This fall, we had the pleasure of adding two postdoctoral teaching fellows to our faculty: Alexis Briley and Richard "Tres" Lambert.
Dr. Alexis Briley joined us from Colgate University, where she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of German. Dr. Briley received her PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell University in 2014, with a dissertation on Friedrich Hölderlin. This fall, she enjoyed the opportunity to teach Germany Today, against the backdrop of federal elections in Germany, as well as the fourth course in our language sequence (301). Dr. Briley is acting as our Göttingen Program Director this year, and is also working with Cecily Hawksworth and Tres Lambert in coordinating this year's German Day. She will continue teaching 301 in spring, and will be teaching the grammar-intensive L21 402 - Advanced Grammar and Style Lab.
Dr. Richard "Tres" Lambert joins the department from the Carolina-Duke program, from which he graduated in August. He is currently working towards publication of his research on the Viennese interwar period; he is nearing completion of a pair of articles examining Hermann Broch's relationship to the Austrian fin-de-siècle, and was able to present a preliminary version of the research at the annual German Studies Association conference this year. This fall, Dr. Lambert intensified his interest in foreign language pedagogy as an instructor of German 101, where he helped implement a new culture module that uses Instagram to promote cultural and technological literacy. He also successfully initiated a new extracurricular "Harry Potter listening" group with the department's support. In spring, Dr. Lambert will teach German 102 and an advanced undergraduate seminar entitled "Science + Fiction = Science Fiction?" which will offer interdisciplinary perspectives on the roles of science and literature, based on texts and media that range from Goethe to the graphic novel.