WCGS

Contract Academic Staff, German, Wilfrid Laurier University

PhD (Toronto)

Karin Barton is a lecturer at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Associate Professor of Geography, Ryerson University

PhD (Wilfrid Laurier)

Harald Bauder is an associate professor of geography at Ryerson University. His research interests are: political economy of immigration and settlement; labour market experiences of immigrants; and, immigration discourses in Canada and Germany.

Lecturer of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures – Brock University

PhD (Toronto)

Diane Bielicki is an associate professor of modern languages, literatures and cultures at Brock University. Her research interests are: Walter Kempowski, literary collage, oral history; graphic art relating to Holocaust survivors and their families; the art and literature of Germany and Austria in the first half of the twentieth century; German cinema; language teaching, in particular, effective methods for vocabulary acquisition.

Associate Professor of German, University of Waterloo

PhD (Queen's)

Professor Boehringer's research interests lie mainly in the 19th century, with a special focus on narrative theory and gender studies. He has also published in the areas of intercultural communication and applied language teaching, and has developed the Business German program in the German department at the University of Waterloo.  He is currently a member of the WCGS Executive Committee.

Associate Professor of History, University of Waterloo

PhD (McGill)

Gary Bruce, History, UW, since 2007 Associate Professor of History at the University of Waterloo. Undergraduate teaching in modern German History and contemporary East European History. Graduate teaching and supervision of 20th century German history. Monographs on resistance and repression in East Germany.

Librarian, Dana Porter Library, University of Waterloo

Helena Calogeridis, German liaison, Porter Library, MLS (McGill), since 1994 Liaison Librarian for Germanic and Slavic Studies, University of Waterloo. She ensures that the Library resources for German match the teaching, learning, and research needs and provides library instruction. Currently partners with Jane Forgay to update locally created, co-authored uWaterloo Library resources: Library Guide German-Canadian Studies and open access database German Canadiana in Ontario Bibliography. Also provides indexing of some journals devoted to German language and literature for the MLA International Bibliography since 1996.

PhD in German candidate, University of Waterloo

MA (Waterloo)

Allison Cattell is currently a PhD student in German in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Waterloo, where she also earned her MA in German. The title of her MA thesis was "Re-evaluating Communicative Language Teaching: Wittgenstein and Postmethod Pedagogy". Her research interests include language learning and teaching, and her dissertation project will explore these topics in Canadian educational settings.

MA in German candidate, Universityof Waterloo

A brief bio will be added here.

Associate Professor of History and Peace & Conflict Studies,University of Waterloo

PhD (Toronto)

Marlene Epp teachers History and Peace & Conflict Studies at Conrad Grabel University College. Her primary areas of teaching and research are in Mennonite history, gender studies, the history of immigration and ethnicity in Canada, and food history. She is author of Women without Men: Mennonite Refugees of the Second World War (University of Toronto Press, 2000) and Mennonite Women in Canada: A History (University of Manitoba Press, 2008). She was chief editor (with Franca Iacovetta and Francis Swyripa) of the essay collection, Sisters or Strangers? Immigrant, Ethnic, and Racialized Women in Canadian History (University of Toronto Press, 2004) and is co-editor (with Franca Iacovetta and Francis Swyrpia) of Edible Histories, Cultural Policies: Towards a Canadian Food History (University of Toronto, 2012).

PhD in German candidate, University of Waterloo

MA (Waterloo)

A brief bio will be added here.

Librarian Dana Porter Library, University of Waterloo

MA (McMaster)

Jane Forgay, MA (McMaster); MLIS (Western). Librarian at the University of Waterloo Library since 1992. Currently Liaison Librarian for History, Independent Studies, and Political Science. Activities related to German-Canadian studies include: the translation of L.J. Breithaupt's (1855 - 1939) diaries [German into English]; the creation, with Helena Calogeridis, of the uWaterloo Library resource German-Canadian Studies and compiler, with Helena Calogeridis, of German Canadiana in Ontario Bibliography.

