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CURRICULUM VITAE

Cecilia Novero

The Penn State University

Department of German and Russian – Burrowes 311

University Park, PA 16801

Cin1@psu.edu

POSTS HELD:

The Penn State University:

Assistant Professor of German (2000- )

Vassar College:

Visiting Assistant Professor (1998-2000)

University of Michigan:

Teaching Post-Doc: one-year appointment (1997-1998)

EDUCATION

University of Chicago:

PhD: Dissertation defended on May 18, 1998

Graduated in June 2000, Department of Germanic Studies

University of Turin, Italy:

M.A., 1989. Thesis: Sarah Kirsch: Poetry and Prose

Director: Prof. Anna Chiarloni

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures

(Second Field: Russian Literature and Language)

DISSERTATION:

Eating Bodies Eating Texts: Metaphors of Incorporation and Consumption in Benjamin, Dada and Futurism

The dissertation traces how European artists and intellectuals, in particular Benjamin, Dada and Futurism, focus in their texts on the oral and the digestive moments of the alimentary cycle, in order to criticize the functional model of social metabolism proposed by nutritional texts, cookbooks and food advertisements in the twenties and early thirties.

Dissertation Director: Prof. Katie Trumpener.

Readers: Professor Andreas Gailus and Professor Rebecca West

ACADEMIC HONORS:

Cornell University (German Cultural Institute—DAAD)

Summer Workshop on Critical Theory (Peter U. Hohendahl)

Penn State University

RGSO (Research and Graduate Studies Office)

Faculty Research Grant (2001) (5,000 $)

FELT (Fund for Excellence in Learning and Teaching)

Grant for new experimental course (German 200) in collaboration with Gabi Appel, Senior Lecturer (2001)

Vassar College

Summer Research Grant (1999): Funds for article “Sleeping Beauty” See Publications, below

University of Chicago

Stuart Tave Fellow (Spring 1996)

Gamer Fellowship (1990-1994)

Berlin Humboldt University (GDR)

Research Fellowship (1986-1987)

PUBLICATIONS:

“Stories of Food: German Nutritional Texts and Cookbooks between the Wars” in Germans At Their Best: Making

Use of Material and Mass Popular Culture Ed. by Christoph Lorey and John L. Plews (Journal of Popular

Culture: in press)

"Sleeping Beauty or the Contemporary Voyage to Italy" in Multicultural Journeys, Ed. by K. Siegel (Peter Lang:

in press)

“Daniel Spoerri’s ‘Invention of Tradition’: Symi and Eat Art” in Catalog of the Exhibition on Eat Art (Munich: 2001)

"Vivian Liska (Ed.): Die Dicherin und das schelmische Erhabene. Else Lasker-Schulers Die Naechte Tino von Bagdads.

Francke Verlag: Tuebingen and Basel, 1998." Review in Colloquia Germanica (Lexington, KY: 2001)

“Physiology of Disgust: The Dada Dysfunctional Diet” in Seminar (Victoria, Canada: 2001)

"Primo Levi: Tragedy of an Optimist" by Myriam Anissimov. Review in Annali d'Italianistica (Chapel Hill: 2000)

"Food" Encyclopedia of Contemporary German Culture (London: Routledge, 1999)

Überbleibsel. Eine kleine Erotik der Kueche by Jeannette Lander. Review Focus on Literatur Vol.5 (Spring 1996)

"German Feminist Theory" and "Karin Struck" The Feminist Encyclopedia of German

Literature (Washington: Grenwood Press, 1995)

Die Entdeckung der Currywurst by Uwe Timm. Review Focus on Literatur Vol. 1. No. 2 (1994) 202-205

"«Baratto» e l'affermazione passiva del pudore" RLA. Vol.2 (1992) 314-318 (double-columned)

"Spie post-moderne: Gli intellettuali tedeschi e la Stasi: L'affare Anderson" Linea D'Ombra 75 (1992)

Interviews with artists Zorio and Mainolfi Dopodomani 1 (1988)

Translations:

Alexander Kluge Eds. Toffetti, Spagnoletti Torino: Lindau 1994

The Education of a Gardener R. Page Torino: Allemandi 1994

Uwe Kolbe (poem) Poesia contemporanea tedesca Edited by A. Chiarloni Torino: Einaudi 1994

"Gayatri C. Spivak" by Rebecca West, Marguerite Waller 149-164 I discorsi della critica in America

Roma: Bulzoni 1993

"La mia Germania non compare in nessun atlante" by Jurek Becker and Martin Walser L'Opera al Rosso 1 (1990)

PROFESSIONAL PAPERS:

ACLA (American Comparative Literatures Association)

(April 2002) ““Gender Trouble as Genre Trouble in Thomas Meinecke’s Tomboy” [paper accepted]

