Graduate Student Engagement

Graduate students in the German Department are involved in a wide number of activities, including scholarly presentations, publications, and community engagement. Please see below for a complete list of accomplishments by our current student cohort.

Scholarly, Professional, and Community Engagements of Graduate Students

Forthcoming and Recent Presentations

Dougherty, Cooper Maria. (2023, September). The Impossible Undoing of Implication: Anne Stern’s Die Frauen vom Karlsplatz: Vera (2022), Melodrama, and the Complicated Identity of the Rescuer Self. Paper Presentation at the National World War II Museum Emerging Scholars Colloquium, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Eisenbeis, Emma. (2023, October). Maintaining Statelessness: Exploring Bureaucratic Barriers to Belonging in Jenny Erpenbeck’s Gehen, Ging, Gegangen and Abbas Khider’s Ohrfeige. Paper Presentation at the German Studies Association (GSA) Annual Convention, Montreal, Canada. 

Hardy, Mel. “Construing Personification: Experiential Meaning and Literary Style in Herta Müller’s Atemschaukel.” GRADNASFLA Symposium, Georgetown University, February 22–24, 2019.

Hardy, Mel. “Exploring social justice with a genre-based approach: Disability in Germany.” ACTFL Convention, November 16-18, 2018.

Lightfoot, Katie. (2024, February). Reading Alternative Spaces and Border Crossings in Wenders’ Film Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire). Forthcoming presentation at the Southeast German Studies Workshop hosted by The University of Alabama.

McCarron, Lorna. (2023, October). Seeing Neurodiversity in Sharon Dodua Otoo’s Synchronicity. Paper Presentation at the German Studies Association (GSA) Annual Convention, Montreal, Canada. 

Miller-Purrenhage, Katie. (2023, October, November). Language Hybridity in Stefanie Lahya Aukongo’s Buchstaben gefühle. Paper presentation at Georgetown University’s Graduate Conference in Washington, D.C.; Poster presentation at Women in German (WiG) annual conference, Portland, Oregon. 

Parks, Ross. (2023, June). Right Wing Populism: A Transatlantic Issue. Germany, the United Kingdom & the United States Presentation at DAAD Summer School: Intersecting Inequalities hosted by King’s College London, United Kingdom 

Schauhoff, Kristina. (2024, February). “Du hättest eigentlich ein Junge werden müssen”: Challenging Gendered Spaces in Özdamar’s Der Hof im Spiegel. Forthcoming presentation at the Southeast German Studies Workshop hosted by The University of Alabama.

Simpson, Sally. (2024, April). Nostalgia for Empire? The Construction and Deconstruction of the Ungargasse as Idyll in Ingeborg Bachmann’s Malina. Forthcoming Paper Presentation at the Austrian Studies Association (ASA) Annual Meeting hosted by West Chester University, Pennsylvania. 

Speggiorin Maria: Both presentations will be a component of my dissertation and the abstracts have the same title – Conceptualizing one’s own self and cultural identity(-ies) in Virtual Exchange – however they will focus on different aspects of analysis. 

(May 2-3, 2024): panel co-presentation with Prof. Joe Cunningham at CIBER conference in Washington, DC, hosted by George Washington University. 

(May 21-25, 2024): panel presentation at CALICO conference in Pittsburgh, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University. 

Publications

Hardy, Mel. (Forthcoming)  “Smoke & Ash.” Disability Studies Quarterly.

Hardy, Mel. (Forthcoming)  “”Where are we going?” with T4 Postmemory: Creative Writing as Vicarious Witnessing.” Disability Studies Quarterly.

Grants and Awards Received

McCarron, Lorna. 2022-2023 Georgetown University Medical Humanities Initiative Research Fellow. 

McCarron, Lorna. (2023, November). Therapists, Vending Machines, and Winding Roads: Race and Mental Health in Olivia Wenzel’s 1000 Serpentinen Angst. Recipient of the 2023 WIGS essay prize.

Relevant Community Engagement 

Dermon, Dave; Dougherty, Cooper Maria; Speggiorin, Maria. (2023, October) Member of steering committee in graduate student conference Dissent, Disagreement, and Difference, hosted at Georgetown University, in Washington DC. The multidisciplinary conference hosted presenters from institutions within and outside the US.

Hardy, Mel. Actor, Disability Awareness Theater, Regan Linton’s VIORE: An Adaptation Story. The National Theatre’s Saturday Morning Live, Washington, DC, Jun 5, 2023

Hardy, Mel. Author/Performer, Original Poetry, Open Doors Arts & Disability Festival, Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Aug 20, 2022

Miller-Purrenhage, Katie; Strevey, Stephanie. (September 2023) Organization of Disabilities Workshop “Creating a Culture of Access” with Dr. Amy Kenny, director of the Disability Cultural Initiative at Georgetown University. 

Soloveva, Ekaterina (2023, December) Event participant “Networking heißt Vernetzung”, a networking event organized by the AATG MD/ DC Metro Chapter in collaboration with McDaniel College

Speggiorin, Maria (2023, December) Event participant “Networking heißt Vernetzung”, a networking event organized by the AATG MD/ DC Metro Chapter in collaboration with McDaniel College