Carolina Duke Graduate Program in German Studies Review
v Questions with German Studies Educatee Emma Woelk
April 30, 2015
In 2007, at a fourth dimension when some German graduate programs were getting smaller, the programs at Duke and the University of N Carolina at Chapel Hill got bigger past merging with each other. The resulting Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies is one of the largest in the country in terms of faculty size.
The programme now boasts 29 Ph.D. students, with vi more starting in fall 2015. Emma Woelk, who entered the program in 2010, volition become its beginning graduate in May. She discussed her experience with The Graduate School.
When you were choosing a graduate program, how did the fact that this was a articulation effort betwixt two schools affect your conclusion?
I thought of it equally a plus considering I knew I would have access to more faculty and more classes. I don't think my understanding of it at that betoken was much deeper than that. I knew I wanted to become to a larger program where at that place would be larger class sizes. I idea it was exciting that they were trying something new, and I knew information technology meant a lot more than diversity. Those were the things that initially attracted me. Over my five years in the program, I saw more than and more of what the advantages really would be.
And then what was information technology like going through the programme?
The overall experience has been very positive. I actually like both campuses. I love not but having access to both libraries' collections—which any student at one university or the other would take—just likewise having a carrel at Duke and a instruction office at UNC. The atmospheres at both campuses are really nice; they are both great work environments. I like that I accept close relationships with professors at both campuses.
I feel like all kinds of resources at both campuses are at our disposal, and that includes things like summer grants. I've been really lucky to take really generous funding from both Knuckles and UNC to let me to practise what I want to do over the summer. In the past twelvemonth that meant going to archives in Argentina, and a couple years agone, that meant going to New York City and taking an intensive Yiddish class. I got funding for that from both of the centers for Jewish studies at UNC and Knuckles. I don't recollect I would accept been able to practice that if I hadn't had both of those sources of funding and if I didn't accept people on both campuses supporting me and helping me find those sources.
Some other aspect that's really groovy is getting to teach in ii kinds of schools. Most people in our program switch between the two schools and they teach during the year at both Knuckles and UNC. My feel is a little different. I received a 5-year Royster Fellowship from UNC, which committed me to teaching there during the bookish year. During the summer, I was employed by Duke to piece of work on the Duke in Berlin plan, and this will be my fourth year doing that. I get to get teach Duke students in Berlin for six weeks, which is awesome. It has given me the take chances to piece of work with a dissimilar grouping of students and embrace different textile, as I have been teaching a history/culture course called "Jewish Berlin" rather than a linguistic communication class. It's an heady experience for both the students and me because we actually use the city of Berlin as a classroom. We keep walking tours, run into with experts on the footing, and visit museums and memorials.
What was your dissertation on?
My dissertation is well-nigh Yiddish, the language and the culture, in postwar German writing. The question I pose is, "Why was this Jewish-Germanic linguistic communication taken support during the Cold War on both sides of the Berlin Wall when it actually didn't take that much of a presence amongst German-speaking Jewry before the war?"
Which school did yous pull for during basketball game season?
I rooted for whoever I had chosen to win in my family puddle, which was neither Duke nor UNC. I am so non a sports fan that I don't even call back what school it was. I recollect I probably picked Kentucky since anybody picked Kentucky this year. Most people in my family went to the University of Kansas. I try to stay pretty neutral.
What would you tell your 2010 self well-nigh this program?
I would definitely emphasize to my 2010 self the amount of flexibility this program has and the run a risk to work actually closely with students and faculty at both universities. Yous get a sense of what it's like to teach a four-person class over the summer and what it'due south similar to teach a larger language grade of almost 25 people at a big state school. Having now gone through the job market, I think it is valuable to exist familiar with both types of institutions and many unlike types of form settings.
Nearly Emma Woelk
Woelk graduated from Vassar Higher in 2008 with a available's in High german studies. Subsequently graduation, she spent a yr in Berlin as a Fulbright Fellow, researching inability policy in the German democratic republic. She then spent a yr in her hometown of Austin, Texas, working at a bilingual English language‐Castilian preschool through AmeriCorps. Woelk's past enquiry in High german Studies has included work on young adult literature, race in 20th-century Deutschland, and the history of scientific discipline in Federal republic of germany.
Source: https://gradschool.duke.edu/about/news/5-questions-german-studies-student-emma-woelk
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