Five questions for ...

1. How did you decide on your field of study?

I've always loved reading - I have to confess that I was one of those nerdy kids always walking around with a novel or poetry collection in high school. I started studying English with a focus on British literature, and when I spent an undergraduate year in Ireland, I found myself noticing that I was much more interested in my roommate's reading (who was enrolled in American Studies) than my own. Coincidentally, when I returned to Germany, I had an offer to come on board as a student assistant in the American Studies department, so that's how I became an Americanist. My research focus in Indigenous Studies came from a seminar during my graduate semester in the U.S. - an amazing course on Native American literature, taught by the wonderful Lucy Maddox and featuring some 15 novels. I was hooked immediately, and have been ever since.

2. What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

I would have to let my students decide that - it also depends on the criteria you set for "best". My seminars on "Disney and Imperialism" and "First Contact Narratives from Columbus to Star Trek" have been pretty popular with students, but I definitely enjoy every topic we explore together. I also greatly enjoy the liberty of deciding on my topics, so if anyone has particularly "desirable" topics that match with my area of expertise, don't hesitate to let me know. :) In general, I believe in research-oriented teaching, so I also like combining seminars with academic conferences.

3. What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

How much space do I have - top 100? But seriously... For novels, I would probably go with Henry James's Turn of the Screw, William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom, and Toni Morrison's Beloved. And anything by Louise Erdrich, Jesmyn Ward, and Thomas King. For poetry: Hilde Domin, Robert Frost, Anne Sexton, Simon Ortiz. For plays: Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Tomson Highway's Rez Sisters, and anything by Shakespeare). Non-fiction: Roland Barthes' Mythologies, Hayden White's Metahistory, and The Cambridge Companion to Limiting Your Choice of Books.

4. Is the glass half full or half empty?

Half full, always. But my most frequent quotidian answer goes more like this:

Optimist: "half full!"

Pessimist: "half empty!"

Me (as a mom): "why is there no coaster underneath?!"

5. Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

Follow your interests and your heart. Go abroad. (I actually did, several times - among the top 5 best decisions of my life!). Dare to ask questions. Do not let yourself be intimidated by others. And, as Mary Schmich once put it: Wear sunscreen.

How did you decide on your field of study?

In a former live I was head of design and owner of caro e., a sustainable handknit fashion label in Berlin (www.caro-e.de) and got more and more drawn into topics of sustainability and education. I started teaching in fashion design studies at several universities in Berlin and did my own master thesis in adult education next to my own teaching since I was drawn into the state of the art of higher education for sustainability (HESD).  My research focus today is located at the intersection of education in fashion, design, textiles and sustainabilty. Lately I finished my PhD, research topic critical design and critical fashion, and my latest projects are concentrating on craft as a medium for bodily engagement and somatic experience in learning situations.

What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

This is my first KSM seminar.

What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

That´s a difficult question. I read a lot. In the last months, I am very interested in everything that has a future-oriented and speculative focus and is looking for solutions and alternative ways of living, designing, working while fighting against the biggest crisis of our time, climate change. A few books lying on my desk at the moment are:  Zur Entstehung einer ökologischen Klasse. Ein Memorandum (Latour & Schultz, 2022), Critical Craft (Eds. Clark et al, 2016), Making Trouble (Von Busch, 2022), Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene a review (Haraway, 2018).

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Always half full! ; )

Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

Don't take too serious what other people say and think of you and of what you are doing. Listen to your own guts. If it feels right, it is right. Make your own experiences and be proud of them, even if you fail sometimes. Failing is a part of our life.

How did you decide on your field of study?

I found it through interest, and I could never think of doing so otherwise. But it wasn’t easy to get there. As a teenager I had to attend a mandatory event of the job center. I did one of those "What is my match"-Tests resulting in: businessman for forwarding and logistics. This wasn’t the first choice I would have thought of and after one of their employees came to encourage me that those people are urgently needed I decided to look elsewhere for inspiration. Long story short: The journey wasn’t easy because logistics were hard.

What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirble topic for a future KSM seminar?

I received a lot of positive feedback from students for my seminar "Literatur und Gedächtnis". There is an increased interest on topics related to culture of memory and the process of coming to terms with the past, so these seminars are quite popular. I would prefer to offer a class on "Lyrik und Gesellschaft" which I have been working on for a while, in fact for the four previous semesters, but there was always something interfering with my plans. Surely next semester I will offer it. Or the one after it, we will see.

