Lisa Parkes

Lisa Parkes

Senior Lecturer (On leave Spring 2024)
Director of German Language Program
Director of Undergraduate Studies in German
Lisa Parkes

Dr. Parkes completed her undergraduate degree in German and Music at the University of London and came to the U.S. for her graduate studies, completing her Ph.D. in German at UCLA. Before coming to Harvard in 2009, she was the director of the German language program at UCLA (2002-2009).

Her teaching and research interests include foreign language pedagogy, drama pedagogy, modern German literature, music, drama, and theater. Besides directing the German language program, she has directed student productions of plays by Büchner, Nestroy, Dürrenmatt, Schnitzler, Frisch, Borchert, Brecht, von Horváth, and Schimmelpfennig. In the summer, she co-directs the eight-week Harvard Summer Program in Vienna and Berlin. She is the Past President of the Massachusetts chapter of the AATG, and serves on the editorial boards of Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German and AAUSC’s Issues in Language Program Direction series.

Selected Publications

Spielraum: Teaching German through Theater (Routledge, 2021)

Integrating the Arts: Creative Thinking about Foreign Language Teaching and Language Program Direction, co-edited with Colleen Ryan (Cengage, 2015).

Contact Information

Barker 348
p: (617) 495-3548
Office Hours: By appointment