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Sophie Jordan, a PhD student in Germanic Languages and Literatures, has been awarded the 2024 Innovative German Award by German Studies Canada (GSC) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for her project ‘Reading Blackness and Race in Germanic Arthurian Romance’. The award focuses on new courses, curriculum and program development, and the implementation of new teaching and learning approaches in German Studies. Based on original research, Sophie’s project ‘Reading Blackness and Race in Germanic Arthurian Romance’ aims to make teaching about blackness in medieval German and Dutch literature accessible to a wide range of post-secondary educators. To this end, Sophie has created a series of free and fully adaptable interactive materials as well as detailed lesson plans hosted on Pressbooks. The goal of these materials is to highlight the diversity of Germanic experiences and peoples reflected in the literature of the High Middle Ages. Instructors teaching courses on diversity in German culture, on medieval German studies, or on other related topics, can now access, use and adapt these materials without the need for further research and with very minimal preparation. The knowledge that 13th and 14th-century writers portrayed complex, multi-faceted yet successful black Arthurian knights will support students’ grasp ... Read More »