JOHN BLAIR
Associate Professor of German
Address:
Department of For. Langs. & Lits.
State University. of West Georgia
E-Mail: jblair@westga.edu work phone: 678 839-9593
Homepage: http://www.westga/~jblair
Education:
Ph.D., Indiana University, June, 1994
M.A., Indiana University, 1984
B.A., Hendrix College, 1981
Dissertation:
Authority and Transgression in "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre," 1994
Book:
Tracing Subversive Currents in Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" (Camden House, 1997, 214 pp.)
Reviewed:
by Wolfgang Bunzel (Dresden) in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature
by Hildburg Herbst (Rutgers University) in The German Quarterly 72 (1999), 83-84.
by Todd Kontje (Univ. of Chicago) in Seminar xxxiv (1998), 449-450.
by Gordon Burgess (Trinity College, Dublin) in Journal of European Studies 27 (1997), 481-482.
by Franz Futterknecht (University of Florida) in South Atlantic Review
by James A. Cox in The Midwest Book Review
Articles:
“Colonialism in Sternberg’s Der blaue Engel.” in West Virginia University Philological Papers, Volume 50 (Special Issue: Race and Racism in Literature and Film), 2003 (2004), 53-59.
"Madness and Bliss as Ideological Categories in Mararethe von Trotta’s The Promise." Journal of the Association for the Interdiscipinary Study of the Arts 7.1-2 (Autumn 2001- Spring 2002) 91-101.
“Frédéric Melchior Grimm.” Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 313: Writers of he French Enlightenment, I. Ed. Samia I. Spencer. Thomson Gale: Detroit et al., 2005. 241-248. (5000-word article + bibliography).
“Friedrich Melchior Grimm.” 600-word article + bibliography. (forthcoming in the Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers)
Reviews:
Bennet, Benjamin. Goethe as Woman. The Undoing of Literature (Wayne State UP: Detroit, 2001). Forthcoming in The Eighteenth-Century Current Bibliography.
O’Brien, Mary-Elizabeth. Nazi Cinema as Enchantment. The Politics of Entertainment in the Third Reich. (Columbia: Camden House, 2004) in German Quarterly 78.2 (2005) 258-259.
Tantillo, Astrida Orle. The Will to Create. Goethe’s Philosophy of Nature. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002) in German Quarterly 77.1 (2004) 95-6.
Martin Swales and Erika Swales. Reading Goethe. A Critical Introduction to the Literary Work. Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture. James Hardin, ed. (Columbia: Camden House, 2002) in Seminar xl, Number 1 ,2004, 70-72.
Hake, Sabine. Popular Cinema of the Third Reich. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001) in German Quarterly 75.4 (2002) 450-451.
Paul E. Kerry. Enlightenment Thought in the Writings of Goethe: A Contribution to the History of Ideas. Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture. James Hardin, ed. (Columbia: Camden House, 2001) in Seminar xl, Number 1. 2004, 72-73.
Daniel J. Farrelly. Goethe in East Germany, 1949-1989. Toward a History of Goethe Reception in the GDR (Columbia:Camden House 1998) in Seminar xxxviii, Number 2, 2002, 177-178..
Christoph Lorey: Die Ehe im Klassischen Werk Goethes (Amsterdam/Atlanta: rodopi, 1995) in Seminar xxxv, Number 4, 1998, 73-74.
Textbook Reviews:
Wende.
(Beginning German Text under development by Thomson/Heinle. Chaps. 4 and 7)
Completed October 2006.
Cinema
for German Conversation and Composition. Focus Publishing. Developmental
Review of Chapter on Im Juli. Completed April 2006.
Sevin et al. Wie Geht’s, 8th edition, Thomson/Heinle. Developmental Review of Chaps. 1-4. Completed August 2005
Terrell et al. Kontakte, 6th edition. McGraw-Hill. Completed Dec. 2005.
