Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures University of Toronto

Chair [on leave Fall 2022] & Associate Professor of German Contact info stefan.soldovieri@utoronto.ca St. George Campus Office University of Toronto Odette Hall 320 50 St. Joseph Street Toronto, ON M5S 3L5 Phone: 416-926-2323 Secretary: 416-926-2324 Office Hours tba Classes 2022-2023 On leave Fall 2022 Background Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison BA Duke University Freie Universität Berlin Universität Freiburg Teaching Interests German Cinema and Cinema Studies, 20th-21st Century German Literature and Cultural Studies, Cold War Culture, Popular Culture, The Future, Tactical German Studies Research Interests Remaking the Movies in German Cinemas: Art, Industry, Globalization The project opens up a new perspective on German cinema, examining the largely unappreciated role of the remake in the history of German cinemas from the beginnings of the medium in the mid-1890s to our multi-media and global present. Considering German reprises of domestic and international precursors, foreign reworkings of German classics, and concept films that self-consciously reflect on the idea of remaking itself, I explore the different modes of remaking as historically shifting and multivalent forms of cultural recycling. The remake phenomenon highlights the tensions between art and industry that are frequently ignored in German film studies. The project’s attention to the frequently transnational valence of the ... Read More »

Principal, University College Vice-Dean, College Relations, Faculty of Arts and Science Professor of German and Medieval Studies Contact info markus.stock@utoronto.ca Office University College 15 King’s College Circle, Room 165 Toronto, ON M5S 3H7 CANADA Tel. 416-978-7516 Office Hours Mondays 4:15-5:45pm, UC 165, and by appointment: Please contact uc.principal@utoronto.ca Classes 2023-24 GER 426/GER1200 Introduction to Medieval German Language and Literature, Fall Term, Mondays 2-4pm, UC 177 Background Dr. phil. University of Göttingen, 2000 Markus Stock teaches German languages, literatures, and cultures of the Middle Ages. He is cross-appointed to the Centre for Medieval Studies, where he teaches courses on medieval German romance and heroic epic, philological methodologies, and Old Saxon. Markus Stock supervises MA and PhD students specializing in medieval and early modern (pre-1600) German literature and culture. He currently accepts supervisions of individuals who wish to specialize in these areas in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures or the Centre for Medieval Studies. Potential applicants are invited to send informal email inquiries to him. Markus Stock’s SSHRC-funded research and his teaching are situated in medieval German literatures, manuscript studies, and digital philology. He also directs the international research project Medieval Undergrounds, funded by SSHRC. He has authored, edited, or ... Read More »

Professor of German and Comparative Literature Contact info john.zilcosky@utoronto.ca Office University of Toronto Odette Hall 303 50 St. Joseph Street Toronto, ON M5S 3L5 Secretary: 416-926-2324 Office Hours Wednesdays, 4-5 pm, Odette Hall 303 Classes 2023-2024 GER 1722 “Kafka” COL 5149 “The Art of Combat: Violence, Culture, and Competition”   Background John Zilcosky is Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, where he writes about modern European literature, psychoanalysis, the art of travel, and the history of sports. His books include Kafka’s Travels (MLA Scaglione Prize winner for best book in German Studies), Writing Travel, Uncanny Encounters, The Allure of Sports, The Language of Trauma, and Alternative Temporalities. The Times Literary Supplement and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung have reviewed his work. The Humboldt Foundation, the US National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council have granted fellowships to him, and he is honorary president of the International Comparative Literature Association’s Research Committee on Literary Theory. The German government awarded him the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize for outstanding achievements in research in 2018. In 2022-23, he won a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, supporting research on his book ... Read More »

M.A. Student Contact thisiscindy.cao@mail.utoronto.ca  Read More »

PhD Student Contact jacob.hermant@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours tba Courses GER 360HF Intermediate Yiddish, Fall 2023 Background My research focuses on representations of nature and climate in diasporic Jewish literatures, specifically from Yiddish, German, and English, as well as 20th-century Jewish thought. I also work more broadly on Yiddish and Jewish literary studies and cultural history. I received my BA in 2020 from the University of King’s College in Halifax, with combined honours in Contemporary Studies and Theatre, and a minor in Early Modern Studies. I completed my MA in 2021 at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Comparative Literature and the collaborative program in Jewish Studies, and I began my doctoral studies in 2022 in the Yiddish stream of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, as well as the collaborative program in Jewish Studies. Read More »

M.A. Student Contact savannah.bein@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours Monday 11am-12pm Thursdays 1pm-2pm Classes 2022-23 GER100S LEC0301 Background Graduated from University of Toronto in 2020 with a major in Environmental Studies and minors in both French and German languages. I’ve previously lived in Freiburg, Germany where I completed an internship in sustainable agriculture. Currently I am an M.A. student with the German department, with my studies focusing on the influence of trees in German culture and activism. Read More »

M.A. Student Contact zoe.levson@mail.utoronto.ca  Background I completed my Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Toronto in 2023, specializing in Philosophy and minoring in Yiddish. My interests include Yiddish poetry, Yiddish translations of German philosophy, and chess. Read More »

M.A. Student Contact owen.meunier@mail.utoronto.ca  Courses GER100Y1 Y LEC0401 Tue/Thur 11 am – 1 pm Office Hours TR 1-2 pm (in person) Background Graduated from his Bachelor of Commerce in June of 2023 specializing in Management with a focus in International Business and Leadership in Organizations. Owen further completed a double minor in German Studies and Economics. He is currently pursuing a Master’s in German Literature, Culture, and Theory. Owen’s research interests include machine-based translation and evolutionary linguistics. Coming from a small town in Northern Ontario, he was eager to travel the world and experience different cultures. Through his travels, he developed a musical ear for languages which inspired his studies in the Spanish and German languages. Owen’s time working in Berlin and studying in Kassel further piqued his interest in the German language and culture. Publications Meunier, Owen. “Die Deutsche Sprache – Auf Dem Weg Zur Inklusion.” UBC Augenblick, 28 Feb. 2023.  Read More »

M.A. Student Contact hannah.robinson@mail.utoronto.ca  Read More »

Ph.D. Candidate Contact veronika.rummel@mail.utoronto.ca Background In the course of an academic exchange program, I received an M.A. in English Literature from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky in 2007. I then completed my M.A. in teaching English and Physical Education with a minor in teaching German as a foreign language at the University of Regensburg in 2010. This minor has since turned into my major, leading me into the doctoral program in German at the University of Toronto in 2011. My research focus is on women’s travel literature, with a particular focus on German Orientalism and women’s agency in travel writings about the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries. Other research interests include contemporary women’s literature and life writings, and language pedagogy. Outside of my research, I enjoy teaching the German language and culture to learners of all levels, and reading my way through contemporary German literature. Read More »