commitment to community engagement as a DAAD Ortslektorin.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented research on curriculum and instruction at the annual conference of the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) from November 22-24 in Philadelphia, PA. Berroth organized a session “From Aschenputtel to Schneewittchen: the Culinary in German Fairy Tales.” Fostering insights into a plurality of experiences around food, this session enhanced understanding of the culinary aspects of the Grimm’s fairy tales and showed how teachers can support learners across proficiency levels to analyze texts through the critical lens of food studies, while also working creatively with fairy tale-based recipes.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth co-presented a poster on “SPARK for German: Challenges and Success Stories” at the online conference of the Coalition of Women in German from October 24-26. Berroth, together with Dr. Stefanie Ohnesorg of the University of Tennessee, Dr. Susanne Rinner of the Goethe Institut in Washington D.C., and Nella Spurlin of Baylor University, engaged audiences in exploring and discussing SPARK, the Structured Program for the Acquisition of German in the U.S., resources and know-how. Mindful of their ecological footprint, the Coalition of Women in German offers the annual conference online every third year.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in the 48th annual conference of the German Studies Association from September 26-29 in Atlanta, GA. Berroth’s research paper, “Marica Bodrožić und Deniz Utlu’s ‘Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten’ – Reflections on the Curated Virtual Audio Archive Dichterlesen.net,” contributed to a series of panels organized around the topic of literary kinships in contemporary German literature. Berroth also served as a commentator for panel presentations in this series.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth hosted the annual fall conference for the Texas Chapter of the American Association for Teachers of German at Southwestern University. The conference brought together German educators across instructional levels and institutions, which is important for developing cohesive curricular pathways to success from middle and high schools to college, especially with focus on IB and AP programs that can earn participants college credits. The conference program included teaching and learning with AI, networking among programs, support for new colleagues, and publicly engaged humanities initiatives at the state and national levels. Participants earned continuing education credits.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in a collaborative event, “Tree Cultures ad Kew,” co-convened by Interdisciplinary Research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the University of Derby. Bringing together researchers and practitioners from the humanities and from arboriculture, participants explored how we understand and regard the value of trees in both historical and cultural contexts. The symposium showcased emerging literary and environmental history scholarship on trees and tree spaces, and fostered discussions around how the arts and humanities can contribute to debates on trees, past, present, and future. The symposium was held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a UNESCO World Heritage site of immense arboreal, botanical, and conservation interest. Kew’s treescapes foregrounded the symposium’s discussions, and participants had the opportunity to engage in guided tree walks of Kew’s tree collections and of Kew’s Wood Xylarium.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth’s engagement with the German speaking community was instrumental in securing a gift to Southwestern University’s Distinctive Collections: Uwe Lemke’s extensive Perry Rhodan collection, donated by his widow Mary Duffy. The many volumes of this epic narrative represent Germany’s most successful and longest running science fiction series that started in 1961, arguably the most successful science fiction novel series in the world. This gift makes Distinctive Collections and Archives currently the only library in the USA that can provide access to a German language collection of the Perry Rhodan series.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented an invited talk on “Die Zukunft des Sprachenlernens in den USA: Visionen und Innovationen” (The Future of Studying Languages in the USA: Visions and Innovations) at the Goethe-Institut in Washington DC. The joint conference sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) and the Goethe-Institut brought together invited expert voices in education, administration, and professional organizations to collaborate on future oriented visions for the continued success of learning and teaching German across institutions, proficiency levels, and global networks.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned two DAAD materials grants to support teaching and learning in German Studies. The grants from Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service) and the German Foreign Office provide two curated collections of German language titles: a collection of literary works published in 2023, and a collection of literature commenting on and reflecting current salient issues in German culture. Students will use the collections to study representations of diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism in German literature. Success with DAAD materials grants is made possible through Berroth’s work in community engagement as a DAAD Ortslektorin, serving to amplify and multiply the DAAD mission and motto “Change by Exchange.”

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth mentored two students who presented their research projects at the 13th Undergraduate Research Conference in German Studies, organized by Moravian and Lafayette Colleges in Pennsylvania on April 6, 2024. This national conference brought together young scholars and their mentors for presentations and discussions of a range of interdisciplinary topics representative of German Studies. Isabella Moore ’25, double major in German and Environmental Studies, presented her comparative study on developments in the use of solar energy in Germany and the United States. Kendyl Feuerbacher ’27, double major in German and Studio Art with a minor in Design Thinking, presented her research on the increase of motivation for learning new languages through the use of video games.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth served as an Evaluator for the National German Exam, administered through the American Association of Teachers of German. The National German Exam is administered each year to over 15,000 high school students of German. The exam, now in its 64th year, provides individual diagnostic feedback, rewards students through an extensive regional and national prize program, and creates a sense of accomplishment. Exam results provide teachers a means of comparing students in all regions of the country, as well as programmatic data to help inform curricular decisions. For over 60 years, the Federal Republic of Germany, through the German Foreign Office and its Pedagogical Exchange Service, has provided the AATG/PAD National German Exam Scholarship, a three-week trip to Germany. Berroth’s outreach and support for teachers and learners of German facilitates transitions from high school to college level German curricula and the enjoyment of lifelong learning.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth hosted a campus exploration day for 15 students from Germany and their teachers on February 29. The students from Paul-Klee-Gymnasium in Augsburg participate in the German American Partnership Program, GAPP, with Westwood High School in Round Rock. Established in 1972, the German American Partnership Program facilitates bilateral transatlantic exchanges between schools in the U.S. and Germany. With a substantial network of participating schools and over 400,000 participants over the years, GAPP is the largest bilateral exchange program between the U.S. and another country. Berroth’s sustained engagement in this form of community outreach connects and supports German educators across institutions and increases guidance for students of languages, who are encouraged to integrate experiences abroad into their educational paths. Southwestern students and GAPP participants enjoyed opportunities for increasing their intercultural knowledge and competence.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth accepted an invitation to serve on the 2024-2025 Fulbright U.S. Student Program National Screening Committee. Berroth looks forward to contributing her experience and expertise to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program Team, Institute of International Education.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth, together with Liesl Alingham, Associate Professor of German, Sewanee, Anne Stone, Associate Professor of Communications, Rollins, and Melissa Nelson, Director of Social Impact Hub, Rollins, earned an ACS Award to offer a faculty development workshop at Sewanee from Tuesday, May 23, 2023,– Thursday, May 25, 2023. The workshop is titled Sustainability Mindset: Making Change Makers. Check the ACS site and register here.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented an invited lecture and an invited workshop at Belmont University in Nashville, TN, on April 2 and 3, 2023. The lecture titled Connecting through Literature: Reading GDR Women Writers in 2023 contributes to Belmont’s general education initiative, Well-being for Life-long Learning (WELL Core), as an intercultural learning WELL Core. The workshop for language educators is titled Hospitality, Inclusion, and Intercultural Learning: Increasing Empathy by Engaging Food Ways Across Cultures. It contributes to Belmont’s ongoing community engagement series, Conversations @ Belmont, that allows for communication and collaboration among educators at colleges, middle, and high schools for the purpose of preparing students to transition to college