What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

I have heard that question on various occasions and usually try to avoid it, because to me it seems negligent to name just "the" book. Not even if I name 10 or a 100. So I sometimes cheat by just naming my favorite authors (what definitely does not solve the problem but shift it to another field, I know), but since Bob Dylan received the nobel prize for literature that field became kind of fluid. I like that, because that means I can list my favorite artist, whose texts and songs have fascinated me for years: Patty Smith.

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Depends on the content of the glass.

Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

That is always tricky: I for myself attended the guidance service of the university and carefully listened at what students from previous semesters had to say and their advice. Still seems valid today. If I would meet me as a student nowadays, I would tell myself the following: While being stuck between all those compulsion and duties, the exams and the various module plans, struggling to get those pass permits (which sometimes makes you feel like Asterix and Obelix struggling to get permit A38), don’t forget, that these things are no end in itself. Keep your distance and create emotional and temporally free spaces where you can do what really matters in life: Read a good book and talk to someone about literature. Because that’s what your studies are there for. If you can’t do that anymore because of struggling with exams and deadlines there is something deeply wrong and you need to change that.

How did you decide on your field of study?

I really had no choice. My family in which I grew up is multilingual in a non-academic way (meaning that nobody speaks any language or variety properly and never without mixing and switching languages constantly). I didn’t see it coming but when I started writing up my PhD on Danish as spoken in the Danish minority in South Schleswig (which is influenced a lot by German), friends and family weren’t surprised.

What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

My first (and best!) KSM-seminar topic has been last semester’s course on ‘Language and migration’. It’s a topic that caught my interest during a research project on Danish emigrants and their descendants in Argentina and North America and I’ve been working on it ever since. The KSM-students brought a lot of interesting migration stories back to class by interviewing people with a migration history (once they overcame their shyness and learnt how to do an interview) which they then analysed by using the theoretical approaches we had studied together.

What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

That’s hard to say. I read a lot and rather randomly, and it seems that different books affect you differently at different points in life. Non-fiction: Skautrup (Danish language history) for his immense knowledge and precision, or the weekly The Economist. Fiction: The books by Marilynne Robinson, in particular ‘Lila’.

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Always almost empty, always thirsty for more. For others? Always half full.

Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

Do not be scared of asking questions. Your university teachers would have loved to get some more questions, they would have enjoyed the interest, not considered you stupid and non-academic.

How did you decide on your field of study?

I wanted to live in England for a bit, decided that studying there might be a good idea and applied for places at universities. I received four rejections and one offer and thus embarked on a B.A. in English and German Linguistics at the University of Newcastle on Tyne. I knew very little about the topic which was a stroke of luck. Everything was new and I decided to find everything exciting. This helped with settling into a new environment, culture and country. A short 25 years later I moved back to Germany.

What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

The History of Linguistic Purism (= Richtiges und Gutes Deutsch von Schottelius bis Sick)

What books have particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

The name of the rose. Die drei ??? und der magische Kreis. Robert Burchfield´s The English Language.

Is the glass half full or half empty?

I prefer mugs and cups.

Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

Embrace everything. Feel privileged to be able to structure your day and study what you´re interested in. Go to research colloquia and public lectures. Find out about the city and region you live in: you will have to tell your grandchildren about this, so make sure you have some interesting stories ready. Learn Frisian!

How did you decide on your field of study?

Most of my academic trajectory has been a series of happy accidents, so I don’t think I really chose my current field of study, my field of study chose me. I was an exchange student to Kaltenkirchen (here in Schleswig-Holstein) when I was in high school and then a year later returned to begin university studies at the University of Hamburg. After a couple of years I moved back to Wisconsin (because of family reasons) and although I had been studying pedagogy (Erziehungswissenschaften) and psychology, the university there decided to only accept my transfer credits as "German" credits. So although I planned to follow a course of studies in environmental science (which I also did), I basically had the credits to double major in German, and became very involved in German studies at my university and then it just seemed like the thing to do to continue on with German studies at the MA level. During that time I accidentally discovered linguistics and have been just going with the flow since.  

What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

My first and to date only KSM course is Linguistic Anthropology, which I have really enjoyed. I think a more general sociolinguistics topic course with a focus on border regions could be a really fun future seminar.

