M.A. from UCLA in Modern European History, 1993-1995
B.A. from Indiana University, Bloomington in German and History, with Distinction
and Honors in German, 1988-1992
PUBLICATIONS
Book
Science Fiction Literature in East Germany. DDR Studien/East German Studies
Series. Bern; Oxford: Peter Lang, September 2006.
Review by Richard Rundell in German Studies
Review 32.3 (Oct 2009) 707-708.
Review by Peter Ruppert in Utopian Studies
19.2 (2008) 337-340.
Review by Franz Rottensteiner in Science
Fiction Studies 35 (2008) 127-129.
Review by Eva Parra Membrives in Futhark.
Revista de investigación y cultura 3 (2008) 276-279.
Review by Thomas Kramer in Germanistik
48.3-4 (2007).
Articles
Forthcoming: "The Continuities of an East German Heimat." German
Quarterly 83.2 (2010).
Forthcoming:"The Natural and the Artificial: East German
Science Fiction Film Responds to Kubrick and Tarkovsky." Special issues
"Visions of Science and Technology in Film." Film History 40.1
or 40.2 (2010).
Forthcoming: "Eco-Eschbach: Sustainability in the Science Fiction of Andreas Eschbach." German Genre Fiction. Ed. Vibeke Petersen, Bruce Campbell and Alison Günther-Pal. (2010).
"Science fiction is an international genre." Invited essay for the fiftieth anniversary issue. Extrapolation 50.1 (Spring 2009) 15-16.
"Utopia, Dystopia, and Ostalgia: The Pre- and Post Unification Visions of East German Science Fiction Writer Alexander Kröger." Journal of Utopian Studies 17.3 (Winter 2006): 441-464.
"Reading Ursula Le Guin in East Germany." Extrapolation 47.3 (2006): 471-487.
"East Germany's Werkstatt Zukunft: Futurology and the Science Fiction Films of defa-futurum." German Studies Review 29:2 (May 2006): 367-386.
"East German Science Fiction Literature/Ostdeutsche Science Fiktion Literatur." Invited Introductory Essay. In the Dust of the Stars. DVD. Dir. Gottfried Kollditz. University of Massachusetts-Amherst: DEFA Film Library, September 2005.
"Reconceptualizing East German Popular Literature Via the Science Fiction Niche." The German Quarterly 77.4 (2004): 443-461.
"Auf dem Weg zur Venus. Die Entdeckung ostdeutscher Populärkultur:
"Der schweigende Stern." Trans. Hans Günther Dicks. Filmforum
19.4 (September-October 1999): 20-
21.
Interviews
---, Esther Dischereit, and Jennifer Good. "Esther Dischereit, Self-Interview
- Based on a Conversation with Sonja Fritzsche and Jennifer Good." Women
in German Yearbook 23 (2007): 1-9.
Encyclopedia Entries
"Stanislaw Lem" and "Solaris." Facts on File Companion
to the World Novel. 1900 to the Present. ed. Michael Sollars and Arbolina Llamas
Jennings. 2 vols. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2008. 453-455.
Book reviews
Forthcoming Review of "The Black Mirror and Other
Stories. An Anthology of German and Austrian Science Fiction." Ed. Hans
Rottensteiner. Trans. Mike Mitchell. Science Fiction Studies
Review of "Nature of the Miracle Years. Conservation
in West Germany, 1945-1975." By Sandra Chaney. German Studies Review
32.2 (May 2009): 434.
Review of "Hausväteridylle oder sozialistische Utopie? Die Familie
im Recht der DDR." By Ute Schneider. 29.3 German Studies Review
(2006): 707.
Review of "Die grosse illustrierte Bibliographie der Science Fiction in der DDR." By Hans-Peter Neumann. SFRA Review 269 (2004): 5-6.
Review of "Der schweigende Stern." Directed by Kurt Maetzig. German Studies Review 27.3 (2004): 681-682.
Review of "Triumph of the Ordinary. Depictions of Daily Life in East German Cinema 1949-1989." By Joshua Feinstein. The German Quarterly 76.4 (2003).
Review of "Women After Communism. The East German Experience." By Helen Frink. German Studies Review 25.3 (2002): 665-666.
Review of "For Lack of Knowledge: On the Epistemology of Politics as Salvation." By Darko Suvin. Journal of Utopian Studies13.1 (2002): 246-247.
Review of "Deutsche Science Fiction 1870-1914. Rekonstruktion
und Analyse der Anfänge einer Gattung." By Roland Innerhofer. Journal
of Utopian Studies 10.1 (1999): 223-224.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Associate Professor of German and Eastern European Studies, Illinois
Wesleyan University, Fall 2007 - present.
