Walter Grünzweig

Walter Grünzweig (born 1956 in Graz , Austria ) is an Austro-German literary and cultural scientist and Ars legendi prize winner .

Scientific career

After completing his Bachelor of Arts in English at the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University in 1977, where he studied with James R. Thompson and Robert DeMott , he received his master's degree in English, American and German at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz . He received his doctorate in Graz in 1984 under Jürgen Peper with a dissertation on the Austrian-American writer Charles Sealsfield (Karl Postl). With his habilitation on Walt Whitman's reception in German-language literatures and cultures, he received the venia "American Studies in Connection with Comparative Literature" at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz.

In 1992 he was appointed to a professorship for North American Studies at the Technical University of Dresden ; since 1994 he has been Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Dortmund (since 2007 Technical University of Dortmund). From 2008–2011 he was Vice President Studies at the TU Dortmund; since 2015 he has been chairman of the education commission of the city of Dortmund.

Scholarships, visiting professorships and awards

Grünzweig is a three-time Fulbright scholarship holder, DAAD and Alexander von Humboldt scholarship holder as well as a scholarship holder of the American Council of Learned Societies. He was visiting professor and visiting professor at the universities in Klagenfurt, Maribor, Dakar, Leipzig, Berlin (Humboldt), Trieste, Iowa, Rome and Izmir and is adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the State University of New York at Binghamton. He received several appointments from universities in Germany, Austria and the United States.

In 2010 he received the Ars Legendi Prize for excellent university teaching from the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft and the German University Rectors' Conference for the model of the "Intercultural Classroom", a model of joint learning and research by students from different cultures of origin with comparative and intercultural issues Dortmund American Studies was developed cooperatively.

Research and Teaching

Grünzweig is a staunch advocate of the interdependence of research and teaching, which for him are dialogical in the sense of Martin Buber. This includes student research at all levels. His focus is on 19th century American literature, transatlantic literary and cultural relations (including reception, exile, migration) and international educational exchange. In addition, he also works, mainly comparatively, on German-language literature. The American authors he has covered include Charles Sealsfield, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Upton Sinclair, John Updike, and Norman Mailer. A number of research projects led to personal collaborations with authors and politicians, including Carl Djerassi, Allan Ginsberg, Veit Heinichen, Peter Henisch, and George McGovern.

Literary criticism and translation

Grünzweig has been writing reviews of American, German and East Central European literature since 1990, especially for the Viennese daily Der Standard .

In addition to medical and scientific texts, he has translated poetry and prose from English and Italian (Jimmy Carter, June Jordan, Gaetano Longo, Elizabeth Rosner, Walt Whitman). Together with American staff and students in Dortmund and Graz, he developed a model of collective literary translation in which up to 60 translators were involved in a project. In 2014 and 2016 he was a member of the jury for the Helmut Braem Translator Award.

Student exchange

Grünzweig has been actively involved in international student exchanges since the late 1970s. At the various universities where he worked, he has built transatlantic and intra-European programs ranging from summer programs in Austria, Germany and the United States to semester and annual programs. He has brought his extensive experience in this area to his teaching (especially “Intercultural Classroom” events) as well as his research on international educational exchange.

University politics

Grünzweig is a staunch critic of the university Bologna reform, whose focus on “competencies” and “workloads” he sees as a threat to the intellectual potential of European universities. At the same time, he criticizes university management structures and the associated loss of the autonomy of teachers and students. He calls for a recapture of the collegial structures of the universities as well as the suppression of utilitarian thinking that is alien to science. The attempt to "modernize" traditional frontal teaching with technical means as "e-learning" is countered by the necessity of personal dialogue between students and teachers and between students themselves. For him, good teaching is in principle dialogic. As Vice Rector for Teaching at TU Dortmund University, he campaigned for the interests of students with a migration background.

Works (selection)

• Charles Sealsfield . Boise, ID., 1985. (Boise State University Western Writers Series 71.) ISBN 9780884300458
• Democratic Canaan: Charles Sealsfield's America in the Context of American Literature and Ideology . Munich: Fink, 1987. (American Studies 62.) ISBN 9783770524211
• Walt Whitmann: The German-speaking reception as an intercultural phenomenon . Munich: Fink, 1991. ISBN 9783770526642
• Constructing the German Walt Whitman . Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1995. ISBN 9780877454823
• Crossing Borders: Narratology in Context. Transcending Boundaries: Narratology in Context . (Ed., Intro., With Andreas Solbach). Tübingen: Narr, 1999. ISBN 9783823351986
• Upton Sinclair, Wieland Herzfelde, Hermynia Zur Mühlen. Dear comrade, the Maliks have decided. Letters 1919–1950. (Ed., Einf., Übers., Komm., With Susanne Schulz). Bonn: Weidle, 2001. ISBN 9783931135560
• Rockin 'in Red Square: Critical Approaches to International Education in the Age of Cyberculture. (Ed., With Nana Rinehart). Münster: Lit, 2002. 2nd ed. 2013. ISBN 9783825862053
• America and German-language literature after 1848: Migration - cultural exchange - early globalization. (Ed., With Christof Hamann and Ute Gerhard). Bielefeld: transcript, 2009. ISBN 9783899429664
• The SciArtist: Carl Djerassi's Science-in-Literature in Transatlantic and Interdisciplinary Contexts. (Ed.). Münster: Lit, 2012. ISBN 9783643902313
• Hip-Hop in Europe: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows. (Ed., With Sina A. Nitzsche). Münster: Lit, 2013. ISBN 9783643904133

Web links

• Website at the Technical University of Dortmund
• Research overview
• Overview of supervised student research

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ars legendi Prize: Winner 2010 . In: Stifterverband . November 2, 2015 ( stifterverband.org [accessed September 24, 2017]).
2. ^ Walter Grünzweig: Research - Iaawiki. Retrieved September 24, 2017 . 
3. ^ Walter Grünzweig: Research - Iaawiki. Retrieved September 24, 2017 . 
4. ^ Walter Grünzweig: Research - Iaawiki. Retrieved September 24, 2017 . 
5. ^ Walter Grünzweig: Research - Iaawiki. Retrieved September 24, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Walter Grünzweig: "Encounter," In: Teaching as an adventure. Suggestions for better higher education. Ed .: Matthias Klatt, Sabine Koller. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 2012, ISBN 3-593-39796-X , p. 44-47 .