What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. This book is probably what sparked my interest in environmental science and conservation, which eventually led to me earning a BS in Environmental Policy and Planning. I already loved the outdoors and my home state of Wisconsin is quite rural, so reading a collection of essays which not only described the beauty of an area I was familiar with, the philosophical and conservation topics really struck a chord with me.

Is the glass half full or half empty?

I am content as long as it is (half) full of coffee.

Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

You don’t have to plan everything, and it is ok when things don’t go as you tried to plan them. Don’t just worry about the future, occasionally take the time to reflect on the things you have accomplished.

How did you decide on your field of study?

I have a couple of research fields and research interests, but as most of you will know me from what I mentally label as a "business studies as cultural studies" class, I’m going to talk about that field a little. It’s actually not a terribly exciting story – I have a "Magister Artium" degree from the University of Mannheim, which is one of the big business studies universities in Germany, and for this degree I had to pick different subjects that I wanted to study.

The "Magister Artium" in Mannheim allowed for almost any combination of subjects that one wanted to pick, and so while I also followed my interests into picking "Anglistik & Amerikanistik," I knew from the start that I did not want to become a school teacher, and so I added "Betriebswirtschaftslehre (BWL)" as my second subject ("media studies" was my third and "public law" my overachiever bonus subject – yes I was keeping my options wide open and also planning on a career in a major corporation somewhere).

The thing about studying a) your own choice of and b) such diverse subjects is that there wasn’t any real interaction / intersection / connection between the disciplines – or rather, you were the connection between the disciplines, were the person who had read texts in both fields, could bring thoughts and ideas from one to the other … .

I found this lack of reciprocal enrichment and the narrow focus in my business studies classes super frustrating – and so I simply started looking for the broader picture and the connections between the disciplines myself. One of the early texts I read that was very approachable and also really showed me that such connections were viable and that people were creating/thinking/writing about them (only not in my classes) was Robert Heilbroner’s The Worldly Philosophers, which I would still highly recommend as an excellent starting point, despite it being a couple of decades old by now.

What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

This is tough one, because I genuinely really enjoy all the classes and projects I get to offer in KSM. I’m excited to be teaching the "Introduction to Intercultural Literary Studies" again in 2022, because I have plans for texts that I want to cover with students there.

What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

Narrowing this down to just one book is of course impossible and 'must' is too apodictic a term, but ...
non-fiction: Gunnar Olsson, Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason;
fiction: Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor.

Is the glass half full or half empty?

It’s always completely full – sometimes there’s just more air in there than at other times.

Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

I know that the Prüfungsordnung says that the written exam in "Technik des Betriebswirtschaftlichen Rechnungswesen" can be taken as many time as one likes and that the only requirement is that the class must have been passed by the end of your studies, but, trust me, first taking the intensive block seminar course for four weeks during summer break and then deciding that you won’t study for the exam: not the best choice. Taking the class all over again in the fall term will not make it any more enjoyable and really just means that you wasted those four weeks of summer.

How did you decide on your field of study?

The works of Michel Foucault had a great influence on me. Besides his classics, I found his writings on government techniques particularly exciting and saw a gap there that could be used in media studies. Foucault does mention various media, such as statistics, letters and books, with which a government can control its population or with which people are instructed in self-techniques. However, he does not examine these media systematically, and modern, electrical or digital media are practically absent due to his period of investigation. This has stuck with me: How do media regulate behaviour, politics and communication? How do they inscribe themselves into these processes? How do media disrupt? How do they escalate or de-escalate a certain situation? In addition, there is Gilles Deleuze’s work on possible worlds: What virtual worlds still exist beyond the actualised world? And how do virtual worlds influence our actual life? Taking both together, I am interested in how media shape and guide politics, always interacting with virtual worlds of the arts.

What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

So far I have only offered one seminar in KSM: An Introduction to Cultural Technology Research. That was great fun and I definitely want to repeat it once. My new topics in the spring semester are a class on the "Media of Mediation" and one on "Deterrence".

What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

That one book is difficult to identify. Spontaneously, I remember an almost ecstatic reading of Foucault’s "In Defence of Society". The volume is an edition of one of his lectures at the Collège de France, which became famous in particular because Foucault reverses Clausewitz's famous thesis there – that war is the continuation of politics by other means. The lectures sharpened my view of power and war and outlined a genesis of the modern state including bio-politics and racism. Very exciting.