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth served as a judge at the Texas State German Contest. On February 25, 2023, Texas State University in San Marcos hosted the Texas State German Contest on its 41st anniversary. This scholastic competition for high school students brought together over 1,000 high school students and their teachers from all over Texas. Engagement with this event marks an important aspect of Berroth’s commitment to community building and outreach. It was a wonderful opportunity to encourage young learners to continue their studies of languages, literature, and cultures.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth is co-editor of the recently published volume: “Behinderungen und Herausforderungen. Disability Studies in der Germanistik.” (Sektion) Wege der Germanistik in transkultureller Perspektive. Akten des IX. Kongresses der Internationalen Vereinigung für Germanistik (IVG). (Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik. Beihefte 5). Bd. 5 . Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang, 2022, 463-605. Included in this volume is Berroth’s research article on representations of Deaf Cultures in German film: “Repräsentationen von Gehörlosigkeit im Film – Jenseits der Stille im Kontext der ‘Deaf Futures.’” 489-506.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned a materials grant from the German Foreign Office and the German Academic Exchange Service, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). The grant covers a curated collection of German language titles for children and young adults, including picture books, graphic novels, non-fiction, and fiction. Students will use the collection to study media, narration, as well as representations of diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism in German literature for young audiences. Success with DAAD materials grants is made possible through Berroth’s work in community engagement as a DAAD Ortslektorin.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was the plenary keynote speaker at the 54th annual conference of the Tennessee World Language Teaching Association, “The Future of Languages is You: Learn and Share” in Franklin, Tennessee, on November 4–5, 2022. Berroth’s keynote address titled “Honoring Multilingualism and Linguistic Diversity as Ways of Belonging” introduced important questions related to language justice. Increased awareness about language justice contributes to creating inclusive multilingual spaces and includes challenging structures of power and privilege associated with languages, accents, or dialects. Berroth highlighted the benefits of empathy gained through learning multiple languages and through inhabiting multilingual spaces. The invited plenary keynote engaged a diverse audience. The conference convened educators from the Tennessee Classical Association, the Tennessee Association of Chinese Teachers, and the American Association of Teachers of French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was invited to contribute to a podcast series sponsored by Literaturhaus Heilbronn, Germany, which was published on October 14, 2022. The podcast series is titled “Warum Kleist?” (Why Kleist?) and features responses from international Kleist scholars. Contemporary German language authors compete for the annual award of the Kleist-Preis in honor of one of Germany’s most remarkable language artists, Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811). Berroth’s research includes a book on Kleist and work on several Kleist-Preis awardees. The podcast episode can be accessed here.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth hosted the annual fall meeting of the South Texas Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German on September 24 at Southwestern. An enthusiastic group of 20 educators from graduate programs, high schools, colleges, and universities convened to learn and share in a workshop on integrated performance assessments (IPAs). Research confirms that use of IPAs leads to higher proficiency in students, as demonstrated, for example, by improved performance on Advanced Placement exams or other national assessments. The full-day workshop offered professional development opportunities for German teachers who often are the lone teacher in their subject at their institutions. Jennifer Christianson ’99 and current adjunct faculty member in Southwestern’s German Program Erin Osterhaus ’09 participated in the workshop. Osterhaus is currently implementing the cutting-edge curriculum for first-year German.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in a three-day seminar titled “The Medical Humanities in German Studies” at the 46th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association, held September 15–18 in Houston, Texas. The seminar brought together 19 scholars who shared, analyzed, and interrogated current research at the intersection of medical humanities and German studies. In reading and discussing each other’s work, participants not only discovered cutting-edge scholarship, but also engaged in discussions about how a medical humanities research approach sheds new light on Germanophone culture, literature, language, and history. Berroth’s contribution focused on representations of mental health in German language migration and identity narratives. Her research contributes to the courses she lists with Southwestern’s interdisciplinary health studies minor.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was a member of the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) Working Group: Inclusive Assessment Practices for Flexibility, Rigor, and Equity in summer 2022. Berroth delivered a presentation on her experience and expertise in using transparency in teaching and learning (TILT) methodology. The working group’s resources are available on the ACS website.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth visited with Anton Knittel, director of Literaturhaus Heilbronn in Germany, and contributed to the organization’s podcast Warum Kleist? (Why Kleist?),  a collection of scholarly voices on the German poet and writer Heinrich von Kleist, who was the subject of one of her books.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth gave a research presentation at the International Conference of Teachers of German (Internationale Tagung der Deutschlehrerinnen und Deutschlehrer), held August 15–20 in Vienna, Austria. Berroth’s paper, titled “Bilderbuch-Didaktik: Das Potential Anspruchsvoller Bilderbücher für Literarästhetisches und Sprachliches Lernen im Diversitätsorientierten Unterricht,” was part of the “Visuelles Lernen mit Bildern, Filmen und Bild-Text-Verbindungen” section. Berroth provided context and examples for antiracist pedagogies in German studies with authentic materials from early childhood education, analyzing the visual language of representations of difference in illustrated books for young readers.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented an invited webinar for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Special Interest Group on Small Undergraduate German Programs on May 4. The webinar, titled “Pragmatic Program-Building Blocks for Small German Programs,” addressed a national audience and offered examples of the what, why, and how of program building, such as developing a signature “best” (e.g., the German program best at producing Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award recipients), building connections across disciplines and programs, developing a focus on justice issues, and intensifying outreach strategies.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented research from her sabbatical project at the virtual conference of the Association for Intercultural German Studies at the University of Zadar in Croatia, held April 19–22. Her paper titled “Ausgewählte Texte aus Lyrik, Essays, und Romanen von Marica Bodrožić mit Kritischen Perspektiven aus den Umweltgeisteswissenschaften” provided an environmental humanities perspective on the literature of migration to the conference theme of intercultural spaces in the Mediterranean.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth increased the German program’s community outreach by serving as a judge for regional and statewide competitions for students of German in secondary education. The regional Sprachfest 2022 and the Texas State German Contest brought together German educators and students across institutions. To increase outreach and networking among German programs, Berroth has accepted invitations to present her work in program leadership and curricular innovation. She will lead an invited webinar for the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages Small Undergraduate German Programs Special Interest Group in April. She also will deliver the keynote address at the Tennessee World Language Teaching Association Annual Conference later this year. The theme of the conference is “The Future of Languages Is You: Learn and Share.” As a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) local representative, Berroth earned a materials grant (700  Euro) from the German foreign office, and students of German will benefit from a curated collection of literary works published in 2021.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated virtually in the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) 2022 Annual Meeting, which took place January 19–24 in Washington, D.C. Berroth is a member of the Southwestern team of faculty and staff participating in the 2022–2023 Institute on ePortfolios, which offers strategies to broaden student engagement. AAC&U, in collaboration with the Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), is leading the Institute on ePortfolios, utilizing a year-of-engagement model. 

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to participate in the 17th International Convention of German Teachers, which will convene in Vienna, Austria, August 15–20. Berroth will be part of an international group of 30 Ortslektoren, or teachers of German collaborating with DAAD worldwide to promote the study of German language, literature, and culture. 

