Updated: March 2020.
Selected Employment History
Instructor, Oregon State University, World Languages and Cultures. 2015-present.
Operations Director, German Studies Association, 2019-2022.
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Mittelbau, University of Vienna, Faculty of Philosophy and Education. 2011-2015.
Erasmus Teaching Exchange Fellow, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, Department of Human Science. Spring/Summer 2014.
Ecampus Instructor, part-time, Oregon State University, Department of German/Ecampus. 2012-2015.
Instructor, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of French and Italian Studies, Department of History. 2011-2012.
Visiting Professor, University of Leipzig, Germany, Department of History and Pedagogy. Summer 2011.
Instructor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst Department of History and online Judaic Studies. 2010-2011.
Assistant Professor, European women’s and gender history, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, Department of History. Aug. 2002-June 2010. (Created and coordinated European women’s and gender history major/minor track)
Research Residential Fellow, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Environment and Ecological Station-Moulis. Aug. 2009, Nov. 2009, April 2010, July 2010.
Adjunct Faculty, Columbus State Community College, Humanities Department. Winter 2009.
Dean, Italian Language Village summer language immersion program of Concordia Language Villages, Bemidji, MN. Summers, 2003-2006.
Curriculum Coordinator, College Language and History Instructor, Staff Counselor, German and French Language Village summer language programs of Concordia Language Villages, Bemidji, MN. Summers, 1990-2002.
Visiting Assistant Professor, European History, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, Department of History, Sept. 2001-June 2002.
Visiting Instructor, New York University-Florence, Italy, Fall 2000.
Education
University of Wisconsin – Madison, dual PhD. Departments of History and Educational Policy Studies (1992-2001). Dissertation: “The Antifascist Classroom: Education in the Soviet Occupation Zone 1945-1949”
Preliminary (Comprehensive) Field Examinations:
History: Social History, Cultural History, Modern German and Central European History, Early Modern and Modern French History.
Education: Educational Foundations, History of Education, Comparative Education.
Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California, dual M.A. Departments of German Studies and International Policy Studies (1989-1991). Master’s Thesis: “Education Reforms in the Former German Democratic Republic since Unification”
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, B.A. German and French Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa (1985-1989)
Selected Fellowships and Awards
Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Arts Engage Mentor Grant, Oregon State University, to mentor undergraduates in a cooperative research project to set up an online database for high school and undergraduate students and faculty on the topic of race, class, and gender in DEFA and other Cold War children’s films. (Feb.-June 2019 and 2020)
Humanities Center/College of Liberal Arts Research Grant, Oregon State University. $4,000 to complete book ms. on DEFA children’s film and to begin new ms. project, “Socialists on the Swing Sets: East German Children at Play.” (June 2018-June 2019)
NEH Summer Institute Fellow, University of Massachusetts Amherst, “Culture in the Cold War: East German Art, Music and Film.” (June-July 2018)
Summer Research Grant, Concordia Language Villages/Concordia College, Bemidji, MN. Visiting research fellowship for study on teaching cultural competence via foreign language instruction. (July 2012)
Faculty Research Fellow, University of Massachusetts Amherst DEFA Film Library/German and Scandinavian Studies Department. Visiting research fellowship at the DEFA Film Library. $20,000, co-funded by the Max Kade Foundation and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. (June 2010-July 2011)
Research Fellow, Five Colleges Women’s Studies Research Center. Research fellowship to write manuscript. FCWRC, Mt. Holyoke, Mass. (AY 2010-2011)
Research Challenge Grant, Research Money for New Projects, Ohio University/Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. History of Anti-Darwinism project at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Moulis, France; $2,500. (AY 2009-2010)
Visiting Research Fellow, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – Moulis, France. Residential Fellowship for work on the history of French biology in the cold war at the CNRS Moulis Subterranean Laboratory. (Summers 2009, 2010, 2011; December 2010 and 2011)
Fulbright Senior Research Scholar Award, Research Award, 3,000 Euros/month, Berlin and Potsdam to continue primary source research on book ms. Tentative Title: “Princes and Princesses under Socialism: Sex, Gender, and Valuta in DEFA Films, 1946-1989.” (September 2008 – Feb. 2009)
Ohio University Matching Funds Challenge Grant, College of Arts and Science, $10,000 in matching funds to extend Fulbright Senior Research Scholar Award for the full academic year (March-June 2009)
Ohio University Research Council, Research Award for beginning book on DEFA children’s films. $7,500, one of ten recipients of thirty applications. (Summer 2007)
Ohio University “Office of Nationally Competitive Awards Outstanding Service Award” Ohio University (One of five professors across university who received this award for work mentoring outstanding students for competitive research grants) $300. (AY 2007-08)
Ohio University “University Professor Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence” Ohio University (One of five professors across university who received this student-organized award; total university student community approx. 22,000) $2,000 and permission to teach two University Professor courses. (AY 2006-07)
Junior Faculty Research Leave, College of Arts and Science, Ohio University. Granted to approx. 10 faculty in Arts and Sciences by Dean’s Office to finish academic projects – in my case to finish final draft and index of book. (Spring quarter 2006)
National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, NAE, New York. (The premiere foundation for work related to education; of 30 award winners from a pool of 300 applicants I was one of three historians; $50,000 plus expenses. (July 2003-July 2004)
Publications
Monographs
- completed and submitted for review, “Teaching Socialism at the Cinema: East German Children’s Films, 1946-1992” (EDP 2021).