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Half full. At least.

Looking back from your experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

Study abroad for a year, even if this goal is sometimes difficult to achieve due to certain framework conditions (finances, etc.).

Wie sind Sie zu Ihrem Forschungsschwerpunkt gekommen?

Innerhalb meines Lehramtsstudiums Kunst und Französisch für Gymnasien an der Muthesius Kunsthochschule und der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel habe ich den Schwerpunkt "Medienkunst" gewählt. Hier entwickelte ich Videoinstallationen, die ich zum Beispiel im öffentlichen Raum gezeigt habe. Meine Leidenschaft hierfür wurde so groß, dass ich mich dazu entschied, auch noch ein Studium der Freien Kunst mit Schwerpunkt Medienkunst sowie ein Aufbaustudium Visuelle Kommunikation mit Schwerpunkt Film an der Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg zu absolvieren. Alles drehte sich für mich um Bewegtbilder und wie man diese gestalten, experimentell erforschen, kombinieren und räumlich präsentieren kann. Nach dem Studium habe ich mich als Videokünstlerin und Filmemacherin selbstständig gemacht. Und dann bin ich immer mehrgleisig gefahren: Zum einen wurde ich Lehrerin, zum anderen habe ich Videokunst gemacht. Irgendwann wurde mir klar, dass man das auch kombinieren kann, zum Beispiel indem man untersucht, wie man das Thema "Bewegtbild" im Kunstunterricht unterrichten kann. Bis heute verfolge ich aber mehrere Wege und arbeite zum Beispiel aktuell wieder selbst als Künstlerin im Bereich Videokunst.

Welches war Ihr bestes KSM-Seminarthema bisher, und was wäre ein Wunschthema für die Zukunft?

Am besten fand ich das Seminar "Video killed the radio star", in dem es um Musikvideos ging. Das hat vor allem einen Grund: Es hat unglaublich gute Laune bereitet, nicht nur die Videos zu analysieren, sondern auch die Musik dabei genießen zu können. Außerdem ist das Genre Musikvideo in beständiger Entwicklung und zeichnet sich durch viele höchst innovative Gestaltungsideen und Umsetzungen aus. In das Seminar integriert war ein Gastvortrag des Musikvideoregisseurs Timo Schierhorn. Timo zeigte und erklärte den Studierenden, wie einige seiner besten Musikvideos – zum Beispiel das Video für "Denken Sie groß" von Deichkind (gemeinsam mit Till Nowak und UWE) – entstanden sind. Wir haben die Veranstaltung für alle Interessierten der EUF und der Hochschule Flensburg geöffnet und hatten 150 Teilnehmer:innen! Da zeigte sich deutlich, dass das Thema Musikvideo auch für die Studierenden von Bedeutung ist.

Welches Buch hat Sie besonders beeinflusst, bzw. sollte man unbedingt gelesen haben?

Es gibt ein Buch, das mich nie richtig losgelassen hat, obwohl ich es mir manchmal gewünscht hätte, und zwar "The Lovely Bones" (2002) von Alice Sebold. Es ist aus der Perspektive einer Teenagerin geschrieben, die vergewaltigt und ermordet worden ist und anschließend aus dem Himmel beobachtet, wie es auf der Welt ohne sie weitergeht. Das war für mich zum einen kaum auszuhalten und zum anderen konnte ich nicht aufhören, dieses Buch zu lesen. Es hat mich förmlich "aufgesaugt".

Ist das Glas halb voll oder halb leer?

Bei mir ist es auf jeden Fall farbig. Hell- oder dunkelblaue oder auch türkisfarbene Gläser mag ich am liebsten, sie erinnern mich an das Meer oder den Himmel. Vor allem wenn das Wasser darin kalt ist.

Welchen Rat würden Sie, rückblickend aus eigener Erfahrung, Ihrem Studierenden-Ich geben?

Mutig sein und sich zutrauen, die eigenen Ziele zu verfolgen. Und dafür all das nutzen, was die Universität einem bietet! Man studiert in erster Linie ja für sich selbst, nicht für die Eltern oder die Dozierenden der Universität. Oft kann man eigene Schwerpunkte setzen und sich dadurch spezialisieren. Und damit kommt man dem eigenen Berufswunsch Stück für Stück näher. Auch Praxiserfahrungen finde ich sehr wichtig. Zum einen dienen sie dem Abgleich, ob das, was man machen möchte, auch wirklich so ist, wie man es sich vorstellt, zum anderen können Praxiserfahrungen der Selbstreflexion dienen, indem sie einem verdeutlichen, was man schon gut kann und was noch nicht. Nicht selten ergeben sich aus Praxiserfahrungen dann auch spätere Tätigkeiten. 

