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German Studies News

Prof. Sorenson presenting at international Trailology Symposium

Alexander Sorenson will present a paper entitled "Meta-Hodos: Trail as Phenomenon, Modality, and Method" at the Trailology Symposium hosted by the at Wageningen University in the Netherlands (June 8-9, 2026). Fellow BU faculty members Shay Rabineau (Judaic Studies) and Sarah Nance (Art & Design) will also present their own research at the conference, which brings together researchers and practitioners who share an interest in positioning trails at the center of scientific inquiry. 

Lauren Cassidy on Chernobyl at 40

Lauren Cassidy's explores the East German reaction to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26, 1986. Based on her research in the Stasi archives, the article explores how the East German and Soviet governments deployed disinformation to manage their image and their populations' reaction to the consequences of the explosion. First published in The Conversation, where it was read over 45,000 times in its first week, Cassidy's article was subsequently republished by ; she was also interviewed on the subject by ABC News Radio.

Undergraduate research award for Elizabeth Bremner

Congratulations to Elizabeth Bremner, who has received a stipend through the 91���� University Projects for New Undergraduate Researchers (BUPNUR) program. In the summer of 2026, Elizabeth will work as a full-time research assistant for Professor Sippel. Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Elizabeth!

Rio Pralle awarded B2 Sprachzertifikat from Goethe Institut

Graduating German major Rio Pralle successfully completed the highly demanding Goethe Institute test and was awarded his language certification at the B2 level; this internationally recognized certificate, which corresponds to the Common European Reference Framework for Languages, points to a high level of competency across all areas of German: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Congratulations, Rio!

Eliana Hansen wins Bernardo Award for Excellence in the Humanities

Eliana Hansen has been awarded one of this year's three Claudia L. Bernardo Awards for Excellence in the Humanities. This highly competitive, college-wide award recognizes Eliana's significant achievements in her German major and beyond. Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Eliana!

Congratulations to Weigand Study Abroad Scholarship awardees!

Congratulations to Isabel Mendelsohn, Mia Mi, Eunice Park, Justin van Bramer, and Jiaxin Xiao, who have been awarded Weigand Study Abroad Scholarships to support intensive summer language study in Germany in summer 2026!

Additionally, Ph.D. student Lisa Timmermann has been awarded a Weigand Award to support archival and cultural research in Germany this summer as part of her dissertation project, “Hierarchies of the Nonhuman: The Role of Animals in German Culture.”

Congratulations Isabel, Mia, Eunice, Justin, Jiaxin, and Lisa! We look forward to hearing about your travels!

Wells Lecture: Michael Brenner, "Jewish Life in Germany after October 7" (Th. 4/23 @ 5 pm, Casadesus Recital Hall

The Department of Germanic and Russian Studies invites the campus community to the annual Larry Wells Lecture. Michael Brenner, Professor of Jewish History and Culture at American University and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, will speak on "Jewish Life in Germany after October 7."

Michael Brenner is a leading historian of modern Jewish history and the author of numerous books, including In Search of Israel: The History of an Idea (Princeton University Press, 2018), In Hitler's Munich (Princeton University Press, 2022), and A Short History of the Jews (Princeton University Press, 2010). For more information, contact hzils@binghamton.edu.

German Studies faculty and students present virtual exchange at local conference

Profs. Sippel and Gelderloos, and German students Olivia Campbell and Rio Pralle, presented the findings of a research and teaching on a virtual exchange between American and German Students, at "," a conference on language teaching held at 91���� on 3/19–3/20.

New publication by Prof. Sorenson 

Alexander Sorenson's article, “The Eyes of the Law: Theorizing Visibility and Legality in Poetic Realism,” has appeared in a special issue of The Germanic Review (100.4) on "Realism as Theory." Sorenson's article focuses on one of the most recurrent motifs in German Realism: law, and the ways in which its connection to themes of observation and visibility suggests resonances with the activity of theory, understood in its ancient Greek double sense of “seeing” as well as “contemplating” (theoría).

"Languages of Love 2" poetry reading brings language programs together (2/11, 7 pm)

In the second annual "Languages of Love" poetry reading, students read short poems about love in its many global guises from antiquity to the present. 91���� 150 students, faculty, and others gathered to hear poems read in every one of the seventeen foreign languages offered at 91����, from Arabic to Yiddish.

Undergraduate research award for Bryn Edelmann

Congratulations to Bryn Edelmann, who received an award through the 91���� Projects for New Undergraduate Researchers (BUPNUR) program. In the spring semester of 2026, Bryn worked as a research assistant for Professor Sippel. Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Bryn!