Journalistic or Service Publications:
“New Colleague in German at the University of West Georgia.” Das Rundschreiben. A Publication of the Georgia Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. Neue Folge, No. 21, Herbst 2006, 1 (continued on 7).
“Total Immersion Weekend at UWG 6-8 April 2007.” Das Rundschreiben. A Publication of the Georgia Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. Neue Folge, No. 21, Herbst 2006, 4.
“Second Annual Ten-Week studies Abroad Program in Oldenburg.” Das Rundschreiben. A Publication of the Georgia Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. Neue Folge, No. 21, Herbst 2006, 5.
“New German Major at the State University of West Georgia.” Das Rundschreiben. A Publication of the Georgia Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. Neue Folge, No. 16, Spring 2004, 6.
“State University of West Georgia Inaugurates German Total Immersion Camp.” Das Rundschreiben. A Publication of the Georgia Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. Neue Folge, No. 16, Spring 2004, 22.
Presentations:
“’Between the Potency and the Existence falls the shadow:’ Topographical Expereicne as Avoidance in Christian Kracht’s Faserland.” 60th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 19-21, 2007.
“Nation and Myth in Tom Tykwer’s Winterschläfer.” SAMLA. Atlanta, Nov. 4-6, 2005.
“Motherhood Interrupted in Fassbinder’s Fontane Effi Briest.” 29th Annual Colloquium on Literature and Film. Morgantown, West Virginia, Sept. 30- Oct. 2, 2004
“Looking at the Past in Stefan Ruzowitzky’s Anatomy.” German Studies Association Convention. Washington, D.C., Oct. 7-10, 2004
“Real and Metaphorical Warfare in Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa.” 28h Annual Colloquium on Literature and Film. Morgantown, West Virginia. Sept. 18-20, 2003.
“Friedrich Melchior Grimm’s Correspondance littéraire and the German Cultural Context.” Eleventh Interantional Congress on the Englishtenment. Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Los Angeles, August 3-10, 2003.
“Hollywood German-Style: Stefan Ruzowitzky’s Anatomy.” The Fifteenth Hollins Colloquium on German Film: “The Germans in Hollywood Today. Roanoke, Virginia, June 19-23, 2003
Viktor Vogel: Commercial Man and The Blue Angel.” 56th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 24-26, 2003.
“Colonialism in Sternberg’s Der blaue Engel.” 27th Annual Colloquium on Literature and Film. Morgantown, West Virginia. October 10-12, 2002.
"'This old School': Sarah Kernochan's Renovation of Leontine Sagan's Mädchen in Uniform." 55th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 18-20, 2002.
"Mise en scene and Memory in Margarethe von Trotta's The Promise." Invited Speaker at the Annual Foreign Film Festival, Georgia Southern, March 5-7, 2002.
"Reading Foreign Films: Methods and Directions." Invited Speaker at the Annual Foreign Film Festival, Georgia Southern, March 5-7, 2002.
"Rebellion, Conformity, and Sexuality in Sarah Kernochan's All I wanna do and Leontine Sagan's Mädchen in Uniform." Parody & Imitation: 16th Annual International Conference in Literature, Visual Arts and/or Cinema. Atlanta, Georgia, November 2 - 4, 2001.
"Authority and (Biological) Illegitimacy in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship." SEASECS 2001: The Eighteenth Century and the Future. Huntsvilles, Georgia, March 1-3, 2001.
"Madness and Bliss as Ideological Categories in Mararethe von Trotta’s The Promise." Madness & Bliss:15th Annual International Conference in Literature, Visual Arts and/or Cinema. Atlanta, Georgia, November 3 - 5, 2000.
"Collections in Die Wahlverwandtschaften: Appreciation, Abuse and Social Engineering." SEASECS 2000: New Worlds in Thought, Place & Time. Savannah, Georgia, March 2-4, 2000.
"Die Vorzüge von kurzen Spielfilmauszügen im Anfängerunterricht" Savannah Sprachbad 2000: Total Immersion Weekend for Teachers of German. Savannah, Georgia, Jan. 14-16.