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was invited by the Goethe-Institut Washington, D.C., to participate in a two-day conference held November 11–12 in Berlin, Germany. The conference brought together representatives from current and potential partner programs to explore participation in a digital transnational education network currently active in Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Austria. Topics included education on sustainable development, peace and conflict studies, and transcultural communication. Through this network, the Goethe-Institut provides a structure for promoting transcultural learning, exchange, and the exploration of shared values. Berroth looks forward to exploring collaborations with Associate Professor of German Liesl Allingham at the University of the South, who was also invited to the conference.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in the 46th Annual Coalition of Women in German (WiG) Conference, which convened virtually November 4–7. As chair of the WiG Dissertation Prize Committee, Berroth presented the 2020 award to Melissa Elliot for her nuanced work on the narratives of film music in East German DEFA movies. Berroth presented a poster on her collaboration with Head of Special Collections and Archives Megan Firestone in mentoring research assistants to create an open educational resource with documents and artifacts from Uta Merzbach’s estate. Berroth highlighted research on how humanities-based faculty-student research projects, digital-humanities projects, and research assistantships increase opportunities for high impact experiences particularly for students of languages, literatures, and cultures.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned a residency at the Deutsches Literatur Archiv and Collegienhaus in Marbach, Germany. The residency is cosponsored by the Deutsche Schillergesellschaft and the Max Kade Foundation. Berroth is completing research on contemporary German-Croatian author Marica Bodrožić, whose recent publication, Pantherzeit, offers poetic reflections on the spring 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in Germany and around the world.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was invited to give a lecture and lead a workshop at Sewanee University of the South, contributing to a series of events for German Campus Week on October 8.  Berroth’s talk, “Cultures of Environmentalism in Germany: Learning to Care,” addressed the larger Sewanee community, while the workshop on environmental activism engaged students of German specifically. The event was sponsored by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Washington D.C., and the Department of German and German Studies at Sewanee.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was invited to be a featured speaker at the Belmont University 20th Annual Humanities Symposium: Reading as a Radical Act, which convened in Nashville, Tennessee, from September 27 to October 4. Berroth’s presentation, “Read to Me! Read with Me! Increasing Awareness of Diversity and Inclusion for Readers and Listeners of All Ages,” addressed the power of reading as a social activity in contemporary German cultures, featuring examples from children’s books, poetry slams, the 20th anniversary of Vienna’s One City–One Book project, and the importance of overcoming the one-inch barrier (i.e., the reluctance to read subtitles of films telling stories from other languages and cultures). Berroth also designed a related quiz that Belmont students took to earn their Wellcore Cultural Well-Being credits.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth hosted the 4th Biannual Joint Conference of the North Texas, Houston, and South Texas Chapters of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) September 17–18. The virtual conference brought together over 60 German educators at the high school and college levels, promoting the sharing of scholarship, outreach, mentoring, and networking. Berroth presented a research paper titled “Lies Mir Vor! Lies Mit Mir! Anregungen Zur Inklusion in Kinder- und Bilderbüchern” on current publications for ages three and up that promote empathy around themes of diversity and inclusion for young audiences as well as adult readers through complex connections of images and text and “Mehrfachadressierung”—strategies engaging multiple audiences across generations. Berroth mentored Melina Boutirs ’22, a German and education double major, who presented research completed for her German capstone, “German-language Hip Hop in Modern Language Teaching and Learning: Increasing Social Justice and Diversity in the Curriculum,” that was well-received by teachers seeking to integrate contemporary German music topics into their curricula. 

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented a research paper and coorganized and comoderated a section of four panels for the XIV Congress of the International Association for German Studies (IVG), which met in hybrid form July 26–31, 2021, in Palermo, Italy. The IVG meets every five years with the aim of promoting international cooperation in the field of German studies. This year’s motto was “Wege der Germanistik in Transkulturellen Perspektiven.“ Berroth’s contribution addresses inclusion and diversity in representations of disabilities in contemporary German cinema. Her paper opened the section “B14: Behinderungen und Herausforderungen: Disability Studies in der Germanistik.”

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented the paper “Opening Language Learning to Social Justice: Designing an OER German Curriculum” at the virtual Language Education for Social Justice conference and the 37th Summer School of Applied Language Studies hosted by the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, June 1–3, 2021. An international group of scholars, educators, and artists answered central questions: What does social justice have to do with language education? Why do we need to talk about social justice as language teachers, teacher educators, and researchers? How can research look at and beyond language in education with the goal of being a catalyst for critical thinking, democracy, equity, and peace? Berroth’s contribution focused on the collaborative authoring and editing of an open educational resource, Grenzenlos Deutsch, an introductory German curriculum.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented a paper at the 74th KFLC: The Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Conference at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, April 22–24, 2021. Her paper “STEM, German, and Dürrenmatt: Interdisciplinary Connections” contributed to the panel “Friedrich Dürrenmatt at 100,” commemorating the Swiss author and public intellectual.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned a materials grant from the German Academic Exchange Service, or DAAD. The German program curriculum and interdisciplinary programs will be enriched through a curated collection of diverse materials on German myths and legends. Berroth is eligible to compete for those grants as she serves as a DAAD Ortslektorin, connecting and coordinating outreach to educators at all levels of instruction.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth received a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD. The grant enriches the teaching and learning of German at SU through a curated collection of prominent publications in German literature in 2019 and 2020.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in a roundtable at the 2021 virtual conference of the Modern Language Association in Toronto, Canada. Berroth was one of four speakers invited to present on the topic “How to Survive as a Small German Program.” The session was sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth contributed to the joined virtual conference of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) November 20–22, 2020. Berroth offered a session for German educators on developing connections in German instruction to topics in sustainable development with a focus on climate-science information and disinformation literacy. Berroth participated in annual meetings as a member of AATG’s regional and national leadership teams and committees.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth delivered a workshop for German educators, invited by the Goethe-Institut in Washington, DC, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Mexico. The workshop on integrating authentic resources into education for sustainable development was part of the virtual conference Unsere Nachhaltige Zukunft  (Our Sustainable Future), November 13 – 15, 2020. Using resources available at www.klimafakten.de, Berroth introduced an international audience to models for integrating principles of climate-science communication into teaching German language and culture.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth gave a presentation on “Syllabus Design and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)” at the 45th Annual Women in German Conference, which was hosted virtually at Sewanee, University of the South, Tennessee, October 15–18, 2020. The presentation contributed to a pedagogy panel on “Universal Design for Learning as Feminist Practice.” Berroth serves on the Women in German Dissertation Prize Committee and was delighted to meet and mentor the candidates and the award winner, who participated from Germany. 

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth  participated in a three-day faculty seminar convened in the context of the 44th annual meeting of the German Studies Association. Via Zoom, the Beyond Umweltschutz:  Narrative and Visual Responses to Environmental Threats seminar brought together 18 environmental humanities scholars from three continents to discuss the research papers they shared with this group earlier this year. Berroth’s contribution, “From Apathy to Empathy: Approaches to Inviting Activism at the Intersections of Science and Storytelling in Werner Herzog’s Documentaries and Ilija Trojanow’s EisTau  (2011)/ The Lamentations of Zeno  (2016),” relates to texts and contexts she teaches in her first-year and advanced-entry  seminar on International Climate Fiction. 

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth  published an article commemorating the work of the late Ursula Mahlendorf, an advocate for justice, feminist scholar, and pioneer in connecting psychoanalysis with the study of literary representations, childhood trauma, and creativity. The article appears in Glossen,  a peer-reviewed, bilingual, German–American scholarly journal on literature, art, and culture in German-speaking countries after 1945.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth  published the coauthored article “ Grenzenlos Deutsch : Co-Creating Open Educational Resources through Feminist Collaboration” in Feminist German Studies , published by the University of Nebraska Press. The publication of Feminist German Studies  volume 36, no. 1 marks the first special issue in the history of this journal, on the topic “Collaboration in the Humanities.” Members of the authoring collective are currently refining and expanding the scope of the OER Grenzenlos Deutsch, which supports the teaching and learning of German in hybrid or remote settings around the globe.