Prof. Sippel's paper in Language Awareness

Liese Sippel's article "Metacognitive instruction for video-based telecollaboration: training virtual exchange partners to give and receive feedback" has been published in . This paper reports on a recent virtual exchange project between German students at 91���� and learners of English from a German high school. 

Workshop: "How German Became German," Dr. Carsten Haas (Th. 11/13)

German has a reputation for being a tough language to learn, and with good reason – it exhibits an unusually challenging grammar and vocabulary, particularly in comparison to other Western European languages. But how did this come to be the case? In this historical linguistics workshop, Carsten Haas and students explored how German evolved the way it did, with particular attention to those aspects that German learners tend to find tricky, including plurals, grammatical cases, prepositions, and vocabulary.

Prof. Sippel at SLRF

Liese Sippel recently traveled to Flagstaff, AZ to present her paper "Corrective feedback during video-based telecollaboration" at the . This research examines the impact of a Zoom-based exchange project between 91���� University students who are learning German and high school students from Nürnberg, Germany who are learning English.

Dr. Cassidy at the GSA

Dr. Lauren Cassidy traveled to Arlington, VA to present her work on “Power, Identity and Language in Wolf Biermann’s Stasi Files” at the annual (September 25).

Recent research activity by Prof. Sorenson

Prof. Alex Sorenson's review of Polly Dickson's book Romanticism, Realism and the Lines of Mimesis (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2024) has been published in Modern Language Review. Prof. Sorenson has also presented his research in several contexts lately, including a paper about nature and apocalypse in Georg Trakl’s poetics as part of a seminar, “Apocalypse: Endings and Beginnings in German Culture” that he co-organized for the annual conference of the German Studies Association (September 2025); a virtual lecture, “Hidden Hearts: On Selfhood and the (Un)sayable in Rilke’s Poetry” (, Stanford University, September 24); and a paper about ecology in Marlen Haushofer’s novel The Wall and Meister Eckhart’s mystical theology, as part of a seminar he organized on “” at the conference of the American Comparative Literature Association, May 29–June 1). 

Prof. Gelderloos at the GSA

Prof. Carl Gelderloos travelled to Arlington, VA to participate in the annual ; having co-organized a roundtable on "Israel/Palestine and Interdisciplinary German Studies" and a panel on "Science and Class in the Utopian Imagination around 1900," he presented a paper as part of the latter panel on the Zukunftsroman (early German SF novel) around 1910.

Rebecca Schäfer accepts position at RIT

In August 2025, Dr. Rebecca Schäfer, who taught as a Lecturer at 91���� for three years, took up a new position leading the German Studies program at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY, as Program Coordinator and Lecturer of German. Congratulations, Rebecca! You'll be much missed at 91����, and we wish you all the best in your new job!

Eliana Hansen's summer studying in Germany

Supported by a Weigand Study Abroad Scholarship from the German Studies program, Eliana Hansen spent summer 2025 in Schwäbisch Hall, taking advanced intensive courses at the Goethe Institut. Here's how she describes the experience: "Through the Goethe Institut program I was also actively immersed in southern Germany’s rich culture, something that was new to me as I was primarily familiar with the northern part of the country before this summer. I had the opportunity to visit many historical cities such as Rothenburg, Stuttgart and Heidelberg. The combination of intensive course work with weekly outings allowed me to improve my German significantly." Curious about summer language study in a German-speaking country, or the departmental scholarships for German majors and minors? See this page or talk to your German instructor for more information.

Dr. Lauren Cassidy to join GRS as Lecturer in fall 2025

The Department of German & Russian Studies is excited to welcome Lauren Cassidy as a Lecturer of German for the academic year 2025–26. Lauren graduated with a Ph.D. in German Studies from the University of Wisconsin after defending her dissertation on the intersections of language, power, and identity in the East German secret police. Lauren's current research and teaching interests include Cold War history and literature, East German language, and literature in translation. At 91���� she'll be teaching courses on German language and culture. Welcome, Lauren!

Undergraduate research award for Kelly Greco

Congratulations to Kelly Greco, who received an award through the 91���� Projects for New Undergraduate Researchers program. In the summer semester of 2025, Kelly worked as a full-time research assistant for Professor Sippel. Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Kelly!

New research by Prof. Sippel

Two articles by Prof. Liese Sippel appeared this spring: "," cowritten with S. Mujtaba, J. Barrot, and R. Parkash, was published in Language Awareness in February, and "" was published in Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German in May. Additionally, Prof. Sippel's recent research presentations include "An ecosystem of L2 research and teaching at research-focused universities," presented with M. Sato at the AAAL (American Association for Applied Linguistics) Annual Conference in Denver in March, and "Corrective feedback in second language acquisition," which she presented at the Penn State Alumni Series of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures in April.

