Notes from the Classroom

Students in GERM 3001 (Issues and Trends) took part this semester in a tandem-style virtual exchange with pupils from the Berufliche Schule Bad Oldesloe in Germany. Through peer-to-peer discussions, students explored and gained new perspectives on how young Germans understand national identity, demographic change, and migration, enriching classroom learning through direct intercultural dialogue.

For her graduate course “Sounds German,” Professor Mary Helen Dupree organized several visits by prominent scholars from German Music Studies and related fields. Francien Markx (George Mason University) spoke about E.T.A. Hoffmann’s music aesthetics and Rolf Goebel (University of Alabama-Huntsville, emeritus) spoke about Theodor W. Adorno’s essay on “Music and Literature.” Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus (Universität Potsdam/Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) also spoke via Zoom about his research on literary declamation. In the second half of the semester, the course was joined by musicologist and cultural historian Céline Fiszbin, a visiting scholar in the BMW Center, who presented her research on Richard Strauss’s involvement in the Third Reich.