The Antifascist Classroom: Re-education in Soviet-occupied Germany, 1945-1949 (New York: Palgrave, 2006; paperback edition 2011).
Articles and Book Chapters (peer-reviewed)
“Education in the Cold War,” in Encylopedia of the New Cold War History, ed. Ruud Van Djirk. (New York: Routledge, updated edition, EDP 2021 [2008]), 281-284.
“Children’s Films in Germany After the Cold War,” in The Oxford Handbook of Children’s Film,” ed. Noel Brown (Oxford: Oxford UP, EDP Winter 2021).
“Love Lessons in East German Children’s Films,” in Colloquia Germanica: Internationale Zeitschrift für Germanistik 50:1(May 2019): 13-34.
“Film Depictions of Children as Modern Anti-War Crusaders,” in The Routledge History of World Peace Since 1750,” eds. Christian Philip Peterson, William M. Knoblauch, and Michael Loadenthal (London: Routledge, 2018), 189-198.
“Sex, Blood and Death: Vampires and Child-Rearing,” in Amanda Hobson and U. Melissa Anyiwo, eds., Gender in the Vampire Narrative (Boston: Sense, 2016), 79-92.
“Defining Socialist Children’s Films, Defining Socialist Childhoods,” in Sebastian Heiduschke and Séan Allen, eds., Re-imagining DEFA: East German Cinema in its National and Transnational Context (New York: Berghahn, 2016), 248-267.
“‘Films to Give Kids Courage!’: Children’s Films in the German Democratic Republic,” in Noel Brown and Bruce Babington, eds. Family Films in Global Cinema: The World Beyond Disney (London: Tauris, 2015), 155-170.
“Disciplinare ed educare. Ruoli di genere nel cinema per bambini della Ddr,” special edition, Childhood and Gender in and Time, Genesis [Italy]. Stefania Bernini und Adelisa Malena, eds. (XIII/2, 2014), 109-131. https://www.viella.it/rivista/9788867283941/3558
“DEFA Children’s Films: Not Just for Children,” in Marc Silberman and Henning Wrage, eds., DEFA at the Crossroads of East German and International Film Culture (Berlin: DeGruyter, 2014), 243-262. http://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/180334
“Using Classroom Recordings in Educational History Research. An East German Civics Lesson” (with May Jehle). Journal of Social Science Education, 12:1 (2014): 118-136. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1101933.pdf
“Civics Education in the German Democratic Republic: A Case Study in the History of Curriculum and Educational Research,” with Tilman Grammes and Henning Schluß, Journal for Social Science Education 11:2 (2012): 85-105. http://www.jsse.org/index.php/jsse/article/viewFile/1201/1104
“Louise Otto” (220-223), “Clara Zetkin” (293-297), “Ellen Key” (382-384), “Sylvia Pankhurst” (501-503), and “Simone de Beauvoir” (551-554), in Feminist Writings: From Ancient Times to the Modern World. A Global Sourcebook, ed. Tiffany K. Wayne (New York: Greenwood, 2011).
