ROBERT S. BLEDSOE

Associate Professor of German
Augusta State University

Education
Publications
Presentations
Grants and Awards
Professional Experience
Courses Taught
Service

EDUCATION

Ph.D.  University of California at Berkeley , German, May 1994
           Dissertation: Reading and Identity Construction in the Eighteenth-Century German Novel

Eberhard-Karls-Universität - Tübingen, (DAAD Scholar) 1988-9

M.A. University of California at Berkeley, German, May 1986

A.B. University of California at Berkeley, German and History, December 1983

Georg-August Universität - Göttingen (exchange student),1981-83

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Discourses of Reading: Reading and Identity in Eighteenth-Century Germany. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, forthcoming.
 

Volumes Edited

Robert Bledsoe, Bernd Estabrook, Courtney Federle, Kay Henschel, Arnim Polster and Wayne Miller (Eds.). Rethinking Germanistik: Canon and Culture. Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotics 6. New York: Peter Lang, 1991.
 

Articles 

"Empathetic Reading and Identity Formation."Lessing Yearbook, forthcoming.

"Harnessing the Autonomous Work of Art: Enlightenment and Aesthetic Education in Johann Adam Bergk's Die Kunst, Bücher zu lesen" German Life & Letters,  n.s., 53 (October 2000) 470-86.

"The Sentimental Culture of the Internet: Transformations of the Public Spheres in the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries." http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/projects/inetcrit/rsb_mla95.html (6/96)

Robert Bledsoe, Wayne Miller and Arnim Polster. "Rethinking Germanistik: Introduction." Rethinking Germanistik: Canon and Culture. Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotics 6. New York: Peter Lang, 1991. xi-xx.

Reviews

Review of Thomas Max Safley, Die Aufzeichnungen des Matheus Miller : Das Leben eines Augsburger Kaufmanns im 17. Jahrhundert. Augsburg: Wißner-Verlag, 2003. H-German (H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine (forthcoming)

Review of Catherine Labio. Origins and the Enlightenment: Aesthetic Epistemology from Descartes to Kant. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2004. Choice 42 No. 10 (June 2005).

Review of Helga Meise. Das archivierte Ich. Schreibkalender und höfische Repräsentation in Hessen-Darmstadt 1624-1790. Arbeiten der Hessischen Historischen Kommission, N. F. Bd. 21. Darmstadt: Hessische Historische Kommission Darmstadt 2002. H-German, April 15, 2005 (H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine Reviews, June 21, 2005).

Review of Shelley Frisch. The Lure of the Linguistic: Speculations on the Origin of Language in German Romanticism. New York: Holmes & Meier, 2004. Choice 42 No. 8 (April 2005).

Review of Frederick C. Beiser, The Romantic Imperative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Choice 41 No. 11 (July 2004).

Review of Robert J. Richards, The Romantic Conception of Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Choice 40 No. 10 (June 2003).

Review of Friedrich Schlegel, On the Study of Greek Poetry. Trans. and ed. Stuart Barnett. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2001. Choice 38 No. 10 (June 2001).

Review of Wolfgang Rothe, Der politische Goethe and Goethe, der Pazifist. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998. Colloquia Germanica 33 (2000) 81-84.

Review of Gernot Wolfgruber, Footloose. Trans. Robert Acker. Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, 1999. Choice October 2000.
 

Manuscripts In Circulation and Preparation

"Between National and Individual Identity: J.A. Bergk's Art of Reading and the Course of Aesthetic Humanism" (article-length manuscript, being revised for resubmission to Colloquia Germania).

"From Domestic Tragedy to Domestic Comedy: Bürgerliches Trauerspiel and Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" (article-length project, projected completion: August 2000).

"Schiller and Nineteenth-Century Opera" (article-length project, in initial stages).

Creating Communitiy: Imagining Social Space in Enlightenment Germany (book-length project; proposal available).
 

PRESENTATIONS

Panelist, "Reading Historically, Chair's Forum, Augusta, April 2003.

"Rethinking the Quantitative/Qualitative Split in Curriculum Assessment," presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Seattle, Jan. 2003.

"Germany, Language and the European Union," Keynote Address, Alpha Mu Gamma Induction Ceremony, Augusta State University, May 2001.

