Graduate seminars

This course uses a discovery approach to introduce students to (1) Middle High German (MHG) [Mittelhochdeutsch], the language that is medieval precursor to modern German and that was spoken and written in German-speaking lands from roughly 1100 to 1500; (2) highlights of literary and cultural production from this time period; (3) select theoretical approaches to medieval literature; (4) intellectual reflection on historical thinking, the legacies of the medieval past in the contemporary world, and the use and abuse of the medieval past in the contemporary world.

This course examines contemporary research on language and society. Drawing upon readings in linguistic anthropology, students will examine contemporary debates about language and migration, labour, liberalism, colonialism, citizenship, nation, neoliberalism, and social justice. Students will examine different approaches to the study of language and social life, including activist anthropology, semiotic anthropology, and language and political economy. 

Prerequisite: previous coursework in linguistics, linguistic anthropology, communications, language studies, or a related field

GER 601-701

Approaches in Linguistics: How we Talk

(Einführung in die Konversationsanalyse)

(Betz)

Die Konversationsanalyse bietet eine eigene Perspektive auf das zentrale Thema der linguistischen Pragmatik: Sprache als eine Form sozialen Handelns. Ihre Erkenntnisse zeigen, dass sich die uns eher unbewussten Prozesse, mit denen wir Rederechte verteilen, Handlungen über Sequenzen hinweg aufbauen und erkennbar machen, Verständigungsprobleme anzeigen und lösen, über Sprachen und Kulturen hinweg überraschend ähnlich sind. Gleichzeitig sind die Realisierungsmöglichkeiten dieser Prozesse sprachspezifisch und oft kulturell kodiert. In diesem Kurs befassen wir uns sowohl mit den grundlegenden Mechanismen sprachlicher Interaktion als auch mit sprachspezifischen Mustern.

You will learn the theoretical and methodological tools of Conversation Analysis through participating in structured and unstructured group data sessions, the central research and training tool in the field, and through writing data analyses. Our data sources for analysis are recordings and transcripts from a variety of settings and languages. This will help us identify and precisely describe language-specific resources in the practices and patterns we use in interaction. Your final project is an original research presentation and paper.

Readings and class discussions will be in both English and German.

GER 620/720: Dis/ability in German Literature  

(Boehringer)

While class, race, gender, and sexuality have become key analytical terms in literary and cultural studies, disability is as yet an under-represented category that underpins conceptualizations of the able-bodiedness and able-mindedness. As Carol Poore reminds us, “both cultural representations of disability and debates about the proper places for disabled people in German society have often been central to major controversies about aesthetics, normality, individuality, citizenship, and morality” (Disability in Twentieth-Century German Culture, xv). In this seminar, we will engage with key concepts of disability theory and trace the representations of disability in German-language literature from the 19th to the 21the century, in order go gain a critical understanding of how dis/ability informs our basic assumptions about identity, meaning, and the body. 

GER 612/712 

Topics in Sociolinguistics: Multilingualism

(Liebscher)

This course explores research in multilingualism from a sociolinguistic perspective, including an individual’s use of two or more languages, attitudes towards multilingualism, and multilingualism in the linguistic landscape and in education. We will discuss questions such as: How have theories on code-switching and translingualism explained multilingual language use? What positive or negative stances towards multilingualism do people express and how, and how may ideologies affect these stances? How are languages represented in the linguistic landscape of cities and countries, i.e. on signs and posters? How do classrooms exhibit aspects of multilingualism, e.g. what kinds of policies and multilingual language use is evident in language classrooms? Course participants are encouraged to pursue their own interest in a research topic within multilingualism as their final project for the course.

This course is intended for graduate students with interest in language, literature, linguistics, anthropology, developmental psychology, cognitive science and related fields. While readings and discussions will be in English, students of German will have the opportunity to do some readings and writings in German.

GER 620 / 720

Topics in German Literature & Culture: Kafka Classical Short Stories

(Malone)

GER 600 / 700

Methods of Research

(Skidmore)

An examination of Franz Kafka's writing style by means of his most notable short stories throughout his career. What effects does his writing achieve, and by what means?

GER 613/713 

Managing understanding: Repair in different interactional contexts

(Betz)

Repair describes a range of practices, found across languages, by which interactants manage moments of trouble in speaking, hearing, understanding, and agreement and thus preserve intersubjective understanding. We will take a discursive view of understanding, one that views understanding as constructed and publicly displayed in interaction, and we will study moments of trouble empirically by analyzing recordings and transcripts of talk.

