Looking Ahead to the Fall Semester

In the fall semester, Prof. Joe Cunningham will debut the first-year seminar Machines That Speak: How AI Is Reshaping Human Language. The course introduces students to how artificial intelligence is transforming the ways humans communicate and learn languages across cultures and contexts. Drawing on linguistics, media studies, and cultural analysis, students will examine machine translation, conversational AI, and the ethics of automated language. Experiential elements include hands-on interaction with AI tools, a class visit to Planet Word in Washington, DC, and collaborative film screenings and discussion. The course culminates in student-driven inquiry projects that explore how emerging language technologies may reshape communication in areas students care about, such as education, politics, health, media, and global collaboration.

Also during the fall semester, Prof. Friederike Eigler, with the support of Prof. Katrin Sieg, will organize a symposium on Changing Parameters in the Study of Contemporary German Language Literature. This event will be held October 8-9, 2026, at Georgetown University.

The occasion for the symposium is the 25th anniversary of Gegenwartsliteratur: A German Studies Yearbook (published by De Gruyter in open access) and the transition from the current editor, Friederike Eigler, to the incoming editor, Anke Biendarra (UC Irvine).

The symposium will bring together some of the German studies scholars who were involved in the Yearbook over the past few years (as board members, book review editor, contributors, or members of the editorial team). The anniversary of the Yearbook presents an ideal opportunity for taking stock of major scholarly trends and changes over the past 25 years and for looking ahead. This includes the growing interest literature of post/migration, intermedial studies, environmental humanities, autofiction, and the role of literature in the public humanities, among other topics. Invited speakers include Anke Biendarra, Ela Gezen, David Kim, Caroline Schaumann, Carlos Spoerhase, and Lynn Wolff. Of course, all graduate students, interested undergraduates, and colleagues are most welcome to attend and participate in the discussion.

We also look forward to a visit by Prof. Pascale Lafountain (Montclair State University) on October 23, who will give a talk on her work on Romantic humor in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.