“Happy Socialist Ever After? East German Children’s Films and the Education of a Fairy Tale Land.” Special Issue, Histories of Learning in the Modern World, ed. Gary McCulloch and Tom Woodin, Oxford Review of Education 36:2 (2010): 233-248. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03054981003696747
“Dangerous Liaisons? Film and History,” H-German Forum on the Teaching of the GDR through Film, May 2008, http://www.h-net.org/~german/pdf/20080520_blessing.pdf
“Methodological Considerations: Using Student Essays as Historical Sources. The Example of Postwar Germany,” Paedagogica Historica 43:6, 2007: 755-777. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00309230701722663
“The Gendered Classroom. Girls’ and Boys’ Experiences in Postwar Germany,” Symposium, Education in Postwar Germany, History of Education Quarterly 45 (2005): 597-603.
“Cologne, Germany” and “Oswald Mathias Ungers,” in Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Architecture, ed. Chris Hudson (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004).
“The Antifascist Narrative: Memory Lessons in the Schools of the Soviet Occupation Zone, 1945-1949,” in Children and War: A Historical Anthology, ed. James Marten (New York: New York University Press, 2002), 172-183.
“Restructuring the State in Eastern Europe. Women, Child Care, and Early Education,” (with Marianne N. Bloch), in Educational knowledge: Changing Relationships between the State, Civil Society, and the Educational Community, ed. Thomas S. Popkewitz (SUNY: Albany, 2000), 59-82.
Conferences and Presentations, selected
“Gender Rules: Geschlechtergerechte Sprache Policy in Austrian Public Schools,” American Association of Teachers of German, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 2020.
“Why They Built the Wall,” Thirty Years after the Berlin Wall, Corvallis, OR, Nov. 2019.
“Fairy Tales Behind the Wall: East German Fairy Tale Films,” Academy for Lifelong Learning/German Studies Association “Wunderbar Together” Lecture Series, Corvallis, OR, Nov. 2019.
“Vampires Among Us,” invited lecture, Academy for Lifelong Learning, Corvallis, OR, October 2019.
“Writing East German History, Revisited,” German Studies Association, Roundtable, Portland, OR, Oct. 2019.
“Our Vampires, Ourselves,” invited lecture, Benton Lecture Series, Benton County History Museum, Philomath, OR, March 2019.
“Heroes and Deadbeats: Father Figures in Film,” invited speaker, DEFA-Kinderfilme, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany, February 2019.
“New Directions in Childhood and Youth Studies,” Roundtable co-convener, German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, October 2018.
“DEFA Princesses and the Women’s Question: East German Children’s Films, German Studies Association, Atlanta, October 2017.
“Children and Sexuality,” German Studies Association, San Diego, October 2016.
“Teaching Children Emotions,” International Standing Conference for the History of Education,” Chicago, August 2016.
“DEFA Films for Children: Appreciated and Overlooked,” German Studies Association, Washington, D.C., October 2015.
“Teaching Antifascist-Socialist Culture through Children’s Films in East Germany,” International Standing Conference on the History of Education, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2015.
“Whose Revolution?” Contexts of November 17, Charles University, Prague, October 2014.
“Socialist Puppet States: Gender Education in Puppet Fairy Tale Films 1955-1992,” 10th Österreichischer Zeitgeschichtetag-Kongress, Alpen-Adria Universität, Klagenfurt, Austria, September 2014.
“The New Socialist Marionette: Pinocchio, An East German Children’s Film in America,” German Studies Association, Kansas City, Missouri, September 2014.
“Bildung und Ausbildung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Ökonomie und Pädagogik,” Bildung und Ausbildung: Basis für die Zukunfut, University of Vienna and Kyoto University, Vienna, September 2014.
“Empirische Überlegungen zu einer pädagogischen Videographie,” Workshop: Pädagogische Videographie: Verkörperung, Antwortgeschehen, Pädagogizität, University of Vienna, Vienna, June 2014.
“Princes and Princesses with (Socialist) Strings: Ideology and Puppet Fairy Tale Films,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Seattle, WA, March 2014.
“Hitler’s Princes and Princesses: Nazi Fairy Tale Films,” Social Science History Association, Chicago, IL, November 2013.
“Somewhere in the World: Children and Homelessness Beyond Berlin,” German Studies Association, Denver, Colorado, October 2013.
