CAUTG / APAUC

for dissertations defended between Oct. 16, 2008, and Oct. 15, 2010

The CAUTG Dissertation Prize is usually awarded every other year (up to two awards). The next award will be bestowed at the Annual Meeting of the Association in May 2011 in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Field of Research: Dissertations from all fields that have been defended at a German Department/program in Canada (Cultural Studies, Linguistics, Literature, Second Language Acquisition). Dissertations written in English, French, or German can be nominated.

Criteria to be nominated: The dissertation itself must be publishable and a significant contribution to its field. The dissertation must have been defended between Oct. 16, 2008, and Oct. 15, 2010.

Nomination Process: Self-application for the award is not possible. Candidates must be suggested by Graduate Chair/Coordinators (or Department Head/Chair or her/his designate) to the Chair of the dissertation committee by October 15, 2010. Each department/program of one University can suggest up to two candidates for the Dissertation Award.

Procedure: The committee requests theses to be submitted electronically (as pdf-, word- or rtf-files). In unusual circumstances, the committee also accepts the submission of one paper copy, but electronic copies are clearly preferred.

Amount of Prize: The award winners will receive an official CAUTG certificate and a monetary amount. Besides, the award winner is eligible for the defraying of travel costs to the Annual CAUTG meeting at which the award is granted (even if s/he does not present a paper at that meeting).

Selection Committee: The selection committee consists of its Chair and two other members who are currently active faculty member in German programs at Canadian universities. They will be appointed after the submission deadline in consultation between the Chair of the Committee and the President of the CAUTG.

Objectivity: The committee will ensure that the procedure will be as objective as a competitive award selection can be. The decision of the committee will be wholly based on the quality of the written dissertation; neither the ‘name’ of the degree granting institution nor of the dissertation advisor will play a role in the selection process.

For questions contact:
Dr. Stephan Jaeger, Department of German and Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba
326 Fletcher Argue Building, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V5, Canada
Phone: (204) 474-9930; Email: jaeger@umanitoba.ca

CAUTG Dissertation Award 2011 info leaflet (pdf)

CAUTG Dissertation Award 2011 info leaflet (doc)

The University of Toronto plans to dissolve the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures , along with the departments of Italian, Slavic, Spanish and Portuguese, East Asian, and Comparative Literature. According to the proposal, these departments should be amalgamated into a new School of Languages and Literatures.

The plan can be read here: http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/faculty-staff/academic-planning/pdfs/linked-fas-academic-plan-14-07-10.pdf (pages 15-16 are the most important for German)

You can sign a petition against the plan here: http://www.petitiononline.com/UTGerman/

Winner of the Austrian Cultural Forum Translation Prize 2009

Title: The Distant Sound
German Title: Der ferne Klang
Author: Gert Jonke (1946-2009)

Translator: Jean M. Snook
Publishing Date: August 2010
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press

German Position

Position #: VPA-GRRS-2010-001

The Department of German and Russian at Memorial University of Newfoundland invites applications for a tenure track appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning 1 July 2011, subject to budgetary approval. A completed earned doctorate (or recognized terminal qualification in the discipline) is required for the appointee to receive the rank of Assistant Professor and to be in a tenure-track position. (If a successful candidate has not completed an earned doctorate, he/she shall be appointed to a regular term, non-renewable three-year appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor. If the candidate completes all the requirements for the doctorate during the first 24 months of the term appointment, he/she shall begin a tenure-track appointment following completion of the requirements of the degree). Applicants must be fluent in English and German, have a broad background in German Language, Literature, and Culture, and possess a PhD. Applications from candidates with the ability to teach in the areas of contemporary German literature and New Media will be especially welcomed. We are seeking an individual who is committed to working effectively with students. We require a demonstrated commitment to excellence in undergraduate teaching, the ability to teach courses at various levels in an undergraduate German curriculum, and a desire to contribute to the department’s growing graduate program. In addition, it would be desirable that the candidate be interested in exploring alternate means of course delivery. We are also looking for candidates who have an active research agenda with potential for peer-reviewed publications and who are willing to share in leading the Heidelberg Field School on a rotational basis.

