Professor, 19^th and 20^th Centuries; GDR-Literature; German Cinema; Kafka, Bachmann, and Seghers Studies.

Professor Beicken teaches 19th/20th century Austrian and German literature focusing on Fin de Siècle, Expressionism, the Weimar Republic, Exile, and Post-war literature and culture including GDR-Studies. Best known for his expertise and publications on Walter Benjamin, Ingeborg Bachmann and Franz Kafka, Beicken has placed additional emphasis on authors such as Aichinger, Bernhard, Celan, Fleisser, Fühmann, Kafka, Keun, Seghers and C. Wolf. His books include Kafka. Eine kritische Einführung in die Forschung (1974); 'Die Verwandlung'. A commentary (1983, revised 1998); Franz Kafka. Leben und Werk (1986, revised 1994). In film studies he has presented seminars on Literatur- und Filmanalyse, Verfilmung, Wenders und Handke, Kafka and Film, Gender and Space in Film, Opera in Film. Approaching literature and film from cultural, semiotic, and psychoanalytic perspectives, he pursues intermedial relations including concepts of the body (Körperbilder), gender studies, sexual identities.

Distinguished Scholars-Teacher in 2001-2002, Beicken also was a Center of Teaching Excellence Lilly-Fellow in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007. He served as visiting professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1987), Georgetown University (1989), Universität Giessen (1997), Universität Wuppertal (1997). From 2003-2008 Beicken directed College Park Scholars in the Arts, a living-learning community of undergraduate freshmen and sophomores. In 1984 he was awarded the Eduard-von-der-Heydt-Preis, Wuppertal 1984, for Kindheit in W. Gedichte und Prosa (1983) and in 1998 the Elisabeth Frazer de Bussy Prose-Prize, Editor, TRANS-LIT, Journal of the Society for Contemporary American Literature in German, SCALG (1998-2002) and president of SCALG (2003-2005).

Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator. 19^th and 20^th Century Literature, Romanticism, German Women's Social and Literary Theory and Feminist Literary and Cultural Theory. Distinguished Scholar Teacher.

Prof. Elke Frederiksen is an internationally known scholar who has lectured and published on issues of German and Austrian literature and culture in Europe, the United States, Canada, China and Japan. Her discovery of an unknown manuscript by the 19th century German-Jewish writer Heinrich Heine in Kraków, Poland, drew attention all over Europe. Her research and teaching interests focus on a variety of aspects of 19th and 20th century German and Austrian literature and culture (e.g. authors such as Bettina von Arnim, Rahel Levin Varnhagen, Heinrich Heine, Franz Grillparzer, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Gabriele Reuter, Luise Rinser, Uwe Timm; genre studies, letters, travel literature), on the intersections of German women's social and literary histories, as well as Cultural Studies including Post-Colonialism. Breaking away from traditional approaches to literature, she has incorporated concepts of gender, class, race, ethnicity, and nationality into both her research and teaching. She has been a Distinguished University Scholar-Teacher since 1987, and her book edition Women Writers of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland received an "Outstanding Academic Book of 1989" award. Her publication Women Writers in German-Speaking Countries (with E. Ametsbichler) appeared in 1998. She is presently working on a book-length study focusing on aspects of colonialism and post-colonialism in German literature around 1900 and 2000. Dr. Frederiksen was also a Distinguished Visiting Professor (Friedrich Kittler Chair) at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 1998, and in the ECUE program in July 2001. In 2004, she was selected as a Fellow in the Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and she has been Graduate Director since 2001.

Associate Professor, Language Program and TA Supervisor. Second Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, Foreign Language Teaching Methodology.

Professor Moyer received her MA and PhD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in Germanic Languages and Applied Linguistics (1995). She taught for several years at Georgetown University before coming to the University of Maryland in Fall 1999. Dr. Moyer specializes in second language phonology, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, instructional methodologies, and the structure and acquisition of German. Her graduate and undergraduate courses focus on these topics, as well as the intersections of language, identity and power. Dr. Moyer’s first book appeared in 2004 with Multilingual Matters, entitled: Age, Accent and Experience in Second Language Acquisition. An Integrated Approach to Critical Period Inquiry. Her second book, Foreign Accents: The Phenomenon of Non-native Speech - forthcoming with Cambridge University Press - explores issues of learner ability, experience, and orientation as relevant for adult phonological acquisition, as well as social and legal ramifications of speaking with an accent. Her third book project is a co-edited volume with John Levis of Iowa State University, entitled: Social Influences in L2 Pronunciation, in press with DeGruyter Mouton for their Trends in Applied Linguistics Series. Dr. Moyer has published her research in Studies in Second Language Acquisition, The Canadian Modern Language Review, Journal of Multicultural and Multilingual Development, Issues in Applied Linguistics, and Foreign Language Annals, and the Modern Language Journal, as well as in several edited volumes. She oversees the language program and supervises TAs in Germanic Studies.

Professor and Chair, Scandinavian Studies, Scandinavian Languages and Literature.

Professor Oster's specialization is modern Scandinavian literature and culture. Her research focus is on contemporarySwedish women's literature with particular emphasis on the social and cultural context; publications also include articles on Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. On the graduate level she teaches courses on Germanic philology and Germanic Mythology.

Associate Professor, Undergraduate Program Coordinator. Medieval Literature and Culture.

Professor Strauch's research and teaching interests include race, class, culture, and gender in medieval texts and meieval women writers. In her role as Undergraduate Program Coordinator she is responsible for recruitment, retention, and program development including Study Abroad programs.

Professor Emeritus

Professor Pfister's research focuses on second language acqusition, German culture, and Landeskunde. His investigation of the Affective Domain examines its relationship to culture as exemplified in the study of cultural contrasts. He incorporates the insights into cultural differences into the first and second year German language instruction

Associate Professor Emeritus.

Areas of specialization: Medieval German Literature; German literature of the 16th and 17th Centuries; Satire and Polemic. Professor Walker's research and teaching focussed on literary expressions of religious discontent and social change during the period from the late 15th through the 17th centuries. Emphasizing texts, contexts and continuity, his research covered sermons, polemical treatises, satirical popular literature (Schwänke, Fastnachtspiele, Anekdoten), religious and secular drama, and the interrelatedness of literary history and social history. Dr. Walker’s most recent publication is an English translation of the Arminius Dialogue of Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523) by Peter Lang Verlag. He is currently preparing a translation of Gustav Adolph Graf von Götzen’s Durch Afrika von Ost nach West, an extensive and detailed report of an expedition in 1894-95 from the east coast of Africa to the German East Africa colony and the region known today as Rwanda.