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7th. Annual
April 1-2, 2010 |
 Rebecca Thomas
Wake Forest University
The Translator's
Odyssey: How I Got Lost in Translation
Keynote Speaker 2010
7th. Annual SECCLL Meeting
Rebecca S. Thomas
is Chair of the Department of German and Russian, and Associate
Professor of German. She received her Ph.D. in German from The
Ohio State University and her M.A. and B.A. in German from UCLA.
Her areas of specialization are Austrian Literature and Culture,
and German Literature and Culture from 1871 to the present.
"For the
past 20 years I have spent two months of almost every
summer in Graz, Austria teaching German at the American
Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) summer festival. The
AIMS, Graz experience provides an opportunity for me to
pursue almost all of my true passions: travel, German,
music, hiking, tennis, reading, fellowship with
long-time friends from all over the world, and, of
course, beer. I grew up playing classical piano and it
is a vicarious thrill to live among wonderful musicians
as they develop their craft and love of opera and
symphonic music. I have really enjoyed being able to
take a Wake Forest German student to Graz several times
as an intern for AIMS. As a scholar and lover of
Austrian Culture I have also really enjoyed the contrast
between the relatively provincial feel of Graz and the
world capital Vienna where I have been fortunate enough
to be faculty director of the Wake Forest Flow House for
two semesters, Fall of 2002 and 2007. I have just
completed editing a book on modern Austrian culture that
will appear any day with Cambridge Scholars Press and am
currently completing the authorized translation of a
contemporary Austrian novel by Kathrin Röggla.
She adds:
"In addition to my
summer travel and teaching I enjoy cooking, jogging (well, I
don't always enjoy that as much as I pretend), softball,
attending most sporting events and playing with my two great
kids, Charlie (13) and Adele (7) who also enjoy our European
trips. Charlie and I also pick along a bit in a rag-tag
bluegrass band (banjo and mandolin). My husband Chuck is a
professor at Georgia Southern University with a specialization
in German History."
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