Canadian post-secondary institutions have fared better than those in the U.S. On the whole German programs across the country are stable although the trend has been towards larger units comprised of a number of foreign language programs.

GermanStudies.ca wishes you all a happy Holiday Season and a wonderful New Year!

This year GermanStudies.ca has focused on reaching out to the European Studies Community and supported interdisciplinary activities in the featured clusters of research activities. Check out our new expert video function for various contributions from scholars in Canada. If you are interested in sharing video clips about your research or comment on any Germany-related research topic we are happy to place it on our GermanStudies.ca website.

Furthermore, we are still exploring new synergies with stakeholders in the German-European Studies community or funding opportunities to make the GermanStudies.ca project sustainable into the future. If you would like to support our network, please contact us at gerstud@uvic.ca.

Beate Schmidtke, University of Victoria

Bonne année !

GermanStudies.ca espère que vous avez passé de bonnes fêtes et vous souhaite une magnifique année 2012 !

Cette année GermanStudies.ca a concentré ses efforts sur sa collaboration avec la communauté des Etudes Européennes et s’est fait le supporteur d’activités de recherches pluridisciplinaires. Pour accéder aux différentes contributions de chercheurs et experts canadiens, nous vous invitons à visionner leurs vidéos, disponibles en ligne. Il vous suffit de cliquer sur l’onglet expert videos. Si vous êtes vous-même intéressé et désirez partager des vidéos concernant votre propre travail de recherche ou bien des commentaires sur des sujets de recherche liés aux études germaniques, nous nous ferrons un plaisir de les publier sur notre site internet, GermanStudies.ca.

De plus, et en association avec nos différents partenaires de la communauté des études germano-européennes, nous explorons de nouvelles synergies, ainsi que de nouvelles opportunités de financement, qui permettraient à GermanStudies.ca plus de pérennité dans le futur. Si vous souhaitez apporter votre soutien à notre réseau, veillez nous contacter par le biais de l’adresse électronique suivante : gerstud@uvic.ca

Beate Schmidtke, Université de Victoria

James Skidmore from the University of Waterloo is the recipient of the 3rd Annual GO Award. GO stands for German Online and the award, jointly administered by GermanStudies.ca and the CAUTG, and sponsored by the DAAD, recognizes the often less appreciated work that German instructors put into course design and the development of teaching materials.

James Skidmore's German 271/272: German Thought & Culture is an online course that teaches German cultural history from its beginnings all the way to the 21st century. The selection committee members lauded the course's extremely rich and flexible learning environment that supports learning in multiple ways. Introductory and explanatory information about using the course and the course content is clearly presented. Materials and assignments are all clearly marked, easy to find, and available through multiple paths.The committee highlighted the wide range of resources and tools students can access to enhance their learning experience. The materials include videos, primary sources, links to scholarly websites, exercises for the different course units, and excerpts from lectures with the accompanying PowerPoint presentations. Different types of engagement - including factual comprehension, textual analysis, and "field trips" - encourage learners to explore ways in which historical cultural objects leave their mark on contemporary Germany. Structured Study Forums and the informal Question & Answer Forum, where students can post any question about the course, provide ample opportunities for student interaction. The committee found the recorded Prof Moments - mini lectures highlighting key aspects of the material, with some attractive interactive elements - both entertaining and visually appealing. The website is easy to navigate considering the selection and variety of resources made available, and it is rewarding to use.

The German Chancellor got her way, and the European Union moved closer to a split that may go far beyond the British decision to refuse consonance with its European partners. The December 8 and 9 meeting of the heads of state in Brussels will enter text books of European integration as the days where Britain again decided to step out of the joint boat of Europe, and where democracy landed a huge defeat. Merkel may have won the battle but Europe lost the war.

L’Association des Etudes d’Allemand à ouvert l’appel à candidature pour sa trente-sixième Conférence Annuelle qui se déroulera dans le Wisconsin

This award acknowledges the enormous effort scholars and teachers invest in developing online materials and it is also an expression of appreciation for sharing the results. The award carries a prize of $ 1,000. The award winner will be honoured at the annual meeting of the CAUTG and have the opportunity to present the project at the conference.

The award seeks to stimulate efforst for creating course pages that show innovative and engaging ways of presenting course-related materials (e.g. modules, student projects), teaching platforms like WebCT, or other internet-based teaching materials for university or college courses.

For nominations please submit a brief statement (no longer than one page) explaining why the site(s) should be considered for this award.

Members of any department can submit online materials for consideration, as long as the content of the materials is related to German studies. Self-nominations are accepted as well as nominations for other colleagues' site(s). In either case, access to all relevant pages is required. If this poses a problem, please let us know. All sensitive material will be treated confidentially.

Nomination Deadline: 17th November, 2011.

Please send your nominations to gerstud@uvic.ca.

The workshop uses as its starting point the continuing debates about the best ways to transport people and goods both over short and long distances in a world marked by population growth, increased urbanization, and –after a brief crisis-induced hiatus– growing trade flows. Building on previous efforts by the CCGES focusing on ‘automobility’, this event tries to put these debates into a broader historical and comparative context, by looking at the way different models of mobility emerged and developed in Europe and North America since 1900.

For more details on the workshop and how to submit paper proposals, please see

Those interested in presenting a paper at this workshop should send a 1,000‐word abstract and a one-page CV to Baerbel Thomas (b.thomas@ghi‐dc.org) by 30 September 2011. Papers with an international and/or comparative dimension are particularly encouraged. Decisions will be announced by 30 November 2011 and full papers need to be completed by 31 January 2012. The organizers will pay the cheapest possible airfare and local costs for all participants.