The Department of World Languages and Cultures is hosting the Provost's Visiting Scholar Dr. Laurenz Volkman

Georgia College & State University’s Department of World Languages and Cultures will host Dr. Laurenz Volkman from the Friedrich Schiller University at Jena, Germany, as the Provost’s visiting scholar. 

Dr. Volkmann is chair of the Institute of English and American Studies at the FSU Jena and a well-published expert in Pedagogy. He earned his doctorate from The University of Erlangen in 1989.

Some of his most recent accomplishments are:

PILOTS-Partnerschaften International im Lehramt durch Online-Tandem-Seminare: Virtual Exchanges des Jenaer Lehramtes. Published October 2023. This poster presents the PILOTS project, which aimed to organize and investigate virtual exchanges in teacher training between Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and international partner universities. It showcases various methods of implementing virtual exchanges and highlights the benefits of this teaching format.

Teaching English: Audio-book on Spotify. Tuebingen: Narr, 2022. https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/album/24vHmoBtBcsmOYDrtCox95. Published September 2022. This foundational coursebook offers an accessible and up-to-date introduction to all relevant areas of Teaching English. Definitions and practical examples guide the understanding and reflection of basic and advanced concepts of foreign language learning. 

Environmental literacy, sustainable education and posthumanism pedagogy: teaching the climate crisis in a global, transatlantic online setting.  Published January 2023 with Co-Author, Dr. Hedwig Fraunhofer, GCSU french professor. In this article, we aim to contribute to the theoretical conceptualization and praxis of development education and global learning by engaging with recent discussions in the areas of ecocriticism, ecological literacy and posthumanism. Employing a pedagogical approach that is learner-centered and participatory and that prepares learners to question dominant, globally relevant social norms, development education and global learning empower learners to be active global citizens.

The Climate Crisis in Foreign Language/Environmental Literacy Education: A Binational Virtual Exchange. Published June 2022 with Co-Author, Dr. Hedwig Fraunhofer, GCSU french professor. This contribution provides a best-practice example or case study of a transatlantic online course focused on the integrative acquisition of environmental literacy, intercultural skills and foreign language proficiency. Through binational and transdisciplinary group and class interactions, students from universities in Germany and the United States learned to identify and negotiate culturally and discipline-mediated perspectives on the more-than-human world.

Volkmann will host two lectures during his visit to the Georgia College and State University campus:

March 8, 2024, at 3:30 p.m. – “The Uses of Literature in Education: An Intercultural Perspective.” This lecture will take place in room 274 of the Arts & Sciences building. Faculty are invited to attend.

March 11, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. – “Teaching the Climate Crisis in a Transatlantic Online Course: Creating a Dialogue between Different Disciplines and Across Cultures.”  Dr. Hedwig Fraunhofer will also share in this lecture. This lecture will be held in the Pat Peterson Museum Education Room. Faculty and Students are welcome to attend.

We hope  you will join us for these very exciting lectures.