Modern Languages - Emeritus Faculty

I came to WKU in 1999 as Head of the Department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies. At that time, Anthropology and Folk Studies were part of this melded department. It was both a pleasure and a privilege for me to work with colleagues in those disciplines for the first years of my tenure at WKU. In 2004 the university split the department and Modern Languages were on their own, a situation that allowed me to focus more than before on working with my wonderful colleagues in French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. I was proud to be admitted to emerita status at WKU after seven years as Department Head.

Before coming to WKU, I spent 25 years at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. After two years as a part-time instructor of German I progressed through the ranks to Professor. Along the way I enjoyed the opportunity to teach courses outside my training in German language and literature (undergraduate/University of Nebraska; M.A. and Ph.D./University of Colorado), incuding world lit, autobiographical lit, and team-taught Humanities courses. Westminster was and is populated by dedicated teachers from whom I learned a great deal. At the end of my time there, I helped establish an International Studies program and also spent a semester teaching at Xi’an Foreign Languages University in China, one of the most interesting experiences of my academic career. I also led Westminster students on courses abroad and while at WKU helped staff KIIS programs in Germany and Austria.

Westminster was very supportive of my research interests, awarding me three sabbatical leaves and summer grants to pursue research and writing on German women’s literature and on German-American history. The latter resulted in my book Contented among Strangers, which won the Missouri Conference on History award for the best history book published by a Missouri author in 1996.

At WKU I focused my work on advancing foreign language study at the university and in Kentucky high schools, gaining two federal grants to support this. I was humbled to receive the 2005 lifetime achievement award from the Kentucky World Language Association that recognized these efforts.

Retired since 2006, my husband Charlie and I have enjoyed a great deal of travel while keeping in touch with Missouri and Kentucky friends as well as spending time with our daughter Joyce and her husband Mark. In 2012 we moved to Bloomington, Indiana, primarily because of the wonderful music program at the IU Jacobs School of Music. Here, too, we have found new friends and congenial activities that enrich our lives.