“DEFA’s Pinocchio in the United States,” DEFA Summer Film Institute, 10 July 2013, Northampton, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Smith College, USA (Invited Speaker).
“No Country Left Behind: Teacher Education Trends in International Context,” European Union Series on Teacher Education, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, May 2013 (Invited Keynote).
“Capitalist Horse Thieves Defeated at the Socialist Circus: East German Children’s Films in the Cold War,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, IL, March 2013.
“Socialist Princesses Who Scrub Floors: Iris Gusner’s Fairy Tale Film The Blue Light,” German Studies Association, Milwaukee, WI, October 2012.
“Discipline and Punish: Student – Teacher Relationships in the GDR,” Everyday Life and Domination Practices in 20th Century Central Europe, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute: European History and Public Spheres, Vienna, 19 June 2012 (Invited Lecture).
“Sex and Education in the 1950s GDR,” Dissenters and Collaborators: Revisiting Cold War Binaries, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute: European History and Public Spheres, Vienna, 12 June, 2012 (Invited Lecture).
“Sex and Love in Far-Away Fairy Tale Films,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Boston, MA, April 2012.
“Post-1989 Dystopian Fairy Tale Films,” Modern Language Association, Seattle, WA, January 2012.
“Recasting Snow White: An East German Fairy Tale Warrior Queen”, German Studies Association, Louisville, KY, October 2011.
“The Pedagogy of Film,” History of Education Society Conference, Chicago, IL, October 2011.
“Science and Sport: Making the Goal in East German Films,” Invited Lecture, University of Massachusetts Amherst Feinberg Series on Sport and Society and the History of Childhood and Youth Association, Smith College, Northampton, MA, February 2011 (Invited Keynote).
“Anti-Darwinism and Postwar France: The Founding of the CNRS-Moulis Subterranean Laboratory,” CNRS, Toulouse, May 2011 (Invited Speaker).
“Feminist Interventions and the Teaching of History,” American Historical Association, Boston, Massachusetts, January 2011.
“Rebels and Rowdies: East and West German Youth Films,” Invited Lecture, Goethe Institute, Boston, November 2010.
“’Susanne will Never Get an A in Math!’ Representations of Girls in Math and Science Classes in East German Films, 1970-1992,” History of Education Society, November, Boston, 2010.
“East and West Germany and World War II Films,” Invited Lecture, Goethe Institute, Boston, October 2010.
“Cinderella’s Glass Ceiling: Girls, Women and Science in East German Children’s and Youth Films,” Invited Lecture, Five Colleges Women’s Research Center, Mt. Holyoke, MA, October, 2010.
‘“Filme zum Mut machen!’ DEFA Filmmakers of Children’s and Youth Films,” German Studies Association, Oakland, CA, October 2010.
“The Role of Film in History and German Studies Classrooms,” panel discussant on “Interdisciplinarity in German History and German Studies, German Studies Association Oakland, CA, October 2010.
“Vampire Romance: Dating the Undead,” Invited “Skype” Guest Speaker for Reel Talk Film Series, (Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, Evansville, IN, October 2010).
“Albert Vandel and the CNRS-Moulis,” Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Moulis, France, April 2010.
“The Evolution of Evolution,” Ecology Center, Ohio University, March 2010.
“Young Delinquents in Love,” University of Massachusetts-Amherst/DEFA Film Library Wende Flicks Invited Presentation, February 2010.
“Sex, Blood, Death: Vampires and Child-Rearing,” American Historical Association, San Diego, January 2010.
“How to Interview in the 21st Century,” roundtable for graduate students, American Historical Association, San Diego January 2010.
“Young People and Unification: Jan und Jana as Post-Socialist Romeo and Julia,” invited lecture, Indiana University – Symposium: “The Indian University DEFA Project: The Last Films of East Germany,” January 2010.
“Pedagogical Considerations: Teaching Talk about Teaching History,” Roundtable for the Ohio Academy of History, Columbus, OH March 2010.
“Vampires, History and Pop Culture: The Evolution of Sexual Mores,” Ohio University, Residential Life Lecture Series, October 2009.
“Morality at Bedtime: The Dark Children’s Tales of Nineteenth-Century Germany,” History of Education Society, Philadelphia, October 2009.
