Faculty Profile
Antje Pfannkuchen
Associate Professor of German (2009)
Contact Information
Bosler Hall Room M11
717-254-8151
Bio
Antje Pfannkuchen is a researcher in German media studies, literature and cultural history. Her work is concerned with the role of (media)technology in society, historically and today. She studies connections between media, technology, science, literature and art, especially in the 18th and early 19th centuries. She co-edited "The Technological Introject," a volume engaging the ideas of Friedrich Kittler, mastermind of German media theory. She has also published on German Enlightenment poet and scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, on Romantic physicist Johann Wilhelm Ritter and on Ezra Pound's interests in 19th century German science. Her current book project investigates the correlations of the history of electricity, German early Romanticism and the invention of photography. Courses she has taught include German Media Cultures, Introduction to German Film, German Stories, German Film and Activism, Goethe Forever!, The Two Germanies, German Romanticism, German-Jewish Culture and all levels of German language.
Education
- M.A., FU Berlin, 2000
- M.P.S., New York University, 2002
- Ph.D., 2010
2024-2025 Academic Year
Fall 2024
GRMN 202 Int Grmn II: Mediated Grmn Clt
What was occupied Vienna like in post-WWII Central Europe? How does a film convey fear? Is German academic writing different from how I write papers at Dickinson? Posing these or similar questions, this course builds students’ basic intermediate level of cultural and linguistic skill and explores the challenges of understanding and communicating with various media in colloquial, academic, and professional contexts. As it does so, students will acquire a better understanding of contemporary and historical issues, anxieties, and desires in the German-speaking world. There will be a special focus on writing in different modes, as this is a writing in the discipline (WiD) course. Prerequisite: 201, or permission of the instructor.
GRMN 303 The Two Germanies: Cltr of E&W
For 40 years, Germany consisted of two states--the German Democratic Republic (GDR )and the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD). The contexts and conditions within which these two countries developed and their distinct cultural forms are the focus of this course. Literary and artistic production, political structures as well as differences in daily life will be examined within the context of learning more about the two Germanies.
Prerequisite: a 200-level German course at 210 or above, or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2025
FMST 210 Protest! Activism in Film
Cross-listed with GRMN 250-01. Taught in English. Filmmakers of the New German Cinema like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Rosa von Praunheim, Volker Schlöndorff and others used film as a medium of social and artistic awareness and change. They experimented in content and form to address pressing issues in society. Since then, film, video and other media have been used creatively to support a range of different protests, from feminism to climate change. We will study the origins and legacies of these imaginative forms of activism, building on them to create original statements of our own.
GRMN 250 Protest! Activism in Film
Cross-listed with FMST 210-03. Taught in English. Filmmakers of the New German Cinema like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Rosa von Praunheim, Volker Schlöndorff and others used film as a medium of social and artistic awareness and change. They experimented in content and form to address pressing issues in society. Since then, film, video and other media have been used creatively to support a range of different protests, from feminism to climate change. We will study the origins and legacies of these imaginative forms of activism, building on them to create original statements of our own.