Congratulations to Jan Hohenstein!

Comparative Literature Ph.D. student Jan Hohenstein successfully defended his dissertation, "Man Has Limits”: Adalbert Stifter and the End of Enlightenment," on 5/8/2025. Supervised by Prof. Neil Christian Pages, Hohenstein's dissertation excavated a nuanced and generative concept of enlightenment in the journalistic and literary writing of the Austrian writer. Congratulations, Dr. Hohenstein!

Congratulations to Christina Feil!

Christina Feil has been awarded the prestigious James Bailey Dissertation Research Grant in Folkstore Studies by the ASEEES for her dissertation project, "Surrealist Horizons: Decolonizing Nature and Woman in Ermek Tursunov's Cinema. Interconnected Beings and the Cinematic Language of Decolonization." Congratulations, Christina!

Congratulations to Tim Schmidt!

Tim Schmidt will be moving to Tuscaloosa, AL in the fall to take up a position as Instructor of German in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics at the University of Alabama. Many congratulations, Tim! You'll be much missed at 91����, and we wish you all the best for next fall and beyond!

2025 German Studies graduates

Congratulations to this year's graduating class of German Studies majors—Nicole Puig and Tobias Warnes—and minors—Asella Davison, Rob Probeyahn, and Nikola Zastkova! Herzlichen Glückwunsch und Alles Beste für die Zukunft!

2025 awards in German Studies and beyond

Congratulations to Max Lent and Patrick Welte for receiving this year's Ursula H. Africa Endowment Awards for German Studies, and to Nicole Puig and Tobias Warnes for receiving this year's Keith Nintzel Awards for Excellence and Commitment in German Studies. Tobias Warnes additionally received the Claudia L. Bernardo Award for Excellence in the Humanities, a distinction awarded by Harpur College of Arts and Sciences. Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Max, Patrick, Nicole und Tobias!

Transforming Text with Transkribus (4/8, 3:30–5 pm)

Giovanna Montenegro and Tim Schmidt presented on the use of the software Transkribus to transform handwritten documents to plain text for research. The presentation was followed by a workshop on how to access and use the tool for your own work.

 Dr. Alex Sorenson to join GRS as Assistant Professor in fall 2025

The Department of German & Russian Studies is happy to announce that Alex Sorenson will be joining us as an Assistant Professor of German Studies in fall, 2025. Dr. Sorenson's research focuses on 19th and 20th-century German literature and thought, with particular emphases on , environmental humanities, modernism, and intellectual and cultural history. His capacious teaching profile links a broad grounding in humanistic scholarship to literary and philosophical questions about the human relation to (and conceptualization of) the natural world, exemplified by a new course he'll be offering in the fall, "The End! Apocalyptic Narrative." Welcome to the department, Alex!

"Why Read Capital Now?" (Paul North lecture, 2/26)

On Wednesday, February 26, Paul North—91���� alum and professor of German at Yale—gave a public lecture on , asking how Marx's work might still be relevant for understanding our present juncture. 

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Russian Studies News

91���� Student Wins Second Place at 2026 Olympiada

Congratulations to Henry Donahue on winning 2nd place in his category at the annual Russian Language Olympiada hosted by the United States Military Academy at West Point (4/18/26). Henry competed against students from three other colleges and a total of twelve participants in his category—an impressive achievement at this highly competitive event, which challenges students across multiple areas of language proficiency. Participants compete in expressive reading of a poem in Russian, present a prepared monologue, read a previously unseen text, and complete a grammar exam.

The Russian Language Olympiada has been held annually since the late 1990s and brings together students from neighboring institutions where Russian is taught. Over the years, participating colleges have included Vassar, Colgate, Yale, Hobart and William Smith, Bard, Hamilton, and others. 91���� has been a consistent participant and has proudly brought home awards year after year. Many congratulations to Henry and to Richard Harper, who also represented 91���� at the event!

Ania Nikulina's book to appear with the University of Michigan Press

Ania Nikulina's book on the relationship between ballet and politics in Ukraine, tentatively titled Dynamic Borders: Ukrainian Ballet in Transition, is under contract with the University of Michigan Press and is tentatively slated to appear in December 2026. Her interdisciplinary work examines the relationship between ballet communities, dance techniques, and political structures in Soviet and post-Soviet Ukraine. Congratulations, Prof. Nikulina!

