Florence
Office
FIC 230
Tel
(802) 443-5820
Email
ffeierei@middlebury.edu
Office Hours
Fall 2024: Tuesday 12:30-1:30 & Wednesday 8:45-9:45

Courses Taught

Course Description

Senior Thesis
A senior thesis is normally completed over two semesters. During Fall and Winter terms, or Winter and Spring terms, students will write a 35-page (article length) comparative essay, firmly situated in literary analysis. Students are responsible for identifying and arranging to work with their primary language and secondary language readers, and consulting with the program director before completing the CMLT Thesis Declaration form. (Approval required.)

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Acoustic Ecology
Acoustic ecology is the study of sounds in relationship to life and society. An interdisciplinary field, it explores the social, cultural, scientific, and ecological aspects of the sonic environment. In this seminar we will gain auditory literacy by experiencing the world through sound (e.g., noise, speech, music). Topics will include the impact of noise on society; the urban experience through sound (especially Berlin and New York); aural architecture; production and reception of speech; representations of sound in literature and the visual arts; and even emotional responses to certain songs. Sources include texts by neuroscientists, literary scholars, linguists, anthropologists, musicologists, and others; music, and films. 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Spring 2025

Requirements

CW, SOC

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Course Description

Beginning German
Geared toward quick and early proficiency in comprehension and free expression. Grammatical structures are practiced through group activities and situational exercises (e.g., role-playing games and partner interviews). Active class participation by students is required and will be counted toward the final grade. Since this is an integrated approach, there will be laboratory assignments but no special drill sections. Classes meet five times a week. Students take GRMN 0102 as their winter term course. 6 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2024

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

Beginning German Continued
This course is the intensive continuation of GRMN 0101 which will further the development of your language skills in an immersion-like environment, and will include bi-weekly cultural readings in English. Classes meet for two hours each morning, then lunch at the language tables, in addition to afternoon and evening activities (e.g. film screenings). Completion of this course is a prerequisite to enrollment in GRMN 0103. (GRMN 0101 or equivalent)

Terms Taught

Winter 2022, Winter 2023, Winter 2025

Requirements

LNG, WTR

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Course Description

Beginning German Continued
This course is a continuation of GRMN 0101. Increased emphasis on communicative competence through short oral presentations and the use of authentic German language materials. Introduction to short prose writings and other documents relating to contemporary German culture. Five class meetings per week. (GRMN 0102, or equivalent) 5 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

German in Its Cultural Contexts
The course invites students to explore social and cultural developments in Germany from 1871 to the present day from a historical perspective. We begin by examining Germany’s birth as a nation state and end by looking at recent events in today’s reunified Federal Republic. The course aims to lay the foundation for a critical understanding of German culture in its contemporary global context. Writing the biographies of fictional Germans throughout the semester, students will follow the radical changes in German society during the (long) twentieth century and gain an understanding how ‘ordinary’ people in Germany might have lived. A montage of written and visual materials will expose students to elite, mainstream, and marginal cultures alike. Taught in German. (Formerly GRMN 0310) (GRMN 0202 or placement) 3 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Spring 2022

Requirements

CW, EUR, HIS, LNG

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Course Description

German Linguistics (in German)
This course simultaneously presents an overview of the major subfields of linguistics as they apply to the German language and a discussion of how today's Standard German evolved. We will pay attention to important concepts in phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. In addition to these theoretical and descriptive aspects, we will discuss sociolinguistic issues such as language and gender and regional variations within Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxemburg. Lectures and discussions will be conducted in German. (Formerly GRMN 0340) 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2024

Requirements

EUR, LNG

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Course Description

Sounds and the City: German Urban Cultural History of the 20th and 21st Century
In this course, we will seek to understand the cultural history of 20th and 21st century Germany by examining its soundscapes. Analyzing recordings of selected events, we will discuss how history can be portrayed as an acoustic experience. Sound profiles of city spaces before, during, and after World War II and the Cold War will illustrate sound's impact on German society and its ability to create utopian/dystopian spaces. This line of inquiry invites us to rethink noise, silence, language, identity, power, and-considering the history of recording technologies-the nature of knowledge itself. We will consider works by literary scholars, historians, anthropologists, and musicologists. (Formerly GRMN 0410) 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Fall 2021

Requirements

EUR, LNG

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Course Description

Open Topics Research Seminar
In this seminar students will develop and pursue a research project on a topic of their choice. After reading and discussing research methodology and building research strategies, students will formally present a research proposal to their peers and the department’s professors. The seminar will culminate in each student completing a research paper, translation, or creative project with theoretical underpinnings. Class discussions, presentations, and research papers will be in German. (One course above GRMN300 or by waiver)

Terms Taught

Winter 2021

Requirements

LNG, WTR

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Course Description

Independent Study
(Approval only)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Honors Project
(Approval only)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

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Course Description

German, just like every language, needs to be understood as a historical and social system but also as a biological and cognitive human ability. In this course, we will take a close look at this system and ability and how we can describe and explain them. The following core areas of German linguistics shall be the focus of the first part of our work:
1) Phonetics: What sounds and tones constitute (the German) language?
2) Phonology: How does the human brain categorize sounds and gestures to identify units (phonemes) that carry meaning?
3) Morphology/ lexicon: How do phonemes come together to become units (morphemes) that help us differentiate meaning? How do we form words?
4) Syntax: How do words come together to form (German) sentences?
5) Semantics/ Pragmatics: How do we recognize, respectively construct meaning in sentences, texts and contexts?
The second part of the course will then use findings from our systematic decoding of the German language to address specific questions of language acquisition, neuro-linguistics as well as the history of the German language.

Required texts:

Heinz Vater, Einführung in die Sprachwissenschaft. UTB Verlag. W. Fink. 4. Auflage, unv. Nachdruck (1. Nov. 2002) Stuttgart
ISBN- 10: 3-8252-1799-X
ISBN-13: 978-3825217990

Karl-Heinz Göttert, Deutsch. Biographie einer Sprache. List-Taschenbuch.1. Aufl. (11.März 2011). Berlin
ISBN-10: 3548610242
ISBN -13: 978-3548610245

Terms Taught

Summer 2021 Language Schools, LS 6 Week Session

Requirements

Language & Stylistics

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Course Description

Global Gender and Sexuality Studies Senior Thesis
(Approval Only)

Terms Taught

Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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