Taking stock of German studies in the United States: the new millennium

Abstract

Halverson, Rachel J., and Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, eds. Taking Stock of German Studies in the United States: New Millennium. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015. 312 pp. $75.00 (hardcover).The experienced and accomplished editors of this volume position it in a now long tradition of self-examination by those who teach German in the United States. It will be a useful addition to the libraries of those who have been following the updates we give ourselves every few years. introduction mentions, for instance, Reichmann's 1970 volume Germanistik. Teaching of German: Problems and Methods; Lohnes and Nollendorfs, German Studies in the United States: Assessment and Outlook of 1976; and Benseler joined that team for a 1988 update. There's Van Cleve and Willson's polemical Remarks on the Needed Reform of German Studies in the United States (1993). And the list and the self-reflection go on. And on. So it becomes imperative for the reviewer, anyway, to signal what may be innovative or helpful.For one thing, the editors have dedicated the volume to Helene Zimmer-Loew, whose twenty-six year tenure as Executive Director of the American Association ofTeachers of German (AATG) merits recognition for her staunch and effective advocacy of the study of languages in general and of German specifically. It's healthy and just to be reminded of the resources that have been mustered for our profession as a result of Zimmer-Loew's productive energy. Several of the contributors report on activities that the AATG alone or in partnership sponsored and from which they learned valuable lessons they could apply in their teaching and the conduct of their professional life (see reports by Halverson on a series of programs on intercultural learning, referred to by the acronym EIKK; Regina Braker on the summer seminar in Leipzig, KEFKO; Aleidine J. Moeller and Sheri Hurlbut on learning about technology through online teacher training, better known as GoLDEN).Another helpful dimension of the volume involves descriptions of things that worked to get students into our classrooms. Lynne Tatlock reports on a program she ran for ten years at Washington University in St. Louis that successfully attracted students to study French and German language by embedding it in a series of courses (language, content, and trip abroad) called The Making of Modern Europe, part of a Freshman Focus Program. Her description of a monument project can be used by others. Similarly, Albrecht Classen offers not just a convincing argument for using popular-culture interest in the Middles Ages to lure students into German classes, but also marvelous summaries of the Nibelungenlied and Der arme Heinrich, and illustrations of how he reads certain scenes and themes more closely. Consider these a gift; they're fun to read, and we can borrow them for our own classes. Looking to the future, Martin Kagel and William C. Donahue provide arguments any of us could make with our administrations to reenvision German studies as Transnational European Studies, rather like how the nation-state of Germany has chosen to embed itself in the European Union, they suggest. Lynn Marie Kutch shares details about the consortium in German of the Pennsylvania public university system in a manner that can serve almost as a blueprint for others, and indeed one of her points is that she and her colleagues learned from those in South Dakota and North Carolina who had already been through consolidation and fostered cooperation. And Gregory H. Wolf reflects on how he built and sustains a successful one-man program at a small liberal arts college.Which brings me to the question of audience. I found myself asking frequently: to whom are these essays addressed? There are the field watchers I mentioned above, who need to know about the latest addition to our professional navel-gazing. …