Letter from the Department Head

June 11, 2008

 

Dear Alumni and Friends of our Department,

This is the seventh and last newsletter that you will receive from me in my capacity as head of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures. After seven years at the helm of the department, I will step down at the end of June to spend a sabbatical year in Berlin before resuming my full-time duties as a professor of Russian and comparative literature at Penn State. In digging through my old files, I came across my very first newsletter, written in Spring 2001, when I was a freshly minted and somewhat jittery new Interim Department Head. Part of that letter was devoted to "looking forward to the future." This provides an interesting opportunity for a retrospective reality check. How accurate were my prophecies? "As we all know, rapid change has become the hallmark of our time," I began, somewhat grandiosely, before observing this "a united Germany has joined the Euro zone, and Russia too seems to be moving closer toward the 'common European home.'"(I was certainly wrong on that one!) Moving on to more local matters, I stated: "It is not surprising then that in a world where borders are increasingly porous, the traditional concept of the national language and literature department is also undergoing a transformation. The international collaboration among European nations is mirrored in our own efforts to work with other departments and programs in the College of the Liberal Arts."

The letter mentions my new course on Stalinism and Nazism and increased collaboration with the Departments of History, Comparative Literature, and Applied Linguistics. We have indeed enhanced our cooperation with these departments, and, in the meantime, we have added collaborations with a whole row of other units that were not even on the horizon seven years ago. In particular, we have become involved with Science, Technology and Society (STS), a program that is shared between the Colleges of Engineering and the Liberal Arts. Our new colleague Bettina Mathes, who came to our department two years ago from Humboldt University in Berlin, holds a joint appointment with both units and has established contacts with history of science programs in Germany and Switzerland. The new director of the STS program, Greg Eghigian, not only specializes in German history but is also an affiliate of our department. The cross-fertilization between German and STS is already beginning to show its effects. One graduate student in our department, who is focusing on German theater and the history of brain science, has recently been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to spend a year at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Other units with which we have increased collaboration include Philosophy (through participation in a new graduate exchange program with the University of Freiburg), and the new Center for Language Science, with which we are working towards the development of an interdisciplinary dual-title Ph.D. program.

One development that was completely unforeseen in 2001 (at least by me) is the growth in on-line learning. While predictions about the impending death of the brick and mortar university are widely exaggerated, it is true that an increasing share of instruction has become Web-based. Our department has played a pioneering role in this development by creating electronic versions of our Russian and Ukrainian culture courses. They are now regularly offered every academic year and every summer. More recently, we have implemented a Web-based version of the basic German language sequence, which allows students at Penn State campuses with no German to benefit from our language offerings.

In one other respect, the department is very different from seven years ago. A large number of colleagues-Bill Schmalstieg, Ernst Schürer, Frank Gentry, Gerhard Strasser, Barton Browning, and most recently, Vickie Ziegler-retired during my tenure as department head. Fortunately, we were able to replace many of them with new junior faculty hires. I say "fortunately," because in the current fiscal climate many positions in the humanities have become a target for elimination (the University of Southern California even shut down its entire German Department this year!). As a result of these recent hires, the department has become "younger" and more "female," while maintaining our commitment to excellence at all levels. The fact that we were able to make all these hires shows that our department enjoys the continued support of the College and University administration.

One of the more pleasant duties of a department head is to tout the achievements of one's colleagues. Let me just mention three of them. Bettina Mathes' book Verschleierte Wirklichkeit (Veiled Reality) about Muslims in Europe was awarded the prize for best academic book by the Austrian Ministry for Research and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, our graduate student Nathan Shrefler won first prize in this year's Graduate Research Exhibition with his dissertation project on German Bible translations, and, last but not least, our emeritus colleague Frank Gentry received the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Cross of Merit) from the government of Germany for his significant contributions to the academic cooperation between Germany and the United States.

As I step down as head, it is a relief to know that the department is in good shape and, even more importantly, that it will be left in good hands. My successor as of July 1 will be Richard Page, associate professor of German and linguistics. Richard has been at Penn State since 1995 and has served the department in many capacities, including as director of undergraduate studies, study abroad adviser, and acting department head. I am sure that, under his leadership, and with the support of our alumni and friends, the department will continue to thrive and prosper.

Many thanks for your continued loyalty to Penn State and best wishes to all of you.

Sincerely,

Adrian Wanner
Department Head