Ingeborg C. Walther, Professor of the Practice Emerita of Germanic Languages and Literature

Please note: Ingeborg has left the "Linguistics" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

Ingeborg Walther is Professor of the Practice Emerita of German Studies. 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 served as German Language Program Director, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Chair of the Department of German Studies. From 2007 - 2016, she served as Associate Dean of Curriculum and Course Development in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.  Her major research interests include German Romanticism, 19th and 20th century German theater, poetry, and art songs, 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 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.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	116J Old Chemistry Building, Box 90256, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	(919) 660-3163
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.duke.edu/web/linguistics/index.html/~waltheri

Office Hours:

Mon. 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. 
Wed. 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Education:

Ph.D.	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	1987
M.A.	Tufts University	1974
B.A.	Stanford University	1973

Specialties:

Applied Linguistics
Pedagogy
20th Century Literature

Research Interests: Second Language Acquisition Theory, Critical Pedagogy, and Modern German Drama

Areas of Interest:

second language acquisition
critical pedagogy
intercultural communication
curriculum development
20th century German literature

Keywords:

second language acquisition • critical pedagogy • intercultural communication • curriculum development • 20th century German literature

Curriculum Vitae

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Katharina Uhde  

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Walther, I, The Theater of Franz Xaver Kroetz (1990), Peter Lang
2. Walther, I, 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, vol. Volume 42 no. 2 (Fall, 2009), pp. 115-122
3. Walther, I, Developing and Implementing an Evaluation of the Foreign Language Requirement at Duke University, in Towards Useful Program Evaluation in College Foreign Language Education, NFLRC Mongraphs, edited by Norris, JM; Davis, JM; Sinicrope, C; Watanabe, Y (2009), pp. 119-140, National Foreign Language Resource Center
4. Walther, I, "Ecological Perspectives on Language and Literacy: Implications for Foreign Language Instruction at the Collegiate Level", ADFL Bulletin (Winter, 2007)
5. Walther, I, Franz Xaver Kroetz, in Encyclopedia of German Literature (2000), Chicago, London, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers
6. Walther, I, Articulation of the German Language Curriculum (Fall, 2000) (German Department publication.)
7. Walther, I, Teaching Assistant Handbook (Spring, 2007)  [author's comments]

Selected Invited Lectures

1. "Goethe, Romanticism, and the German 'Lied'", October 29, 2011, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill    
2. "Goethe-in-Song" (Lecture/Recital), February, 2011, Duke University, also presented at Meredith College and Wake Forest University    
3. "Assessing the Undergraduate Major: Some Considerations for Program Design and Development", October 10, 2008, AAUSC (American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators) German Section Annual Meeting, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI    
4. “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", April 03, 2008, Duke-UNC Works-in-Progress Series, UNC Chapel Hill    
5. “The Use of Electronic Teaching Portfolios in Graduate Student Teacher Training”, April 26, 2007, Duke University    
6. “Ecological Perspectives on Language and Literacy: Implications for Foreign Language Instruction at the Collegiate Level.”, December 14, 2006, Duke University    
7. Keynote Lecture: "Language and Culture from the Bottom Up: Re-thinking the Foreign Language Curriculum", October 08, 2005, West Virginia Foreign Language Teachers Association, Morgantown, West Virginia