Kathrin Breuer

Associate Professor of German and Director of the German Language Program

Departments/Programs

German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature

Degrees

Vanderbilt University, Ph.D.
Vanderbilt University, M.A.

Expertise

Human Rights - Human Trafficking - Forced Migration - Sexual Exploitation - Gendered Violence - Prostitution - Exile - Transatlantic Studies - Cultural Exchange - Translation Studies - German Exile in Latin America - Immigration to Germany - Online Teaching

Profile

Kathrin Breuer, PhD, joined Brandeis in 2012 as Director of the German Program and has since been promoted to Assistant Professor of German. She received her Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures from Vanderbilt University where she also taught before taking a faculty position at the College of William & Mary which she held for a year prior to her appointment at Brandeis.

Her research focuses on transatlantic relations and migration movements. While she worked
extensively on German exile communities in South America, particularly in Colombia, and
investigated cross-cultural exchanges, questions of identity and belonging, translation and literary
criticism, her most recent investigations are inspired by the writings of German-Peruvian authors,
and focus on gendered violence, human trafficking and human rights violations in the German
prostitution industry.

Kathrin Breuer has been involved in a number of teaching innovation projects, for which she
received grants and a teaching fellowship. She regularly teaches German language, grammar
and literature courses as well as courses on German film and on migration.

Courses Taught

GER	10a	Beginning German
GER	20b	Continuing German
GER	30a	Intermediate German
GER	103a	German Culture Through Film
GER	105a	Writing on the Wall: Literature, the Arts, and the Fall of the Wall
GER	105b	Survey of German Literature from Its Beginnings to the Present
GER	106b	Migration, Kultur, Synergie

Awards and Honors

Research Fellowship "Forschungsaufenthalte für Hochschullehrer und Wissenschaftler, 2019, awarded by the German Academic Exchange Service (suspended due to Covid-19 travel restrictions) (2019 - 2020)

Theodor and Jane Norman Fund for Faculty Research and Creative Projects (2019 - 2020)

Teaching Innovation Grant for „Enhancing Student Engagement and Achievement Through Voice and Visual Interaction Using VoiceThread™ (2017 - 2018)

Library & Technology Services Summer Grant for Faculty (2016)

Teaching Innovation Grant for „Re-designing Language Courses Through Technology-Assisted Exams“ (2016 - 2017)

Davis Teaching and Learning Fellow at Brandeis University (Fellowship Period: Academic Year of 2014/15) (2014 - 2015)

Hilde – Domin – Stipendium für lateinamerikanisch-deutsche Literaturbeziehungen, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach (2013 - 2014)

Research Grant, Center for German and European Studies, Brandeis University (2013)

Theodore and Jane Norman Award (for Faculty Scholarship in Arts & Sciences), Brandeis University (2013)

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) / Vista Higher Learning Scholarship, Annual Convention (2012)

CGES Course Development Grant, Center for German and European Studies, Brandeis University (2012)

Scholarship

Seidl, Kathrin. "Cruzar fronteras culturales — La traducción de la literature alemana en Colombia." Revista de la Universidad de Antioquia 326 (2017): 33-38.

Seidl, Kathrin. "Cultural Border Crossing: The Translation of German Culture in Colombia." INTI. Revista de Literatura Hispánica 85-86 (2017): 122-135.

Seidl, Kathrin. "Una mission transnacional: la vida y los ensayos de Ernesto Volkening en ECO." Transnacionalidad e hibridez en el ensayo hispánico. Un género sin orillas. vol. 57 Ed. Reindert Dhondt and Dagmar Vandebosch. Leiden; Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2017. 95-111.

Seidl, Kathrin. Erich Arendt y su encuentro con el trópico. 1 ed. Madrid: Del Centro Editores, 2015.

Seidl, Kathrin. "Herweg, Nikola. nur ein land / mein sprachland. Heimat erschreiben bei Elisabeth Augustin, Hilde Domin und Anna Maria Jokl (Kathrin Seidl)." Rev. of nur ein land / mein sprachland. Heimat erschreiben bei Elisabeth Augustin, Hilde Domin und Anna Maria Jokl, by Nikola Herweg. Monatshefte vol. 105 / Fall 2013

Seidl-Gómez, Kathrin. "An Intangible Heimat: Ernesto Volkening’s Return to Antwerp." Intercultural Mnemo-Graphies / Interkulturelle Mnemo-Graphien / Mnemo-Grafias Interculturais. Ed. Mário Matos and Orlando Grossegesse. Famalicão (Portugal): Ed. Húmus, 2012. 171-186.

Seidl-Gómez, Kathrin. "The Creativity of Displacement: Ernesto Volkening as Essayist and Cultural Translator in Colombia, 1934-1983." Diss. Vanderbilt University, 07/21/2011.