Double major in German and physics Claire Harding ’20 earned a prestigious Fulbright Award. The nationally competitive Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship will take Harding to Germany, where she will integrate hands-on science learning with lessons in American cultures and the English language. The Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Program places recent college graduates and young professionals as English teaching assistants in secondary schools or universities overseas, improving foreign students’ English language abilities and knowledge of the U.S. while increasing the U.S. student’s own language proficiency and knowledge of the host country. ETAs also pursue individual study/research plans in addition to their teaching responsibilities. Harding’s teacher and mentor, Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth, deeply appreciates Harding’s contributions to the German program as a tutor and member of the leadership team of the German Club.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth accepted an invitation issued by Priscilla Layne, president of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG), to speak at the AATG-sponsored roundtable at the 2021 Modern Language Association conference in Toronto, Canada. The conference theme is Persistence. The roundtable addresses networking strategies in small programs. The panelists on this roundtable come from a variety of institutions, from large public state schools to small liberal-arts colleges. Berroth looks forward to representing small language programs at Southwestern University on this panel.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned a materials grant from the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD. Materials enriching the teaching and learning of German at SU include a curated collection of literary works published in 2019 and a collection of German classics adapted for beginning learners.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth gave an invited presentation at the Northeast Conference on Teaching Foreign Languages, February 13–15, in New York, NY. Her talk connected to the conference theme “Languages for All: Envisioning Language Learning Opportunities for Every Learner” and focused on increasing inclusion through networking. The presentation was sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was honored with the Outstanding German Educator Award, her profession’s most prestigious form of recognition, at the 2019 Awards Ceremony of the American Association of Teachers of German, in Washington, DC. On November 24, 2019, members and leaders of the profession, as well as representatives of the Goethe Institut, German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), and the Consulates of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, joined in celebrating the awardees’ achievements.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth accepted the invitation from Goethe-Institut Washington, DC, to participate in strategic planning for the rollout of two major projects codeveloped with the American Association of Teachers of German and designed to strengthen education in German language and cultures in the U.S. The two initiatives, SPARK and “Our Sustainable Future,” will engage teachers and learners across institutions and aim to open doors to language learning, especially for young audiences. Members of the leadership team of educators based in Germany and the U.S. met at the Goethe-Institut, December 4–6, 2019.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in the inaugural conference to launch an innovative joint initiative by the Goethe Institut and the American Association of Teachers of German. The invited participants met on November 24, 2019, at the Goethe Institut, in Washington, DC, to develop strategies for Spark for German: Strukturiertes Programm zum Aufbau von Ressourcen und Kompetenzen für den DaF-Unterricht in den USA (a structured program to build resources and skills for German-language teaching in the U.S.).

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth  gave two presentations at the annual convention and world languages exposition of the American Council for Teaching Foreign Languages, ACTFL, and the American Association of Teacher of German, AATG, in Washington, DC, November 23–24, 2019. This global event brings together more than 8,000 language educators from all languages, levels, and assignments. Berroth presented on amplifying “ Grenzenlos Deutsch (German without Barriers) ,” her coauthored open educational resource; on teaching sustainability topics; and on using current authentic resources for teaching about rassismuskritische Bildungsarbeit  (antiracism education in Germany).

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth served as a road scholar, engaging members of the Washington, DC, Southwestern University Alumni Association on topics of international climate fiction, curricular developments, and the value of languages and cultures in liberal-arts education. Members enjoyed meeting at Washington’s Café Mozart on November 22, 2019.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in the inaugural meeting of the Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion convened by the president of the American Association of Teachers of German, in Washington, DC, on November 21, 2019. The task force aims to sustain professional-development programming and materials development to increase and support diversity, inclusion, and social justice across institutions and stakeholders involved in German education.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth  presented on “ Grenzenlos Deutsch  (German without Barriers),” her collaborative Digital Humanities Advancement Grant project supported by competitive funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, at the November 2019 German Academic Exchange Service, or Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), faculty-development seminar in Berlin, Germany. The seminar focused on artificial intelligence and digital media in the teaching and learning of languages and cultures. Participation was competitive and brought together 23 of the cohort of 800 select German educators actively engaged in amplifying the DAAD mission worldwide. The seminar participants came from Argentina, Chile, China, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Canada, Malaysia, Paraguay, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, the U.K., Hungary, Australia, and the U.S. The DAAD promotes international networking, collaboration, and the exchange of expertise between Germany and other countries.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in a faculty seminar at the German Studies Association Conference in Portland, OR, in October 2019. The seminar was held over three days and brought together an interdisciplinary group of academics workshopping their contributions to the seminar theme of (De)Constructing Identities through Mobilities. Participants shared their research papers with the group of 17 scholars during the summer, provided peer review for two articles, responded to this peer review during their presentations at the seminar, and engaged in further discussions. An edited volume of peer-reviewed contributions is emerging. Berroth’s research paper is titled “Marica Bodrožić: Ecopoetics of Resilience in Transnational Identity Narratives.”

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth serves as president of the South Texas chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG). The South Texas chapter hosted the annual meeting of the three Texas AATG chapters in Temple, TX, in September 2019. The chapter received AATG funding for a workshop on developing escape-room scenarios with German-culture themes.  Berroth coorganized the conference and presented two papers, one on best practices in connecting German and environmental studies, the other on her collaboration on Grenzenlos Deutsch, an open-access curriculum for beginning German.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned the 2019 Outstanding German Educator Award. With this prestigious national award, the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) recognizes one postsecondary educator annually for excellence in teaching, innovation, extraordinary talent, and exceptional leadership in the German teaching profession. Berroth will be honored during the AATG Awards Presentation at the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages Convention and World Languages Expo in Washington, DC, in November 2019. A nominee’s dossier documents five or more years of demonstrated excellence in German education; active membership in the local AATG chapter; creative leadership in German language education; impact in local, state, or national arenas; and continued growth as a German educator. Current and former students and colleagues nationwide collaborated on submitting letters in support of Berroth’s nomination.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented her research paper “Felicitas Hoppe’s Pigafetta: Pluri-Worlds and Vibrant Matter” on the ecological interconnectedness of the Pacific at the 22nd General Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, ACLA. Title Literature of the World and the Future of Comparative Literature, the conference was held July 29–August 2, 2019, at the University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. Berroth’s presentation contributed to subtheme 4: The Multiple Histories of Comparative Literature; Pacific Insularity: Imaginary Geography of Insular Spaces in the Pacific. Postcolonial critiques of colonial master narratives and approaches to alternative constructions of insularity beyond the dominant Western traditions were essential tasks of speakers contributing to this section.

Supported by a Sam Taylor Fellowship, Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth conducted an interview with Christian Stocker, representative of the SILVIVA foundation, and visited the Sihlwald nature education center in Zürich, Switzerland. The interview and site visit will inform units on nature education and sustainability to be published for the NEH sponsored digital humanities project, our co-authored open access curriculum Grenzenlos Deutsch.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned funding for a competitive FL-A-CH Mini Grant administered by the American Association of Teachers of German. FL-A-CH stands for Liechtenstein, Austria, and Switzerland, the countries providing funding for studying their languages and cultures at U.S. institutions. The grant enhances a student engagement project, planned for fall 2019, focused on nature education in Austria and Switzerland and emphasizing interdisciplinary connections between SU’s German and environmental studies programs.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth received a nomination for the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Outstanding German Educator Award. The award recognizes excellence in teaching and outstanding contributions to the German teaching profession. A nominee’s dossier documents five or more years of demonstrated excellence in German education; active membership in the local AATG chapter; creative leadership in German language education; impact in local, state, or national arenas; and continued growth as a German educator. Nella Spurlin, serving on AATG Executive Council and representing the membership of South Texas Chapter of AATG, is coordinating the nomination. Berroth currently serves as chapter president.

