HWS News
20 September 2018 German Studies Welcome
To celebrate the beginning of the semester, new and returning members of the German Area Studies Department attended the annual Welcome Dinner to discuss the year ahead over traditional German food. The event introduced interested first-years, German exchange students and the new German Fulbright Teaching Fellow Tatjana Bröker to the culturally rich program at the Intercultural Affairs Center.
New and returning members of the German Area Studies Department attended the annual Welcome Dinner to discuss the year ahead over traditional German food.
Bröker was accompanied by four fellow Fulbright Teaching Fellows of the 2018-2019 academic year, who hail from France, Italy, Russia and Tunisia. The Fulbright Scholarship Program immerses young scholars and professionals in international cultures by giving them the opportunity to teach, take classes and conduct research in an overseas academic setting.
“We’re very happy to be included in everything on campus,” says Bröker, a specialist in education and languages including German, English and Italian. This semester, Bröker is teaching “Beginning German II” and conducting laboratories for several introductory and intermediate German courses. She is also completing coursework for Professor of History Clifton Hood’s class, “American Urban History” and Associate Professor of Philosophy Karen Frost-Arnold’s class, “Feminism: Ethics and Knowledge.”
New and returning students share a traditional German meal at the welcome dinner.
“I’ve found the students to be really open, but this event is a good opportunity for me to share my culture outside of the classroom,” Bröker says.
The Welcome Dinner is the first of several events associated with German Area Studies that will take place in the fall semester. The German Club has resumed “Stammtisch,” a weekly meeting that invites students to practice German in the informal setting of the Cellar Pub. The Blocker Cultural Showcase, which invites recipients of the Blocker Fellowship to present on the various intercultural observations and experiences gained throughout their time in Germany, took place on Thursday, Sept. 20. Through the Julius G Blocker ’53 Fellowship, any student who chooses to participate in an HWS-sponsored study abroad program in Germany can receive financial support to do so.
“Ours is a small program, but it has international ties,” says Associate Professor of German Area Studies Eric Klaus, who hosted the Welcome Dinner with Assistant Professor of German Area Studies Ashwin Manthripragada. “This event is to show people that we have something special going on in the German program.”