mward@wellesley.edu

Founders 403
781.283.2582

Office Hours, Fall 2009
Monday 2:00-4:00 pm
Thursday 9:30-11:00 am
and by appointment

Fall, 2009
101.02 - Beginning German
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 11:10-12:20 pm

389 Seminar: Latin America & the Caribbean in the German Imagination
Tuesday 7:00-9:30 pm

Degrees:

B.A., Wilson College (magna cum laude)
M.A., Ph.D., Indiana University (Bloomington)
D. Litt. h.c., Lasell College

Interests:

German language, literature and cultural studies; political theater; Women's Studies; film studies; international adoption

Teaching Interests and Activities:

In over thirty-five years of teaching at Wellesley I have offered a wide range of courses in German language, literature and culture at all levels, including: “Drama Theory and Practice,” “Berlin in the Twenties,” “Romanticism,”  “Postwar German Culture,” “Constructing the Other in German Cinema,” “The Woman Question.” I have also offered many changing-topic seminars (GER389) including: “Brecht and Beyond,” “Christa Wolf in Perspective,” and most recently, “Latin America and the Caribbean in the German Imagination.”  I have also taught combined courses in the Writing Program, "Views of Berlin," and “Berlin on Film” that provided an introduction to interdisciplinary German Studies to first-year students.

Research Interests and Activities:

My research first focused on 20th-century drama theory and practice (Peter Weiss, Rolf Hochhuth, Armand Gatti, Bertolt Brecht, GDR-drama). I was particularly interested in the interaction between intent, content and form in political dramas of the 1960s and 70s, then in GDR-drama of the 1980s, including plays about Latin America.

In mid-career my research focus shifted radically to 19th and 20th century German women writers (Fanny Lewald, Ingeborg Drewitz, Christa Wolf).  Most recently I have published Fanny Lewald: Between Rebellion and Renunciation (2006). For more information consult the publisher’s website. http://www.peterlang.com/Index.cfm?vID=68184&vHR=1&vUR=3&vUUR=4&vLang=E

My work on Lewald goes beyond literary questions to her advocacy for the rights of women to education and work. You can find a review of this book at http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=298141194112492

As I am now more than half way through an early retirement pattern (five years of half-time teaching), my research focus has shifted once more. I am working on Latin America in the German Imagination and on a personal project having to do with my elder son’s international adoption and the story of his parents who were revolutionaries during the Salvadoran civil war. This book project under the working title Missing Mila is nearing completion. If you would like to know more about the background for this book you can go to my son’s website at www.anasmiracle.com

Student Projects:

Several students have worked with me over many years on the Fanny Lewald book project mentioned above, including one who did research with me on her unpublished letters and diaries in then East Berlin archives.

I have advised student honors theses, including topics on Hans Magnus Enzenzberger, Ingeborg Drewitz, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, and 19th century historical poetry.

Recent independent studies I have advised include topics on Ingeborg Bachmann, Günter Grass, The Bauhaus, Christa Wolf and the GDR, Fantasy and Reality in Contemporary German Film and Turkish German film and literature. Students and former students have also worked closely with me on enhancing several websites I use in my teaching and one has developed a research website for my course “Berlin in the Twenties”.

Other Professional Activities, and Academic Awards:

At Wellesley, I have been an active supporter of Women’s Studies, co-directing the program at its inception and serving in an advisory capacity in the early years of the department, as well as more recently on its Reappointments and Promotions committee. In June 2007 the department decided to award a senior prize each year for excellence in Women’s Studies in my name.

I am a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Phi Alpha honorary societies.  I have been awarded NEH and Fulbright fellowships for sabbatical research, and for two years I held the rotating, William R. Kenan, Jr. chair at Wellesley.

As a long-time member of WIG (Women in German), an allied organization of the MLA, and a former member of its executive board, I remain an active participant in a Boston-area WIG study group, which discusses work-in-progress and feminist theory.

I serve on the advisory board (Beirat) of the Insitut für Frauen-Biographieforschung. For more information about the activities of the institute go to its website.  There you can also find biblio-biographies of famous women that I have written for Berühmte Frauenkalender  since 1993. http://www.fembio.org/biographie.php/frau/ueber

For more information about my educational background and/or my teaching, research and publications, consult my curriculum vitae. MEWcv.pdf.