Teaching

Petra received her pedagogic training from Dr. James Rankin at Princeton University. Her teaching agenda includes the full sequence of German language classes and seminars in English and German on literature, material media history, media theory, and the history of journalism.

Dartmouth College – Courses Designed

  • From the Typewriter to Virtual Reality: Modern Media Theory
    This upper-division seminar in German Studies and Comparative Literature introduces students to “German” media theory from Nietzsche to the post-Kittler school.
  • Fast-Track German in Berlin
    A full-immersion German language course, this course combines the contents of German 2 and 3 into one intensive quarter. Taught on the Interdisciplinary Foreign-Studies Program “Green City: Sustainable Engineering and Full-Immersion German in Berlin.”
  • Metropolis Berlin: Cultural and Political History in the Urban Landscape
    This excursion-based seminar takes advantage of the city of Berlin as the classroom and teaches students how to “read” the urban landscape in light of modern Germany’s cultural, political, and ecological history [taught by Dr. Michael Saman on the Foreign Studies Program Green City: Sustainable Engineering and Full Immersion German in Berlin, Spring 2022]
  • The Invention of News
    This Humanities seminar explores the history of news before the mass press and includes a survey of medieval and early modern textual genres, from fama to ballads, and from sermons to proto-propaganda.
  • Can’t you tell? Debunking Fakes [in preparation]
    This Humanities 4 lecture course investigates aesthetic and social strategies of fakery across media and historical constellations and discusses prevention strategies.
  • Humanities Lab: Understanding German Media
    A mid-level German language course that I piloted in Winter 2014, this class explores the theory and practice of journalistic genres. From the 2019 iteration on, the course has been featuring a “lab” component. Assignments include writing an op-ed and recording a podcast episode.
  • Material Matters: A Brief History of Paper
    This upper-division seminar in German Studies and Comparative Literature combines an introduction to media history with literary analysis and creative work in the print shop.
  • Pulp Fiction Meets High Literature: Media and Writing in Nineteenth-Century Germany
    An upper-division seminar in German Studies, this course analyzes the creative strategies with which writers responded to the periodical press and other media-historical shifts of the nineteenth century.

Dartmouth College – Courses Taught

  • Spring 2022 – Fast-Track German in Berlin [full-immersion intensive German language course]
    Academic Director, Interdisciplinary Foreign-Studies Program “Green City: Sustainable Engineering and Full-Immersion German in Berlin” [co-led with Petra Bonfert-Taylor, Thayer School of Engineering]
  • Fall 2021 – Pulp Fiction Meets High Literature: Media and Writing in 19th-Century Germany [upper-division seminar in German Studies]
    German 1 [full-immersion beginner’s German language course]
  • Spring 2021 – The Invention of News [Independent Study; remote with synchronous components]
  • Winter 2021 – Humanities II: The Modern Labyrinth [Humanities honor’s lecture course; team-taught; remote with synchronous components]
  • Fall 2020 – Humanities I: Dialogues with the Classics [Humanities honor’s lecture course; team-taught; remote with synchronous components]
  • Spring 2020 – Academic Director, German Language Study Abroad Program, Berlin & Introduction to German Literature [canceled due to COVID-19]
  • Spring 2019 – Understanding German Media [intermediate German language course and humanities lab]
  • Winter 2019 – Material Matters: A Brief History of Paper [German and Comparative Literature seminar in material media history] & German 2 [full-immersion beginner’s German language course]
  • Fall 2018 – German 1 [full-immersion beginner’s German language course]
  • Spring 2017 – Understanding German Media [intermediate German language course] & German 1 [full-immersion beginner’s German language course]
  • Fall 2016 – Pulp Fiction Meets High Literature: Writers in the 19th-Century Media Marketplace [upper-division seminar in German Studies] & German 1 [full-immersion beginner’s German language course]
  • Winter 2016 – Material Matters: A Brief History of Paper [freshmen seminar in German Studies] & German 1 [full-immersion beginner’s German language course]
  • Fall 2015 – To Be Young and German [intermediate German language course] & German 1 [full-immersion beginner’s German language course]
  • Spring 2015 – Understanding German Media [intermediate German language course] & German 1 [full-immersion beginner’s German language course]
  • Spring 2014 – Academic Director, German Language Study Abroad Program, Berlin & Introduction to German Literature [introductory-level seminar in German Studies]
  • Winter 2014 – Dialogs with the Classics [Humanities honor’s lecture course; team-taught] & Understanding German Media [intermediate German language course]
  • Winter 2013 – German 2 [full-immersion beginner’s German language course]

Princeton University – Courses Taught