GNS News

Remembering Klaus L. Berghahn

Klaus L. Berghahn August 5, 1937 – November 1, 2019 Klaus Berghahn was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, the youngest of five children of Wilhelm and Anna Berghahn. Klaus came of age in the aftermath of …

Crossing Borders and Shattering Boundaries at the Transregional Academy “Minor/Small Literature(s). Perspectives on World Literature from Elsewhere”

“With the global turn of societies, nations, and countries to adopt an inward gaze fueled by exclusionary policies and politics, our unique collaboration in Berlin—though small—in a non-competitive, friendly, supportive, and engaging atmosphere may indeed …

Exploring The European Refugee Crisis: Q&A with Leighty Hanrahan

Leighty Hanrahan is not your average UW-Madison student. As a triple-majoring Honors student and recipient of multiple undergraduate fellowships, she has not only set her sights high, but is reaching those heights with her most …

In memoriam: Dieter Kowalski

The Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic wishes to extend condolences to the family and friends of our program’s alum Dieter Kowalski who died in the Sri Lanka bombings on Easter Sunday. Dieter Kowalski who …

German graduate to present at DePaul Pop Culture Conference

Brandy E. Wilcox, a Ph.D. candidate in the German program, will present at this year’s Pop Culture Conference at DePaul University in Chicago on May 4th. Under the theme “A Celebration of Disney,” Brandy will …

German graduate student presents at American Association for Applied Linguistics Conference and receives NFMLTA/MLJ travel grant

Lucian Rothe, a Ph.D. candidate in the German program, presented his research on “Linking Imagined and Actual Social Spaces: Attributed Stereotypes of Native Speakers with Respect to Foreign Language Choice” at this year’s AAAL Conference …

German graduate students awarded Mellon-Wisconsin Summer Fellowship

  Richard Hronek and Lucian Rothe received a Mellon-Wisconsin Fellowship for Summer 2019 from the Graduate School at UW-Madison. Hronek and Rothe are both Ph.D. candidates in the German program and are currently working on …

Graduate students in German, Nordic, and Slavic explore career opportunities outside of academia

On March 28, 2019, the German and Dutch Graduate Student Association (GDGSA) hosted a professional development event on “Alt-Ac Careers” for graduate students in the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic. The GDGSA received a …

B. Venkat Mani’s GSA/DAAD 2018 Best Book Prize

B. Venkat Mani’s Recoding World Literature: Libraries, Print Culture, and Germany’s Pact with Books (New York: Fordham University Press, 2017) is the winner of the 2018 Best Book Prize of the German Studies Association in Germanistik and Cultural Studies (for a book published …

Pamela Potter Interviewed About Her New Book

Pamela M. Potter, Professor of German at UW-Madison, recently published a new book called Art of Suppression: Confronting the Nazi Past in Histories of the Visual and Performing Arts (University of California Press, 2016). To …

Ian McQuistion (PhD), German literature, Awarded Fulbright

Ian McQuistion (PhD) was one of 10 UW-Madison finalists that has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant for study/research abroad.

Mark Louden discusses Pennsylvania Dutch with Swissinfo.ch

“For hundreds of years, Pennsylvania Dutch and Swiss German have been spoken in America by the descendants of Swiss immigrants. How do these dialects compare with those spoken in Europe today?”  Click to read Mark …

German Grads, Justin Court and Lucian Rothe, set mini-seminars

Have you ever caught yourself thinking: “Never have I ever taught a language course on fascinating topics, such as ‘German protest songs since 1945’, ‘Witches, Wolves, and Wanderlust’, or ‘Northern German dialects’? Well, sentences like …

Sabine Moedersheim: How Martin Luther went viral

“Outraged at what he perceives as corruption among the powers-that-be, a scholar takes to a burgeoning mode of communication to disseminate a round-up of injustices. His message spreads far and wide, gaining momentum with each …

Prof. Sonja Klocke and Emeritus Prof. Marc Silberman published in “Imaginations”

Prof. Sonja Klocke and Emeritus Prof. Marc Silberman recently published articles in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, “Imaginations”. Marc was also the Guest Editor for the Journal. The 9 articles are revised papers from …

Susan Brantly Interviewed in the Star Tribune

GNS Professor Susan Brantly was recently featured in the Star Tribune’s article “Two plays opening this weekend ask what’s next for Nora of ‘A Doll’s House’.” The article discusses two new plays being performed this …

Dr. Scott Mellor Featured in Swedish Press

Making the Most of Winter

Are you making the most out of your winter? GNS professor Claus E. Andersen talked to NBC15 News about the idea of “hygge” and what it means to embrace the winter months instead of fighting …