NEMLA(Northeastern MLA)

(March 2002) “Gender Trouble as Genre Trouble in Thomas Meinecke’s Tomboy” [paper accepted]

MUNICH—PRATER: KUNSTMUSEUM

(October 2001) nvitation to press conference at the opening of Spoerri’s Eat Art Exhibition

ACLA (American Comparative Literatures Association)

(April 2001) “Daniel Spoerri’s Eat Art, or When Food Matters”

American Popular Culture (April 2001) “Stories of Food: Recipes of Modernity, Recipes of

Tradition in German Cookbooks of the Interwar Years”

AMERICAN/POPULAR CULTURE

(Novermber 2000) "Parma, Parmigiano and Parmigianino: Italy or the Food of Nostalgia"

NEMLA(Northeastern MLA)

(April 2000) “2001 Minor Odysseys in Space: GDR Texts and the Question of
Minor Literatures”

GSA (German Studies Association)

(Oct.1999)”Gender Travels, Modern Selves: Women Travelers in the 19^th Century”

Kentucky Foreign Language Conference

(April 1999) “Murder in the Kitchen: Dürrenmatt’s Suppers and Crimes”

AAIS (American Association of Italian Studies)

(April 1999) “ ‘Everyone says I love you’: Images of Italy in

Contemporary German Literature"

Kentucky Foreign Language Conference

(April 1997) “The Dadaist Anti-Diet of Disgust"

AAIS (American Association of Italian Studies)

(April 1994) "Strawberry Breasts, Sculpted Meat

and The Holy Palate: The Futurist Dietology of Fulfilment"

Kentucky Foreign Language Conference

(April 1993) "Was bleibt: Christa Wolf, the Question of a New Language"

AAIS (American Association of Italian Studies)

(April 1993) "L'autobiografia della biografa:

A. Bruzzone e Ci chiamavano matti

Purdue Conference of Romance Languages and Literatures

(October 1992) "'Baratto' e l'affermazione passiva del pudore"

The Midwestern Graduate Conference

(June 1992) "Was bleibt: Christa Wolf, the Question of a New Language"

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING:

Penn State University

Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT): A one semester course

On Teaching Undergraduate and Graduate Education (Fall 2001)

Vassar College

Teaching with New Technologies: Workshops sponsored by Mellon Vassar-Williams Consortium (Sept 1998-June1999)

Software Review of German Computer Programs (April 1999, Williams College)

Delmas Faculty Seminar: A faculty seminar run by Journalist Alexander Stille on

Culture and Technology (Fall 1998)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Penn State University

Graduate Seminar: Introduction to Literary Theory

Description: Introduction to a variety of literary theories from Linguistics to Marxism, from Feminism to Postcolonialism and Postmoodernism.

German Composition and Conversation: Contemporary Society Description: The students discuss and write about contemporary issues as presented through Andreas Lixl-Purcell’s Textbook Rückblick and through accurate readings of 4 recent novels: Benjamin Lebert’s Crazy, Elke Naters’ Königinnen, Ulrich Plenzdorf’s Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. and Helga Königsdorf’s Meine ungehörigen Träume.

Introduction to Contemporary German Culture (German 200) Description: The course is based on the two series of Heimat to which are juxtaposed poems, articles, essays, political statements and other films, in order both to understand some relevant historical and cultural moments in German history as well as to question this film's representation of contemporary German culture.

Freshmen Seminar: The Human Bestiary: Outsiders as Freaks Description: The course takes as a starting point Hans Mayer's suggestion that the literary representation of outcasts is evidence of the failure of the Enlightenment. It proceeds to analyze several texts and films depicting Others in order to discuss the critic's position and evaluate where the Enlightenment may have failed and where it preserves its validity.

Graduate Seminar: Introduction to German Cultural Studies Description: Analysis of major theoretical approaches influential in the contemporary discussions of German Studies

Einführung in die deutsche Literatur durch den Film

Description: Introduction to major topics of German Culture and the Study of Genres through the analysis of classical and recent cinematic interpretations of a variety of literary texts.

Vassar College (1998-2000)

Fast Legs and Roast Poets: The German Avant-garde

Description: Same as below, University of Michigan

From Flowers to Bullets: 1968-1978

Description: A study of culture and literature from the Students’ Movement to Terrorism in France, Germany and Italy

Back(s )against the Wall (in German)

Description: Ten years after Reunification, a re-visitation of the texts on Germany’s division in 1961 and an analysis of the most recent writings on the Fall of the Wall and its consequences in 1989.

Occidental Tourists: Travel and Nationhood in Contemporary Europe

Description: What strategies of representation (objectification) are at

stake in European Travel Literature about Europe?

