Bio: As Associate Dean of Academic Personnel and Administration in the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University since 2017, I work with the Dean to support Chairs and Program Directors as well as faculty and academic staff. Most significantly, part of the Culture of Care and Charting A Pathway to Intellectual Leadership (CPIL) initiatives, equitable and inclusive searches and faculty review procedures, College-wide faculty development and leadership initiatives that employ “transformative listening” (forthcoming ADFL Bulletin 2022), creating habits of diversity, equity, and inclusion across the College, and a focus on non-tenure stream mentoring and career pathways.

A Professor of German Studies, my current medical humanities project is in the area of comparative German/US autism and disability studies. A large part of my work focuses on German and Central/Eastern European literary history and film in the area of utopian/dystopian studies and comparative science fiction of the Cold War and related topics, and has appeared in six languages (See c.v.) A primary goal of my scholarly career has been to foster greater awareness of science fiction beyond Anglo-American contexts (global SF) and to support young scholars doing work on the SF in languages other than English. Resulting publications include: The Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction (forthcoming 2023) with Lisa Yaszek, Keren Omry, and Wendy Gay Peterson, Science Fiction Circuits of the South and East (2018) with Anindita Banerjee, The Liverpool Companion to World Science Fiction Film (2014, 2021 pbk./e-book), and the open access Science Fiction Literature in East Germany (2006). I have also published a number of articles, book chapters, and public online scholarship. Currently, I serve as co-PI with the Big Ten Academic Alliance Less Commonly Taught and Indigenous Languages Partnership grant (PI: Christopher P. Long, 2019-2023) funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Among other aspects, this iteration of the grant focuses on Anishnaabemowin to create a sense of belonging as well as creating cross-institutional partnerships to sustain and grow LCTL instruction as central to the DEI mission of MSU and higher education.  Consider submitting a proposal to publish in the book series that I co-edit with Gerry Canavan (Marquette) – World Science Fiction Studies with Peter Lang Oxford. In 2015, I was President of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL) in 2015, and am also a Fulbright and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) grant recipient.

Finally – remember: practice transformative change to establish the “everyday utopia” (Davina Cooper 2013) and go through life with the radical humility (2022), kindness, generosity (Fitzpatrick 2019), and grace (Kyodo Williams 2016) that one gets from a life spent tandem cycling many, many miles. May the road rise to meet you and may the wind be always at your back.