“The Authority of the Game: Game Theory, DEFA Films, and the SED,” German Studies Association, Washington, D.C., October 2009.
“The Collecting of Things: Natural Historians to Cultural Historians,” GHI and Wende Museum for Cold War History, conference on “East and West German Things: Material Culture,” Los Angeles, October 2009.
“Prinzen und Prinzessinnen in DEFA Märchenfilmen,” Invited Guest Speaker, “Frauen im Gespräch – Hagen,” Hagen, Germany, August 2009.
“Money in the Bank: DEFA Children’s Films as Industry,” DEFA-Library Summer Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Smith College, Northampton, MA, July 2009.
“Das antifaschistische Klassenzimmer,” Invited Guest Speaker in “Geschichte im Gespräch,” University Leipzig, Germany, May 2009.
“Social and Academic Life in U.S. Universities,” Invited Guest Speaker, Fulbright Office Berlin, March 2009.
Invited Panelist, “Wende Flicks: The Last Films of the GDR,” Wende Museum/ University of Massachusetts-Amherst DEFA Film Library/ GHI symposium, Los Angeles, CA, Februar-March 2009.
“How to Interview,” roundtable for graduate students, American Historical Association, New York City, January 2010.
“Sex in the Time of Socialism: Sex and Relationships in East German Cinema,” Berkshire Conference for the History of Women, (Minneapolis, MN, Juni 2008) (paper read in absentia)
“The Politics of Denazification: Democratization as Cold War Ideology,” Invited lecture, West Chester University Holocaust and Genocide Program, (West Chester, PA, December 2007)
“DEFA Sex Education: Gender and Sex in East German Children’s Films, 1946-1989,” German Studies Association (San Diego, October 2007)
“The Gender of Antifascism,” Joint Initiative in German and European Studies – University of Toronto/ DAAD Conference “Between Past and Future: East Germany before and after 1989,” Munk Centre for International Studies (Toronto, Canada, März 2007)
“Masculinity and Antifascism in DEFA Children’s Films,” American Historical Association (Atlanta, January 2007)
“Boys and Girls in “Extracurricular Activities:” Coeducation, Dating and Prostitution in Postwar Germany,” History of Education Society Conference (Ottawa, Ontario, October 2006)
“Creating Antifascists: Children and Normalcy in Postwar East Germany, 1945-1949,” German Studies Association (Pittsburgh, September 2006)
“Gender and Discipline in Postwar Eastern German Schools, History of Education Society Conference (Baltimore, MD, October 2005)
“Classrooms and the Construction of National Identity in East German,” American Educational Research Association (Montreal, April 2005)
“Defining Antifascism,” Midwest German History Workshop (Minneapolis, MN, October 2004)
Book/Film Reviews
Review of Ann Taylor Allan, The Transatlantic Kindergarten: Education and the Women’s Movement in Germany and the US (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2017), European Education 51:1 (2019): 85-88.
Film Review, East Punk Memories dir. Lucile Chaufour (Icarus Films, 2014), Contemporary European History, Winter 2016.
Review of Qinna Shen, The Politics of Magic: DEFA Fairy-Tale Films (Detroit: Wayne State, 2015), Seminar, Winter 2016, Seminar.
Review of Dolores Augustine, Red Prometheus: Engineering and Dictatorship in East Germany, 1945-1990 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007), 18:4 (2016): 247-249 [submitted 2008].
Review of Margaret J. Osler, Reconfiguring the World: Nature, God, and Human Understanding from the Middle Ages to Early Modern Europe (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins, 2010), European History Quarterly 45:1(2015): 178-180.
Review of Giacomo Lichtner, Fascism in Italian Since 1945: The Politics and Aesthetics of Memory (New York: Palgrave, 2013), for Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (April 2015). DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2015.1030203 – http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01439685.2015.1030203
Review of Stephen Gundle, Mussolini’s Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy (New York: Berghahn, 2013), for Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (August 2014), DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2014.943971 – http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2014.943971.
Review of Wendy R. Tyndale, Protestants in Communist East Germany: In the Storm of the World (Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2010) and Bernd Schaefer, The East German State and the Catholic Church: 1945-1989 (New York: Berghan, 2010) Central European History, (Dec. 2014).