Department Co-Chair Fall 2007, Fall 2009
- present; Department Chair Spring 2008 - Fall 2008.
Assistant Professor Fall 2001 - 2007.
Department of Modern and Classical Languages
and Literatures
Responsible for teaching two courses in
German Studies and one course in
the International
Studies program each semester. See titan.iwu.edu/~sfritzsc
Digital Audio
Project for First Year German, University of Minnesota, Spring/Summer 2001.
In coordination with the textbook's primary
authors Jeff High and Charlotte Melin, I supervised a graduate student
and an undergraduate assistant in creating
web-based listening exercises to accompany Wende. This have since been
updated by others.
Teaching Assistant, University
of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1996-1997, 1999-2001
Department
of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, Supervisor: Professor Charlotte Melin
German
Taught 1001-1004 and 3011WI (writing intensive)
First, second and third year German language/conversation
and composition with excellent student evaluations
Certificate in Educational
Technology, Middlebury College, Vermont, Summer 2000
Three week intensive training program in
multi-media and web-based educational technology with the development of individual
course materials.
Translator/Computer Programmer, Office of External Affairs,
Freie Universität, Berlin, 1997-1999
Supervisor: Dr.
Wedigo de Vivanco - aaa@fu-berlin.de
Exchange Program between the Freie Universität,
Berlin and the University of Minnesota;
Translations: International Student Handbook
and Summer School Handbook.
Émigré Memorial German Internship Program, Dresden,
Germany, Winter 1997
A competitive internship
in the Saxon State Government - Sächsischer Landtag Interviewed and accompanied
members of these parties: SPD, CDU, PDS, and the Greens.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
East German literature and film, Eastern European film, utopian theory, theories
of the fantastic, science fiction, women and science fiction, ecocriticism/ecoutopia.
AWARDS/GRANTS
National/International
Associate Co-Director, Grant Management Team, U. S. Department of Education
Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program (UISFL) grant
to support the IWU project: "Strengthening Asian Studies at IWU:Language,
Curriculum, Faculty Visits and Institutional Linkages" Responsible for
addition of Chinese language and culture courses. $161,843 over two years 2010-2012.
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Summer Reinvitation Research Grant. May/June 2009, Humboldt Universität, Berlin, Germany.
Co-writer/sponsor of successful grant proposal to the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence program with colleague Marina Balina to bring Russian academic Valery Dymschitz to Illinois Wesleyan University as a visiting professor during the Fall Semester 2006.
Arthur O. Lewis Award 2004, Society for Utopian Studies. Given for the best paper given by an untenured scholar at the society's annual conference. For the article: "Utopia, Dystopia and Ostalgia: The Pre- and Post-Unification Visions of East German Science Fiction Writer Alexander Kröger."
Fulbright German Studies Seminar "Visual Culture in Germany:
Film, Television and the Internet." June 4 - 25, 2004 in Berlin, Cologne
and Munich, Germany.
Invited to attend the East German Summer Film Institute on "DEFA and Eastern
European Cinema", DEFA Film Library at University of Massachusetts Amherst
and Smith College, July 7-12, 2003.
Thyssen Travel Grant to attend the 2002 Symposium on German Film, "Between
the Local and the Global: Revisiting the Sites of German Cinema," March
21-23, 2002, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.
Full Grant to Attend the East German Summer Film Institute “Interdisciplinary Approaches to the DEFA Film.” June 25-July 1, 2001, Sponsored by DEFA Film Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Held at Smith College, Northampton, MA,
Best Student Paper for "Out of the Western Box: Rethinking
Popular Cultural Categories from the Perspective of East German Science Fiction,"
Science Fiction Research Association Annual Conference, June 26-July 2, 2000,
Cleveland, Ohio.
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Research Fellowship, 1998-1999,
Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany, an international fellowship competition
Research/Study Exchange, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany, 1997-1998
Local
Writing Course Development Grant, Illinois Wesleyan Univeristy, Spring/Summer
2009.
Curriculum Development (CD) Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Spring/Summer 2009.
Artistic and Scholarly Development (ASD) Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Summer 2009.
Instructional Development (ID) Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Spring 2008.
Curriculum Development (CD) Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Summer-Fall 2007
Artistic and Scholarly Development (ASD) Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Summer 2007.
International Office Site Visit Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Summer 2007.
Instructional Development (ID) Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University,
Summer, 2007.
Curriculum Development (CD) Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Summer - Fall
2005, together with German colleague Julie Prandi.
Junior Faculty Leave, Illinois Wesleyan University, Fall 2004
- a campus-wide competition.
