MIT Global Languages

Dagmar

Jaeger

Lecturer in German

djaeger@mit.edu

14N-218

617-452-4170

Office hours

MTRF 1100am - Noon

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Bio

Dagmar Jaeger is a lecturer in German Studies. She has been involved in curriculum development and has taught German subjects at all levels at MIT. She holds a Ph.D. in German literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Before coming to MIT, Dagmar Jaeger taught at Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

She is the recipient of the SHASS Academic Infinite Mile Award for continued outstanding service and innovative teaching at MIT in 2007. Research grants include the Gilberte Furstenberg & Douglas Morgenstern Fund for Innovation in Language Instruction in 2012, the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, Yale University, in 2003 and 2004, and the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship, Boston, in 2002.

Research Areas / Expertise: multilingualism and cross-cultural communication

Education:
2001 Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Research

Dagmar Jaeger’s research interests include instructional material design, especially regarding technology and digital tools, creative writing and language learning, as well as contemporary German theater and drama. She developed the digital media archive Gedenken und Gedächtnis, an extensive collection of interviews with contemporary German writers, mostly based in Berlin. The collection centers on the authors’ views on memory and commemoration, a key theme in German literature and society. Gedenken und Gedächtnis has been used in German language and literature courses at MIT since 2004. Excerpts from Gedenken und Gedächtnis were featured as an interactive exhibit at the MIT Museum in Fall 2015.

Her book, Theater im Medienzeitalter (Theater in the Age of Media), published in German (Aisthesis Verlag, 2007), focuses on the use of contemporary theater by Austrian Elfriede Jelinek and East German Heiner Müller as a counterpoint to the prevailing media culture. Jaeger analyzes theater that contrasts itself with mainstream ideas regarding, for example, history and identity. By utilizing multiple textual sources, these playwrights expose any narrative as constructed rather than natural, a distinction that a media culture blurs via the suspension of reality and fiction.

Research Areas / Expertise: multilingualism and cross-cultural communication

Education:
2001 Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Gedenken und Gedächtnis: Memory and commemoration in contemporary German literature. A digital media repository for the study of German literature & culture

The digital media repository Memory and Commemoration is an extensive collection of interviews with contemporary German writers, mostly based in Berlin.

Publications

Digital Media

2015 Voices from East Germany, an interactive exhibit featuring excerpts from interviews with former GDR writers reflecting on their creative life in the socialist state. Viewers can explore topics such as censorship and today’s memory of the GDR. MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA
2013 Voicethread Digital Media Tool, Curricular materials for interactive and collaborative listening and speaking practice for the beginning level of German language and culture. Voicethread Digital Library.
2002/2004 - present Gedenken und Gedächtnis: Memory and Commemoration is an extensive digital media repository of interviews with authors and their approaches to the representation of memory and commemoration in the works of literature, including Esther Dischereit, Julia Franck, Thomas Lehr, Ingo Schulze, Zafer Şenocak and Yoko Tawada, among others, to form a collaborative learning environment for intermediate to advanced students of German Studies.

Articles

2007 - “‘The GDR becomes more and more important.’ Ingo Schulze about remembering the GDR, Simple Storys and 33 Moments of Happiness. With an introduction to his work.” New German Critique, 101.2, pp. 143-155.
2005 - “‘Zum Ostdeutschen bin ich erst in den neunziger Jahren geworden.’ Gespräch mit Ingo Schulze.” Acta Germanica, 33, pp. 111-119.

Reviews

2009 - Eine Welt aus Sprache – Zum Werk von Gerlind Reinshagen edited by Helga Kraft and Therese Hörnigk. Monatshefte, 101.3, pp. 444-445.
2007 - Macht. Performativität, Performanz und Polittheater seit 1990 edited by Birgit Hass. Monatshefte, 99.4, pp. 596-597.

Theater im Medienzeitalter. Das postdramatische Theater von Elfriede Jelinek und Heiner Müller

2007

Dagmar Jaeger

Dagmar Jaeger's book focuses on the use of contemporary theater by Austrian Elfriede Jelinek and East German Heiner Müller as a counterpoint to the prevailing media culture. Dagmar Jaeger analyzes theater that contrasts itself with mainstream ideas regarding, for example, history and identity.

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Digital Media

Articles

Reviews