Adjunct Professor of History, University of Western Ontario

PhD (Phillips)

Ullrich Frisse's research interests are in: 19th and 20th Century German and Continental European History; Imperial Russia, Russian Revolution and History of the Soviet Union; 19th and 20th Century International Relations; Political and Social History of Nazi Germany; Migration and German-Canadian History.

Associate Professor of History, University of Waterloo

PhD (Western)

Geoffrey Hayes' research interests are in: Canadian military history, peacekeeping, Afghanistan, Canadian military leadership and digital history and mapping.

Administrative Assistant, University of Waterloo

Professor of German, Founding Director of the WCGS, University of Waterloo

PhD (Toronto)

PhD in German candidate, University of Waterloo

MA (Waterloo)

Christine Kampen Robinson is a graduate student at the University of Waterloo. Her research interests focus on applied linguistics, with special attention to second language acquisition and bilingualism, particularly German in North American settings. Her MA project focused on code-switching and borrowing among students in the German-English bilingual program in Manitoba. Her dissertation project will focus on the intersection between space and identity construction among German-speaking Paraguayan Mennonite immigrants in Manitoba.

PhD in German Candidate, University of Waterloo

MA (Waterloo)

Belinda Kleinhans is at the moment a PhD candidate in German Studies at the University of Waterloo (ON). She is mostly interested in German literature after 1945 (mainly Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann, Günter Eich, Ilse Aichinger), Austrian literature, and the connection between literature and philosophy. She holds a Magister Artium in German Studies and Philosophy from the Universität Mannheim (2008) and a MA in German Studies from the University of Waterloo (2007). The title of the Master Thesis is "Geworfen in Welt, Gesellschaft und Sprache. Existentialismus und Identität in Ingeborg Bachmanns Erzählband 'Das dreißigste Jahr'". For her dissertation she will work on the topic of emotions in the poetry of Paul Celan.

Professor of German, University of Waterloo

PhD (Princeton)

Professor Kuzniar has published books on subjects ranging from German Romanticism to The Queer German Cinema.Her recent turn to environmental and animal studies can be seen in Melancholia's Dog: Reflections on Our Animal Kinship. She teaches a variety of classes in cinema, literary and cultural theory, women and gender studies, and Romanticism. She is currently working on a book on the founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, and the poetic roots of homeopathy in German Romanticism.

Professor Kuzniar is member of the Environment Research Group.

Associate Professor of German, University of Waterloo

PhD (Texas at Austin)

Grit Liebscher, German, UW, Ph.D. (University of Texas at Austin), Associate Professor of German at the University of Waterloo, teaches German language and applied linguistics at all levels. She supervises and teaches graduate students in discourse analysis (esp. conversation analysis and interactional sociolinguistics), bilingualism, and second language acquisition. Her current research includes a research project on language and identity among German immigrant in Canada and their descendants. She has published on language practices among East and West Germans, code-switching in the classroom, narrative structure, language use among German-Canadians, and learners' online communication.

Associate Professor of German, Wilfrid Laurier University

PhD (Cambridge)

Ute Lischke's research interests are in: Contemporary German culture; German film; European film; German literature; Business German.

Associate Professor of German, University of Waterloo

PhD (British Columbia)

Paul Malone, German, UW, is an Associate Professor of German in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He holds a Ph.D in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia and is a certified translator. In addition to his book, Franz Kafka's The Trial: Four Stage Adaptations (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2003), he has published on literature, film, theatre/performance theory, and virtual reality computer technology, and is currently the editor of Germano-Slavica: A Canadian Journal of Germanic and Slavic Comparative and Interdisciplinary Studies. He is also a member of the World Languages Editorial Board of MERLOT, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching.