"Women and Limits in Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre." The International Conference on Borders and Foundations in Literature and the Visual Arts, Atlanta, Georgia, October 23,-25, 1997.
"Humor and Hamlet in Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre." Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 18-20, 1996
"Projection in Kafka's Der Prozeß." Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, April 20-22, 1995
"Canon and Collection in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship." (Re)thinking the Canon: Plural Approaches. Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, March, 1994
"The Figure of the Vulgar Clown in Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre: A Cultural Perspective and its Impact on Interpretation." The Annual Interdisciplinary Symposium in Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Studies: The Comic. University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, February, 1994
"Collections in Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre," Multidisciplinary Conference on Germanic Studies, Indiana University at Bloomington, November, 1993
Grants:
Awarded Research Grant of one new laptop and $750 for research on Hybrid teaching strategies using on-line and classroom techniques.
Wrote successful Technology Fee Grant for $2250 to maintain service and upgrade software for Can8 in the language lab.(Spring 2005)
Wrote successful Technology Fee Grant for $2250 to add ceiling mounted LCD projector for Cobb Hall 130. (Spring 2005)
Wrote successful Technology Fee Grant for $8300 to upgrade lab connections to drops rather than two loud and inefficient hubs. (Spring 2005
Wrote Technology Fee Grant for $3000 man lab with student worker and extend open hours. (Spring 2005)
Wrote Technology Fee Grant for $1250 to buy printer and first years license for monitoring and maintenance. (Spring 2005)
Wrote successful Technology Fee Grant for $2240 for a projector, ceiling mount, and wiring harness for the new For. Langs. and Lits. Classroom in Cobb Hall. (Spring 2005)
Wrote successful Technology Fee Grant for $8000 to add ten Can8 liscenses to the language lab. (Spring 2004)
Wrote successful Technology Fee Grant for $1500 to maintain service and upgrade software for Can8 in the language lab.(Spring 2004)
Wrote successful Technology Fee Grant for the $1500 service and upgrade fees for Can8 software. (Spring, 2003)
Wrote Technology Fee Grant for wiring and switch upgrade for $4500. Not awarded.
Wrote successful Technology Fee Grant for a computer, DVD, and LCD projector station for the lab and was awarded $8000. (Spring 2002)
Wrote successful grant for the $1500 service and upgrade fees for Can8 software (Spring 2002)
I was awarded a Dell Laptop in Dr. Hines’ on-line course proposal competition. (2000)
Maintained contact with Michael Henegar, organized his yearly $500 travel scholarship donation, and organized the selection of the recipient. (Spring 2003, 2004, and 2005)
Wrote Grant for “Dedicated Language Laboratory Development and Intermim Use Facility” requesting $20,000. Not awarded. (11/1997)
Wrote Teaching & Learning Grant “Structural Knowledge in Lanugage Learning (SkiLL) for $19,775. Not awarded (2000)
Service:
University System Committee:
German Content Advisory Committee member for the Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators. Fall 2005-present. (full day meeting, Sept. 28)
Institutional Committees:
Film Studies Minor Program Committee, Fall 2005-present
Institutional Studies and Planning Committee, Fall 2004-June 2006
Academic Policies and Procedures Committee, Fall 2003 – Spring 2004
Chair, International Programs Advisory Committee, Fall 2004-present
International Programs Advisory Committee, Fall 2003 – present
Technology Planning Committee (Fall 2001 – 2002)
College Committees:
XIDS Committee, Fall 2003-present
Faculty Advisory Committee, 1998-2000
Departmental Committees:
Chair, Third-Year Review: Ioanna Chatzidimitriou
Spanish Position (2) Search Committee 2005-2006
Chair, Jewell Miles Burson Fellowship Selection Committee, 1997- present
Spanish Position (2) Search Committee, 2003-2004
(interviewed at MLA in San Diego)
Very active Role in Internal Evaluation Committee, 2003
(Wrote SWOT analysis)
Active Role in SACS Advisory Committee
French Position (2) Search Committee 2002-2003
(interviewed at MLA in New York)
Member of Strategic Assessment Committee for Program Review, 2001.