"Digital Technology and the Language Curriculum," Keynote Address, ASU Faculty Dialogue on Technology and Learning, Augusta State University, March 2001

"Reading, Browsing and the Usurpation of Hypertext." Modern Language Association Annual Convention in Washington, DC, December 2000.

"Old Times in a New Language: The Middle Ages in the Foreign Language Classroom." FLAIR Conference in Augusta, GA, October 2000.

"Revolution, Resignation, and the Path to Realism: German Society and Social Production in the Nineteenth Century." Lecture at Rice University, Houston, TX, Oct. 12, 2000.

"From Cultural Nation to National Culture: Classicism, Romanticism and the Emergence of German Identity." Lecture at Rice University, Houston, TX, Oct. 5, 2000.

"Negroponte's Metaphors." Modern Language Association Annual Convention in Chicago, IL, December 1998.

"Goethe and the History of Reading." Goethe at the Clark Library (UCLA) in Los Angeles, CA, October 1998.

"Harnessing the Autonomous Work of Art: Johann Adam Bergk's Die Kunst, Bücher zu lesen between National and Individual Identity." Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Lexington, KY, April 1998.

"Transparent Signs: Language, the Body and Writing in La Roche's Sternheim." German Studies Association Annual Conference in Bethesda, MD, September 1997.

 "The Sentimental Culture of the Internet: Transformations of the Public Spheres in the 18th and 20th Centuries." Modern Language Association Annual Convention in Chicago, IL December 1995.

 "From Books to Letters: Searching for Identity in Die Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim." German Studies Association Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX, October 1994.

 "Exchangeable Exemplars: Reading and Relationships in Eighteenth-Century Germany." German Studies Association Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN, October 1992.

 "Lesen und Lektüre: The Politics of Reading in Goethe's Dichtung und Wahrheit." German Studies Association Annual Meeting in Buffalo, NY, October 1990.

 "Goethe Reading Goethe: Goethe as a Reader in His Autobiographical Writings." Semiotic Circle of California Annual Meeting in Berkeley, CA, January 1990.

 "Depictions of Joseph II and Frederick II in Literary Histories of the Vormärz: A Discourse Prefiguring the Kleindeutsche Lösung." Modern Language Association Annual Convention in San Francisco, CA, December 1987.

 "American Anthologies of German Literature." Special session entitled "Paradigms of Cultural Tradition: The Literary Canon in Anthologies of German Literature" at the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast Annual Conference in Davis, CA, November 1987.

"Goethe's Figuration of Frederick II and Its Influence on the Literary Canon." German Studies Association Annual Conference in St. Louis, MO, October 1987.
 

GRANTS AND AWARDS

External

Project Director, National Endowment for the Humanities Focus Grant: "Languages in the Humanities at Rice University" with project coordinators Bernard Aresu (French Studies) and Michael Barlow (Linguistics) (7/95-2/97) ($23,000).

 Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute: "Teaching German Across the Curriculum" (July-August 1995).

 Fulbright Scholar, German Studies Seminar, Summer 1995.
 

Internal

Augusta State University

Funding from Augusta State University Foundation to travel to Seattle to present a paper at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, January 2003.

Funding from Augusta State University Foundation to travel to Washington, D.C. to present a paper at the Modern Language Association's Annual Convention, December 2000.

Funding from Augusta State University Foundation to travel to Houston, TX. to participate in the German Studies Association's Annual Conference and deliver a lecture at Rice University, October 2000.

Rice University

Project Director, Brown Teaching Grant: "German 201/202: Proficiency Through Content" (4/98-6/99) ($5000).

 Faculty Associate of the Year, Jones College, 1997-98

 Project Director, Brown Teaching Grant: "Integrating Technology into Elementary German Language Instruction" (additional funds from the School of Humanities) (4/97-5/98) ($4000).

 Fellow, NEH-Sarofim Grant: "Teaching in the Humanities" (1997-98).

 Distinguished Faculty Associate for Academic Year 95-96, 96-97, 97-98, 98-99, 99-00
 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Positions Held

Augusta State University, Associate Professor of German, August 2004 to present

Assistant Professor of German, August 2000 to July 2004.