Artistic and Scholarly Development Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Summer
and Fall 2004.
Humanities Occasional Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Fall 2003 - To support the visit of Dada performer Dr. Bernd Seydel, Germany.
Humanities Occasional Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Spring 2003 - To support the visit of Paralympic Athlete-Scholar Cara Dunne Yates, Brandeis University.
Artistic and Scholarly Development (ASD) Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Summer 2002.
Curriculum Development (CD) Grant, Illinois Wesleyan University, Summer-Fall 2002.
College of Liberal Arts Fees Committee Instructional Technology Grant, University of Minnesota, Spring/Summer 2001.
Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Special Grant, University of Minnesota, Summer 2000.
German Departmental Summer Grant, University of Minnesota, Summer 2000.
Graduate School Fellowship, University of Minnesota, 1995-1996.
CONFERENCES/PAPERS
National
"Sci-Fi Film as a Possibility for Political
Critique and Subversion in East Germany"
2008 Film and History Conference: Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries,
and Beyond. October 30-November 2, 2008. Chicago, IL
"Heimat in the DEFA 70mm Film Du bist min. Ein deutsches Tagebuch"
German Studies Association Annual Conference, Oct. 2-5, 2008, St. Paul, Minnesota.
“The Thorndikes and East Germany's 70mm Film Experiment”
22nd Annual International Literature Conference. University of West Georgia.
November 15-17, 2007. Carrollton, GA.
"Dis(co)topia: East German Youth Culture and the Discofilm."
Society for Utopian Studies Annual Conference, October 4-7,
2007. Toronto, Canada.
"The Inner Fight For Agency."
Coalition of Women in German Annual Conference, October 19-22, 2006, Snowbird,
UT.
“Feminist Visions of the Future in the German Science
Fiction of Today.”
Society for Utopian Studies Annual Conference, October 12-15, 2006. Colorado
Springs, CO.
"East Germany’s Werkstatt Zukunft: Futurology
and the Science Fiction Films of defa-futurum."
Society for Utopian Studies Annual Conference, October 27 - 30, 2005. Memphis,
TN
“Reinventing the Communist Science Fiction Novel in East
Germany: Continuities and Discontinuities.”
German Studies Association Annual Conference, September 29-October 2, 2005.
Milwaukee, WI.
"Publishing Ursula Le Guin in East Germany."
Science Fiction Research Association Annual Conference, June 23 - 26, 2005,
Las Vegas, NV.
"That Was Then, This Is Now: the Pre- and Post-Unification
Visions of East German Science Fiction Writer Alexander Kröger."
Society for Utopian Studies Annual Conference, October 20 - November 2, 2003,
San Diego, CA.
"Science Fiction in the Soviet Sector: Ludwig Turek's
The Golden Ball."
German Studies Association Annual Conference, September 18-21, 2003, New Orleans,
LA.
"Web-based Listening Exercises for the Textbook Wende"
Courseware Showcase.
Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) Annual Conference,
March 28-30, 2002, Davis, California.
"Subversion or Diversion?: Science Fiction Fandom in East
Germany."
German Studies Association Annual Conference, October 4-7, 2001, Washington,
D.C.
"Utopian Realism in the East German Science Fiction Film
Eolomea."
International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Annual Conference, March
21-25, 2001, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
"East is East and West is West: Exploring the Limits of
Western Theories of Popular Culture in the former East."
Graduate student conference "The Politics of Pop: Popular Culture in German-speaking
countries," Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, University of
Minnesota, March 2-4, 2001, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
"East German Apocalypse: Hopelessness in Angela and Karlheinz
Steinmueller's Der Traummeister,"
Modern Language Association Annual Conference, December 26-30, 2000, Washington,
D.C.
"Out of the Western Box: Rethinking Popular Culture Categories
from the Perspective of East German Science Fiction,"
Science Fiction Research Association Annual Conference, June 26-July 2, 2000,
Cleveland, Ohio.
"East German Science Fiction as Critical Space: Authors Johanna
and Günter Braun,"
German Studies Association Annual Conference, October 7-10, 1999, Atlanta, Georgia.
"Negotiating Ideology-Reading Strategies in Kurt Maetzig's
'First Spaceship on Venus',"
Popular Culture Association/American Cultural Association Annual Conference,
March 31 - April 3, 1999, San Diego, California.
Local
"Practicing the Active Modalities Beyond the
Classroom with Voxopop." Spring Workshop. Northern Illinois American Association
of Teachers of German (AATG). College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL. April 10, 2010.