One goal of this course is to raise awareness of culture- and context-specific practices in the discursive construction of understanding. We will thus read research on repair in typologically diverse languages and in different contexts, including child language socialization and second-language learning. The course culminates in an original research project: Course participants identify a specific repair practice in German (or in comparison of German with another language) and describe its linguistic structure, locate its place in the larger interactional architecture of repair, and connect it to social-interactional dimensions such as the negotiation of evaluative stances, social identities, or rights to knowledge.

GER 620/720

Court, Cloister, and Culture in the Medieval German World

(Rasmussen)

Around the year 1200, a wealth of literary texts begins appearing in the German language for the first time. These sophisticated works explore timeless issues from the perspective of their time and place: navigating the social conventions of gender roles; conflicts between love and marriage; dilemmas of honor and reputation; the elusive quest for justice; the entwinement or separation of religion and the secular world; the role of writing and other media in creating and transmitting knowledge. Exploring these issues will inform our reading of what are widely recognized as masterpieces of German (and world) literature, some of which resonate in German culture to this day.

GER 615

Online Teaching and Learning

(Skidmore)

This graduate seminar will explore the theory and practice of online teaching and its impact on student learning. Students will assess the efficacy of different approaches, analyze online courses currently on offer in higher education, learn about the role of technology in content delivery and community building, and develop their own approaches by designing their own online course in their discipline.

Geared to online teaching in the humanities, social sciences, and languages, this seminar will be offered online asynchronously with additional synchronous elements as agreed upon by seminar participants.

If you have questions or comments about the course content, contact James Skidmore (skidmore@uwaterloo.ca)

GER 600

Methods of Research

(Malone) 

A course designed to foster an understanding of the fundamental notions of critical inquiry and to provide training in intellectual and practical skills common to research in the areas of applied linguistics, film and literary studies.

GER 615/715

Critical Discourse Analysis and Language Education

(Schmenk)

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is chiefly concerned with the relationship between language, power and identities. According to CDA, language is not a neutral tool we use to represent truth and reality, but a social semiotic that produces social realities and truths. Critical Discourse Analysis “studies the way ideology, identity and inequality are (re)enacted through texts produced in social and political contexts. Language is seen as crucial in constructing and sustaining ideologies, which, in turn, are seen as important in establishing and maintaining social identities and inequalities.” (Wodak, 2013, p. xix)

This course first provides an overview of the emergence and developments of CDA. What is “critical” about it and how does it differ from other approaches to discourse analysis? What notion(s) of “discourse” is CDA based on? And what types of analyses does CDA bring about?

Following these general considerations of CDA, we will move on to specific research areas/topics that have been investigated using CDA (e.g., racism and marginalization; gender and sexuality; CDA of discourses in education and politics; crisis and criticality) in various media (texts, images, music, film).

We will look at CDA through the lens of language education. Traditionally, in educational contexts language has been viewed as a rather neutral means whose grammar and lexis students need to study and use correctly and/or fluently. CDA poses enormous challenges on educators as it requires us to rethink the goals and practices of language education today. In our study of CDA we will therefore include a focus on possible educational implications and alternative educational scenarios.

Wodak, Ruth (2013). Critical Discourse Analysis. Vol. 1. Concepts, History, Theory. Los Angeles et al.: Sage.

GER 620/720

Cultural Identities and Dislocation

(Boehringer)

This seminar will investigate the different parameters (race, ethnicity, nation, religion, sex/gender, age, class, ability) around which cultural identities are constructed and how dislocation can challenge the seeming fixity of these categories. Our theoretical readings (from a.o. nation theory, critical race theory, gender & masculinity theory, precarity theory, intersectionality theory) will guide our readings and viewings of examples of classical and recent German-language literature and film that foreground questions of cultural identity and dislocation from the 18th century to today. In the process we will gain a deeper understanding of how issues that inform current nativist political and identitary cultural discourses have long resonated within the cultural space and how film and literature can produce and unsettle reductive notions of self and otherness.