Rice University, Assistant Professor of German Studies, 1994-2000.

University of California at Berkeley, Graduate Student Instructor I-III, 1984-1991.
 

Courses Taught

Augusta State University

*Elementary German
*Intermediate German
*German Cinema
*Survey of German Literature

*German Conversation

*German Culture

*Advanced German Grammar
World Humanities

Rice University

Lower Division German Courses in Language and Culture
* Introduction to German Language and Culture
Intermediate German Language and Culture
German for Students of Engineering and Sciences

Upper Division Courses in German Studies
* Social, Cultural and Literary History of Germany 1750-1850
* Drama and Dramaturgy
* Jena Romanticism
* German Culture in the 20th Century
* The Text of Opera: Opera and Literature

Graduate Courses in German Studies
* Introduction to 18th. Cen. Literature and Culture
* Literary Theory: Of Reading and Readers

Interdisciplinary Courses
Introduction to Humanities
*Cultural Responses in England and Germany to the French Revolution (1789-1830) with John Zammito (History)
 

University of California at Berkeley

Lower Division Courses in German Language
Beginning and Intermediate German
Ten-Week Summer Intensive Workshop for Beginning German
German for Reading Knowledge

Upper Division Courses in German Studies
German 160: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud

Interdisciplinary Courses
Comparative Literature 1A
* Humanities 100, upper division introduction to interdisciplinary major
Introduction to Computers and Programming for Non-science Majors

* indicates a new or substantially redesigned course

Departmental Service

Augusta State University

Chair, Chair's Forum, 2002-

Co-Webmaster, Departmental Website, 2003-

Member, Chair's Forum, 2000-

Member, Foreign Language Committee, 2000-

Departmental Secretary, 2000-01

Advising Edge Representative, 2000-01

Student Advising, 2000-

Facilitator, German Table, 2000-

Rice University

Coordinator: Elementary German, 1998-2000

Committee Member for Theses by: John Ronald, M.A. 1997
                                                     Leslie Shouse-Luxem, Ph. D. 1998
                                                     John Nelson, Ph. D. 1999
                                                     Tracy Volz, Ph. D. 2000
 

University Service

Augusta State University

Member, Women's Studies Committee, 2003-

Chair, International Affairs Committee, 2002-2003

Participant, Faculty Colloquium 2002-03

Member, International Affairs Committee, 2001-03

Participant and Presenter, Faculty Writing Group, 2002-

Panelist, Alpha Mu Gamma Comparative Culture Panel, November 2003

Translations from Haydn's Creation for the ASU Choir, November 2003

Panelist, discussion of Antonia's Line (ASU Women's Week), April 2003

Faculty Friend, 2002-2003

Reader for the Opera Workshop's production of The Micado, November 2002.

The Dragon in Augusta State University's production of The Magic Flute, March 2002

Translations of lieder from the German for the ASU Concert Chorus, April 2001

University System of Georgia

Member, eCore Foreign Language Reseach Team, 2003

Participant, Turn-it-in Pilot Project, Spring 2002

Rice University

Member, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, 1995-99

Member, Search Committee for a Director of the Center for the Study of Languages, 1996-97

Divisional Advisor (Humanities), Jones College, Fall 97 - present

Non-resident Faculty Associate, Jones College, Spring 95 - present

Faculty Advisor, Jones College Fellows. Spring 96, Spring 98, Fall 98, Spring 99
 

Professional Service

Judge, Richmond Country Foreign Language Competition, 2001 and 2002

Interviewer, Governor's Honors in German, 2002

Co-editor for electronic discussion list: "International Discussion Forum for German Studies"
<GSLIST@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>, 1999-2005

Commentator for the session entitled "Universalism and its Discontents: Discourses of the Berlin Enlightenment" at the German Studies Association Annual Conference at Houston, TX in October 2000.

 Moderator for sessions at German Studies Association Annual Conferences.

Co-organizer of "Rethinking Germanistik." Two symposia held at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Washington, Seattle in September and October 1988. Funded by the German Academic Exchange Service with additional support from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Washington.

 Facilitator for "Materiality of the Canon." Workshop during "Rethinking Germanistik: The Canon and the Institution," September 9-10, 1988 at the University of California at Berkeley.