In the more than 300 years of learning and teaching English in German-speaking countries we find evidence of innovative methods, customized teaching materials, a wide range of practices as well as examples of theoretical and empirical research. Some developments have been forgotten, others exert an influence on the field of ELT to this day. Knowing about the multi-faceted past may help us to better understand the present and recognize the constant and universal elements of language teaching and learning.

 

Bio:

 

 Friederike Klippel held the Chair of English Language Education (ELT/TESOL) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich from 1993 to 2015 after her PhD (1979) and her postdoc degree (1992) at Dortmund University (Germany). During the academic year of 2016/17 she was guest professor for TEFL at the University of Vienna. In the summer semester of 2018 she is Expert in Residence at Heidelberg University.

She has published on a wide range of aspects concerning English language teaching and language teacher education. Her research areas comprise the history of language teaching and learning, language teaching methodology, classroom research, intercultural education, teacher education and professional development. Her many publications include Keep Talking (CUP 1984) and a comprehensive historical study of learning and teaching English in 18th and 19th century Germany (Englischlernen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Die Geschichte der Lehrbücher und Unterrichtsmethoden. 1994). At present she serves on the editorial boards of the journals Language Teaching (CUP) and Zeitschrift fuer Fremdsprachenforschung (ZFF). She is an active member of professional organisations like IATEFL, DGFF, Henry Sweet Society and Anglistenverband.

 

Date and place:

May 9, 2018

HS 3, 10-11:30

In context of the early 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the Black Nationalist aspirations of Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) make the group seem ahead of its time. RAM developed a political program for African American autonomy in the Northern cities while much of the country was focused on the South and the struggle for integration. RAM’s “speculative fiction” encompasses their elaborate and prescient vision of things to come, including urban riots, armed self-defense groups, and other characteristics that came to be associated with the Black Power era. In his presentation, Sean Lovitt will examine this cultural production as a literary forerunner to Black Arts and Black Power, arguing that the habitual exclusion of RAM’s writing from the cultural history of the 1960s comes at the cost of a significant link between the Civil Rights and Black Power eras.

Bio:
Sean Lovitt is a PhD candidate in English Literature at the University of Delaware and the Graduate International Exchange Fellow at the University of Graz with research interests in the print culture of the Underground Press of the 1960s. His dissertation “Mimeo Insurrection” brings together the writings of an array of publications from the period, including Umbra, Black Panther Newspaper, Floating Bear, and Black Mask. More broadly, his interest in dissident writing extends across the long history of the book and printed ephemera from zines to avant-garde little magazines to black magic manuals.

 

Date and place:

April 24, 2018

HS 10, 12-13:00