11/06/2014
by Heike Fahrenberg
Comments Off on Other bits of news

Other bits of news

Interview in JGu’s Magazine on Lehre and Studium

I was honored to be invited to an interview on Middlebury’s partnership with Johannes Gutenberg Universität and joined Prof. Hornung (American Studies) to talk about the significance exchange programs have for JGu. The interview should appear in the new Lehre und Studium-Magazine shortly.

ACTFL, Texas, November 2014

I’m happy to let you know that ACTFL accepted a proposal of my colleague Sanae Eda (Director of the School in Japan) and myself for this year’s ACTFL-Conference in Texas. If any of you should be there, please let me know — it would be great to meet up and talk about old times or new times — who knows!

We’ll be giving a workshop on “Culture and Language Teaching: Integrated Portfolios in Japan and Germany” — so….

I hope to see you in Texas (or Mainz — or Berlin) soon!

Take care — and I’ll be back with more news on how our students liked their internships this semester.

All the best from the School in Germany –

Heike

11/06/2014
by Heike Fahrenberg
Comments Off on Faculty Visit June, 2014

Faculty Visit June, 2014

This month, we were happy to welcome our faculty visitors at both sites, namely Prof. Bettina Matthias (German Dept.), who will become the Director of the German School next year, and Prof. Linus Owens (Sociology) who both came to meet with students enrolled in the program, but also to establish or strengthen personal connections with their colleagues at both host institutions. After a series of individual meetings with colleagues from different academic disciplines at both institutions, we got together for faculty receptions in Mainz and in Berlin meeting colleagues from almost all departments where our students either had taken courses last fall or are taking courses this term: German Philology, History, Political Science, Theater Studies, Film Studies, Sociology, Anthropology. Supported by delicious food, countless conversations resulted in new ideas to strengthen the bonds between Middlebury and its host institutions in Germany. We do hope that a couple of them will become a reality over the course of the next year.

11/06/2014
by Heike Fahrenberg
Comments Off on What happened in May?

What happened in May?

Dear readers of the Newsletter –

first of all I want to thank everybody for their kind responses — I was happy about hearing from all of you who studied with Middlebury in the past — and yes – I was thrilled to receive emails from people who participated in the Mainz program as early as 1960!

Thank you so much – it was touching to hear from you — and it was good to see that the students who went through the program since 2000 have not yet forgotten and still cherish their experience. As I said – having coffee with you regularly would be more fun — but in the meantime I’ll make sure to keep you posted and would like to emphasize that I’d always welcome your input!

What happened in May?

Priceless: The Classic Flashmob on the Mainz Market Place, intitiated by the State Philharmonic Orchestra:

“Das Philharmonische Orchester des Staatstheaters Mainz, der Domchor und das Collegium musicum der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz haben im Mai 2014 mit 65 Orchestermusikern und 160 Sängern auf dem Wochenmarkt einen Klassik-Flashmob veranstaltet und mit Beethovens „Ode an die Freude” die großen und kleinen Marktbesucher überrascht und zugleich begeistert. Ein neunköpfiges, rein ehrenamtliches Team von OK:TV Mainz hat den Flashmob filmisch festgehalten.” EnJoy!

And: students completed their course-choices and registrations, while we started preparing the yearly faculty visit. Before our visitors arrived, we went on excursion to Weimar and picked the Long Night of the Museums.

As usual, we started from Mainz and Berlin on Friday afternoon and met up in Weimar. Needless to say, exploring culture means to explore local food, so we got together for dinner at what has become our favorite restaurant. Since we were a fairly large group, we had a room to ourselves:

On the next morning, we took a guided tour through the city, while everybody explored whatever they liked in the afternoon. And then of course there was the Long Night of the Museums, too.

Still we made the bus on 9.50 a.m on Sunday to go to Buchenwald. After having been at this memorial site for the concentration camp so close to Weimar, the city streets and buildings somehow look differently. Exchausted by diverse impressions, good food and conversation, we returned to Berlin and Mainz on late Sunday afternoon. And no – the Deutsche Bahn didn’t play us any tricks — the coach with seating reservations on the train to Berlin was missing, but the upgrade to 1st class made up for that little ‘problem.’ :o)