Department Head, Special Collections, Dana Porter LIbrary, University of Waterloo

Susan Mavor, Special Collections, Porter Library MLS (UWO) has been Head of Special Collections in the Dana Porter Library of the University of Waterloo since 1976. Collections and collecting activity in the department include early editions and rare books, collections of archives and manuscripts, and other material which requires special care and handling because of its early publication date, association interest, physical condition, aesthetic value, or unusual format. Now numbering over 50,000 volumes, the rare book collections have particular subject strengths in the following areas: women's studies, local history, the history of mathematics (especially Euclid's Elements of Geometry), architecture, dance and ballet, fine printing, and urban planning. Historical and literary archives are maintained in a variety of subject areas which, for the most part, complement the book collections. The collections are considered working collections which have been developed systematically around subjects that reflect the goals of the University of Waterloo's major teaching and research programmes.

Associate Professor of German, University of Guelph

PhD (Princeton)

Professor Mayer’s research interests are: German Romantic literature and thought,  myth and fairy tales in German culture 18th -19th century,  the uncanny and fantastic in German literature and theory. Her publications include a monograph, Jena Romanticism and its Appropriation of Jacob Böhme: Theosophy – Hagiography – Literature (Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 1999) and an edition (with Marianne Henn and Anita Runge) of Benedikte Naubert’s fairy tales. Her current project is a book on the uncanny in German literature of the Romantic period.

Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies, York University

PhD (Lancaster)

David T. McNab is a Métis historian who has worked for more than thirty-five years on Aboriginal land and treaty rights issues in Canada. David teaches Indigenous and Canadian Studies in the Department of Equity Studies/Humanities in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University in Toronto. He has also been a claims advisor for Nin.Da.Waab.Jig., Walpole Island Heritage Center, Bkejwanong First Nations since 1992. In addition to over eighty articles, David has published: Earth, Water, Air and Fire: Studies in Canadian Ethnohistory (editor) (1998); Circles of Time: Aboriginal Land Rights and Resistance in Ontario (1999) as well as the co-edited Blockades and Resistance: Studies in Actions of Peace and the Temagami Blockades of 1988-89 (2003), Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and their Representations (2005), The Long Journey of Canada's Forgotten People: Métis Identities and Family Histories (2007), all with WLU Press. In 2008 he published the Fourth Edition (with Olive Patricia Dickason), of Canada's First Nations, (Oxford University Press) and in 2009 he published No Place for Fairness: Indigenous Land Rights and Policy in the Bear Island Case and Beyond, with McGill-Queens University Press. He is currently working on the fifth edition of Canada's First Nations which is selected for publication late in 2013.

Associate Professor of German, York University.

PhD (University of the West of England)

Gabriele Mueller teaches German Studies. Her main areas of research interest include German cinema, film history, cultural studies, discourses on East German identity and cultural memory. She was co-organizer of the conference Cinema and Social Change in Germany and Austria in 2008, which was hosted by the WCGS.

PhD in German candidate, University of Waterloo

Mareike Müller is pursuing a doctoral degree in Applied Linguistics/German Studies at the University of Waterloo. She received her Magistra Artium in German as a Foreign Language, Science of Speech and Phonetics, and Intercultural Business Communication from the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena in 2007. Her current research interests encompass multiple aspects of second language acquisition, with a focus on the development of learner beliefs in study-abroad contexts.

MA in German candidate, University of Waterloo

Jillian is currently a Masters student at the University of Waterloo. Her research interests focus on applied linguistics with a concentration on Austrian identity and media. She completed a B.A. Honors Degree in German Language and Literature at the University of Alberta.

Lecturer, University of Waterloo

PhD (Waterloo)

I am a lecturer in the Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Waterloo. I received my MA in German at the University of Waterloo in 2005. My research background is in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), conversation analysis and discourse analysis. In my PhD dissertation, which is at the intersection of SLA and interactional sociolinguistics, I focus on language learning in peer-to-peer small group interactions in pedagogy-related contexts. Understanding the social, linguistic and cognitive dimensions of learning in social interaction using conversation analysis and activity theory is at the centre of my current research interests. I taught a variety of undergraduate language courses in German during my graduate studies, including distance education online courses in German language and culture.

