Dr. Ulrike Wagner, director of the German Studies Program, publishes "Nineteenth-Century American Translations of German Philology"

Dr. Ulrike Wagner, director of the German Studies Program, has published a new research paper on "Nineteenth-Century American Translations of German Philology" in the edited volume Germanic Philology: Perspectives in Linguistics and Literature. Wagner's scholarship examines how humanities research practices in American higher education emerged from a complex web of transatlantic dialogue and exchange that took place both inside and outside the halls and walls of colleges and universities.

It is well known that the philological techniques developed by late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German scholars of religion and classical culture had enormous reach and reputation. Numerous sources such as those collected in The Rise of the Research University (Chicago UP, 2017) give evidence to how American higher education and its characteristic division into the undergraduate college and university grew out of dialogue and exchange between the United States and Europe. However, these sources have sparked few deeper critical examinations going beyond general appraisals of the importance of German research, references to Wilhelm von Humboldt, or investigations of institutional changes. "Nineteenth-Century American Translations of German Philology" seeks to truly understand what lies at the heart of this period of cross-cultural intellectual exchange by going further and addressing questions about the objectives of scholarship and education.

Wagner’s essay allows readers to track trajectories of influence, correspondence, and dialogue that took place inside as well as outside of colleges and universities. She suggests that philological practices have made crucial contributions to forming conceptions of the self and to modes of cultural and religious renewal centered on the unceasingly active engagement of the individual. 

As a German-American university, Bard College Berlin exemplifies the liberal arts model of education that grew out of the German intellectual tradition and flourished in American institutions of higher education. The college continues to further this tradition of transatlantic dialogue through the German Studies Program as well as a wide variety of educational and cultural opportunities.

Post Date: 05-21-2024