French Search Committee, Spring, 2000
Departmental Committee on the Homepage, 1998
Other Service:
Week-long exploratory visits to Oldenburg, Germany to discuss studies abroad opportunities, 2004 and 2005
Organizing 11-week Overseas Program, Fall 2005.
Organized and managed (with Dr. Cormican) Total Immersion Weekend for 18 students of German.
Revision of course offerings in preparation for Application for German Major
Definition and application to BOR for German Major (18-page document)
Freshman Advising at the Excel Center (20 hours per year, 2000 – Fall 2002
German Studies Coordinator, 1999-present
Foreign Language Lab Director, 1999-present
Departmental Webmaster, 1998-present (designed dept. homepage and ongoing revisions of same)
Internship and Overseas Study Mediator: one student in Summer 2000; seven, Spring and Summer 2001; six, Summer 2002; three, Summer 2003; seven, Summer 2004
Organized (with Dr. Cormican) and attended “Kaffeestunde,” German dinners, German picnic, and German film series 1997- present
Organized Dr. Günter Seefeldt's campus visit to speak on Overseas internship opportunities. Fall, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002.
Moderated a panel at the "International Conference on Madness and Bliss in Literature and the Visual Arts, Including Cinema," Nov. 3-5, 2000
Organized Panel (“Eighteenth- and Twentieth-Century Dialogues with the Margins”) for SEASECS conference, March 1-3, 2001.
Organization (with Dr. Cecilia Lee) of the Foreign Language Honor Society Initiation, Spring, 1998-present
Graded Graduate Reading Exam, Jan. 2001.
Moderated two panels at the "International Conference on Utopia and Dsytopia in Literature and the Visual Arts, Including Cinema," Nov. 1999.
Interviewed High School Students for Nomination for AATG Trip awards (with Horst Kurz), 1999.
Creation and submission of one Honors course (accepted), 2000.
German Picnic series for enthusiastic and interested students 1999-2000
Creation and submission of four XIDS courses (accepted), 1998-1999
Translation of three letters for the dean's office, 1998
Evaluation of German application materials for admssions (Ernest Oppong; 2/9), 1998
Grading Graduate Reading Knowledge Exams (3), 1998
Translation of adoption papers for Immigration Service application, 1998
Refereed article for Colloquia Germanica, 1998
Attended Savannah Sprachbad, a total immersion, pedagogical conference for Georgia teachers. 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005
Attended State High School German convention, 1998, 2004
Declamation contest: chose all poems for German and evaluated student performances, 1997
Hands-on Workshop for the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department on the Construction of a Home Page (late in the Fall semester, 1996)
Revision of the departmental homepage, University of Nevada (Reno), 1996-1997
Coordination of first- and second-year German, University of Nevada (Reno), 1994-1997
Refereed articles for publication in German Quarterly, 1995-1996, 2005
Delta Phi Alpha faculty advisor (Fall, 1994-1997)
German Film Series Organizer (Spring, 1995-1997)
"Kaffeestunde," (Spring, 1995-1997)
Supervision of assistant instructors teaching third- and fourth-semester German, Indiana University (Bloomington), 1993-1994
Research Interests:
18th Century and "Goethe-Zeit"
Kafka
Literary Sociology, Freud, Stereotypes
Shakespeare (esp. Hamlet) in Germany
Carnival, Marketplace, "Hanswurst" traditions
Collections and Museums in the 18th and 19th centuries
German Film
Fellowships:
Oskar Seidlin Fellow, 1987-1988
DAAD Fellow, 1986-1987
Heart of Germany Fellow, 1986
Max Kade Fellow, 1985-1986
Indiana University Fellow, 1983
Foreign Experience:
Krefeld Sommerakademie, June and July, 1997
Freie Universität Berlin, 1986-1987
Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München, 1979-1981
Research Trip Berlin and O ldenburg, May and June, 2004
Teaching Experience:
Contemporary German Cinema, Spring 2004
Advanced Languages Skills (GRMN 4170), Fall 2003
Mysteries and Horror in German Literature and Film (GRMN 4240), Spring 2002 (honors course)
German Civilization (GRMN 4300 / 5300), a culture course predominately for graduate students, Summer, 2000 and 2001
German History through Film and Art (XIDS 2100, large lecture section), Spring 2000 and Fall 2002, Summer 2003, Fall 2004, Summer 2004 (on-line).