German and education major Melina Boutris ’21 presented her research paper on inclusion in special-education classes in Germany at the Undergraduate Research Conference in German Studies at Lafayette College, in Easton, PA, on April 13, 2019.  Her presentation, titled “Inklusion von Schülern mit Lernbehinderung im Deutschen Schulsystem: Meine Erfahrungen als Special Education Student in den USA und als Praktikantin in Einer Integrativen Klasse 4 Einer Deutschen Grundschule,” earned an honorable mention, and she was invited to submit the paper for publication on the conference website. Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth mentored the project.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was invited to give a presentation titled “Transnationale Erinnerungskulturen und Identitäten” about her research on transnational memory cultures in Germany and France surrounding the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I for a faculty development seminar sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, and “Landeskundliches Seminar für Ortslektorinnen und Ortslektoren Weltweit. Europäer? Deutscher? Saarländer? - Identitätsfragen in Grenzregionen,” April 7–12, 2019, in Saarbrücken, Germany. From a worldwide network of 800 professionals serving as mentors and advocates for the mission of DAAD, Berroth was one of 20 faculty members invited to participate in the seminar and one of 11 participants also invited to present. Berroth was the only representative from the U.S., networking with colleagues from Colombia, Italy, Great Britain, France, Spain, Brazil, Oman, China, Korea, Argentina, Israel, and Finland on researching and teaching European identities and futures.

Martin Guillermo Lopez’18 earned an internationally competitive fellowship from the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX). CBYX annually supports 75 U.S. and 75 German awardees. CBYX was created by the U.S. Congress and German Bundestag as a public diplomacy program to promote understanding between the people of the U.S. and Germany. The year of academic, cultural, and professional exchange consists of three phases: two months of intensive German language training, one semester of classes in one’s academic or career field at a university, and a three-month internship in one’s career field. Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth served as adviser and mentor throughout the application and interview process.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented a research paper titled “Plants and Heimat: Representations of Eco-Identities in the Work of Marica Bodrožić” at the 50th annual conference of the Northeast Modern Languages Association, March 21–24, in Washington, DC.  Her paper contributed to a panel series on concepts of memory, understandings of home, and nostalgia for the former Yugoslavia. Berroth’s argument for including critical plant studies in the discourse on place-based identity formations connected to the conference theme “Transnational Spaces: Intersections of Cultures, Languages, and Peoples,” which called attention to the important role of the humanities in the discourse on migrations.

Danyale Kellogg ’19 and Melina Boutris ’21 will present their research at the Ninth Undergraduate Research Conference in German Studies (co-organized by Lafayette College and Moravian College), in Easton, PA. Kellogg will speak on German national security policies. Boutris will present on the inclusion of special-needs learners in the German school system, research related to her summer internship at a school in Heidelberg, Germany. Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth mentored both research projects as independent studies.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned a grant to participate in a faculty development seminar sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD. The seminar is scheduled for April 2019 and convenes teachers of German from all over the world for a week of study, site visits, and discussions in Saarbrücken, a city located in the border region between Germany and France. The seminar topic, “Identities and Border Regions in Germany and Europe,” is part of Berroth’s ongoing research and writing project on transnational identity narratives.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth published an invited review of “Framing Islam: Faith, Fascination, and Fear in Twenty-First-Century German Culture,” a special issue of Colloquia Germanica, an international journal for German studies, in Feminist German Studies, a refereed interdisciplinary publication presenting a wide range of feminist approaches to all aspects of German literature, culture, and language, including pedagogy. The review is guest edited by Heidi Denzel de Tirado and Faye Stewart. It is available in print and online at Project Muse.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned a materials grant from the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, and the German government. The $1,300 grant provides the German Program with a curated collection of titles in German literature published in 2018 and a collection of German graphic novels, which will enrich teaching and learning at all levels in the program.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth’s article “Brücken zwischen Mathematik und Deutsch: MINT im Sprachsensiblen Fachunterricht“ has been published in the online open-access and print versions of IDT 2019 Brücken Gestalten:Mit Deutsch Verbinden(Menschen–Lebenswelten–Kulturen: Beiträge der XVI. Internationalen Tagung der Deutschlehrerinnen und Deutschlehrer,Fribourg/Freiburg, 31 July–4 Aug. 2017). IDT, the International Convention of Teachers of German, meets every fourth year and is the largest convention of German teachers worldwide. Berroth’s article was selected for publication to represent Section B3 of the convention, in which 12 scholars selected from an international pool of applicants presented on the topic of integrating STEM with the teaching and learning of German as a foreign language. Berroth’s participation was sponsored by a fellowship from the Goethe Institut, in Washington, DC.

Eleven Southwestern University faculty members have won Sam Taylor Fellowship grants to support their research, with award amounts ranging from $1,000 to $1,600. Sam Taylor Fellowships are selected through a competitive application process and are provided by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church. This year’s recipients are

• Professor of Physics Steven Alexander, “Generating Energy from Hot Sidewalks” (awarded $1,200)
• Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Lamiyah Bahrainwala, “The Politics of Stealth Halal: Re-Presenting the Islamic Origins of U.S. Meat Products” (awarded $1,600)
• Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth , “Nature Education in the German Classroom: Possibilities for Integration and Inclusion?” (awarded $1,400)
• Professor of Biology Romi Burks, “Unravelling the Mystery: Genetic Differentiation of Chinese and Japanese Mysterysnails Using 16S” (awarded $1,400)
• Assistant Professor of History Jethro Hernandez Berrones, “With Indigenist Spirit: Doctors on Spiritual Practices in Post-Revolutionary Mexico” (awarded $1,500)
• Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson, “Human–Jaguar Becomings and Racial Capitalism in Belize” (awarded $1,000)
• Associate Professor of French Francis Mathieu, “Research on Claire de Duras’s Avant-Garde Novella, Ourika” (awarded $1,400)
• Associate Professor of French Aaron Prevots, “Gestures toward the Sacred: Guillevic, Vargaftig, Tellermann, Michel” (awarded $1,400)
• Associate Professor of Communication Studies Valerie Renegar, “Contemporary Modes of Parenting: Disrupting the Representation of Stepmothers in Popular Culture” (awarded $1,500)
• Associate Professor of Spanish Maria De Los Angeles Rodriguez Cadena, “Cultural Memory and Historical Fiction: Women of the Past on Television and Film by Four Contemporary Mexican Women Directors” (awarded $1,400)
• Assistant Professor of Political Science Emily Sydnor, “Researching Attachments to American Political Institutions” (awarded $1,600)

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth  presented two papers a the American Association of Teachers of German/American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages (AATG/ACTFL) conference, in New Orleans, LA, Nov. 16 –1 8. “German and the Environmental Humanities: Projects, Engagement, and Approaches” showcased the interdisciplinary connections of SU’s small German program. “Literacy through Performance: Poetry Slams, Song Contests, and Cabarets” shared best practices on planning, implementation, and assessment of project-based learning with public performances. Berroth served on the AATG Program Committee for this conference. As an appointed member, she contributed to the annual meetings of Alle lernen Deutsch–AATG’s committee for diversity and inclusion and to the special-interest group on small undergraduate German programs.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth organized a panel at the 43rd Annual Coalition of Women in German conference at Sewanee University of the South, in Sewanne, Tennessee, Oct. 18–21. The panel, titled “The Forest Unseen: Feminism and Visibility of Connections in Bodies, Nature, Science, and Violence,” was inspired by Sewanee biology professor David G. Haskell’s book The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Work in Nature (2012). Panelists shared their feminist work in the environmental humanities in the field of German studies.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented an invited lecture and led a workshop at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Oct. 16–17. The lecture, “Looking Daring–Daring to Look: Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s Journeys of Discovery,” connected to an interdisciplinary exhibit at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, titled “Mapping ‘Knoxville’ across Time, Media, and Cultures: Tracing Unexplored Connections between the Wok or Cormac McCarthy, Annemarie Schwarzenbach, and Buddy and the Huddle.” The workshop, Intercultural Knowledge and Competence–Exploring Connections: Making Meaning of Foreign and Familiar Matters, contributed to the University of Tennessee’s Ready for the World program. Audiences and participants explored connections between their own personal and cultural identities and identity narratives emerging from the biographies, literary works, photographs, and travel journal articles of Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908–1942).

