Mary-Elizabeth O'Brien, Ph.D.

Department of Foreign Lang & Lit Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 518-580-5216 mobrien@skidmore.edu

Employment

Currently	Professor of German and Chair of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Skidmore College
2003-2007	Director of International Affairs, Skidmore College
1999-2000	Fulbright Senior Scholar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
1990-1996	Assistant Professor of German, Skidmore College
1986 and 1990	Lecturer, California State University, Northridge
1989	Adjunct Assistant Professor, Whittier College
1988-1989	Lecturer, University of California, Santa Cruz
1982-1987	Teaching Assistant, University of California, Los Angeles

Education

1988	Ph.D., Germanic Languages, University of California, Los Angeles Dissertation: Fantasy and Reality in Irmtraud Morner's Salman Novels
1987	Freie Universität Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany
1986	C.Phil., Germanic Languages, University of California, Los Angeles
1984 and 1985	Wilhelm-Pieck-Universität Rostock, German Democratic Republic
1983	M.A., German, University of California, Los Angeles
1981	B.A., German, California State University, Long Beach
1979-1980	Karl-Winter-Universität Heidelberg, Federal Republic of Germany
1979	Goethe Institut Blaubeuren, Federal Republic of Germany

Publications

“National Socialist Realism and the Problem Film.” The Intersection of Politics and German Literature, 1750-2000: A Festschrift in Honor of Ehrhard Bahr. Los Angeles: New German Review and the University of California, Los Angeles, 2005.

Nazi Cinema as Enchantment: The Politics of Entertainment in the Third Reich. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2004.

“The Celluloid War: Packaging War for Sale in Nazi Home-Front Films.” Art, Culture and Media under the Third Reich. Ed. Richard Etlin. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2002. 158-180.

“The Spectacle of War in Die große Liebe.” Cultural History through a National Socialist Lens: Essays on the Cinema of the Third Reich. Ed. Robert C. Reimer. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2000. 197-213.

“Aesthetizing War: Eduard von Borsody’s Wunschkonzert.” Seminar 33:1 (1997): 36-49.

“Male Conquest of the Female Continent in Veit Harlan’s Opfergang (1944).” Monatshefte 87:4 (1995): 431-445.

“Das Feindbild im nationalsozialistischen Film.” Zum Thema Nationalsozialismus im DaF-Lehrwerk und –Unterricht. Eds. Joachim Warmbold, E-Anette Koeppel, and Hans Simon-Pelanda. Munich: Iudicium, 1994. 135-141.

“>Ich war verkleidet als Poet … Ich bin Poetin!!< The Masquerade of Gender in Else Lasker-Schüler’s Work.” The German Quarterly 65:1 (1992): 1-17.

“Amnesia and Nostalgia as Reactions to the Wende in Post-Wall German Cinema.” Nation and Myth Making in Contemporary German Cinema
SAMLA, Atlanta, Nov 4-6, 2005

“Ostalgie and the Re-Making of German National Identity in Good Bye, Lenin! (2003).” German Studies Association Conference. Washington, D.C. October 6-10, 2004.

“The Films of Helmut Käutner and the Limits of Aesthetic Resistance.” Twenty-Eighth Colloquium on Literature and Film at West Virginia University. September 18-20, 2003.

“National Socialist Realism and the Problem Film.” The Intersection of Politics and German Literature, 1750-2000: A Conference in Honor of Ehrhard Bahr. UCLA Center for Seventeenth- & Eighteenth-Century Studies and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. May 17, 2003.

“History, Utopia, and the Social Construction of Happiness in Nazi Cinema.” German Studies Association Conference. Houston, TX. October 8, 2000.

Co-presenter with Cindy Evans. “From Virtual to Real: Theory and Practice in Remote Collaboration for German Language Learners.” “Usages des Nouvelles Technologies dans l'Enseignement des Langues Etrangères (UNTELE 2000).” Compiegne, France. March 22, 2000.

“Das Reich der Fantasie: Der NS-Unterhaltungsfilm und die Volksgemeinschaft.” Historisches Seminar, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. December 17, 1999.

