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Teaching Responsibilities, Language Coordination, and Mentoring
Teaching is a required component of the graduate program in German at Penn. All of our graduate students teach during their second and third years at Penn. Teaching is often counted as one of the most gratifying experiences our graduate students have. It is also an essential part of preparation for the academic profession. Teaching assistants are first assigned to teach either elementary German (101 and 103) or intermediate German (103 and 104). Teaching assistants teach one course per semester. Advanced graduate students (i.e., students in their fifth or sixth year) may be selected to teach language or literature courses beyond the basic language program or to lead recitation sections for popular literature courses taught in English. In both cases students receive substantial training and mentoring.
All beginning teaching assistants must participate in an intensive week-long, interdepartmental orientation session prior to the beginning of the fall semester. During the course of the semester, our teaching assistants work together with the Language Coordinator and TA Supervisor and her assistants in planning quizzes, tests, and lesson plans. The Coordinator has the primary responsibility of guiding the teaching assistants through the teaching experience in first or second year German. The coordinator also observes the teaching of each of the teaching assistants at least once per semester. Reports are filed with the Undergraduate Chair and shared with the respective teaching assistant. Such reports are useful for the preparation of letters of recommendation, the teaching portfolio, and for teaching award nominations. The Coordinator also conducts a bimonthly pedagogy roundtable for each level of the basic language program. Active participation in the roundtable is mandatory for all teaching assistants.
The University of Pennsylvania has a rigorous language requirement for all undergraduates, regardless of their major. Every student must take 4 semesters of a language or the equivalent. In addition, students take an oral proficiency interview as well as proficiency examinations in the other skills and a grammar exam in order to complete the requirement. For this reason, it is essential that our graduate students learn how to administer oral proficiency interviews. Every year, at the end of September or beginning of October, a weekend-long intensive training session is held; participation is mandatory for our beginning teaching assistants. Teaching assistants hold weekly office hours during the academic year, and participate in the administration and grading of the Departmental proficiency examination (biannually).
The Department
runs an on-going professional development program. Topics include: preparing
your c.v., writing and presenting scholarly papers, publishing articles,
preparing a teaching portfolio, analysis of job descriptions and the job
market, and mock interviews. The Department pledges to help students subsidize
travel to one scholarly conference per year, provided the student is presenting
a paper. Funding is available from GSAC, the Dean, and the Department.
Application must be made several weeks before travel. No reimbursements
can be made after the fact.
Annual Graduate Student Conference and Germanic Association
Penn graduate students were among the first to initiate an annual graduate student conference. Under the broad heading of "Intersections," our students organize and run an interdisciplinary conference that brings graduate students from major German programs across the United States and other countries as well (Canada, UK, Germany). Recent conferences include: Exchanges Between German and Religious Studies"; Gender Questions/Questioning Gender; and Concerted Dissonance.
Perhaps the longest running tradition of the Department is the Germanic Association, a graduate student and faculty colloquium founded by the Department's first chair, Marion Dexter Learned, more than one hundred years ago. The colloquium meets two to three times per semester and features informal presentations and discussion of work in progress by one graduate student and one faculty member.
Guest Professors, Lectures, and Conferences
The Department believes it is important for students to enjoy maximum exposure to prominent scholars, writers, critics, and filmmakers from the United States, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. For that reason, we endeavor to have at least one guest professor every semester and to maintain a regular and frequent program of guest lectures and conferences.
Recent guest professors include: Sara Poor (Stanford), Daniel Purdy (Pennsylvania State), Rolf-Peter Janz (Berlin), Hendrik Birus (Munich), Stephan Braese (Bremen), Silke Roth (DAAD visiting professor).
Recent guest lecturers include: Anton Kaes (Berkeley), Eric Rentschler (Harvard), Alice Kuzniar (North Carolina), Stanley Corngold (Princeton), Judith Ryan (Harvard), Jeannette Lander (Berlin), Frank Stern (Ben Gurion, Israel), Lisa Lewenz (New York filmmaker).
Recent conferences, colloquia and similar events include: Constituting The Field of German Film Studies; The Future of German-American History; The Culture of Exchange; The GoetheFest; The KafkaFest; Boundaries, Borders, and Gender: A Workshop on Women and/in German Cinema; and Style; "The Long Shadows of the Berlin Wall: Fifteen Years after Its Fall"; "Gender Issues and Women's Movements in the Enlarged European Union".
University-Wide Policies for Graduate Students can be found in the back of the Graduate Course Register or online at this URL: www.upenn.edu/grad/gradguide/gradguide.html. Although the Department and Graduate Chair will advise students as they progress through the program, it is the responsibility of the graduate student to be familiar with and comply with all policies of the University of Pennsylvania.
updated: 2/24/05