GER 601/701

Approaches in Linguistics: Studying Interaction

(Betz)

(Einführung in die Konversationsanalyse)

Dieser Kurs bietet eine Einführung in die Konversationsanalyse. Die Konversationsanalyse (CA) bietet eine eigene Perspektive auf das zentrale Thema der linguistischen Pragmatik: Sprache als eine Form sozialen Handelns. Ihre Erkenntnisse zeigen, dass sich grundlegendste Mechanismen sprachlicher Interaktion über unterschiedliche Sprachen und Kulturen hinweg gleichen: Die uns eher unbewussten Prozesse, mit denen wir Rederechte verteilen, Handlungen über Sequenzen hinweg aufbauen und Verständigungsprobleme anzeigen und lösen, scheinen überraschend robust. Gleichzeitig sind aber sprachlichen Realisierungsmöglichkeiten dieser Prozesse unterschiedlich und kulturell kodiert.

GER 613/713

Language, Identity and Mobility

(Liebscher)

Wednesdays

2:30-5:20 pm

AL 209

GER 620/720

Graphic Novels

(Malone)

Mondays

11:30-2:20 pm

HH 344

GER 613/713

Discourse Markers

(Betz)

Mondays

2:30-5:20 pm

ML 117

Okay, anyway, y’know, that’s right, eh? – genau, also, uallah, ach komm, okee? Discourse markers are central elements in managing conversation in real time: in distributing turns, displaying speaker attitudes, managing expectations and social obligations, and negotiating relationships and rights to knowledge.

This course introduces you to the analysis of discourse and surveys different methodological approaches to discourse markers. We will ask: What are typical features of discourse markers? Are discourse markers a purely spoken phenomenon, and how do they emerge? What are some common discourse markers in German, and how are they used? What can we learn about language – and social interaction more generally – from studying discourse markers? All classroom discussion and project work will be based on empirical data, that is, on transcribed face-to-face, telephone, and online interaction.

The course focuses on German, but we will regularly discuss work on other languages (e.g., Polish, Finnish, Korean, English, Danish). A cross-linguistic approach will help you appreciate the functional spectrum of discourse markers, trace cross-cultural differences in research traditions, and explore applications of basic research to, e.g., language teaching and human -computer interaction.

Throughout the course, you will practice reading, contextualizing and assessing published research, and you will generate and carry out your own empirical research project using conversation analytic tools.

GER 620/720

Reading the Canon

(Skidmore)

Tuesdays

11:30-2:20 pm

HH 123

This course has two objectives:
Learn how to read literature: We will spend a great deal of the time in the seminar discussing how to approach literature. We’ll look at the works structurally (how they are constructed), historically (how they fit into the society and time in which they were produced) and thematically (how the themes or ideas that come forward in the works escape the bonds of place and time).
Understand canon formation: We will discuss from time to time the role of literary canons, the politics of their formation, the pitfalls of canonizing literary works, etc. We’ll also look at how to approach the works on the GSS PhD list with regard to their place in Germanistik.

GER 623/723/ENGL 785

From Freud to Lacan: Psychoanalysis in Literary, Visual, and Sexuality Studies

(Kuzniar)

GER 615/715

The Native Speaker in language education

(Schmenk)

The course will first provide an overview of ‘classic’ texts on the native speaker ideal. Then we will turn towards recent critical works in this area: What exactly is a native speaker? What beliefs and assumptions underlie the educational aim of native speaker competence? And are native speakers better language teachers? To what extent can alternative notions such as the “intercultural speaker” (Byram), “symbolic competence” (Kramsch), or “transcultural and translingual competence” (MLA) help to address the problem of native-speakerism? And what implications do these discussions have for classroom language teaching?

GER 620/720

Gender, Migration, Generation

Literature, both as an institution and a social practice, provides a testing ground of the new realities that we live in, charting different ways of seeing and being in the world. This seminar will explore the ways in which we encounter the "other" by probing the interconnections between gender, generation, and migration in recent German-language literature. As available subject positions can be thought of as being culturally circumscribed by various, often hegemonic discourses on sex, gender, age, class, ethnicity and ability, the question arises what happens when these discourses intersect, or, put differently, when a person must negotiate her/his sense of a seemingly stable identity through, for example, war, trauma, ageing, or migration.

GER 612/712

Laughter in Interaction

(Liebscher)

Thursdays

8:30-11:20 am

ML 117

In line with reconceptualizing interaction as multimodal, there has been an increase in laughter research over the past few decades, starting with Glenn’s (1990) seminal book. While laughter has been connected with humour, there are several other contexts and functions that laughter research has described. In providing an overview of this research, some key foci will be: studying the expression and placement of laughter in different kinds of interactions (e.g. casual conversations, workplace conversations, interviews, and online interactions), practicing and reflecting on the transcription of laughter, discussing different functions of laughter with regard to e.g. alignment, resistance, arguing, identity, learning. Some of the questions we will address are: How can we capture the elusive nature of laughter with regard to e.g. its beginning and end in conversation, its reference and its meaning?  How can laughter be expressed and what roles does it fulfill in different kinds of interactions? Are there different kinds of laughter and how do we know? Can laughter be helpful in connecting with people? Does it have a political, transcultural, gendered or other dimension?  In addition to discussing the nature of laughter, this course will be an introduction to conversation/discourse analysis, provide some training in transcription, and allow students to write a research paper on laughter related to their specific area of interest (e.g. laughter in everyday interaction, online contexts, literature, or film).

GER 621/721

Adaptation: Theory and Practice

(Rasmussen)

Tuesdays

8:30-11:20 am

ML 117

In this course, students will gain expertise in recognizing, explaining, assessing, critiquing, and applying theories of adaptation, defined with theorist Linda Hutcheon as “both a product and a process of creation and reception” that is “a deliberate announced, and extended re-visitation of prior works” in different media (text and different genres; moving image; radio; etc.) (A Theory of Adaptation, 2013, p. xvi). Students will write a research paper applying theories of adaptation to a set of related adaptations of their choice, in different media, from different time periods, and if they wish in different languages.

GER 600/700

Methods of Research

(Betz/Malone)

Wednesdays

11:30-2:20 am

ML 117

GER 611/711

Complexity: Second-Language Development

(Schulze)

Thursdays

8:30-11:20 am

HH 123

GER 622/722

German Literature and Film Now

(Skidmore)

Mondays

11:30-2:20 pm

HH 123

GER 600/700

Methods of Research

(Betz)

Mondays

2:30-5:20 pm

ML 117

GER 620/720

Dark Romanticism: from Novalis to Nosferatu

(Kuzniar)

Wednesdays

2:30-5:20 pm

AL 210

GER 613/713

Doctor-Patient Interaction/Medizinische Kommunikation

(Betz and Spranz-Fogasy)

Mondays

2:30-5:20 pm

ML 117

Communication between doctors and patients is at the heart of medicine. Whether it is primary care, anamnesis (medical history taking), diagnosis, therapy planning, pre-operative discussion, or aftercare – crucial tasks in medical care are accomplished via talk. Linguistically, this includes task-oriented interaction and special language, the negotiation of differing rights to knowledge, and institution-specific communication. Our focus is on gaining insight into the spectrum and patterns of medical communication by analyzing and discussing recorded data.  This includes interactional tasks, e.g., exploring, understanding, or breaking bad news, and interaction types, e.g., the first medical interview, communicative disturbances and their sources.

A specific look at doctor-patient interaction constitutes the core of this course.  The analysis of medical interaction is preceded by a general introduction to analyzing language-in-interaction using the tools of conversation analysis and interactional linguistics; it is followed by a contextualization of medical communication within the larger frame of institutional interaction and within the study of meaning-making in every-day life (e.g., negotiating knowledge, constructing identities).

GER 615/715

Foucault's Impact on Applied Linguistics

(Schmenk)

Thursdays

2:30-5:20 pm

ML 311

GER 620/720

Volksstück

(Malone)

Tuesdays

8:30-11:20 am

ML 354

Volksstück as a dramatic tradition, with emphasis on the problematic nature of Volksstück as a generic definition. Since the early nineteenth century, this form has regularly been described as on the verge of extinction, only to be reappropriated and reinterpreted, sometimes radically, by new generations of dramatists in differing social and historical contexts.

GER 600/700

Methods of Research

(Betz/Kuzniar)

Wednesdays

11:30-2:20 pm

ML 216

GER 613/713

Language and Identity

(Liebscher)

Mondays

11:30-2:20 pm

ML 212

GER 623/723

Transnationalism in Film and Literature 

(Boehringer)

Fridays

11:30-2:20 pm

RCH 106

National literatures have long been understood as inventions meant to support the idea of the nation state by supposedly reflecting on national or ethnic themes and traits. Over the last few decades, literary works written by migrants in the German language have called into question this hegemonic interpretation of the national literature, giving way via various "Turkish" or "Eastern" turns to notions of transnationalism and world literature. In this seminar, we will attempt to square the circle and investigate issues of transnationalism in German literature and film. Through these texts we will explore issues of identity and otherness, belonging and exclusion to come to an understanding of culture as a dynamic process between cultures and languages that exceeds notions of nationality and ethnicity.