The Fin de Siecle in Germany and Austria (XIDS 2100), Fall, 1998
German Culture through Film, State Univ. of West Georgia, Spring, 1998
German Composition (GRMN 3102), State Univ. of West Georgia, 1997-2005
German Conversation (GRMN 3101), State Univ. of West Georgia, 1997-2006
German Literature and Culture of the Fin de Siècle (FLL430/630, crosslisted with English 480/680), University of Nevada (Reno), Spring, 1997
Short Forms in German Literature, University of Nevada (Reno), Spring, 1995 and 1996
Western Traditions (Old Testament through Dante), University of Nevada (Reno), Fall, 1995
Third-Year Conversation, University of Nevada (Reno), 1994-1996, State Univ. of West Georgia, Fall, 1998-2000.
German I, II, III, and IV, State Univ. of West Georgia, 1997-2006; University of Nevada (Reno), 1994-1996; Indiana University (Bloomington), 1982-1985
German 330 (Mittelstufe II), Indiana University (Bloomington) 1991, 1993, 1994
Language Concepts, a unit in the Indiana University Groups Program, Summers, 1983-1985, 1991, 1992
Language for Reading Knowledge I and II, Indiana University (Bloomington), 1988-1990, 1992
German Language and Culture Instructor for a Summer Enrichment Program at Shoals Elementary School in Shoals, Indiana, Summer 1991
Major Themes in Western Literature, Indiana University (Bloomington), Comparative Literature, 1988
Major Characters in Western Literature, Indiana University (Bloomington), Comparative Literature, 1987
Guitar, Tuba, and Singing, Arkansas Children's Colony, Conway, Arkansas, 1977-1978
Additional Occupational Experience:
Associate Professor of German, University of West Georgia, 2004-present.
Assistant Professor of German, State Univ. of West Georgia, 1997-present.
Translator of technical documents for a court case on two- and four-stroke engines and the effects of their emissions on aquatic environments (six texts with a total of 15,644 words)
Lecturer, University of Nevada, Reno, 1994-1997
Part-Time Lecturer, Indiana University at Bloomington, 1993-1994
Correcting and indexing Intertextuality: German Literature and Visual Art from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century (Columbia: Camden House, 1993), ed. Ingeborg Hoesterey and Ulrich Weisstein
Editing and proof-reading assistance on Zeitgeist in Babel: The Post-Modernist Controversy (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991), ed. Ingeborg Hoesterey
Various jobs in Germany, Book-binding factory, fruit warehouse, shock-absorber factory, word processing, minor non-technical assistance in making a film
Affiliations:
Goethe Society of North America
Modern Language Association
South Atlantic Modern Language Association
American Association of Teachers of German
American Association of University Professors
Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Association for the Interdisciplinary Study of the Arts
Languages:
German, near native
English, native
Dutch, reading knowledge, some speaking
French, reading knowledge
Letters of Recommendation:
Indiana University at Bloomington:
Peter Boerner (for direct inquiries: 812 336-1749)
Ingeborg Hoesterey
Breon Mitchell
Terence Thayer (Departmental Teaching Summary)
University of Nevada at Reno:
John C. Pettey (for direct inquiries: 702 784-6055)
Frank Tobin (for direct inquiries: 702 784-6055)
Judith Whitenack (for direct inquiries: 702 784-6055)