Review of Sebastian Heiduschke, East German Cinema: DEFA and Film History (New York: Palgrave, 2013), for German History (Fall 2014). DOI: http://gh.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/06/30/gerhis.ghu055.full.pdf+html
Review of Sean Brennan, The Politics of Religion in Soviet-occupied Germany: The Case of Berlin-Brandenburg 1945-1949 (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2011) Catholic Historical Review, 99:1, 2013: 174-175.
Review of H. Floris Cohen, How Modern Science Came Into the World: Four Civilizations, One 17th-Century Breakthrough (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010), European History Quarterly 43:3, 2013: 534-535.
Review of Ian Inkster und Angel Calvo, eds. History of Technology, vol. 30: European Technologies in Spanish History. Continuum Press: London, 2011, European History Quarterly 43:1, 2013: 152-153.
Review of Bill Niven and Chloe Paver, eds. Memorialization in Germany since 1945, (New York: Palgrave, 2010) European History Quarterly 42:4, 2012: 713-715.
Review of Asa Simon Mittman and Peter J. Dendle. The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous. (Ashgate: Burlington, VT, 2012) Choice, Summer 2012, n.p.
Review of Dirk C. Gibson, Legends, Monsters, or Serial Murderers? The Real Story Behind an Ancient Crime. (New York: Praeger, 2012) for Choice, Spring 2012, n.p.
Review of John R. Coleman, Between The Queen and The Cabby: Olympe de Gouges’s Rights of Woman. Montreal: Mc-Gill-Queen’s University Press, Choice, Spring 2012, n.p.
Review of Michel Pastoureau, The Bear: History of a Fallen King, trans. George Holoch. (Cambridge: Belknap, Harvard, 2011) Choice, Spring 2012, n.p.
Review of Jay M. Smith. Monsters of the Gévaudin: The Making of a Beast. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Choice, Spring 2012.
Review of Lisa Pine, Education in Nazi Germany (New York: Berg, 2010), European History Quarterly, 48:4, 2012: 718-720.
Review of Die Angst vor dem kindlichen Tyrannen: Eine Geschichte der Erziehung im 20. Jahrhundert (Munich, Deutsche-Verlags-Anstalt, 2010) German History 30:3, 2012: 491-492.
Review of Sara Buttsworth et al., Monsters in the Mirror: Representations of Nazism in Popular Culture (New York: Praeger, 2010), Choice, Spring 2011, n.p.
Review of Roger Moorhouse, Berlin at War (New York: Basic Books, 2011), Choice, Summer 2011, n.p.
Review of Ralph P. Güntzel, Understanding “Old Europe”: An Introduction to the Culture, Politics, and History of France, German, and Austria (Marburg: Tectum, 2010), Choice, Fall 2011, n.p.
Review of Charles Lansing, From Nazism to Communism: German Schoolteachers under Two Dictatorships (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2010) Journal of Modern History 83:3, 2011: 704-706.
Review of Monica Black. Death in Berlin: From Weimar to Divided Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010), Central European History, 44:2, 2010: 354-355.
Review of Jan Palmowski, Inventing a Socialist Nation: Heimat and the Politics of Everyday Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) Slavic Review, 69:4, 2010: 985-986.
Review of Brian Puaca, Learning for Democracy: Education Reform in West Germany, 1945-1965 (New York: Berghahn, 2009) German History 28:4, 2010: 606-608.
Review of Christian Saehrendt, Kunst als Botschafter einer künstlicher Nation (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009) American Historical Review 115 (April 2010): 630-631.
Review of Esther von Richthofen, Bringing Culture to the Masses: Control, Compromise and Participation in the GDR, New York: Berghahn, 2008 Central European History 43:02, 2010: 395-397.
Review of Mark Fenemore, Sex, Thugs, and Rock’n’Roll: Teenage Rebels in Cold-War East Germany, Journal of Contemporary History 44:3, 2009: 568-570.
Review of Citizenship and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Germany, eds. Geoff Eley and Jan Palmowski. German History 27:3, 2009: 461-462.
Film Review of “Getting it on in the Cold War,” Do Communists have better Sex? (Alternate title [German]: Sex im geteilten Deutschland), German with English subtitles. Dir: André Meier. First Run/Icarus Films. 52 Min., Color, 2006. H-German, March 2009, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23740.