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented a research paper titled “Ecocide and Genocide in Marica Bodrožić’s Short Story ‘Der Lilienliebhaber: Lover of Lilies’” at the 8th Biennial Conference of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture, and Environment (EASLCE) Sept. 26–29 at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Scholars from 32 countries presented and discussed their ecocritical work on the conference theme The Garden: Ecological Paradigms of Space, History, and Community. Berroth’s paper integrates summer research completed at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach, Germany, and is part of the introductory chapter of her current monograph on Marica Bodrožić’s work.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth, serving as President of the South Texas Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German, hosted the Association’s annual convention at Southwestern University on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018. Collaborating with Assistant Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum, she taught hands-on workshops on integrating STEM and German. Welcoming high school and college German teachers from the region to SU’s campus is a community outreach initiative that supports articulated curricular development, mentoring, and resource sharing while increasing the visibility of our campus and our programs in Modern Languages and Literatures. Recognized for her outreach initiatives and appointed as an Ortslektorin (local lecturer) for Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD, German Academic Exchange Service), a professional network of 850 members worldwide, Berroth recently received a $600 resource grant from the DAAD and the German government to build a collection of contemporary German literature.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth is co-authoring Grenzenlos Deutsch–an Inclusive Curriculum for the German Classroom with colleagues in Vienna, Austria, during the month of July. This project is sponsored by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to advance the Digital Humanities. Earlier this summer Berroth completed research at Deutsches Literatur Archiv Marbach, Germany, as well as a project supported by a Sam Taylor Fellowship at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth organized a community outreach event which welcomed 20 students and their teachers from Paul Klee Gymnasium in Gersthofen (close to Augsburg), Germany to Southwestern. On a German American Partnership Program, GAPP, those students took a campus tour and interacted with student of German in classes and during lunch. Since 1972, GAPP has been funded by the German Foreign Office and is the only short-term exchange program that receives an assistance award from the U.S. Department of State. The SU German Program regularly collaborates with German teachers at McNeil and Westwood High Schools, inspiring intercultural understanding, promoting German language instruction, and motivating personal friendships across cultures. This marks the 5th bi-annual partnership collaboration. The German program thanks Director of Community-Engaged Learning Sarah Brackmann and Faculty Administrative Assistant Susie Bullock for their support.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in the Northeast Modern Language Association Conference in Pittsburgh, Pa., April 12–15, 2018. She presented two papers. One introduced SU’s innovative experience abroad for student-athletes on a round table titled “Outreach Strategies and Innovative Teaching in Small German Program Building.” The other, titled “Slow Violence in Marica Bodrožić’s Memory Narratives,” introduced eco-critical perspectives on Bodrožić’s trilogy, which is part of Berroth’s monograph project.

German majors Melina Boutris, class of 2021, and Martin Lopez, class of 2018, presented their research projects at the University of North Texas Undergraduate German Studies Conference in Denton on April 15, 2018. Boutris presented her analysis of German Hip-Hop artist and rapper Samy Delux’s representation of his relationship to German identifications in “Dis wo ich herkomm.” Lopez presented his analysis of German chancellor Merkel’s position during the 2015 European solidarity crisis in response to refugees fleeing war and persecution. Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth mentored both students.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth completed a review of “Framing Islam: Faith, Fascination, and Fear in Twenty-First Century German Culture,” a special issue of Colloquia Germanica: Internationale Zeitschrift für Germanistik, guest-edited by Heidi Denzel de Tirado and Faye Stewart. The review appears in the 2018 Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture.

The February Newsletter of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) features a report on Southwestern’s First Annual Poetry Slam. Part-time adjunct Assistant Professor of German Michelle Reyes and Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth organized this event to promote community engagement and intercultural learning through spoken word art. AATG co-sponsored the event with a Deutsch macht Spaß(German is fun) grant.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth completed peer review for 11 research presentations and 94 session proposals submitted for the 2018 convention of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Each member of the team of three reviewers is appointed by the Presidents of those organizations, recognizing their experience and expertise, to serve as representative for the profession at the K–12, College, and Research University levels. Team members are responsible for reviewing portions of the proposals submitted across all levels of instruction. They perform this substantial service to the profession using an elaborate, nationally recognized rubric that includes addressing relevance, content, purpose, outcomes, and strategies for engagement for each proposed conference contribution.

Communications major Shea C. Brewer, class of 2019, had his final project in a course on Feminist Fairy Tales accepted for publication in the online literary journal Spider Mirror. His teacher and mentor for the project is Visiting Assistant Professor of German Michelle Reyes. Spider Mirroris a blog-style journal that seeks to promote and support the arts in all its modern forms. Brewer’s tale, The “Seven” Dwarfs, explores the potential untold story of an eighth dwarf by the name of Leery, with a twist on the picture perfect image of classic Snow White.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented a moderated talk on “Global Football: Integrating Academics, Athletics and Intercultural Learning” for the HEDS UP session at the 104th annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) on Jan. 24–27, 2018, in Washington, DC. Out of more than 450 proposals received, fewer than 20 percent were accepted, and Berroth’s presentation was one of five selected for this TED Talk-inspired format. Berroth introduced a large audience to Southwestern’s innovative short-term embedded experience abroad for student athletes in our football program. With the small set of data from the first two programs in Germany and Italy, she is beginning to track how SU’s approach can lower barriers for students typically underserved or underrepresented in traditional study abroad programs, including men, student athletes, students of color, and first generation students.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth has been accepted to co-organize a section for the XIV. Kongress der Internationalen Vereinigung für Germanistik (IVG) in Palermo, Italy, July 26–Aug. 2, 2020, with the theme “Wege der Germanistik in transkulturellen Perspektiven.” The section is titled “Behinderungen und Herausforderungen –– Disability Studies in der Germanistik,” inviting work on the intersections of Disability Studies and German Studies. IVG, fostering international collaborations in German Studies, has been meeting in a different country every 5th year since 1951. Berroth’s organizing team includes Dr. Federica La Manna, University of Calabria, Arcavacata, Italy, Dr. Waltraud Maierhofer, University of Iowa, and Dr. Nina Schmidt, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. The section reflects interdisciplinary collaborations between the fine arts, humanities, and natural sciences. Co-organizers are planning to publish an edited volume coordinated with the conference. Berroth, who teaches and mentors students in the “Global Health” Paideia theme, looks forward to connecting with her colleagues on integrating STEM and German, especially through the Einstein-Projekt Patho/Graphics at the Free University of Berlin.

