Ingeborg Walther

Office Location:	116J Old Chem Bldg
Office Phone:	+1 919 684-5585, +1 919 660 3160
Email Address:
Web Page:

Education:

• PhD University of Michigan, 1987
• MA Tufts University, 1974
• BA Stanford University, 1973

Specialties:

Applied Linguistics
Pedagogy
20th Century Literature

Ingeborg Walther is Associate Professor of the Practice of German and Associate Dean of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, where she directs the Office of Curriculum and Course Development. A graduate of Stanford University (B.A.), Tufts University (M.A.) and the University of Michigan (Ph.D.), she joined the faculty of Duke University in 1994. Since then she has served as German Language Program Director, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Chair of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature. Her major research interests include 20th century German theater, second language acquisition, applied linguistics, and critical pedagogy.

Her book, The Theater of Franz Xaver Kroetz, deals with the intersections of language, culture, and identity with which she continues to be concerned. She has also published and presented numerous papers on issues of language acquisition, culture, curriculum, and pedagogy, exploring productive links among what are often perceived as separate and unrelated fields of inquiry. She has put these ideas into practice with the creation of a coherent, articulated German Language Program Curriculum which integrates language and culture at all levels, while introducing students to some of the primary concerns of our discipline: the relationships between culture and identity, language and power, reader and text, text and context. The workshops and presentations she has given on using poetry, music, and theater in the language classroom show how important cultural texts can be used even at beginning levels in substantive, intellectually challenging ways, while taking fuller account of the affective and extra-linguistic dimensions of communication and learning.

Professor Walther has served on numerous committees and task forces which have promoted and restructured foreign language study at Duke. She has also been an active member of the profession, having served on the Executive Committee of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages, and presented regularly at national and regional conferences of the Modern Languages Association, the American Association of Teachers of German, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, and the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators. She is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Robert B. Cox Distinguished Teaching Award for her excellence in the classroom and her contributions to undergraduate teaching at Duke.

Curriculum Vitae

Recent Conference Talks, Lectures and Workshops

  Invited Lectures:

1. "Assessing the Undergraduate Major: Some Considerations for Program Design and Development", AAUSC (American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators) German Section Annual Meeting, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, October 10, 2008
2. “Curricular Planning along the Fault Line between ‘Instrumental’ and ‘Academic’ Agendas: A Response to the MLA Report: on Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World", Duke-UNC Works-in-Progress Series, UNC Chapel Hill, April 03, 2008
3. “The Use of Electronic Teaching Portfolios in Graduate Student Teacher Training”, Duke University, April 26, 2007
4. “Ecological Perspectives on Language and Literacy: Implications for Foreign Language Instruction at the Collegiate Level.”, Duke University, December 14, 2006
5. Keynote Lecture: "Language and Culture from the Bottom Up: Re-thinking the Foreign Language Curriculum", West Virginia Foreign Language Teachers Association, Morgantown, West Virginia, October 08, 2005

1. "Evaluating the Foreign Language Requirement at Duke University", 30th Annual Language Testing Research Colloquium (International Conference), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, June 28, 2008
2. "Cultural Studies from the Bottom Up? Curricular Planning along the Faultlines between Instrumental and Academic Agendas", MLA Convention, Chicago, IL, December 30, 2007
3. “Too Much Literature? The Role of Literary Studies in the German Classroom.”, NC AATG Conference, Elon University, October 19, 2007
4. "From Culture to Cultural Studies: New Paradigms in Foreign Language Education and Why They Matter", ACTFL / AATG Annual Convention, Nashville, TN, November 18, 2006
5. "Turning on to Nietzsche in First-Year German", ACTFL / AATG Convention, Nashville, TN, November 17, 2006
6. "Ecological Perspectives on Language and Literacy: Implications for Beginning and Intermediate Foreign Language Instruction", American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL )/ American Association of Teachers of German (AATG ) Annual Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, November 17, 2005

1. New Chairs Workshop, ADFL Seminar East, Hunter College, NY, June 8 - 11, 2006
2. "Drama in the German Language Class", Rutgers University, April 21, 2006
3. "Teaching Literature: Strategies and Techniques for Teaching Foreign Language Literature at the Upper Levels", North Carolina State University, March 01, 2006
4. "Speaking in Another’s Voice: Performing Language as Culture through Theater", West Virginia Foreign Language Teachers Association Convention, Morgantown, West Virginia, October 07, 2005

1. I. Walther. The Theater of Franz Xaver Kroetz. Peter Lang, 1990.
2. I. Walther. ""Ecological Perspectives on Language and Literacy: Implications for Foreign Language Instruction at the Collegiate Level"." ADFL Bulletin  (Winter, 2007)
3. Ingeborg Walther. ""Curricular Planning Along the Fault Line Between 'Instrumental' and 'Academic' Agendas: A Response to the MLA Report on Foreign Languages and Higher Education, New Structures for a Changed World"." Die Unterrichtspraxis (Submitted, 2008).
4. I. Walther. Articulation of the German Language Curriculum. Fall, 2000. (German Department publication)
5. I. Walther. Teaching Assistant Handbook. Spring, 2001. (German Department publication for Teachers of German, Fall, 1996; updated and revised Spring 2001 and Spring 2007)