Member Testimonial: AATG Endowed Professional Development Fund Grant

"Dear

AATG,

Thank you so much for the support to attend the GLIB seminar 2023 sponsored by Notre Dame University and the Max Kade foundation It took place at the Literaturhaus Berlin located at Fasanenstr 23 in Berlin

Charlottenburg It began with an introduction of the program for 2 weeks and an introduction of the 17 participants, who consisted of German higher ed educators and graduate students The focus of the two week seminar was the current literature production in all types of media, including film, television and radio

The seminar work consisted of an interview and text reading of a best selling and award winning author, Antja Strubel This was followed by an interview of speakers from book agents from Graf und Graf We visited Der Tagesspiegel and attended an editors meeting as observers followed by a discussion with Literature Kritik, Gregor Dotzauer The group visited the Fontane-Archive in Potsdam and attended various theater performances performed by professionals and students. We also met with representatives from Suhrkamp Verlag and heard a reading from the author, Dilek Güngör We had interviews and discussions with owners of bookstores, translators and various publishers.

KathyWeingand

In conclusion, this program was full of activities and as a member of the AATG community, I was able to network and hear about many university and college German programs and the classes that they offer. I was able to immerse myself in the German language for the entire 2 weeks which helped me to improve my pronunciation skills I was able to build a new and current vocabulary for media and literature. During this time we also visited 3 different theater productions and I was able to reflect on the different theater styles with fellow participants The level of German by nonnative speakers was amazing and the intellectual level of critical thinking was impressive and it really helped me to understand what is going on in German departments at 4 year universities The entire program brought me new insight and allowed me to connect with other college teachers and learn about PhD programs at Universities.

In the future, I think that this grant is great being used for non-native speakers who are enrolled in total immersion programs to refresh or improve their German in Germany This is something that can’t really be done in the US to the same extent The support from AATG is greatly appreciated and this would not have been possible without your support "