The Southwestern University’s German Program, with leadership from Part-time Assistant Professor of German Michelle Reyes and support from Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth and Administrative Assistant Susie Bullock, hosted the First Annual SU Poetry Slam. A grant from the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Deutsch macht Spaß, part of the German government’s Netzwerk Deutsch program, augmented by funding from Community Engaged Learning and the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, provided for an evening of poetry readings and competition. The goal of the event was to build community by celebrating spoken word art in all its forms with a special focus on German poetry. We had a wonderful turnout with an audience of about seventy from Southwestern’s campus, our local community, and the greater Austin area. The event included a sponsored reading by Poetry Co-Editor for Chicon Street Poetry Journal, Nancy Lili Gonzalez. Another highlight of the evening was the event’s Master of Ceremonies, Joe Brundidge, author of Element 615 and co-host of KOOP 91.7’s Writing On the Air. The presenters included students, faculty, members of local associations and local Austin artists, speaking in German, Chinese, Spanish, and English. Our student presenters, some offering their own original work, included Andrew Jezisek, class of 2021, majoring in German and Education, Melina Boutris, class of 2021, majoring in German and Special Education, Claire Harding, class of 2020, who pursues a Physics major and German minor. Furthermore, we applauded Molly Cardenas, class of 2018, English major and Feminist Studies minor, Chris Cunningham, class of 2019  Communication Studies major, Jordy Goodman, class of 2018  Feminist studies major and German minor, Christine Gutierrez, class of 2020, Studio Arts major, Shea Brewer, class of 2019,  Communication Studies major, and Gamah Toney, class of 2020, Computer Science major and minoring in Studio Arts. Congratulations to all!

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in the 2017 joined conference of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) and the American Council on the Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 17–19. Berroth organized two panels, sponsored by the Coalition of Women in German, on approaches to teaching about Syrian refugees in Germany with a focus on solidarity and social justice. Her contribution focused on normalizing representations of the presence and participation of refugees in German culture through the integration of genres and content in Intermediate level courses. Furthermore, Berroth presented her research and teaching on Climate Fiction on a panel titled “Inventions, Innovations, Connections: STEM and German Literature.” A member of the AATG leadership team on diversity and inclusion “Alle lernen Deutsch” and the special interest group “Small Undergraduate German Programs,” Berroth contributed to national discussions on improving teaching and learning modern languages for people with disabilities. Berroth introduced initial strategies developed by her NEH grant working group for offering open access materials in a Digital Humanities Advancement project.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presided at the pre-conference Steering Committee Meeting and the Business Meeting for the 42nd annual conference of the Coalition of Women in German, held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, Oct. 26–29, 2017. At the conference, Berroth organized the Pedagogy Panel, convening scholars from across the nation to share research and experiences with integrating STEM and German in connected curricula, integrated programs, specialized study abroad offerings, and collaborations with internship providers in Germany. For the coming three years, Women in German will host the conference at Sewanee: The University of the South, our ACS colleagues.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth is a member of the Collaborative Work Group/Board of Authors on an innovative German project. With leadership from Macalester College German Studies professor Britt Abel, a Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will help the group create digital open-educational resources for teaching and learning German language and culture. Dr. Faye Stewart, a former Brown Junior Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Southwestern, is also a member of the team.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was invited to present the concluding paper in a three-session section on integrating STEM and German at the XVI. International Conference of Teachers of German, IDT, in Fribourg, Switzerland from July 31–Aug. 4, 2017. IDT meets every fourth year and is the world’s largest international convention for teachers of German. Berroth shared her research in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) resulting from her ACS funded interdisciplinary project on connecting Math and German, on which she collaborated with Assistant Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum. Berroth’s participation was funded by a scholarship from the Goethe Institute in Washington, DC.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was invited to observe and participate in sessions of the intensive summer language programs in Arabic at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco in July 2017. The guest visit, pedagogy observation, and intensive study was made possible by a Sam Taylor Fellowship awarded by the United Methodist Church.

Assistant Professor of German Michelle Reyes and Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth accepted an invitation to screen and discuss the documentary Out of the Shadows: German Stories of Love, War and Faith on Apr. 25, 2017. Their presentation contributed to the Spring 2017 film series “Nachkriegsidentitäten - Post War Identities” hosted by the Department of Germanic Studies at The University of Texas, Austin.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned a full scholarship from the Goethe Institute in Washington, D.C., to participate in the 41st International Convention of Teachers of German (IDT), July 8–Aug. 4, 2017 in Freiburg i.Ü. Switzerland,  titled “Building Bridges—Connecting with German: People—Environments—Cultures. Berroth will present on her work of connecting STEM and German.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth is the recipient of an internationally competitive DAAD scholarship to participate in a faculty development seminar in Erfurt, Germany, April 8–14, 2017. The German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) seminar “Religions in Germany and the 500 Year Anniversary of the Reformation” brings together German teachers from all over the world to learn, discuss, and share resources. Berroth’s contribution, “Martin Luther in Film,” offers insights into research and teaching on filmic representations of the reformer produced in East and West Germany and in the USA. Berroth started this project in 2011, when she mentored Rory Jones ’12. Rory completed his German Honors Thesis on Luther, earned a Fulbright Fellowship, and for the year following his graduation from Southwestern taught English and continued his research exactly where he had hoped to be placed: Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany.

Assistant Professor of German Michelle Reyes and Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth offered a screening and panel discussion of their documentary, “Out of the Shadows: German Stories of Love, War, and Faith,” on March 30, 2017 at Southwestern University. Reyes, Berroth, and film director Whitney Milam discussed the film and its contexts with attentive audience members, many of whom shared their own memory narratives after the viewing. The documentary offers narratives and reflections of Germans who experienced the horrors of WWII as young children and later immigrated to the United States. Challenging easy dichotomies between victims and perpetrators, those stories reflect the resilience of people who found their ways out of the shadows of war and led faith-filled lives in their new homeland. The film project was made possible by a Sam Taylor Fellowship grant from the United Methodist Church. The inaugural screening at the Texas German Heritage Society in Austin generated interest among diverse audiences. Further screenings and panel discussions are planned for University of Texas at Austin and for Sun City in Georgetown. Reyes and Berroth express their gratitude for the excellent administrative and practical support of Administrative Assistant for the Faculty Susie Bullock.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in the 48th Annual Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) Conference in Baltimore, Md, March 23–26, 2017. The convention theme, “Translingual and Transcultural Competence: Toward a Multilingual Future in the Global Era,” furthered a much-needed discussion on the nature and value of the multicultural mosaic that the United States has become in the global era. Berroth presented her research paper titled “Pilgrimages of Recovery: Marica Bodrožić’s Work on Resilience, Landscapes and Humans” for the panel named Writing Spaces: Landscapes and/in German Travel Writing. Berroth also chaired and contributed to a panel sponsored by the Coalition of Women in German, Feminist Approaches to/in German Studies: Inclusivity and Sustainability. Her presentation, “Empathy: Experiments in Teaching for Diversity and Inclusiveness,” reflected on teaching methods and content for teaching on the Syrian refugee crisis and on transnational identity formations.

Three Southwestern students, mentored by Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth, presented their work at the Seventh Undergraduate Research Conference in German Studies on Saturday, April 1, 2017. This year the conference, co-organized by Lafayette College and Moravian College, took place at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa. This conference gives students the opportunity to present their research in all German-related fields, including but not limited to the study of German literature, film and culture, art history, music, philosophy, history and politics. Rosa Karen Castañeda Hernandez, Class of 2017, a double major in German and Communication Studies, presented her German Capstone project, “Illuminating Dark Tourism: Perspectives on Representations of Holocaust Tourism in Am Ende kommen Touristen (2007),” for a panel on the Holocaust. Miriam Richard, Class of 2018, an Education major who studied German at SU and abroad, presented her research paper titled “The Painful Consciousness of Being Transnational: Representations of Transnational Identities in German Texts and Films.” Aaron Woodall, Class of 2018, a Political Science major, presented his research on “Displacement and the Reconstruction of Transnational Identity.”

Part-Time Assistant Professor of German Michelle Reyes authored a book chapter titled “On Women and Dwarves: Material Engagements in the Brothers Grimm’s Kinder- und Hausmärchen” in the book Tracing the Footsteps of Dwarfs: Images, Concepts and Representations in Popular Culture.