Review of Sebastian M. Herrmann, Katja Koenen, Zoë Kusmierz, und Leonard Schmieding, eds., Ambivalent Americanizations. Popular and Consumer Culture in Central and Eastern Europe, Heidelberg: Heidelberg Universitätsverlag, 2008, German History 27:4 (2009): 630-632.
Review of “International Modern?” Katherine Pence and Paul Betts, eds. Socialist Modern, H-German, (Jan. 2008),http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14785
Review of Kulturinsel und Machstinstrument: Die Akademie der Künste, die Partei und die Staatssicherheit (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht: 2007), Matthias Braun, Journal of Modern History 81:4, 2009: 1010-1011.
Review of Honecker’s Children: Youth and Patriotism in East(ern) Germany, 1979-2002, Anna Saunders, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2007, European History Quarterly, 39:3, 2009: 544-545.
Review of Women in Twentieth-Century Europe, Ann Taylor Allen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), Central European History, 1:3, 2008: 529-531.
Review of “Doing their Bit: Wartime Reading for Girls” H-German review, Else Ury. Nesthäkchen and the World War: A Novel. Translated by Steven Lehrer. New York: iUniverse, 2006, H-German (June 2008), http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14605.
Review, “Educational Reconstructions,” for H-German of: Jaimey Fisher. Disciplining Germany: Youth, Reeducation, and Reconstruction after the Second World War, H-German (March 2008),http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14342
Review of Donna Harsch, Revenge of the Domestic: Women, the Family, and Communism in the German Democratic Republic (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2007) for Slavic Review, 67:2, 2008: 450-451.
Review, “Forever Young,” Mark Roseman, ed. Generations in Conflict: Youth Revolt and Generation Formation in Germany 1770-1968 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 [1995]), H-German, August 2008, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14102
Review of Sandrine Kott and Emmanuel Droit, eds. Die ostdeutsche Gesellschaft: Eine transnationale Perspektive (Berlin: Christoph Links, 2006). German History, 25:4, 2007: 651.
Review of One Hundred Years of Dietetics, Gymnastics, Dancing, Walking, Cholera, and Schools, or: From Dietetics and Bodily Autonomy in Nineteenth-Century Germany to (on the final page) the Nazis’ Autocratic Culture of the Body and the Successful Nazi Revolution, Heikki Lempa, Beyond the Gymnasium: Educating the Middle-Class Bodies in Classical Germany (Plymouth, UK: Lexington, 2007), H-German, (November 2007), http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13894
Museum/Exhibit Review, “There’s a New Museum in Town, The Wende Museum: A Museum and Archive of the Cold War (Los Angeles, CA),” H-German (June 2007), http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-german&month=0706&week=c&msg=j0tjIL32cUHCweMT%2BmOsrA&user=&pw=
Review, “Struwwelpeter and Shockheaded Peter, or, Shock-headed History,” by Barbara Chalou, Struwwelpeter: Humor or Horror? 160 Years Later, Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2007. H-German (March 2007), http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12969
Review, “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution,” of Axel Schild and Detlef Siegfried, eds., Between Between Marx and Coca-Cola: Youth Cultures in Changing European Societies, 1960-1980, New York: Berghahn, 2006. H-German, (Dec. 2006), http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-review&month=0703&week=c&msg=Kru0h8ZssYQezly/2zsWnA&user=&pw=
Review, “What’s in a name?” of Mary Fulbrook. The People’s State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker.” New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. H-German, (June 2006), http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11883
Review of Alan McDougall, Youth Politics in East Germany: The Free German Youth Movement, 1946-1968,” H-German (Feb. 2006), http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11442
Review of Dorothee Wierling, Geboren im Jahr Eins: Der Jahrgang 1949 in der DDR – Versuch einer Kollektivbiographie” (Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 2002) H-German, Februar 2005, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10203
Review of Werner Schiffauer, Gerd Bauman, Riva Kastoryano and Steven Vertovec, eds. Civil Enculturation: Nation-State, School and Ethnic Difference in the Netherlands, Britain, Germany and France” (New York: Berghahn Books, 2004) H-German, (Dec. 2005), http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11280
Review of John Rodden, Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse: A History of Eastern German Education, 1945-1995,” H-German, Feb. 2004, http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-german&month=0402&week=c&msg=3VAvCB68wPJKaFk4rhVJTQ&user=&pw=
Mentoring Activities
Faculty Mentor, URSA, 4 undergraduate students, Oregon state University, Winter-Spring 2020 and 2019.