"Promoting Discussion with Wikis in the Upper Level German Literature Classroom"
Writing Workshop, Illinois Wesleyan University, January 12, 2008.
"East German Identity Through Science Fiction."
Interview with WGLT, a local public radio station. December 4, 2006. Illinois
State University, Bloomington, Illinois.
“Publishing American Science Fiction in East Germany:
The Case of Ursula Le Guin.”
Inaugural Talk of the International Studies Colloquium, Illinois Wesleyan University,
October 6, 2005, Bloomington, Illinois.
"But is it your English?"
"Must the Whole World Speak English?," a panel in conjunction with
the IWU Presidential Inauguration, Illinois Wesleyan University, April 8, 2005,
Bloomington, Illinois.
"Identity in German Media Today: Reflections on a Fulbright
Seminar in Germany, June 2004."
Non-Org Talk, Illinois Wesleyan University, February 14, 2005, Bloomington,
Illinois.
"Fantasy in Today's World."
Interview with WGLT, a local public radio station. January 21, 2004. Illinois
State University, Bloomington, Illinois.
"The Matrix - Cyberpunk as Film"
Non-Org Talk, Illinois Wesleyan University, November 17, 2003, Bloomington,
Illinois.
"Teaching Learning Strategies"
Gateway Instruction and First Year Advisor Orientation, Illinois Wesleyan, August
15, 2003.
"Strategic Sifting through the Newest and the Not-So-New: Educational Technology
for Foreign Language Teaching."
Presentation for the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
and the Department of Hispanic Studies, Illinois Wesleyan University, May 1,
2002, Bloomington, Illinois.
"Socialist Realism - an Impossible Aesthetic." Co-presenter with Marina
Balina and Joy Calico,
Non-Org Talk, Illinois Wesleyan University, January 21, 2002, Bloomington, Illinois.
"Stories from a Parallel World: East German Science Fiction."
Non-Org Talk, Illinois Wesleyan University, November 26, 2001.
Co-organizer and introducer of screenings of East German Films Signale: Ein
Weltraumabenteuer, Orpheus in der Unterwelt, and Hauptmann Florian
von der Mühle. With generous funding from Filmstudio Babelsberg, Polzer
Media Group GmbH Potsdam, Bojebuck Film Studios Berlin, Delphi Filmtheater Betrieb
Berlin, Oak Street Cinema, and the U Film Society. Graduate student conference
"The Politics of Pop: Popular Culture in German-speaking countries," Department
of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, University of Minnesota, March 2-4, 2001,
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
ACADEMIC SERVICE
National
Conference Program Chair, Society
for Utopian Studies Annual Conference, State College, PA 2011.
Editorial Advisory Board, Extrapolation, 2008-
Awards Committee, Society for Utopian Studies, 2007-2009.
At-large Member, Steering Committee, Society for Utopian Studies, 2005-2007.
Referee, Journal of Utopian Studies, Journal of the Society for Utopian Studies, 2002 - present.
Faculty referee, Focus on German Studies, Graduate student journal, University of Cincinnati, 2001 - present.
Illinois Wesleyan University
Fulbright Campus Coordinator, 2003 - 2010.
Chair, Teaching and Learning with Technology Roundtable, a
campus-wide committee, 2006-2007
Committee Member since 2002/ Strategic
Planning Subcommittee, 2002 - 2003
University Speakers' Committee, a campus-wide elected committee,
2005-2007.
Russian and East European Studies Liaison to the International Studies Program,
Illinois Wesleyan University, Fall 2002, 2003-2004, Spring 2005 - 2007, 2009-2010.
German Studies Section Coordinator, Fall 2005-Spring 2007,
Spring 2008 - present.
Study Abroad Committee, 2002 - present.
German Studies Website Manager 2001 - present.
First-year (Freshman) Advisor, Illinois Wesleyan University,
2002-2003, 2005-2008. 2009-2010.
"Literature and Culture" Course Rubric Coordinator, Illinois Wesleyan
University, 2002-2003. Spring 2008-Spring 2009.
Co-organizer of and Faculty Liaison for the new Language House, Illinois Wesleyan
University, 2001-2003.
Regular screenings and introduction of films in the IWU International Film Series 2001- present.
WORKSHOPS and CONFERENCES ATTENDED
CALICO/IALLT joint annual conference. March 18-22,
2008. San Francisco, CA
Loyola College Berlin Literature Seminar, am Müggelsee, Germany, June 25-30,
2007
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American
Association of Teachers of German
German Studies Association
Modern Language Association
Science Fiction Research Association
Women in German
Society for Utopian Studies
REFERENCES
Provided upon request. Please contact me.