Examines the challenges facing German-language study in the new millennium and highlights how creative, innovative, inspired approaches have allowed it to weather many of them.

Traditions and Transitions: Curricula for German Studies is a collection of essays by Canadian and international scholars on the topic of why and how the curriculum for post-secondary German studies should evolve. Its twenty chapters, written by international experts in the field of German as a foreign or second language, explore new perspectives on and orientations in the curriculum. In light of shifts in the linguistic and intercultural needs of today’s global citizens, these scholars in German studies question the foundations and motivations of common curriculum goals, traditional program content, standard syllabus design, and long-standing classroom practice. Several chapters draw on a range of contemporary theories—from critical applied linguistics, second-language acquisition, curriculum theory, and cultural studies—to propose and encourage new curriculum thinking and reflective practice related to the translingual and cross-cultural subjectivities of speakers, learners, and teachers of German. Other chapters describe and analyze specific examples of emerging trends in curriculum practice for learners as users of German. This volume will be invaluable to university and college faculty working in the discipline of German studies as well as in other modern languages and second-language education in general. Its combination of theoretical and descriptive explorations will help readers develop a critical awareness and understanding of curriculum for teaching German and to implement new approaches in the interests of their students.

The first full-length study to bring together the fields of Health Humanities and German studies, this book features contributions from a range of key scholars and provides an overview of the latest work being done at the intersection of these two disciplines. In addition to surveying the current critical terrain in unparalleled depth, it also explores future directions that these fields may take. Organized around seven sections representing key areas of focus for both disciplines, this book provides important new insights into the intersections between Health Humanities, German Studies, and other fields of inquiry that have been gaining prominence over the past decade in academic and public discourse. In their contributions, the authors engage with disability studies, critical race studies, gender/embodiment studies, trauma studies, as well as animal/environmental studies.

This volume focuses on two principal aspects of German studies in the United States: (1) an assessment of the German-teaching profession from primary to graduate school, with attention to its "raison d'etre" in the present academic, social, and cultural situation, as well as its structures, aims, and personnel; and (2) strategies for survival and suggestions for self-improvement. The topics covered by the 28 contributions can be grouped as follows: (1) German studies as culture studies; (2) an examination of some instructional models for German studies on the university level; (3) the future of German studies; (4) German teachers on all levels; (5) teacher training; (6) the status and future of undergraduate and graduate German departments; (7) the role and function of linguistics in German studies; (8) German literature and comparative literature (9) career alternatives for students of German; and (10) articulation between one level of German instruction and the next