Intermediate German

Moment Mal! 2 (A communicative method)

Elementary German

Deutsch Heute, implemented with Themen and Deutsch Aktiv

Introduction to German Lit.: The Passion for Rebellion

Description: Seduction, Love and Death through the lens of

Generational and Sexual Conflicts (in German)

Topics in German Studies: Food and National Identity

Description: The representation of “eating” as a metaphor of national, cultural and sexual identity(in German)

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (1997-1998)

Teaching Post-Doc: 4 courses of Advanced German (1997-1998) and 3 conversation classes.

Description: 2 courses of German for first-year University students with previous knowledge of the Language.

Classics of German Literature (Winter 1998)

Description: History of German Literature: Survey Course

Screaming Faces, Fast Legs and Roast Poets: Revolutionary Art and Literary Movements in Germany and Europe in the Early 20th Century

Description: Texts of the European Avant-garde: Futurism, Expressionism and Dada and their influence on contemporary art and literature. (Winter 1998)

University of Chicago (1992-1997)

Lecturer: Elementary German (1995-1997)

Beginning Italian (1992-1994)

Description: Language courses designed for students who need to acquire reading and speaking ability in German/Italian for the PhD or advanced research in their field. Both classes also provide a good introduction to contemporary culture and develop communication strategies for everyday situations.

As Tave Fellow:

Reading Eating: Narratives of Food (Spring 96)

Description: This course, designed for advanced students in the College, discussed a number of modern and contemporary texts, from film to literature, from psychoanalysis to anthropology, which deal with the representation of eating as a metaphor of national, cultural and sexual identity.

Italian Cultural Institute Chicago

Italian language and culture for beginners (1995-1996)

GDR Cultural Center (Turin)

Elementary German (1987-1988)

TEACHING INTERESTS:

20th century: Teaching with new Technologies;
Film courses (New German Cinema, DEFA Films; Women’s Cinema, European Cinema)

Modernism and Postmodernism – Theories of the Avant-garde

GDR Literature, especially women’s literature

The Sixties: Politics, Art and Literature; The Seventies: Responses to

Terrorism; Critical Theory, Cultural Studies and Feminist Theories;

Contemporary post-Wende Literature

Contemporary Borders and Nations in German and European Cinema

19th-20th century: The Literature of Mittel-Europa; Decadence and Turn of the

Century (Art, Architecture and Literature); Women’s travelogues; Tales of

Cities, Tales of Crowds: The Axis Paris-Berlin; Realism and the novella.

18th-19th century: Poetry (Hölderlin, Novalis); Kleist and Hoffmann; Büchner: and

women writers

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Literature and Art of the Avant-garde and Neo Avant-garde;

Critical Theory;

New German Cinema and Experimental Cinema;

Food Politics and the Politics of Food: European Political and Sexual Identities from the 1960s to the 1980s

European Feminisms; GDR literature, in particular its reception in Italy and women’s texts

Contemporary Authors and post-Wende Literature (new young authors)

German-Italian Contacts: Philosophical Receptions (Critical Theory; Pensiero Debole and Postmodernism)

Immigrants, tourists and terrorists in literature and film: Insiders and Outsiders on the German Nation.

SERVICE:

Penn State University:

Undergraduate Committee (2000- to date)

Committee for Dialogue (Fall 2001)

History Workshop (respondent to Paul Rose’s paper, Fall 2001)

Gender History Workshop (2000- to date)

Recertification of German 200 (2000-2001)

Student Mentoring and Advising (Comp. Lit. and Germanic) (2000- to date)

Vassar College (1998-2000):

Participation in a series of Student-based Cultural Activities; Advising; Faculty Seminar; Women’s Studies Workshop; Organization of Campus Visits of Scholars and Writers (Most recently Myriam Anissimov)

RELATED E XPERIENCE:

Casa Editrice Mondadori

Consultant for the new Oscar edition of "Le affinità elettive" (Goethe)

Italian Cultural Institute (Spring 1997)

Translator for the Renaissance Society and The Art Institute

University of Chicago (1991-1992)

Research Assistant (Prof. Robert von Hallberg)

Casa Editrice Umberto Allemandi & Co.

Editorial Office, Journalist for Il Giornale dell'Arte

(September 1994 to 1995)

Free Lance Art Journalist (1990-1991)

Editor of art books and catalogues (1989-1990)

Il Giornale dell'Arte: Editorial Assistant (1988-89)

Eurasia Publishing House:

Co-director of Editoria Internazionale (1988-1989)

LANGUAGES:

ITALIAN:	Native Speaker
ENGLISH:	Near-native speaking, writing and reading ability
GERMAN:	Near-native speaking and reading ability; excellent writing
FRENCH:	Excellent reading, good speaking and writing ability
RUSSIAN:	Reading ability
LATIN:	Reading ability