Author Archives: Helena Juenger

Current Research: Teresa Sudenis

Teresa Sudenis is a PhD Student in our Department. She studied German Philology in Wrocław (Poland) and wrote her Master’s thesis on Günter Grass’ Der Butt. Her family is of German origin and lives in Silesia, a province now located in the part of South Poland which belonged to East German territories until the end of the Second World War. Read More »

Rachel Seelig

Sessional Lecturer Contact info rachel.seelig@utoronto.ca Office Hours tba Classes 2021-22 GER367HF Topics in Modern Yiddish/German Literature and Culture Background Rachel Seelig’s research focuses on migration, multilingualism, and cross-cultural exchange in German-Jewish, Yiddish and Hebrew literatures. She is the author of  Strangers in Berlin: Modern Jewish Literature between East and West, 1919–1933 (University of Michigan Press, 2016) and the co-editor, with Amir Eshel, of The German-Hebrew Dialogue: Studies of Encounter and Exchange (De Gruyter Press, 2017).  Rachel received her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Stanford University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from the University of Chicago. She has held research and teaching appointments at Harvard University, Columbia University, the University of Michigan, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of Toronto. Read More »

Alma Botcharova

Sessional Lecturer Contact alma.botcharova@utoronto.ca Office Hours Mon & Wed 1-2 and by appointment Read More »

Lisa Lackner

Course Instructor Background Before beginning my studies at the University of Toronto in 2020, I spent many years working as a teacher with multilingual students in my hometown Vienna, Austria. My time as an educator in the classroom as well as my Fulbright Teaching Assistantship at the University of Montana brought me back to the University of Vienna, where I received my MA degree in German as a second or foreign language in 2018. In my MA thesis, I investigated teachers’ perspectives on second language policy at different elementary and secondary schools. Currently, I am a Ph.D. student in the Languages and Literacies program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). My research interests include multilingualism, intersections of language and racism, and second language teaching. In 2020, I was awarded the Connaught International Scholarship. When I am not reading, I enjoy traveling, yoga, and good coffee! Contact lisa.lackner@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours Mon 11-12 and Thu 12-1 Classes 2021-22 tba Read More »

Anne Popovich

Course Instructor Contact anne.popovich@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours Mon & Wed 5:30-6 and 8 -8:30 p.m. or by appointment Classes 2021-22 GER300Y1 (L5101), Mon & Wed 6-8 Read More »

Felix Rössler

Course Instructor Contact felix.roessler@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours tba Classes 2021-22 tba Read More »

Dr. Miriam Schulz

Course Instructor Contact miriam.schulz@utoronto.ca Office Hours tba Classes 2021-22 GER1050H F Read More »

Miriam Borden

PhD Student Contact miriam.borden@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours tba Background I hold a B.A. in Jewish Studies (Hons., 2014) and an M.A. in Yiddish Studies (2018) from the University of Toronto. Through the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies and the collaborative program in Book History and Print Culture, I pursue research interests in postwar Yiddish culture, Yiddish publishing, and the material history of Yiddish libraries and sound archives. On the side, I love to research the food history of Jewish immigrants in the twentieth century. My dissertation research is on the Canadian-American Yiddish folksong collector Ruth Rubin, who amassed an archive of over 2,000 Yiddish songs from Jewish immigrants between the 1940s and the 1960s. I am a frequent researcher at the Ontario Jewish Archives Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre, where I have worked as an Assistant Archivist and translator. Through the Archives, I lead public and private walking tours of the historically Jewish Kensington Market neighbourhood; when possible, I like to include Yiddish sources such as newspaper articles, advertisements, and poetry by Yiddish writers from the 1920s and 1930s. I have researched and translated portions of Toronto’s Yiddish daily newspaper, Der Yidisher Zhurnal, and written for the Canadian Jewish News on ... Read More »

Laurence Côté-Pitre

Ph.D. Candidate Contact laurence.cote.pitre@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours M/W 5:00-6:00 pm (on zoom) Classes 2022-23 GER200Y1 LEC5101 (online) – M/W 6:00-8:00 pm Background Originally from Quebec City, I studied languages (English, German and Spanish) in my hometown at Cégep Limoilou from 2010 to 2012 (DEC Arts et Lettres, profil Langues Modernes). I received my H.BA. from the University of Toronto in German Studies and European Studies in June 2016, after spending a year at the Karl-Franzens Universität in Graz, Austria as an exchange student in 2013-14. I graduated from my M.A. in German from the University of Toronto in November 2017. My major research paper focused on the underground poetry of the Prenzlauer Berg Connection in the 1980s. My current research interest involves ecocriticism and environmental discourses in German literature. My dissertation focuses on post-Chernobyl and Anthropocene discourses in women literature from East and West Germany. Aside from academics, I enjoy knitting, gardening, and I recently discovered the fascinating world of photography! 🙂 Conference Papers “Writing the Anthropocene: German Literature after Chernobyl” (poster presentation) Canadian Association of University Teachers of German Conference. University of Alberta. May-June 2021. “Landschaft als Quelle: Wie kann man Feldforschung in literarische Analyse integrieren?” Internationales Forschungsnetzwerk Literatur im ... Read More »

Veronica Rose Curran

Ph.D. Candidate Contact veronica.curran@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours Mon & Wed 1-2 (virtual appointment) Classes 2020-21 Ger 100 MW 11am- 1pm Background I hold a B.A. Honours (2012) in German and Early Modern Studies from the University of King's College, Halifax and an M.A. (2015) in German from Dalhousie University. I spent the 2012-2013 academic year in Hessen, Germany with the Pädagogischer Austauschdienst as an English teaching assistant in a German-speaking Gymnasium. I also spent two summers (2013 and 2014) studying as an exchange student at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. My research interest involves the development of German theater. I am particularly interested in the Sturm und Drang period writers in the 1770s and the developments leading up to Georg Büchner's career in the 1830s. Within the area of theater studies and German literature, I am interested in the development of discussions of morality and questions of genre, such as the classic distinctions of "comedy" and "tragedy". Publications and Conferences “Obedience and Freedom in the Plays of J.M.R. Lenz.” Oxford German Studies. Special Edition. September 2021. “‘Ohne Freiheit geht das Leben bergab rückwärts’: On Freedom, Society, and Morality in J.M.R. Lenz’s Der Hofmeister.” Canadian Association of University Teachers of German Conference at the Congress ... Read More »