Ayobami is currently pursuing her M.A. in German at the University of Alabama, where she is serving as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. Prior to joining UA, she earned her bachelor’s degree in German at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. In 2016-2017, she served her country in a one-year compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), where she worked in different capacities including as an HIV/AIDs counselor and tester. She is currently a member of a female advocacy group known as FAME Foundation in Abuja, Nigeria. As a 2014 DAAD scholar, she had the opportunity to study at the Goethe Institute, Lagos Nigeria for her Equivalent Year Abroad Program (EYAP). From her fourth year till date, she has been teaching German from beginners to intermediate level and was also part of the 2019 Goethe Institute Teachers Training in Lagos State, Nigeria. This past year, Ayobami participated in the Women in German (WiG) Conference 2021 and the Sommer 2022 Webinar ,,Kulturelles Lehren und Lernen-Kalliope” for teachers of German, organized by the OeAD Agency for Education and Internationalization in Vienna. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Delta Phi Alpha Honors Society and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Her stay in Germany in 2019 gave her real exposure to her program of study as she was able to visit historical places in Thüringen, Frankfurt, and Berlin. She loves traveling, meeting people, and learning about other cultures. In her free time, she can be found reading, singing, taking a walk as well as engaging in community service.

I began my academic career in the early 1960s, at Dartmouth, Harvard, FU Berlin, and London University. I was an assistant professor (French) at SUNY Buffalo for three years. My passions were poetry, 20^th century fiction, and, most recently, literature of the middle ages. I then went to California and, for over 20 years, worked in various programs for migrant workers, honing my Spanish and raising a family. A bay area Latino poet, Luis Garcia, turned me on to Latin American poetry, and this became another passion for me. In 1989 I moved to Taiwan. I lived there for 25 years teaching English and French, and discovering Chinese literature, especially classical poetry, and fiction of the early 20^th century. I retired and returned to the US in 2013, now able to devote all my energies to my literary interests, mostly poetry and the middle ages.  This year, I decided to formalize my studies, and I entered the MA program in German at the University of Alabama.

Adrian is from a tiny village in Germany called Seulingen and is studying to become a teacher of English, political science, and physical education. He came to the University of Alabama to pursue a German master’s degree. In addition, his goal is to acquire intercultural knowledge in order to embody a modern and open-minded foreign language teacher.

His research interests include second language acquisition especially how to create an authentic learning environment, gender studies, and politics. Prior to coming to the University of Alabama, he co-instructed a seminar on power relations in educational institutions at the University of Kassel. He is now a graduate teaching assistant and the director of the German House at UA (fall semester 2021). In his free time, he likes to play tennis with the UA club tennis team.

Katie grew up in Tuscaloosa and graduated with a BA in International Studies and German from UA. As an undergraduate student, she spent one year in Hamburg, Germany on an academic exchange through the Federation of German-American Clubs. She then decided to begin her MA in German Literature and is now a GTA in the German Program. During this past academic year, Katie was living in Cuxhaven, Germany and teaching English and German on a Fulbright grant. Now back at UA, she is currently teaching a 100-level German language course. Her research interests include second language acquisition, intercultural communication, and contemporary German literature. In her free time, she enjoys playing volleyball, learning Turkish, hiking, and reading. She is excited to pursue a PhD in German Studies following her 2023 graduation from UA.

Tobias grew up in Melsungen, Germany, and graduated from the University of Kassel in 2022 with a Bachelor of Education in Economics, Business Education, and English. Currently, Tobias is pursuing a German M.A. at the University of Alabama as a scholar of the Verband der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Clubs and a master’s at the University of Kassel. At UA, Tobias lives in the German House and serves as its director, which supports cultural exchange and communication for undergraduate students interested in German. With his teaching background in vocational schools, Tobias tutors UA students learning German as a second language. Outside of school, Tobias enjoys going to the gym, watching sports events, and reading non-fiction books on all kinds of subjects.

Born and raised in Nigeria, West Africa, Abigail graduated with a Bachelors in European Studies (German) from the University of Ibadan in 2020, during which she served as the Secretary of the Deutscher Kreis. She was first introduced to the German language in 2015 and her interest for the language, as well as her passion for teaching, has grown. In 2019, she interned at the University of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire as an office assistant and tutor of English. During this time, she developed a sample syllabus for the German program for the University. She proceeded to continue her studies at the University of Alabama and is currently a master’s student of German and a Graduate Teaching Assistant, tutoring and assisting professors in the German program. At the University of Alabama, she is a member of the Delta Pi Alpha Honor Society and a member of the Association of American Teachers of German, through which she was awarded a scholarship to participate in the professional development program ‘Mit Deutsch in die Zukunft’ at the Herder-Institut, Leipzig last summer. Her main areas of academic interest include modern intercultural (German) literature and second language acquisition. She loves exploring road trips with friends, reading novels by Colleen Hoover, and swimming in her free time.

Born and raised in Bonn, Germany, Kristina Schauhoff graduated with a Bachelor of Education in 2021, majoring in English, German, and Educational Sciences at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. She decided to continue her studies at the University of Alabama and is currently pursuing the MA German Literature program as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. Furthermore, she is a scholar of the Federation of German-American Clubs (VDAC) and is living at the German House, functioning as the German House Director 2021/22. With her background in teaching, she is especially interested in second language acquisition. Her areas of interest also include gender studies, sociolinguistics, cultural studies, humor studies, and the use of time, mainly flashbacks and foreshadowing, in literature. In her free time, she enjoys playing the flute and piano, traveling, baking, and is a leader of a German student organization (Aufklärung Organspende) that neutrally provides information about the organ donation system in Germany. She received the Outstanding Graduate Student of German Award 2022 and is serving as IT Chair for the 2023 UA Language Conference.

Richard is from a suburb in Birmingham, Alabama, and completed his BA in German, History, and Political Science in 2019 here at the University of Alabama. He is currently pursuing an MA in German Studies. He served as IT Chair for the 2021 UALC Conference and is currently teaching introductory German. His primary areas of academic interest include intellectual history, philosophy, and literature. In his free time, you will find him hiking, watching sports, running, and taking impromptu road trips.