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Jill Beckman, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Director, Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
DEO, German
Associate Professor
Dr. Jill Beckman is the Director of the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (DWLLC), Interim DEO of the Department of German, and Associate Professor of Linguistics.
Glenn Ehrstine, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Associate Professor
Glenn Ehrstine's primary research explores the intersections of literature, religion, and politics in medieval and early modern Germany, with a particular focus on the cultural transformations that occurred between late medieval Catholicism and the early Protestant Reformation. His more recent research concerns the Catholic theatrical traditions that the Reformation erased or altered. For his teaching, he focuses on practical aspects of German language, literature, and culture that hold broader interest for students in Iowa.
Sarah Fagan, Ph.D.
Title/Position
DEO, Linguistics
Professor
Sarah Fagan’s research and teaching interests include Germanic linguistics, theoretical linguistics, and the German language.
Elke Heckner, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Associate Professor of Instruction
Elke Heckner teaches in the German Department. She is currently completing a book manuscript, tentatively entitled, "Memories of Futurity: Remapping Visual Representations of the Holocaust and Genocide." Her recent articles in Shofar and New German Critque examine issues of second- and third generation witnessing in film, TV productions and memorial culture.
Kirsten Kumpf Baele, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Director, Anne Frank Initiative
Associate Professor of Instruction
Kirsten E. Kumpf Baele is the Director of the Anne Frank Initiative (AFI) and a Distinguished Associate Professor of Instruction in German at the University of Iowa. Her work centers around human experiences and social justice, as reflected in her research, teaching, and public engagement. Her academic career has consistently been shaped by stories and lived experiences that highlight social inequalities, constraints, and the potential for personal transformation. Her work focuses on the liminal and transitional spaces that, when closely examined, reveal richness, reclamation, and resilience. She is both personally and professionally driven to (re)examine concepts of confinement and resistance—whether literal, physical, or figurative—to challenge reductionist systems and structures that fail to honor individuality or foster empathy.
Waltraud Maierhofer, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Professor, German
Professor, Global Health Studies
Waltraud Maierhofer is professor of German and in the Global Health Studies Program. She teaches courses on German literature and culture and also on international culture. Her research and teaching interests include German literature and culture from the eighteenth century to the present. She is especially interested in representations of health and Human Rights issues (contraception, abortion, disabilities), in intersections of historiography and fiction, ego-documents and biography, but also book illustrations and text–image relations, and she has edited several historical documents and translations.
Bruce Nottingham-Spencer, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Associate Professor of Instruction
Bruce Nottingham-Spencer spent time abroad at the Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany and the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Germany. He currently supervises the Elementary German program and teaches a variety of courses including German Composition and Conversation, and Business German. His interests include Historical Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Language Pedagogy, Second Language Acquisition, Crime Fiction, and Germanic Mythology.