Russian Students at the 2025 Olympiada

Violet MacDonald and Jackson Bastible participated in the 2025 Olympiada of Spoken and Written Russian, held at Vassar College. They both performed very well in poetry recitation, reading, monologue and grammar. Violet took Second Place at the first-year level! Congratulations, Violet and Jackson!

Special edition of BUUJ on disinformation

Check out this story about a special edition of the 91���� Undergraduate Journal dedicated to disinformation. presents work completed by students in a series of Russian Studies courses in AY 2021–2022 and AY 2022–2023, as well as an introduction written by Professor Dement.

"Languages of Love" poetry reading brings language programs together

On Wednesday, 2/12, over 100 students and instructors gathered for a Valentine's-Day-adjacent evening of poetry. Students recited love poems in every language offered at 91���� University, as well as Ukrainian. The audience heard poems in 18 languages total, from Arabic to Yiddish.

New work by Sidney Dement

Sidney Dement recently published "," an essay on teaching disinformation theory in the Russian language classroom, in Russian Language Journal.

Book talk: Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet, with Megan Buskey (9/5/24)

Growing up in Cleveland in the final years of the Cold War, writer Megan Buskey understood little about her Ukrainian family’s traumatic history. It was only well into adolescence that she learned that her mother had grown up in a gulag exile settlement in Siberia because her grandparents had been deported there from their Ukrainian village after WWII. As an adult, Megan spent years researching her family’s experience for her award-winning book, Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet: A Family Story of Exile and Return (ibidem, 2023). In this talk, Megan Buskey will discuss the political significance of Ukrainian family histories in light of the restrictions placed on memory during the Soviet period, share what she learned about her family’s experience, and connect their story to current politics, specifically Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Thursday, 5. September @ 7 pm, AM 189

Eunsu Kim wins SEEFA's Best Undergrad Research Paper

Eunsu Kim's paper on Slavic folklore was awarded for AY 2023-2024 by SEEFA, the Slavic and East European Folklore Association. Congratulations!

Faculty lecture: "Coding National Identity in Ukrainian Ballet Librettos of the 1930s" (Ania Nikulina)

On Thursday, 11/16, Prof. Ania Nikulina gave a lecture about how, in the years following Ukraine’s violent integration into the realm of the Soviet Union, classical ballet emerged as a contested medium between narratives of imperial expansion and national resistance. Early Soviet authorities sought to strike a delicate balance between empowering national identities, while maintaining centralized control over cultural production to prevent re-emergence of Ukrainian nationalism as a political force. However, librettos of nation-themed ballets staged in Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s that were nominally tasked with highlighting only the surface expressions of Ukrainian culture in fact succeeded in extracting a lasting and enduring cultural image of the Ukrainian nation.

Congratulations to the 2023 Russian Studies graduates!

Five Russian Studies majors graduated in spring 2023: Owen Carmody, Lisa Foreman, Lea Frenkel, Gillian Van der Have and Lara Solomon. Two Russian Studies minors graduated: Bryan Bibicheff and Julia Kaplun. Lisa Foreman will attend the London School of Economics this summer and Lea Frenkel is headed to Duke University Law School. Congratulations to all!

Emilio Kershner at the 2023 Olympiada

On Saturday, April 15, at Hobart and William Smith College, freshman Emilio Kershner took second place for first-year students in the annual New York State Undergraduate Spoken Russian Competition. Emilio competed in poetry recitation, reading, spoken monologue and grammar. Congratulations, Emilio!

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Alumni News 

Russian Alumna Volunteers with Peace Corps in North Macedonia

Danielle Hamilton ’09 is a Peace Corps volunteer in Ohrid, a historic city in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (North Macedonia), where she teaches basic English to retirees and leads debate and creative writing clubs for young people. She comments that her students of an older generation “love the fact that I studied Russian because they were required to study Russian in middle school in Yugoslavia.” In a short , she credits the BU Russian program for sparking her interest in this part of the world. Danielle, who holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations with a focus on Russian and East European Affairs, will gladly communicate with any BU student who is interested in serving with the Peace Corps. Check out her classroom on the video!

From a German double major to a DVM

In May, 2024, Ivanka Juran ('20, double major in German Studies and biology) earned a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Dr. Juran!

91���� German Studies alum publishes first English translation of best-selling German novel

New York Review Books has published 91���� German Studies alum Michael Lipkin’s translation of Walter Kempowski’s 1971 best-selling novel Tadellöser & Wolff. Lipkin's translation, titled , makes this important work of German literature available to Anglophone readers for the first time. The book follows a Rostock family through the history of the Nazi period and offers an intimate glimpse into everyday life under fascism. Lipkin is currently a visiting assistant professor of German at Hamilton College.