“Film und visuelle Kultur in einer dialogfähigen Web-Umgebung” and “Die Computerbrücke: Ein Versuchsprojekt für DaF-Unterricht.” Deutsch als Fremdsprache am Institut für deutsche Sprache und Linguistik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. December 1999.

“Remote Collaboration for Foreign Language Learners: A Web-based Project for Advanced German.” CTW Conference on “Technology and Language Teaching in New England and New York: A Look into the Future.” Wesleyan University, CT. May 25, 1999.

“Computer Technology in the German Classroom.” NEALL Conference. Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs. March 7, 1998.

“The Celluloid War: Nazi Home-Front Films.” German Studies Association Conference. Seattle, WA. October 11, 1996.

Commentator, “Nazi Cinema.” German Studies Association Conference. Seattle, WA. October 12, 1996.

Commentator, “The Life and Works of Gertrud Kolmar (1894-1943).” German Studies Association Conference. Dallas, TX. October 1, 1994.

“Discontented Domesticity: Containment of Female Desire in the Nazi Melodrama.” UCLA Art History Symposium, “The Politics of Representation.” Los Angeles, CA. May 6, 1994.

Moderator, “Weimar Identities in Crisis.” German Studies Association Conference. Washington, D.C. October 9, 1993.

“Transgression and the Law in Nazi Cinema.” Philological Association of the Pacific Coast. San Diego, CA. November 13, 1992.

“Das Feindbild im nationalsozialistischen Film.” Nationalsozialismus im DaF-Lehrwerk und –Unterricht. Tel-Aviv, Israel. October 8, 1991.

“>Ich war verkleidet als Poet … Ich bin Poetin!< The Masquerade of Gender in Else Lasker-Schüler’s Prose.” Modern Language Association Conference. Chicago, IL. December 30, 1990.

“The Politics of Genre and Medium: A Comparison of Georg Büchner and Georg Herwegh.” Pennsylvania Foreign Language Conference. Duquesne University, Pittsburg, PA. September 8, 1989.

http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/fll/german/
http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/fll/german/enemy/enemy.html
http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/ia/index.htm

Developed 7 multimedia Elementary German Lessons with X-Engine Templates from Middlebury College. Supported by a Mellon Foundation Grant in Spring 1998

Developed with John Danison a web-based video database delivery system for the course “The Image of the Enemy in German Film, 1919-1945.” Digitized 33 video clips and embedded them in an interactive web environment with HTML, Javascript, Composer, and Media Database on Mac, IBM and Silicon Graphics machines. Funded by a Mellon Foundation Grant in Summer 1998

Co-organized with Cindy Evans a faculty workshop on “Digitizing Film for the German Language Curriculum.” American Association of Teachers of German, Hudson Valley Regional Meeting, June 1, 2002 at Skidmore College. Prepared web-based exercises, film clips, and audio clips for Lola rennt

Chair, Foreign Languages and Literatures, 2008-

Director of International Affairs Program, 2003-2007

Co-Director of the UISFL Program Title VI-A Grant from the U.S. Dept. of Education (2005-2007)

Coordinator of Self-Instructional Language Program (Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, and Portuguese) 1991-1996

College-Wide Committees: Curriculum (2003-2004), Educational Policies & Planning (CEPP) Sub-Committee on Diversity and Study Abroad (Fall 2003), Information Resource Council (2004-05), Integrity Board (2001-2003). Pre-tenure: Academic Computing, Liberal Studies III Curriculum, Liberal Studies I Self-Study, Year of Education on Racism and Genocide

Department Committees: Post-Tenure: Assessment; Curriculum; Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum; Mellon Foundation Grant; Reconfiguration; Technology. Pre-Tenure: Faculty Evaluation; Faculty Recruitment, Tenure and Reappointment Guidelines; Academic Standards and Expectations; Placement Examinations; Language Lab Resources

Freshman Advisor, German Minor and Major Advisor, International Affairs Minor and Major Advisor

Memberships: American Association of Teachers of German, Fulbright Alumni Association, German Studies Association, International Studies Association, Modern Languages Association, Women in German

Office Held: Elected MLA Delegate from New York (1996-1999)