Student Spotlight -- Rebecca Stewart and Elaine Chen

GLL Student Spotlight

Elaine Chen and Rebecca Stewart met almost a decade ago at a conference entitled “100 Years of Death and Judgment: Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka” at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), where Chen was pursuing a B.A. in German and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Stewart was visiting as a moderator. Stewart joined the CSULB German section as an M.A. student in 2013. Chen’s and Stewart’s first major scholarly and artistic collaboration took place in Stewart’s final semester at CSULB in the form of a co-authored, co-produced, and co-directed semi-original musical, Outlaw Brecht, which premiered at the 2016 “Drive-By Theatre Double Feature: Brecht+60/Kleist+205” conference. Stewart went on to Harvard for her Ph.D. and Chen started their M.A. in German at CSULB.

[The front cover of the program to Outlaw Brecht (2016).]

United again in the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures at Harvard, Chen and Stewart are the co-organizers of Die Harvard-CSULB Tafelrunde, a virtual language practice group and collaboration between students at Harvard and CSULB and sometimes Johns Hopkins University. The weekly meetings have run consistently with only short pauses since students were sent home due to the early COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Through this project, Chen, Stewart, and their CSULB co-organizers have developed a rich repertoire of pedagogical resources for online German language teaching and learning. 

Reflecting on their participation in the Harvard-CSULB Tafelrunde, students write:

“As a teacher, I have discovered new activities that I could implement in my class. As a student, it tests my ability to hold small conversations as if I were actually in Germany. It’s a great way to get started in learning German since the activities are light and low-key and contrast with a more serious classroom setting. I’ve also been able to stay in touch with CSULB alumni, allowing us to continue fostering our German-language community across state lines.” (Emily Wysocki, CSULB M.A. Student and Co-organizer)

“Tafelrunde was a fabulous experience to bring my German study into the realest context I could: an effort to encounter community, in a time when we needed it most. I developed as a speaker and comprehender of the idiom as a means of bonding and getting to know new friends who shared my interest and aspiration for German study, across levels and locations. It was a great gift, and I really improved my German through it!” (Benjamin P. Wenzelberg, Graduate of Harvard College with a German Citation and Tafelrunde Attendee)

“The Tafelrunde has become such a positive community space for me, by letting me practice speaking German in a friendly setting, while also providing social connections that have meant a lot during challenging pandemic times. As a language learner, I’ve found it very helpful and motivating to have a regular German-speaking social space, and to use the language to make new friends and do fun activities!” (Rachel Rosenman, Ph.D. Candidate in Music Theory and Tafelrunde Attendee)

Also over the course of the pandemic Chen and Stewart have worked as co-editors alongside their former advisor Jeffrey L. High on a volume of new essays investigating Kleist's influences and sources both literary and philosophical, their role as paradigms, and the ways in which he responded to and often shattered them. Heinrich von Kleist: Literary and Philosophical Paradigms was released with Camden House in April 2022. The volume includes an article by Elaine Chen and Jeffrey L. High entitled, “Receptions, Homages, and Anti-Occupational Allegories of Autonomy: The Case of Schiller's Bohemian Cup and Kleist's Broken Jug,” an article by Rebecca Stewart entitled “Anti-Napoleonic Rage and the Hope for a Better Future: Collin between Schiller and Kleist,” and an article by GLL Professor John T. Hamilton entitled “Fiat claritas et pereat opus: Equity and the Limits of Rectification in Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas.” The completion of the volume would not have been possible without the generous support of the GLL Publications Fund.

[Stewart, High, and Chen with their book, Heinrich von Kleist: Literary and Philosophical Paradigms.]

Chen and Stewart share a research interest in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s and Emanuel Schikaneder’s Die Zauberflöte (1791). This interest led them to co-organize and present at a two-part panel series at the Austrian Studies Association conference in New Orleans in April 2022. The panels were entitled: “Diversity and Democracy in Mozart’s Singspielen” and “The Politics of Happiness in Mozart’s Final Operas.” Chen’s paper was entitled “Prospero and Caliban in Mozart’s New World: Responses to Colonialism in The Tempest and Die Zauberflöte.” Stewart’s paper was entitled “Mozart’s and Schikaneder’s Republican Critique: Class, Gender, and Race in Die Zauberflöte.”

[Chen and Stewart presenting at the Austrian Studies Association conference in New Orleans.]

Harvard’s GLL Department has allowed Chen’s and Stewart’s careers to grow––together––in ways they had never dreamed of when they first met in Long Beach in 2012. Reflecting on their years of friendship and scholarly and artistic collaboration, Chen and Stewart recall Heinrich von Kleist’s “Aufsatz, den sichern Weg des Glücks zu finden und ungestöhrt – auch unter den größten Drangsahlen des Lebens, ihn zu genießen!”:

“Denken Sie nur, mein Freund, an unsre schönen und herrlichen Pläne, an unsre Reisen. Wie vielen Genuß bieten sie uns dar, selbst den reichsten in den scheinbar ungünstigsten Zufällen, wenigstens doch nach ihnen, durch die Erinnerung. Oder blicken Sie über die Vollendung unsrer Reisen hin, und sehen Sie sich an, den an Kenntnißen bereicherten, an Herz und Geist durch Erfahrung und Thätigkeit gebildeten [Mensch]. Denn Bildung muß der Zweck unsrer Reise sein und wir müßen ihn erreichen, oder der Entwurf ist so unsinnig wie die Ausführung ungeschickt.

Dann, mein Freund, wird die Erde unser Vaterland, und alle Menschen unsre Landsleute sein. Wir werden uns stellen und wenden können wohin wir wollen, und immer glücklich sein. Ja wir werden unser Glück zum Theil in der Gründung des Glücks Anderer finden, und andere bilden, wie wir bisher selbst gebildet worden sind.”

[Chen and Stewart reading each other’s papers over vegan pizza before the Austrian Studies Association conference in New Orleans.]