Professional Activities, including International/National/University Service
2001-, reviewer for History of Education, German Studies Review, Central European History, Journal of Cold War Studies, and other history and cultural studies journals.
2020-: Certified Goethe Instititut Examiner, B1-B2 levels.
2019: Reviewer, Dissertation Award, International Union of History of Science and Technology.
2019-: Member, WLC Awards Committee, Oregon State University.
2019-2022: Member, President’s Commission on the Status of Women, Oregon State University.
2015-: Board Member, Baden-Württemberg Exchange Program Committee
2017-2022: Faculty Officer, Phi Beta Kappa, Epsilon Chapter of Oregon (Historian, Student Outreach Coordinator, Chapter Secretary).
2017-2019: Program Committee Section Leader for Interdisciplinary and Diachronic Studies, German Studies Association.
2016-present: Volunteer for Export/Import, International Film Festival, Oregon State University.
2016-2017: Member, Curriculum Council, World Languages and Cultures, Oregon State University.
2016-2017: Member, ad hoc Study Abroad Committee, Oregon State University.
2016-2018: Ecampus coordinator for French online program and interim coordinator, German, Oregon State University.
2015-present: Member, Holocaust Memorial Week Committee, (as of 2018: co-assistant director), Oregon State University.
2014-2015: D-A-CH Project “Holocaust Education,” University of Vienna.
2014-2015: Board Member, Research Project Kompetenz und Bildung (Competence and Education Assessment) (KOMBI), Department of Education, University of Vienna.
2013-2015: Member, mid-career faculty members, Curriculum Committee, Department of Education, University of Vienna
2013-2014: Blog, Children’s Films (https://benitablessing.com/)
2012-2015: Member, mid-career faculty members, Faculty Committee, Faculty for Philosophy and Education, University of Vienna
2012-2015: Member (Education) of Teacher Education Workshop, University of Vienna
2013-2015, Member (mid-career faculty), Job Search Committee, Professor of Empirical Education Research, University of Vienna
2013-2015, Member, Curricular Working Group for Teacher Training NEW, 2013, University of Vienna
2012-2017, Translation and Interpretation Consulting, German, French, Italian, English (Blessing Translation Services)
2008-2012, H-German Managing Media and Book Reviews editor, http://www.h-net.org/~german/
Business member, Central European History Society of the American Historical Association, 2009-2010.
Lecturer and Consultant, history of vampires and monsters, (Vampire Experts Consulting), 2006-2010.
Interviewer, German Fulbright applicants for U.S. study and research (Berlin, October 2008)
Editorial Board Member, History of Education Quarterly [2007-present].
Program member, History of Education Society annual conference, 2009-2012
Officer, Teaching Committee for Outstanding Teacher Award, Ohio History Association, 2007-2008
Member, History of Education Society Committee, Outstanding Article Award (2008-2011; chair 2010-2011).
Curator, David Hostetler Museum and Archive, Athens, OH (2006-2010) (includes establishing archive, training interns, grant writing, and working as consultant on articles and films about Professor Emeritus Hostetler)
Member: Women’s Studies Advisory Council, Ohio University, 2002-2008
Member: Robert Glidden Visiting Professor Award Committee, Ohio University, 2005-2008.
Member, University Curriculum Council, Ohio University, Athens, OH 2007-2008.
Advisor, Ohio University Undergraduate History Association, 2007-2008
Member: History of Education Society, American Historical Association, German Studies Association, American Association of University Women, Modern Language Association, H-Net, AHA Council for Women in History, AHA Council for Disability Studies; JOLT (Journal for On-Line Teaching), American Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages/AAT German.
Foreign Languages
German, near-native fluency. French, Italian, excellent; Spanish – reading and aural comprehension, basic speaking skills. (I have studied other languages for reading knowledge and basic aural comprehension, including Swedish, Czech, and Yiddish.)
Other Interests
Running (5k, 10k, half-marathon), biking (road bike), modernist and traditional cooking, yoga, writing (poetry, mysteries, fiction), languages and linguistics (pedagogy and learning), travel, women’s rights.