Russian alum participates in Teach for America

Liam Kerrigan ('21) will join Teach for America to teach English Language Arts in grades 7–8 in Philadelphia.

Russian students pursuing graduate studies

• Gillian van der Have pursued an MS in International Social and Public Policy at the London School of Economics.
• Lisa Foreman attended the London School of Economics in summer, 2023.
• Lea Frenkel headed to Durham to attend Duke University Law School in fall, 2023.
• Masha Morozov, a 2020 double major in Integrative Neuroscience and Russian Studies, began a Masters in Public Health program with concentrations in Global Health and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania in fall, 2021.
• Jack Strosser (Russian Major, '19) began a two-year MA in International Relations at Central European University in Vienna this coming fall (September 2021).
• Congratulations Gillian, Lisa, Lea, Masha, and Jack! Best of luck in your graduate studies!

German students pursuing graduate studies

 Students who have majored or minored in German at 91���� have gone on to graduate study at universities including Northwestern, UNC, Boston University, Stony Brook, New Paltz, Georgetown, Temple, Cornell, Columbia, and others. To read more about how studying German at 91���� helped these students pursue their diverse career goals, check out our "Why Study German?" page.

• Brendon Jaeger ('24, Chemistry major, minor in German Studies) joined the Ph.D. program in material science and engineering (MSE) at Boston University in fall, 2024.
• Bethany Maloney ('20, double major in French language & linguistics and German Studies) headed to the University at Albany to pursue a Masters of Science in Information Science in the department of Information Sciences and Technology.
• Ren Sahlman ('18, double major in English/Creative Writing and German Studies) started work on an MFT in the Couple and Family Therapy program at Thomas Jefferson University in fall, 2023.
• ('20, double major in German Studies and Linguistics) headed to Evanston in fall, 2023 to pursue a Ph.D. in German at Northwestern University.
• ('21, double major in Biology and German Studies) joined the graduate program in genetics at Stony Brook University in order to pursue a Ph.D. in genetics.
• Alex Russell ('22, double major in German Studies and Political Science) headed to Chapel Hill in fall, 2022 to join the Transatlantic Masters program at the University of North Carolina.
• Gabriel Steinberg ('21) moved to Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg in fall, 2021 to pursue his M.Sc. in Computer Science at Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT).
• Bradley Cisternino ('21, double major in History and PPL, minor in German Studies) joined the MBA program at 91���� in fall, 2021.
• ('21, double major in French and German Studies) headed to Boston University in fall, 2021 to begin a Ph.D. in French Studies.
• Michael Krawec ('21, double major in German Studies and History) joined the School of Education at New Paltz to pursue a Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT), specializing in Adolescence Education: Social Studies.
• Joe Vitale ('20, double major in History and German Studies) headed to Georgetown University in fall, 2021 to begin a Master's in German and European Studies.
• Zhiqing (Sasha) Chen ('20, double major in Geology and German Studies) pursued a Master's Degree in Journalism at Georgetown University.
• Matthew Dagele ('18, double major in Economics and German Studies) earned a Masters of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington.
• Annemarie Maag-Tanchak ('19, Art History major, minor in German Studies) also headed to Temple University in fall, 2020 to begin a Master's program in Art History and Arts Administration.
• Ivanka Juran ('20, double major in German Studies and biology) headed to Cornell University in fall, 2020 to pursue a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine.
• Hannah Sheridan ('18, double major in German Studies and linguistics) headed to Temple University in fall, 2020 to begin a Master's program in Speech, Language and Hearing Science in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders in the College of Public Health.
• Congratulations Bethany, Ren, Sean, Liam, Alex, Gabriel, Bradley, Karaleigh, Michael, Joe, Sasha, Matt, Annemarie, Ivanka, and Hannah! Best of luck in your graduate studies!

Why study Russian?

John Tilden ('91) recently visited his Alma Mater, and described his experiences studying Russian, and what he was able to do with it, in this way: "I studied Russian as an undergraduate because I wanted to learn a language that I knew would have global impact and serve as a gateway to a culture I knew very little about... As a part of my degree in English/Literature & Rhetoric, I earned a minor in Russian Language and Literature, studying Russian fiction and then-contemporary journalism in both English and Russian. My skill in the spoken language after three years of language study was enough to pass a State Department oral interview and be offered an entry-level contracted job at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow."