Ginny Steinhagen awarded a professional development leave

Ginny Steinhagen, coordinator for Ger 1004 and the German College Schools Program, has been awarded a professional development leave for Spring 2016.

Charlotte Melin elected to ADFL Executive Committee

Charlotte Melin has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL), beginning her term in January 2016.

Anatoly Liberman elected Fellow of the Dictionary Society of North America

Anatoly Liberman has been elected Fellow of the Dictionary Society of North America.

Monika Žagar's novel published

Monika Žagar's literary debut Dva brata, trije svetovi (Two Brothers, Three Worlds) was published in August 2015 by Mladinska knjiga, the largest Slovenian publisher, to critical and popular acclaim. It tells the story of the Žagar family which owned a large thriving timber industry in the interwar period with premises in Rakek and Markovec in Yugoslavia and in Trieste, Italy. The family wealth survived the brutal WWII occupation only to be nationalized in 1946 by the new communist government. The novel focuses on the pre- and post-war relationship between two brothers, the older Line (the author's uncle) and the younger Franci, her father. Their allegiance became strained by their opposing ideological convictions: Line became a member of the underground Communist party in the thirties while Franci was a dedicated manager of the family business. Their pact - that Line would join the Resistance while Franci would retain some semblance of normal business under the Italian and then the German occupation - broke after the war when Line became part of the new government elite while Franci was pushed to the social margins as "the bourgeois industrialist" and "the enemy of the state." The novel avoids third-person narration and instead gives voice to various protagonists by exploring the fateful events from individual perspectives. As one critic writes: Monika Žagar wrote the story of her family from the human viewpoint and created a novel about a certain period, convincingly etched into personal stories." (Monika Žagar je napisala zgodbo o svoji družini s človeške plati in ustvarila roman o nekem času, prepričljivo odtisnjenem v osebne zgodbe. Pisave)

Moritz Meutzner awarded Joss Fellowship

Moritz Meutzner is the recipient of this year's Joss Fellowship from the Center for Jewish Studies. He will use the funds to support his research in Marbach, Germany, in summer 2016.