Scott Mellor presents at “The Formula in Oral Poetry and Prose Conference”

On December 7th Scott Mellor presented his paper titled Oral-Formula and Formulaic Syntax in The Poetic Edda revisited at The Formula in Oral Poetry and Prose Conference in Tartu, Estonia. The symposium’s aim was to discuss …

Scandinavian Art and Literature, Prof. Susan Brantly

Susan Brantly, Birgit Baldwin Professor of Scandinavian Literature at UW-Madison, provides an overview of Scandinavian art, artists, and authors from the Baroque period in the 1600s to the late 20th century postmodernists. Click the link …

Professor Jim Leary Earns Grammy Nomination

Jim Leary, UW-Madison professor emeritus of folklore and Scandinavian studies, has been nominated for a second time for a Grammy Award. This time he was nominated in the “Best Album Notes” category for his work on …

Warming Up to Hygge

If you’ve ever sought respite from Wisconsin’s frigid winter in a cozy blanket, hot drink or conversation around a crackling fire, you’ve experienced hygge. Pronounced “hoo-guh” or “hue-guh,” with no direct translation in English, hygge is …

BBC Radio 3: Sunday Feature With Professor Thomas DuBois

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough enters the forests of our imagination, looking for stories. Alternative realities, holy quests and fairytales hidden among the glories of the Autumn forest. Despite our evolution in the African rainforests, Eleanor wonders …

Norway Summer Abroad Video Project

Bryce Gilder, a student of Peggy Hager, created this video diary of his adventures while studying abroad in Norway in the ISS Oslo Study Program. He filmed his experiences each day and used this project …

Kokko and Aurinko: A Finnish-American Juhannus Festival

John Prusynski, Nordic Graduate Student of UW-Madison, wrote this feature for a photo essay in the summer fieldwork course: Folklore 490: Field Methods and the Public Presentation of Folklore in June of 2018. He talks …

2018 Community-University Partnership Awards

At the 2018 Community-University Partnership Awards, in which the collaboration between several of the members in GNS (Marcus, Colin, Tim Frandy (formerly of the department) and Thomas DuBois) along with partners at Lac du Flambeau …

Scott Mellor Collaborates on a TED-Ed Video

Are you interested in Norse mythology? Faculty Associate Scott Mellor recently contributed to an informative TED-Ed video about the myth of Thor’s journey to Utgard, the land of the giants. Click to watch the Youtube …

Prof Claus Andersen Gives Interview on Scandinavian Culture

Prof Claus Andersen was recently  interviewed by Fox 6 News Milwaukee to discuss Hygge.  Hygge is a Danish concept to help alleviate winter blues and Andersen defines is as “pleasant togetherness”.  

Scott Mellor and Susan Brantly, Swedish Radio Interview

Scott Mellor and Susan Brantly, together with Amanda Doxtater, are interviewed on Swedish Radio about teaching Selma Lagerlöf. The interview took place in conjunction with the recent ASTRA Conference in Washington D.C.

Assistant Prof. Dean Krouk Publishes new book

In September 2017 Dean published “Fascism and Modernist Literature in Norway” Per the publishers site: Fascism and Modernist Literature in Norway illuminates the connections between literature and politics in interwar Europe. Focusing on the works …

Melissa Azari Awarded a Mellon-Wisconsin Fall Fellowship

Melissa Azari received a Mellon-Wisconsin Fellowship for the Fall 2019 semester from the Graduate School of UW-Madison. Melissa is a PhD candidate in the Slavic program of GNS. Her dissertation explores auditory and musical themes …

Fall 2018 GNS Honored Instrustors

We are lucky to have such great instructors in the German, Nordic and Slavic Department! This semester, Fall 2018, a number of our instructors have been chosen by University Hoursing residents in order to be …

Busting the Myth of the Underemployed, Unhappy Humanities Graduate

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) conducted a recent study, providing a view of the  life-after-graduation of humanities students in terms of employment and financial expectations. The study confirms the prospects of a …

Prof. Manon van de Water receives Judith Kase-Cooper Honorary Research Award

On August 4, 2017, Manon van de Water, Vilas-Phipps Distinguished Achievement Professor and Director of Theatre for Youth at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chair of the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic received the Judith …

Prof. Manon van de Water selected for AATE Research Award

Manon van de Water, Professor and Chair for the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic, has been selected to receive AATE’s Judith Kase Cooper Honorary Research Award in recognition of her lifetime of significant contributions …

David Danaher Interviewed on Czech Radio

From the interview page: Sunday was the fifth anniversary of the death of Václav Havel, the Czech dissident who led the Velvet Revolution and went on to spend nearly 13 years as president. But before …