1. How did you decide on your field of study?

For American Studies, in general, the fact that my mother was an English teacher probably was a significant influence. She was very much focused on British culture, however, so perhaps, my American focus was rebellious in some small way. I simply found (and still do!) that American literature includes the most interesting texts which speak to me the most. My focus on (nonfiction) comics is something that came out of my own studies at the University of Hamburg. I had a mentor who specializes in comics studies, and this sparked my own interest. I have a general fascination with attempts to represent reality through language, media, and so on, and the impossibility to ever do so in full. This impasse between private experience and interpersonal or public communication is especially interesting in graphic nonfiction.

2. What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

I haven’t taught in KSM so far, but I very much look forward to doing so! For my first one, I want to do a general survey of different documentary media. It will be cool to discuss the affordances and constraints of different media and to talk about documentary ethics and impulses more broadly.

3. What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

Although I don’t think there is that one book that everyone should have read, here we go! Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian remains a favorite of mine. For non-American works, Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore I found truly fascinating as well. Often, books that take you out of your comfort zone and/or offer different perspectives like Toni Morrison’s Beloved or Octavia Butler’s Kindred can be especially rewarding. As for comics, Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic were eyeopeners for me. When it comes to general nonfiction, Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow is probably closest to what I would call an essential read that helps us reflect our own thought processes. Possibly, George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant as well. Oh, and on the lighter side, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series has never failed to provide comic relief for me.

4. Is the glass half full or half empty?

Different perspectives on the same glass will be just as valid and I think it is important to acknowledge this. A positive outlook is a good way to stay sane, but it should not lead us to invalidate other experiences. Also, as the Kahneman and Lakoff books will tell you, whether we perceive the glass as half full or half empty will depend on a variety of factors beyond what we would like to actively believe. That’s what I find fascinating.

5. Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

From a position where everything has (kind of) worked out in the end, I would probably tell myself to be less anxious and kinder to myself. Come to think of it, that’s probably advice I should still take to heart more.

How did you decide on your field of study?

As a lecturer at a university of applied sciences (UAS), research activity has tended to be in the background for me so far - unfortunately. However, in addition to my teaching duties (in the subject areas of general business administration and economics), I have always carried out a number of projects (application-oriented contract research, third-party funded projects in the area of university-related quality and organisational development) or am currently still leading a project to prepare for system accreditation at my university (HS Flensburg).

What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

So far, I can look back with great satisfaction on all the business administration course topics. The feedback from the students during the course is so stimulating that I have so far been able to cover all the planned topics and add specific ones if there is interest. I would like to have less limited time to be able to deal more with the curiosity for economic references of the various business administration topics that is evident in the KSM group.

What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

I have always been very interested in textbooks (both old and current) on the topics of new political economy and regional and development policy. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to read more literature, especially on the topic of "transformation" with a view to the common good economy - climate protection - social restructuring. I can recommend Karl R. Popper and John c. Eccles "The Ego and its Brain". I devoured this book during my time at university (1982). Now that I have almost 40 years more on my shoulders and in my head, I would like to read it again at my leisure.

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Half full!

Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

Always take a constructively critical look at your own target systems and priorities, develop curiosity about other topics and test limits, communicate and network, cultivate an appreciative attitude towards the environment in the broadest sense!

Wie sind Sie zu Ihrem Forschungsschwerpunkt gekommen?

Als ich wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (BUW) war, gab es einen deutsch-französischen Doppelstudiengang Europäische Medienkultur (EMK) bzw. licence information-communication (info-comm) zwischen der Fakultät Medien der BUW und der Université Lyon 2, für den ich sehr gerne den deutsch-französischen Lektürekurs gab, später Seminare, auf Deutsch und auf Französisch. Mich hat es gereizt, die poststrukturalistischen Klassiker auf Französisch zu lesen, mit den deutschen und französischen Studierenden über Medien, Filme, Artefakte zu reden, später dann auch intellektuelles Neuland zu betreten, das zu lesen, was in der info-comm unterrichtet wurde. Dass Medienwissenshaft von einem Land zum anderen so anders sein kann, ganz andere Theoriereferenzen, andere Annahmen und Argumentationsweisen, das hat mich sehr gefordert und seitdem hat mich dieses Thema nicht mehr losgelassen. Ich war dann auch mehrmals zu Lehraufenthalten in Lyon gewesen, sah, wie andere in Europa über Europa und den Nexus von Europa und Medien denken. 

