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.