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Alumni Profile: Margrit V. Zinggeler |
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DAAD grant(s): Research Visit (2001), Group Study Visit (2006
Current occupation: Professor of German
Current city of residence: Ypsilanti, MI
Contact: mzinggele@emich.edu
How has your time in Germany affected your academic/professional career path?
The opportunity to conduct research at the Brothers Grimm Archives has resulted in several publications and scholarly presentations at professional conferences which ultimately helped me to get tenure at Eastern Michigan University.
What's the most important piece of advice you could give a new DAAD grantee?
Write a solid proposal according to the guidelines and establish academic contacts in Germany! Keep and expand the relationships at German colleagues, universities, and institutions. Bring your research into the classroom and involve graduate and undergraduate students in the continuation of your research conducted in Germany.
What was your most dramatic experience of culture shock in Germany?
I had to go and get the grant money at the cashier’s office of the first institution I visited. The money for the entire month of my stay was paid to me in cash! I then returned to the Youth Hostel were I stayed with all that cash! I felt almost like a criminal, constantly afraid somebody would find out where I had the money and steal it from me!
Other than family/friends, what did you miss most while abroad? What do you miss from Germany now that you're back?
A) Ready available computer access. Long open and weekend hours at libraries and museums.
B) The Grimm Archive, … and the great German food, of course! German closing hours! It’s a paradox. The German system forced me to have “Freizeit!”
If you could go back and live your overseas adventure again, what would you do differently?
I will be leaving in a week with 11 students to travel the “Deutsche Märchenstraße.” I am very excited to share my research interest with my students.
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