Sonja Rae Fritzsche
Sonja Fritzsche is the inaugural Director of Teaching and Learning in MSU’s College of Arts & Letters and Professor of German Studies in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. Currently on research leave, she is pleased to have some time to devote to several scholarly projects that include a co-authored book on German-language autism memoirs (expected 2027) and the co-edited volume Neurodiverse Approaches to German Studies (expected 2027), as well as an article project on Johanna and Günter Braun’s Conviva Ludibundus. She is also excited to co-host the Science Fiction Research Association 2026 conference at MSU in June 2026 – “Into the Slipstream: Watering Futures.” And she has also co-launched the first CPIL Fellows Program with fellows from multiple US institutions dedicated to implementing the Charting Pathways of Intellectual Leadership initiative.
Fritzsche came to Michigan State University in August 2015. She has more than twenty years of academic leadership experience as Department Chair of two departments, most recently Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. She then served for eight years both in faculty and academic affairs in the roles of (Senior) Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Administration (2024 & 2025) and Associate Dean for Academic Personnel and Administration in the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University (2017-2023). She is dedicated to values-enacted, principled leadership that empowers all faculty, staff, and students to engage fully in the academic mission and bring about the transformative change they yearn for most as intellectual leaders. At her previous institution, she was jointly appointed in International Studies Program – Russian and Eastern European Studies.
In her administrative positions, she has been instrumental in developing and implementing both the Culture of Care and the Charting Pathways for Intellectual Leadership (CPIL) framework (CPIL Toolbox cpil.hcommons.org), a cornerstone initiative that has helped faculty, staff, and now students across the College articulate, document, and advance the full range of their scholarly and creative, educational, and administrative contributions. She has played a central role in advancing tenure system and non-tenure system and academic specialist career pathways in the College and at MSU. As a result of her latter efforts, the College received the 2024 Delphi Award from the Pullias Center of Higher Education at the University of Southern California. She also created and documented key college policies to ensure clarity and consistency and has co-led the development of the new interdisciplinary Arts & Humanities Health and Well-being (AHHW) major program. She has led multiple faculty and leadership development initiatives, furthered innovative, evidence-based teaching and experiential learning initiatives across the arts and humanities, and spearheaded community college transfer articulation agreements. Guided by her practice of “transformative listening” (ADFL Bulletin 2022), she models data-informed practices and initiatives that are inclusive, foster open and respectful dialogue, and a sense of belonging so that all faculty, staff, and students at MSU may flourish.
Fritzsche’s scholarly life is dedicated to a critical engagement with the way that the future dreams of others around the globe shape their actions in the everyday. This approach recognizes that a mindful and intentional values-enacted everyday practice is a meaningful compass and pathway forward to transforming the future. She is a literary and film historian of twentieth and twenty-first century Europe with special expertise in Germany, the Cold War, and popular culture especially utopian studies and science fiction. She has published widely in six languages, including also on topics in autism studies, fairy tales, Indigenous language revitalization, inclusive pedagogies, GenAI and futurisms, and leadership in higher education. A goal of her scholarly career has been to foster greater awareness of science fiction and futurisms beyond Anglo-American contexts and to support young scholars doing work on the SF/Futurisms in languages other than English. She is founder and co-editor of the book series World Science Fiction Studies with Peter Lang Oxford. See below for her selected publications and CV on her website for full list.
A highlight of her career has been the work done on the the Mellon funded Less Commonly Taught and Indigenous Languages Partnership with the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), a participatory research initiative and teaching framework developed in reciprocal and restorative partnership with Anishinaabe and Bodéwadmi communities and institutions across the Big Ten and Great Lakes region. She is a multiple Fulbright and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) grant recipient. Fritzsche served as 2015 President of the Modern Language Association affiliated Association of Language Departments (ALD/ADFL), Vice President of the Science Fiction Research Association (2019-2021), and Steering Committee member of the Coalition of Women in German (2022-2025).
Fritzsche works “at the speed of trust” (A. M. Brown 2017), finds inspiration in the “everyday utopia” (Davina Cooper 2013), goes through life with the radical humility (2022), kindness, generosity (Fitzpatrick 2019; 2024), and grace (Kyodo Williams 2016) and draws collaborative inspiration from a life spent tandem cycling many, many miles.