Diversity means acknowledging, embracing, and amplifying every voice; it means finding a balance between voices high and low, loud and soft, thoughtful and impassioned, bold and reserved. I have taught German language and literature courses on three continents and shared the classroom with students of diverse racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, gender identities, and ages. I am always humbled by the opportunity to listen to and learn from so many different people. These experiences have enhanced my teaching and research by attuning me to difference and diversity. My teaching is committed to promoting a diverse classroom that is open and safe, a place where students can engage subjects in ways that accommodate their individual aspirations and alleviate their anxieties. In my research, advancing diversity means to question presuppositions of cultural canons that often reproduce social power structures. As a literary scholar, the question how works of fiction incorporate the voices of marginalized individuals and groups is especially important to me and my teaching.
Reciprocal relationships do not come about naturally in the classroom. In fact, the assumption that the classroom is a natural space for students to express themselves often spawns the exact opposite. The classroom culture we inherit is not a disinterested space; rather, it stems from a long legacy that upholds privilege that I inadvertently profit from. The first step to fulfilling my vision of a diverse classroom is thus to acknowledge that my own physical presence shapes the dynamics in every class I teach. Within the physical space of the classroom, I am a Western, white, cis male. When my students enter the classroom, they likely see an authoritative fluent speaker who will teach them the German language. To assume that the classroom’s culture of learning automatically guarantees a bias-free environment neglects the university’s broader history shaped by racial, gender-based, and socioeconomic exclusion. Sustaining this environment makes it impossible to balance students’ voices. This is why I strive for equity, inclusion, and diversity in my classrooms.
Learning a new language can be intimidating; the target language and its culture often appear monolithic such that students perceive it as distant and unrelated to themselves. To counter such impressions, I invite my students to consider themselves members of a diverse community of German speakers. Instead of dwelling in cultural differences, I point out to students that they share many experiences with German speakers. To achieve this, diversifying teaching material is crucial. The pictures I choose for my teaching materi- als represent the diversity that defines contemporary Germany, and show, for example, persons with disabilities, women, LGBTIQA+, Afro-Germans, and Asian-Germans. To make a more inclusive pool of teaching material, I offer my students websites, social media, and periodicals run by members of underrepresented groups. As a Bass Digital Education Fellow at Duke University, I am currently developing lesson plans that intro- duce students to podcasters who have non-German roots. By integrating such stories into my teaching and giving students the opportunity to record their own stories, I not only present a far more accurate image of German, Austrian, and Swiss cultures but also offer students points of contact with which they can possibly identify. By engaging these ma- terials with my students, I, too, learn how to see German-speaking cultures with different eyes and listen to voices that enrich and diversify my own understanding of Europe.
In my research, diversity also plays a crucial role. Although my dissertation is primarily concerned with questions regarding media studies, investigating how literary texts engage the mediascape after World War II, I discuss technological issues against the backdrop of inclusion and exclusion. Voice recordings are crucial for my research. Literature cannot reproduce sound, but where it integrates transcripts of voice recordings, it suggests that these voices do have a different status than the literary voices that normally speak to readers. I show how male and female writers incorporate transcripts to amplify speakers from underrepresented groups that are often excluded from literary discourse. The same technologies, however, can also be misused. When the voices of women writers, for example, are stored on tape, they are confined to a realm outside the literary mainstream. Thus, one of the main claims of my dissertation is that technology does not define our social relationships but is rather a tool. As such, it can be used both to manifest social hierarchies or upset them.
Changing an ambivalent academic culture requires working outside of the classroom and away from the desk. Action and ideas grow from collaborations. With colleagues, I collaborate in reading circles, conference seminars, and initiatives like Decolonization and Diversity in the German Curriculum (DDGC) to discuss and develop ideas pertaining to diversity in my field and higher education, in general. I participated in a seminar at the GSA Annual Meeting in Portland, OR, in 2019, in which I presented ideas on how to unravel the canon of German literature, and investigate an early example of openly queer and post-colonial literature by teaching the works of Hubert Fichte. My own education in these matters continues, for example through participating in relevant training like LGBTQ+ Safe Zone. To further develop my understanding of theoretical questions pertaining to diversity and representation, I am participating in the Diaspora Studies reading group organized by the DDGC.
I plan to continue my diversity education. Because inclusive teaching material is an essential tool in higher education, I plan to professionalize my efforts further through educational design. I also plan to continue my participation in groups and committees in higher education that further advance our goal for greater equity and inclusion. Through my own learning, growing, and understanding, I strive to create a welcoming atmosphere that motivates all students to amplify their own voices and those of their peers. Only when this is achieved can we teach and learn beyond the restrictions of exclusionary hierarchies.