Assistant Professor of German Michelle Reyes and Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented their documentary film “Out of the Shadows: German Stories of Love, War and Faith” at the Texas German Heritage Society on Feb. 26. This oral history project explores the stories of Germans who were children during WWII and later emigrated to the United States. The project was funded through a Sam Taylor Fellowship. A screening and discussion at Southwestern is scheduled for March 30 at 6:30 p.m.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth was appointed as DAAD Ortslektor. The  Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) recognized Berroth, also a DAAD alumna, for her work as resident expert/multiplier in German Studies, with local, regional, and national outreach through her work for the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) in the Texas AATG Chapters, at national conferences, and in her leadership roles on national committees. This appointment provides her with access to competitive DAAD funding including access to support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research through grants for teaching and research materials. Berroth’s first materials grant recently arrived at Southwestern in two large boxes filled with books on:

• Refugees and Migration (21 titles)
• Foundations in teaching German as a Foreign Language (17 titles)
• Games to be used in Teaching German as a Foreign Language (9 games/quizzes)
• Selection of top literary publications in 2016 (24 titles)
• Annual subscriptions for Der Spiegel and a Pedagogy Journals

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth has been appointed to serve on the American Association of Teacher of German’s Alle lernen Deutsch Committee by AATG President Hal Boland. This national committee fosters the recruitment of students and teachers from underrepresented groups to the teaching and learning of German. The committee disseminates information about underrepresented populations in the teaching and learning of German in the U.S. and creates materials for the German classroom that highlight the diversity of German-speaking countries.

Seven Southwestern faculty members were awarded a prestigious Sam Taylor Fellowship Grant. The 2016 recipients include:

• Professor of Physics Steven Alexander, “Creating a Wave-Powered Robot,” $1,200
• Associate Professor of Music David Asbury, “Research at the Library of Congress and the University of South Carolina Related to the Correspondence of Andrés Segovia and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,” $1,100
• Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth, “Learning Arabic to Teach the Syrian Refugee Crisis: Inclusiveness and Diversity in the German Classroom,” $1,750
• Associate Professor of Art History Patrick Hajovsky, “Examining Excavated Aztec Sculptures and Offerings in the Templo Mayor Museum and Museo Nacional de Antropología,” $1,220
• Associate Professor of French Aaron Prevots, “Gestures Toward the Sacred: Guillevic, Vargaftig, Tellerman, Michel,” $1,500
• Associate Professor of Communication Studies Valerie Renegar, “Beyond the “Wicked Stepmother”: Representations of Stepmothers in Popular Culture,” $1,830
• Professor of Spanish Katy Ross, “Immigration in Spain: The Cultural Effects of Otherness,” $1,500

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth and Part-Time Assistant Professor of German Michelle Reyes participated in the 2016 joint conference of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) and the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL) on Nov. 18-20 in Boston, Mass. Berroth organized and chaired a panel sponsored by the Coalition of Women in German. Reyes’ paper titled “Domesticity Reimagined: Shirts and Female Empowerment in The Six Swans” contributed to this panel, which was dedicated to showcasing feminist approaches to teaching fairy tales and integrating New Materialist theories. Berroth presented a paper titled “Empathy: Genres for Teaching and Learning Compassionately about Syria and Refugee Experiences” contributing to a series of two panels dedicated to “Teaching the Syrian Refugee Crisis in the DACHL Curriculum.” As an appointed member, Berroth also participated in the annual meeting of Alle lernen Deutsch, a committee representing AATG’s long-standing commitment to affirming diversity in the study of German language and German-speaking peoples and their cultures.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented her research in the Environmental Humanities at two conferences recently. At the South Central Modern Language Association (SCMLA) Annual Conference in Houston, TX, she presented her paper “Marica Bodrožić: Ecopoetics for the Anthropocene.” At the meeting of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment (ASLCE) in Brussels, Belgium, she presented her paper “Eco-poetics of Resilience: Slow Violence, Vibrant, Matter, Enlivenment, and the Affect of Material Kinship in the Work of Marica Bodrožić” and chaired a session on Climate Fiction in Northern Europe. Also, Monatshefte, a quarterly journal “at the forefront of American Germanistik,” invited Berroth to review the first comprehensive survey of ecocritical scholarship and approaches in German, Ecocriticim. Eine Einführung. Herausgegeben von Gabriele Dürbeck und Urte Stobbe. Köln: Böhlau, 2015.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented guidelines, examples, and curricular recommendations on integrating STEM and German at the annual meeting of the Texas Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) in San Marcos, TX, on Sept.10, 2016. High school, college, and university teachers collaborated on coordinating curricular decisions and pedagogies to advance student learning outcomes. Berroth built her work from a 3-week curriculum development workshop she completed in Leipzig, Germany, sponsored by the German government and AATG.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth received a nationally competitive grant to participate in a faculty development summer seminar sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German. Her participation is made possible through funding from the Transatlantik-Programm der Bundesrepublik Deutschland through funds of the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie. The seminar, held June 13 - July 4, 2015, at the Herder-Institute at the University of Leipzig, will explore the integration of MINT/STEM subjects in the German curriculum. In addition to observing classroom instruction, experiencing numerous workshops, and designing instructional materials, participants will visit the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden and enjoy a two-day excursion to Wolfsburg for a hands-on experience with leaders in the German auto industry.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum and Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth hosted a campus-wide lecture on March 6, 2015, funded through their Associated Colleges of the South Blended Learning Grant. The presenter was Mohamed Esa, professor of German at McDaniel College and President of the American Association of Teachers of German. Esa taught two German classes, featuring Rammstein’s “Ich will” and the Grimm fairytale “Der goldene Schlüssel.” He engaged with students and faculty during lunch, discussing neue deutsche Härte – Germany’s heavy metal scene – and gave a thought-provoking lecture titled “Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum – CLAC – Integrating STEM and Languages.”

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented her research on eco-pedagogy as feminist praxis at the annual convention of the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages / American Association of Teachers of German in San Antonio, Texas, November 20-23. Berroth mentored Lauren Brooks, Ph.D. candidate at Pennsylvania State University in co-organizing the conference panel, which was sponsored by the Coalition of women in German, and invited her to present her dissertation research on connections of Kafka and Seinfeld to students of German at Southwestern University.

Erika Berroth, associate professor of German, presented research on transnational and multicultural European film at the 71st Annual South Central Modern Languages Association Conference in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 20, 2014. Showcasing her curricular innovations in the German program at the 39th conference of the Coalition of Women in German in Shawnee on Delaware, PA, Oct. 23-26, 2014, she spoke on “Teaching German in the Anthropocene” on the Pedagogy Panel titled Sustainability as Feminist Practice.

Her poster presentation “Innovations in a Small German Program” highlighted the impact of an ACS Blended Learning Grant in the development of our new short-term embedded study abroad program for student-athletes: Global Players: Leadership, Football, Intercultural Learning, first implemented this summer. Berroth also organized and chaired the session “Feminist Embodiment and Empowerment,” and, as Chair of the 2014 WIG Dissertation Prize Committee, introduced and honored this year’s winner.

Erika Berroth, associate professor of German, has been selected to participate in a faculty seminar on Meeting Student Needs in College German Programs that will be held at Georgetown University Oct. 10-12. The seminar is sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German and made possible through funding from Netzwerk Deutsch of the Sonderprogramm zur Förderung von Deutsch in USA und Kanada. Only 28 participants were selected to attend the seminar. Read more here.