- DEPARTMENT FACULTYProf. Debra AmesProf. Karen BerrierProf. Jennifer BjornstadProf. Sarah DeMarisProf. Randa DuvickProf. Mark FarmerProf. Hoult-SarosProf. Frederick KavanaghProf. Michael KumpfProf. Timothy MalchowProf. Jianyun MengProf. Carlos Miguel-PueyoProf. Sally OchoaProf. Benjamin RidgwayProf. Rachel Rivers ParroquinProf. Angela TaraskiewiczProf. Timothy TomasikProf. Nelly Zamora-Breckenridge
- FACULTY PROFILE
Prof. Jennifer Bjornstad, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of German
Meier Hall 124
219.464.5277
Jennifer.Bjornstad@valpo.eduBiography
EDUCATION
Ph.D. -- University of Wisconsin-Madison
RESEARCH INTERESTS: 20th-CENTURY GERMAN PROSE FICTION; TEACHING OF GERMAN LANGUAGE
Professor Bjornstad's research interests focus on narrative aspects of 20th-century German prose fiction and the teaching of German language. She is currently working on an article entitled “Leaving the Path: The Role of the Implied Viewer in Illustrated Versions of Little Red Riding Hood" and on a larger project about ellipsis as a marker of loss in German post-war literature.
RECENT PRESENTATIONS, PUBLICATIONS, AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITES
• "Station Learning for Vocabulary Acquisition and Review" -- Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Assocation Conference, Indianapolis, IN, November 2008.
• "False Friends or Long-Lost Cousins? Teaching Etymologies to Boost Vocabulary" -- Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Assocation Conference, Indianapolis, IN, November 2006.
• "Jurek Becker’s Jakob der Lügner: from DEFA to Hollywood,” published in The Journal of the M/MLA . Spring 2006.
• "Damit der liebe Gott weiterschaukeln kann’: The Psalms of Bertolt Brecht,” published in Brecht Jahrbuch: Young Mr. Brecht Becomes a Writer, Volume 31, 2006
• "Theaterfest: A Cooperative Venure between the High School and the University," co-presentation with Timothy Malchow, Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Assocation Conference, Indianapolis, IN, November 2005.
• "The Figure of God in the Psalms of Bertolt Brecht" -- German Studies Association Conference, Milwaukee, WI, September 2005.
• "Leaving the Path: German and American Illustrated Versions of Little Red Riding Hood" Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis, Missouri, November 2004
• "A First-Day Realia Activity: "Was ist in dem Umschlag?'" was published in die Unterrichtspraxis, Spring 2004
• "Making the Transition from Grad School to the Profession" -- panel presentation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, October 2005.
• "Jurek Becker's Jakob der Lügner: from DEFA to Hollywood" -- Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, 2004
• "Humor and the Holocaust: Jurek Becker's Jacob the Liar" -- John Carrell University, Ohio, March 2004
• In March 2004, Professor Bjornstad accompanied the VU Chorale on their tour to Germany.
• "Using Images in the German Classroom: Inspiring Your Students to Talk" -- IFLTA, 2003
• "Turkish-German Poems" -- IFTLA, 2002
• "Fighting Words: The Linguistic Aggression of Edgar Hilsenrath's The Nazi and the Barber" -- Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, 2003
• A book review of Kathrin Bower's book Ethics and Remembrance in the Poetry of Nelly Sachs and Rose Ausländer will be published in an up-coming issue of Monatshefte.
• "Using Group Role-Play to Test Speaking: Setting Up a Wohngemeinschaft" was published in Die Unterrichtspraxis, Spring 2001
• "Humor and the Holocaust: Jurek Becker's Jakob der Lügner" -- Graduate Student Colloquium, Madison, Wisconsin, October 1999