Welches war Ihr bestes KSM-Seminarthema bisher, und was wäre ein Wunschthema für die Zukunft?

WS 2016/17: MyFacebook, MyYoutube: Medien im Selfie-Modus? (auch nochmals FrSe 2019) und im HeSe 2017: Das Internet der Dinge

In Zukunft: um die Thematik des (kulturpessimistischen, z.t, dystopischen) Anwurfs des ‚Technologischen Totalitarismus‘ (Frank Schirrmacher), der Herrschaft der Algokratie

Welches Buch hat Sie besonders beeinflusst, bzw. sollte man unbedingt gelesen haben?

Die Filme, die mich als Studentin am meisten beeinflusst haben, waren die von Pier Paolo Pasolini: Accattone, La Ricotta, Mamma Roma und Il vangelo secondo Matteo, später die von Guy Maddin Archangel, Tales from the Glimi Hospital und vor allen Dingen Theo Angelopoulos Der Blick des Odysseus, Die Ewigkeit und ein Tag und auch die von Chantal Akerman.

Ist das Glas halb voll oder halb leer?

Es ist mehr als halb voll !

Welchen Rat würden Sie, rückblickend aus eigener Erfahrung, Ihrem Studierenden-Ich geben?

Mehr Systematik! Immer Exzerpieren, niemals lesen, ohne darüber nicht wenigstens ein paar Zeilen zu schreiben, dann sinnvoll und wiederauffindbar abspeichern, professionell das 10-Finger-Schreiben erlernen, im Studium mindestens ein Jahr in einem englischsprachigen Land studieren, auch wenn die erste Fremdsprache eine andere ist (die beiden letzten Punkte bringen auf die Lebenszeit gesehen eine ungeheure Zeitersparnis!)

How did you decide on your field of study?

When I started my BA, I was a bit undecided about my field of study: I had intended to do a music degree, but I received a Faculty of Arts National Scholarship, so I chose to stay in the Humanities. Luckily, at my university (University of Western Ontario), you could do something called a "Scholars' Electives Degree," meaning that you could design your own degree and take any course in any faculty regardless of prerequisites. I had the privilege of doing an Honours BA in English and Comparative Literature, but I also dabbled in Music, French, Classical Studies, Women's Studies, Philosophy, etc. In my final year, I took a course on James Joyce's Ulysses with Prof Michael Groden, and suddenly all of my previous reading coalesced; even my music background  became relevant. I immediately knew I wanted do a PhD on Joyce and I haven't looked back.

What was your best KSM seminar topic to date, and what would be a desirable topic for a future KSM seminar?

I've only taught one KSM Seminar so far on Victorian narrative tactics, which I guess makes it my best to date!  Seriously though, we did have a lot of fun reading about the unique insanity that is the Victorian period. I would love to teach a Ulysses class in KSM and put together a Bloomsday when we're back to being in-person! 

What book has particularly influenced you, or is a must read?

I think it would be a toss up between Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm. The more I read, the more this changes, but these two would be my perennials. Putting Ulysses here would be too obvious.  ;)

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Half full when it comes to others; half empty for myself. Luckily, refills are always close by.  Also, is it a cute glass/mug?  This is important.

Looking back from your own experience, what advice would you give to your former student self?

When I was doing my MA, one of my professors told our class that the MA degree is a really special time: you get to read so much for the first time and everything is new and exciting. You're not a BA anymore, but you don't yet have the pressures of pursuing an academic career. You have a unique perspective that you can only have at that point in your studies and you can ask questions without any embarrassment. He said that it would be the most creative and invigorating time of our lives and we wouldn't even know it. Looking back, I agree and disagree: you never stop reading and it's still possible to be invigorated by your work. Also, teaching is the best second hand exposure. It's always easy to look back and think about how "leisurely" it was "back then" but it certainly didn't feel that way at the time. So, instead, I would maybe tell first year BA-Michelle to take German instead of (in addition to?)  Latin.