Application Deadline: October 29, 2010

Qualified applicants should submit a letter of application and curriculum vitae, including the names of three referees, to:

Dr. Erwin Warkentin, Head

Department of German and Russian

Memorial University of Newfoundland

P.O. Box 4200

St. John’s, NL A1C 5S7

CANADA

Electronic Applications are to be sent to: bevans@mun.ca

Memorial University is committed to employment equity and encourages applications from qualified women and men, visible minorities, aboriginal people and persons with disabilities. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

The University of Toronto

From the article in the Torontonist:

The proposed School of L&L would amalgamate the current departments of East Asian Studies, Italian Studies, Germanic Languages and Literatures, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Spanish and Portuguese. The Centre of Comparative Literature, which currently offers MA and PhD programs, would be embedded in the school and redefined as a collaborative program, unable to grant degrees independently. The Centre for Ethics and The Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, a research centre and graduate collaborative program respectively, would be abandoned entirely. continue reading…

Dear CAUTG / APAUC members,

This summary may be of interest to anyone who was not able to attend our workshop on academic publishing, which took place on May 29^th, 2010 at the annual CAUTG conference at Concordia University in Montreal. The workshop was very well attended: about 7 graduate students, 3 presenters and 16 junior and senior faculty members took part in the discussion on issues pertinent to academic publishing. continue reading…

German and European Studies Edited by John Zilcosky University of Toronto Press 336pp

continue reading…

Literature and Censorship in Restoration Germany
Repression and Rhetoric
Katy Heady

In 1819, the German Confederation promulgated the infamous “Carlsbad Decrees,” establishing censorship standards aimed at thwarting the political aspirations of post-Napoleonic Germany’s rapidly emerging public sphere. This most comprehensive system of state censorship to that point in German lands remained in place until the revolutions of 1848, and is widely acknowledged to have had a profound influence on public discourse. However, although censorship during the period has been the object of much scholarly interest, little is known about its precise effects on literary writing. This book redresses that situation through detailed studies of six works composed and published in different parts of the Confederation by three prominent writers: Christian Dietrich Grabbe, Heinrich Heine, and Franz Grillparzer. By analyzing successive versions of these works, the study illustrates the thematic, linguistic, and aesthetic constraints censorship placed upon their writing, as well as the variety of literary evasion strategies that it stimulated. It demonstrates that while censorship inhibited and distorted German literary writing, it also led to the emergence of distinctively complex and inventive modes of literary expression that came to mark the epoch.
Katy Heady received her PhD in German from the University of Sheffield in 2007.
continue reading…

Title:
Everybody Talks about the Weather (We Don’t): The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof
Authors:
Ulrike Meinhof Ed. and introduction by Karin Bauer (McGill) Preface by Elfriede Jelinek Afterword by Bettina Röhl Translated by Luise von Flotow

Description:No other figure embodies revolutionary politics and radical chic quite like Ulrike Meinhof. In the 1960s, she was known in Europe as a public intellectual, leading a glamorous life in Hamburg with her publisher husband and twin daughters. Ten years later, Meinhof gave it all up to form, with Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, the Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, notorious for its bombings, bank robberies, and kidnappings of the wealthy. What impels someone to abandon middle-class privilege for the sake of revolution? Meinhof, who spent the 1960s writing a column for a popular leftist magazine, began to see the world in increasingly stark terms: the United States was emerging as an unstoppable superpower, massacring a tiny country overseas despite increasingly popular dissent at home, and Germany appeared to be run by former Nazis. Never before translated into English, Meinhof’s 1960s writings show a woman in transition, reflecting upon the major political events and social currents of her time. An essay by Karin Bauer contextualizes Meinhof’s writings and her mesmerizing life story. A relentless critic of her mother and of the Left, Bettina Röhl, one of Meinhof’s daughters, contributes a brief afterword that shows how Meinhof’s ghost still haunts us today.