Cassandra Winkelman

Biography

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Area of Study: GDR and post-GDR literature, Christa Wolf, DEFA films, crisis of language, the dream narrative, movement, inner foreignness, the GDR and world literature

Pronouns: She/her

About: Cassandra is a PhD candidate in the German unit of GNS+. For the 2025-2026 academic year, she is working on her dissertation in Berlin with a Dissertation Fellowship in the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. She received her MA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2024 and her BA from Colby College in 2021. Upon completion of her Bachelor’s, Cassandra spent the 2021-22 academic year with the Fulbright Program as an English Teaching Assistant in Riesa/Döbeln, Saxony. There, she also worked with the US Consulate, visiting many schools across East Germany, and she was a fellow at the German American Institute of Saxony. She is researching sequences of movement, borders, and the dream structure in GDR and post-GDR literature, DEFA film, and the broader world literature context.

Education: 

-MA in German, University of Wisconsin–Madison (2024)

-BA in German, French, and Education, Colby College (2021)

Courses taught:

UW–Madison

-German 102: Second Semester German (Spring 2024)

-German 203: Third Semester German (Fall 2022, Spring 2023)

-German 204: Fourth Semester German (Fall 2023)

-German 249: Intermediate Speaking and Listening (Fall 2024)

-Littrans 270: German Women Writers in Translation (7 weeks as Student Assistant Lecturer, Fall 2023)

-German 676/683: Borders and Bordercrossings, Teaching Practicum with Dr. Sonja Klocke (Fall 2024)

UW-La Crosse

University Lecturer:

-German 202/212: Fourth Semester German (Spring 2025)

-German 321: German Civilization (Fall 2025)

Awards:

-Berlin Program Dissertation Fellowship, Freie Universität Berlin (2025-2026)

-UW-Madison Language Institute Grant (Summer 2025)

-CGES-DAAD Research Assistantship (2025)

-Graduate School Summer Non-Dissertator Fellowship (Summer 2024)

-UW-Madison Language Institute Grant (Summer 2023)

-Graduate Study in German Scholarship from Delta Phi Alpha (March 2023)

-English Teaching Assistantship, Fulbright Program (2021-2022)