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.