People

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 »

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 »

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 »

PhD student Contact info tba Office Hours tba Classes 2020-2021 tba Background Sophie Edelhart (they/she) holds a B.A. in History with a Concentration in Gender, Sex, and Family from Barnard College (2019) and an M.A. in Yiddish from University of Toronto (2021). They are currently pursuing their PhD in Yiddish in the Germanic Languages and Literature Department with a collaborative specialization in Book History and Print Culture. Their research focuses on Yiddish folk music, material culture, recording technology, Yiddish radio, and audiovisual archives. They are a member of the 2020-2022 Helix Fellowship cohort and a recipient of the Barbara Wertheimer Prize for Undergraduate Labor History from the New York Labor History Association for their senior history thesis entitled, “Bad Girls Like Good Contracts”: The Fight for Unionization at the Lusty Lady Theater in San Francisco, 1992-1998. Outside of school, they have worked as a tour guide, archivist, researcher, and translator at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Yiddish Book Center, and Museum at Eldridge Street. They are also a singer, currently studying Yiddish folk song under the tutelage of Ethel Raim as well as a bookbinding hobbyist. Read More »

PhD Candidate Contact info jm.evjen@mail.utoronto.ca Office University of Toronto Odette Hall Rm 311 50 St. Joseph Street Toronto, ON M5S 3L5 Office Hours TBA Classes 2022-2023 GER100Y, Fall & Winter Background John is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on relationships between humans and other animals in contemporary German fiction and the implications for literature resultant of these relationships. Since completing his MA at the University of Toronto, John has been involved in many capacities at uToronto such as the Graduate Education Council, Graduate Academic Appeals Board, and German and Yiddish Graduate Student Association. Apart from the academy, John spends his spare time with his dog and wife, mixing music, and reading poetry. Read More »

Ph.D candidate Contact info andre.flicker@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours By appointment Classes 2023 Winter GER300 Intermediate German II Summer GER100 Beginners German Fall GER300 Intermediate German II GER400 Advanced German BackgroundStaatsexamen (Philosophie, Germanistik) Universität Mannheim, Germany, 2016 Master of Arts, University of Victoria, Canada, 2018. Review Editor The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture Theory Research Interests: I would describe myself as genuinely curious, which is mirrored in the research I’ve been doing throughout my studies. Starting from my interest in short prose and its usage of narrative space and narration of space to dramaturgies of silence, the common thread of my research is the work of language and our reflective engagement with language as work. In my dissertation I examine forms of Unsinn (non-sense) as last resorts for subjectivity. My focus is on early 20th century Dadaists of Zurich and Berlin and their exploration of subjectivity in traditional art forms and new media. Based on Dada’s provocation of the absence of sense produced in their intermedia works, I argue that Unsinn as an aesthetic mode is a dynamic movement that curates both drives at work in acts of mediating our surroundings: sense and the sensual. Dada’s Unsinn problematizes meaning and its constitution by ... Read More »

PhD student Contact info maria.harutyunyan@mail.utoronto.ca Office Hours Tue and Thur 12-1 pm Classes 2020-2021 GER100 Background I completed my hon. Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Toronto with a major in Sociology and a minor in German and French. In 2020, I completed my MA in Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto. As a current PhD student in Germanic Literature, Culture and Theory, my main focus is on environmental humanities. Aside from literature, my interests also lie in the field of visual arts and acquiring languages. My spoken languages include: German, English, French and Armenian. Teaching Positions Course Instructor, Introduction to German, University of Toronto, 2019 Awards & Scholarships Angela Hildyard Award for Academic Excellence, 2016-2018 Thomas & Beverley Simpson Graduate Achievement Award For Single Parents, 2019 Institutional Services Advisor, U of T Family Care Office Advisory Committee, 2018- 2019 Read More »

PhD Student I received my MA in Yiddish Studies from the University of Toronto in 2020, with a focus on the work of Soviet Yiddish playwright Moyshe Pintshevski during the Second World War. I’m happy to be back for more Yiddish and am currently working toward my PhD under the supervision of Dr. Anna Shternshis. My research focuses on life writing of disabled Yiddish-speaking Jews in interwar Poland. I am passionate about studying Yiddish archival documents and enjoy working as a Yiddish-to-English translator and a transcriber of Yiddish-language oral histories. I also love to teach and have really appreciated the chance to work with the amazing group of Yiddish learners at UofT. If you’re reading this because you’re considering taking Yiddish, please join us; you won’t regret it! Outside of Yiddish-related stuff, I’m into fibre arts, cats, and eating (and sometimes making) baked goods.   Contact eli.jany@mail.utoronto.ca Academic Background MA in Yiddish, University of Toronto, 2020 MSW, University of Toronto, 2019 Honours BSc in Biology, McMaster University, 2015 PublicationsLeshchinsky, Yankev. The Last Years of Polish Jewry, Volume 1: At the Edge of the Abyss: Essays, 1927–33. Edited by Robert Brym. Translated by Robert Brym and Eli Jany, Open Book Publishers, ... Read More »