Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures University of Toronto
This year’s meeting of the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD) took place for the first time in North America at the University of Toronto. The gathering, dedicated to “Perspektiven deutscher Sprache und Kultur in der Wissenschaft: Kanada, USA, Deutschland,” attracted colleagues from German departments and programs across Canada and the US. DAAD representatives from Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, New York, Poland, and Portugal were also on hand to take part in the discussions. Participants were welcomed by the German Ambassador to Canada, Werner Wnendt, and German Consulate General, Peter Fahrenholz. The individual working groups addressed disciplinary, pedagogical, and methodological concerns, such as interdisciplinarity, multi-lingual competence, German Studies in the context of globalization, Germany literary studies as media studies, interactive learning models, and a variety of other current issues in German Studies.
The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures was pleased to host poet Monika Rinck for the event and to welcome participants with a wine and cheese reception. German Department faculty contributing to the lively discussions were: Willi Goetschel, Hang-Sun Kim, Christine Lehleiter, Markus Stock, and John Zilcosky.