Meet the Graduate Students

Vanderbilt is home to M.A. and Ph.D. candidates alike with varying academic interests. Below, several of the German graduate students would like to introduce themselves to you and encourage you to e-mail them, if you have any questions about the German program, Vanderbilt or Nashville.

Robert Jenkins - robert.j.jenkins@vanderbilt.edu
Robert is a Ph.D. student and teaching assistant. In 1992, he received his B.A. in German from Idaho State University, where he also minored in English literature. Robert spent the following year studying at the Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. After returning from his studies in Germany, he was hired by Idaho State University as Instructor, where he taught beginning German for three and a half years. In addition, he taught a Foreign Language TeacherÂ’s Practicum, which was a joint venture with the College of Education. In 1998, he finished his M.A. degree in German at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His principal literary interests include the late 19^th and 20^th centuries, particularly the works of Nietzsche, Döblin, Brecht, Hesse, Böll and Max Frisch. Robert is keenly interested in second language acquisition, especially with regard to German learned by native English speakers. For nine years he has been a member of the American Association of Teachers of German. He is also a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Delta Phi Alpha and the Modern Language Association. Last Spring he presented a paper on Brecht and Nietzsche at the University of Virginia Graduate Student Conference.

Prospective students should feel free to contact him.

Deanna Tingley Kendall - deanna.l.tingley@vanderbilt.edu
I am a Ph.D. candidate and am looking forward to taking my qualifying exams in the early fall.  I have been at Vandy for four years.  I received my M.A. degree in May '98 and hope to complete my dissertation by spring 2003.  My main interests lie in the 18th and 19th centuries with a primary focus on Sturm und Drang and women writers, primarily Clara Mundt (a.k.a. Luise Mühlbach). I am also interested in second language acquisition and the role of technology, especially the Internet, in this process. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to create Internet exercises for our German 102 and 103 classes and have recently finished a complete set of Internet exercises for the Wie Geht's beginning German textbook written by our own Dr. Sevin and his wife.  I have given papers on topics ranging from Dorothea Veit-Schlegel to Franz Kafka at the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference and the German Studies Association. I recently helped Dr. John McCarthy plan the International Lessing  Symposium at Vanderbilt (Fall, 2000). I am a member of the American Association of Teachers of German, Woman in German, the Modern Language Association, Delta Phi Alpha, and Phi Beta Kappa. I received my B.A. degree in German and Russian from Albion College in Michigan.  I also spent one semester at the Universität Hamburg where I taught English and Russian at an altsprachiges Gymnasium. Prior to this I was an exchange student on a Congress-Bundestag Scholarship in Leer (Ostfriesland), Germany where I also learned Plattdeutsch and Dutch. I would love to hear from any prospective graduate or undergraduate students.  Please feel free to contact me.

Holly Liu - tigermml@yahoo.de
Holly Liu, Ph.D. candidate in German, obtained two Master's degrees at Peking University and at Texas Tech University. She is currently working on her dissertation titled "Erinnerung als Erzählstrategie: DDR-Vergangenheitsbewältigung seit der Wende bei Monika Maron, Helga Schütz und Brigitte Burmeister." Her research interests are focused on Postwar and Contemporary German Literature. Recently, she has presented papers at various conferences, respectively on Hermann Hesse, J.M.R. Lenz, Brigitte Burmeister, die Vergangenheitsbewältigung in postwar German literature and Christa Wolf. Her publications include translations, book reviews on Monika Maron, interviews, and articles on Brigitte Burmeister and Erich Maria Remarque. Besides her academic studies, she enjoys teaching German language, literature and culture. After having served as German instructor at Peking University, Texas Tech University, University of California at Santa Barbara, and Fisk University, she has been teaching German at Vanderbilt University for 6 years. In Fall 1999, she started teaching Elementary Chinese at Belmont University. With enthusiasm and motivated by her talented students, she co-designed the multimedia web page for German 101, Spring ’99 at http://www.geocities.com/athens/cyprus/7811. She is also a recipient of numerous academic awards and honors including a German DAAD Fellowship, a Vanderbilt University Dissertation Enhancement Grant, and Vanderbilt Graduate Student Exchange Scholarship with Freie Universität Berlin etc. As a Chinese Germanist in the US, she has decided to dedicate her multicultural education to the understanding of different cultures and the academic achievements between continents.

 

 

Recent Graduate Student Accomplishments

Academic Conferences (Travel expenses to and from academic conferences are generally provided for by the Graduate School and/or the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures)
Graduate student who presented papers at academic conferences during the academic year 2000-2001: 
Robert Jenkins: Kentucky Foreign Language Conference
Brian McInnis: Kentucky Foreign Language Conference and University of Texas
Holly Liu: University of Brussels, Belgium

Publications
Brian McInnis: "Das Rechtgefühl aber machte ihn zum Räuber und Mörder"; Die Parallele der existentiellen Krise im biblischen Hiob und in Kleists Novelle Michael Kohlhaas" Kleist Jahrbuch (Sonderausgabe: Frankfurter Keist-Kolloquium für Nachwuchswissenschaftler, Juli 2000)
Holly Liu: "Pollak und die Attentäter: Interview mit Brigitte Burmeister." German Quarterly 73.3 (Summer 2000), p. 218-298.

News on Recent Graduates