PhD in German candidate, University of Waterloo

Tanja Scherer is  currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Waterloo. She did her MA in German Cultural Studies, Translation, and Literature at the University of Alberta. Her current research interests include the depiction of memory in Holocaust and contemporary Postwar Literature which she will further explore in her dissertation.  

Associate Professor of German, University of Waterloo

PhD (Ruhr-Univerität Bochum)

Barbara Schmenk, German, UW, joined the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Waterloo in 2004. She received her PhD in Applied Linguistics from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in 2000. Before coming to UW, she has held appointments at Ruhr-Universität Bochum/Germany, Trinity College Dublin/Ireland, and Clemson University, SC/USA. Her research interests include language education, Gender Studies, and cultural theory.

PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo

MA (Waterloo)

Kyle Scholz is a graduate student at the University of Waterloo. His research interests focus on applied linguistics, specializing in second language acquisition and the anxiety associated with this process. He completed his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Waterloo as well.

Associate Professor of German, Director of the WCGS, University of Waterloo

PhD (UMIST/Manchester)

Adjunct Professor of History, University of Waterloo

PhD (Oxford)

D.Phil. (Oxford.) in 1988, sessional instructor 1989-1999 teaching on modern European and world history in universities across Canada. Dissertation edited into monograph, Lower Silesia from Nazi Germany to communist Poland, 1942-1949, published simultaneously in London and New York, 1994. Translated version of English edition to be published in German in 2006. Research interests on national identities and interrelationships in central and east-central Europe. M.B.A. (Wilfrid Laurier University) in 1999 with focus on organisational behaviour, management, and marketing. Since 2007 engaged in sessional instructing.

Associate Professor of German, University of Waterloo

PhD (Princeton)

James Skidmore is interested in the representation of cultural identity in literature and film. His main areas of inquiry are recent German film, comparative literature (German and Canadian), and the culture of the Weimar Republic. He has also done work on curriculum development and the integration of information literacy in online learning environments.

More information on James Skidmore's Homepage.

Administrative Assistant, Germanic and Slavic Studies, University of Waterloo

Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature, McMaster University

PhD (Toronto)

Dr. Wilson, a member of the Dept. of Linguistics and Languages, pursues research and teaching interests in German literature, Comparative Literature, and interdisciplinary studies. She is cross-appointed to McMaster’s interdisciplinary Arts & Science Program, and also contributes to English & Cultural Studies, Peace Studies, and Gender Studies & Feminist Research. The recipient of numerous teaching awards, Dr. Wilson offers courses in Comparative Literary Studies, European Drama, European Romanticism, and Literature as Peace Research.

Assistant Professor of German, University of Sasketchewan

PhD (Waterloo)

Peter Wood's research interests are in: Computer Assisted Language Learning, Second Language Acquisition, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics.

Wage and Salary Analyst, University of Waterloo

A brief bio will be added here.

Contract Academic Staff, German, Wilfrid Laurier University

PhD (Munich)

Alexandra Zimmermann, German, WLU, Dr. Phil. (Munich), Areas of teaching and research: Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Linguistics, (Inter)cultural Studies, Drama Pedagogy. Various publications in these fields. Previous teaching venues include the Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprache at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the Institut für Interkulturelle Germanistik of the Universität Bayreuth. Present research on Food, Language and Cultural Identity. Public Drama performances in German, many of them in cooperation with Laurier’s Faculty of Music: “Die Befreiung der Träume” (Rafik Schami) (1999), “Der Ohrenzeuge” (Elias Canetti) (2002), “Wer war Mozart?” (2003), “E.T.A. Hoffmann-Fest“ (2006) and “Die Macht der Nixen” (2008). Most recently cooperation with the Waterloo Centre for German Studies and the Shadow Puppet Theatre of Kitchener- Waterloo in the production of “Faust” (2008).