2024 COURSES
Courses take place June 26-August 1, 2024, every day except Wednesdays and Sundays when excursions are planned. The professional development seminar for teachers takes place July 24-August 1, 2024. All classes are in German. Apply to DSaP here. Apply here for scholarships.
Language Courses
GER 302: Third Year German
Taught by Professor Jeffrey L. High
GER 411/511: Advanced German
Taught by Professor Luke Beller
GER 412/512: Advanced German
Taught by Professor John H.G. Scott
GER 410/510: Hauptseminar
Taught by Professor Carrie Collenberg-González
Language seminar for advanced students
Literature and Theater Courses
GER 427/527: Age of Goethe
Friedrich Schiller, Joy, and Eudaemonist Literature around 1800
Taught by Professor Jeffrey L. High
For advanced students
This course is an introduction to eudaemonism, i.e., the doctrine of happiness in 18th century German literature and philosophy. The main subject of the course is the moral philosophy of Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) as reflected in his political essays, poems ("The Conqueror," "Ode to Joy") and dramas (Fiesko, Don Karlos) around 1800 and the resonance of Schiller as a republican bearer of hope in the first half of the 19th century according to Jefferson's formula "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Particular attention will be paid to the role of joy in the history of the pursuit of a state in which the "human individual is respected and treated as an end, the law has been set on the throne, and true freedom has been made the foundation of the state." With this in mind, texts by Isaak Iselin, Johann Peter Uz, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, Novalis, Heinrich von Kleist, Heinrich Heine, and Hoffmann von Fallersleben are also examined in order to shed light on the role of joy as the culmination of the five Fs in art and politics (Freude, feudalism, freedom, feminism, federalism) in the saddle period between the Enlightenment and Modernity. Students will read theoretical and literary works in order to formulate theoretical analyses in class, write and discuss responses, and finally, develop their own theses. Students are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the texts in discussions and class activities.
GER 441U/541U: Major Works in Translation
German for Reading and Research
Taught by Professor Rebecca Stewart-Gray
For intermediate and advanced students
This remote course is for advanced undergraduates and graduate students who have any level of German (including no German!*) and who desire to acquire or improve their skills in reading, translating, and conducting research in German. The course is part seminar, part workshop. In addition to intensively covering topics in German grammar, students will have the opportunity to collaboratively create new translations of texts (letters, essays, and scholarly publications) from and relating to the lives of classical composers who were suppressed during the Nazi era. Additionally, students will apply their German reading and research skills to a collaborative volunteer project involving updating the composer database of the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices. Music experience is welcome, but not at all required.
*This course will be partially conducted in English to accommodate researchers interested in learning to read German with no prior experience. This is a new model for the DSaP and constitutes an exception to the norm. Those attending the DSaP in person who elect this course will occasionally be assigned alternative German-language activities to be performed in groups.
GER 494/594: German Linguistics
Language: Structure and Sculpture in a Linguistic Perspective
Taught by Professor John H.G. Scott
For intermediate and advanced students
This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to German linguistics, the scientific study of language as applied to German. The majority of the course (5 modules) will provide an introduction to key linguistics concepts through the German language and explore German from a synchronic perspective (i.e., the language as it is now). Module 6 will explore the emergence of the Germanic language family and major German dialects through a diachronic perspective (i.e., the historical changes in the language's development over time), and Module 7 will explore sociolinguistic variation in Modern German. Students will build and demonstrate their understanding of linguistic principles through discussion and classroom activities and completion of short problem sets associated with each course module. A final creative project will entail projecting the German language forward into the future, applying the structural, historical, and sociological concepts gained in the course to sketch a brief linguistic description of a possible "future German" as a constructed language. No prior experience with linguistics is required or expected.
GER 408/508: Theater Workshop
Ludwig Tieck's Puss in Boots
Taught by Professor Brandy Wilcox
For advanced students
All students, regardless of previous theater experience, are invited to participate in the theater workshop. Anyone interested in learning about theater, acting, adaptation, and fairy tales in a playful manner is welcome to participate in this workshop. Ludwig Tieck’s Puss in Boots (1797) is a “play within a play” adaptation of the classic fairy tale “Puss in Boots.” The central plot tells the story of Gottlieb, who inherits a speaking tomcat from his father. Despite Gottlieb’s initial disappointment, the tomcat brings him success, riches, and joy. Tieck’s adaptation brings not only the actors in the play-within-a-play onto the stage, but also a fictitious audience which constantly discuss, comment upon, and criticize what they see happening on the stage. By reading theoretical and historical documents on fairy tales and the German Enlightenment, as well as through their work on the play, students in the theater workshop will gain a deeper insight into Ludwig Tieck’s work and the unique adaptable nature of the fairy tale while delving into theater itself as an art form. At the end of the summer school, we will bring our production to the stage. Students who do not necessarily want to perform on stage are equally welcome, as participants are also needed to run the technical (light, sound), design (stage, costumes) and public relations aspects of the production!
GER 408/508: German Teacher Training Seminar
Come as You Are: Identity, Authenticity, Self-Realization in German Instruction
July 24 - August 1, 2024
Taught by Professor Samantha Shipeck
For the professional development seminar only
This course centers pedagogical and personal self-reflection, classroom community-building, and the deliberate inclusion/affirmation of marginalized identities/individuals (by example of LGBTQIA+ identities/individuals) as keys to developing not only proficiency, but also intercultural competence and self-understanding.
Participants will receive a crash course in Queer Pedagogy, a crosswalk between the ACTFL standards and the Learning for Justice Social Justice Standards, and explicit training in creating LGBTQIA+ - affirming German class spaces. Through alternating experiential activities, discussion, and theoretical analysis, participants will explore how to modify their existing praxis to allow for deeper connection in the classroom, as well as consider how this fosters language growth. Participants will have time included to produce new curricular materials or modify existing ones to be ready to implement.
The course is intended for German instructors of all levels and experience who would like to reflect on their current practice, interrogate norms, and collaboratively refresh or create materials for their next term; as well as for those who want to expand or gain the skills and knowledge needed to champion LGBTQIA+ individuals in their institutions.