I am Christoph Schmitz, a graduate student and teaching assistant in the Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies. I love to read, teach, and write about contemporary German fiction, pop music, and film. I pursue my academic work in dialog with media studies, art history, critical theory, and analytic philosophy.
I teach for the moments when my students discover that German as a foreign language, literary texts, or philosophical theories reflect their own experiences in new contexts. I am often hu,bled to see students make connections between the arts, philosophy, cultural history, and their own place and time in this world.
I have taught German as a foreign language in China as well as in the US, and the experience to meet so many students with diverse backgrounds continues to deeply influence me, both personally and as a teacher. I strive for my classroom to be an open and safe space where my students can raise their voices in unison with their peers. It is important to me that my students understand themselves as part of the community of German speakers from the moment they speak their first “Guten Tag!”
If you are curious about my academic background, you can find my CV here.
If you would like to know more about my teaching, you can find my teaching philosophy here. In my portfolio, you can also see two sample syllabi, one for an advanced German class and one for a class about contemporary German literature. For some feedback from my students, follow this link.
If you would like to get in touch, you can write me an email.