Mark L. Louden

Biography

Languages: German, Pennsylvania Dutch, Yiddish

Research Areas: Germanic linguistics, German American studies, Anabaptist studies, Yiddish studies

About: Mark L. Louden is the Alfred L. Shoemaker, J. William Frey, and Don Yoder Professor of Germanic linguistics and Director of the Max Kade Institute for German American Studies. He is an affiliate of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies and the Religious Studies and Language Sciences and programs at UW–Madison. He serves on the admissions subcommitte for the Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine, part of UW–Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health. A fluent speaker of Pennsylvania Dutch, most of his published research and public outreach center on the language and its speakers, past and present. In 2016 he was awarded the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize from the German Academic Exchange Service, and for his book, Pennsylvania Dutch: The Story of an American Language, he received the 2017 Dale W. Brown Book Award from the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabetown College. Aside from his teaching and research, he serves as an interpreter, community liaison, and patient navigator for Amish and Old Order Mennonite groups in the healthcare and legal systems.

Affiliated Departments: Max Kade Institute for German American Studies, Language Sciences Program, Religious Studies Program, Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies

Education: A.B. with Distinction in All Subjects, Cornell University (1984); M.A. in Germanic Linguistics, Cornell University (1987); Ph.D. in Germanic Linguistics, Cornell University (1988)

Website: https://padutch.net/

CV: https://padutch.net/cv/

Click here to watch Mark speak with Norman Gilliland on the topic “Who Are the Amish?” on PBS Wisconsin’s virtual lecture hall series, University Place.