FLACH SIG Presents... In the Shadow of the Alps

In the Shadows of the Alps – Reading Franz Hohler’s Contemporary Swiss Novels in German Courses (auf Deutsch)

This presentation by Katja Anderson illuminates the multiple ecological aspects students discover in Franz Hohler’s fictional writings in German courses: Die Steinflut, Es klopft, and Das Päckchen. This trio of publications employs continuities of Swiss literature such as the preeminence of nature, the dynamics of coincidence, and the inescapability of the past. Against the awe-inspiring Alpine backdrop of Switzerland, the drama of climate change looms and suddenly strikes in these three narratives. Students investigate the human impact on the environment that overshadows the protagonists’ lives and endeavors in Hohler’s novels, featuring stern warnings to respect nature or to reap nature’s wrath.

 Moreover, webinar participants will explore examples of Franz Hohler's short stories and poetry for children that entice the curiosity of intermediate German language learners. This webinar will be conducted in German and include information on digital materials that display the variety of German dialects to students.

Katja Anderson is an Associate Professor of German and French at the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC). She earned her M.Ed. in French and History at the University of Bonn, Germany, and received her B.A. in French and German Studies at the Sorbonne University, Paris III, France. She has extensive teaching experience at public and private U.S. universities, German Adult Education Centers (VHS), Goethe-Institut, and secondary schools in Europe. Her U.S. students reside in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. 

In 2022, she published the chapter “Interactive Digital Worlds: Best Teaching Practices in the Online Language Classroom”, together with Natasha Anderson in the trilingual volume Visual Literacy and Digital Communication: The Role of Media in New Educational Practices. In 2023, she presented "Digital Dialogues – Interactive and Individualized Feedback in the Online Language Classroom“ at Chemnitz University of Technology and "Multilingual Mirrors: Foreign-Language Journalists of French-Canadian and German Immigrant Newspapers in Massachusetts and Minnesota" at Saarland University in Germany together with Natasha Anderson. Furthermore, she presented "Digital Diversity and Inclusive Interactions in the Online Language Classroom" at Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany, and "Conversations as Crossroads of Conflicts: Three French Plays by Yasmina Reza" at Louisiana State University, USA.

_{FLACH SIG promotes the teaching of Fürstentum Liechtenstein, Austria, South Tyrol, and Switzerland (CH) in German language instruction K-16.}