Lawrence F. Glatz, Ph.D.

Professor of German

The Metropolitan State University of Denver



Contact me at:
glatz at msudenver.edu


Welcome to this homepage and the German Program at the Metropolitan State University of Denver!

For further information on German language, literature, culture, history, philosophy and the media, 

please consult the following Wiki: The Germania Project: German Resources.


Education:

After receiving an Honors B.A. in German from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984, I pursued graduate study in German Literature at the Pennsylvania State University. I was awarded the M.A. in 1988 and the Ph.D. in 1995. My dissertation was directed by Manfred Keune.

I also studied at the universities of Munich (Junior Year in Munich Program 1982-83), Kiel (Penn State Exchange Fellowship 1986-87), Hamburg and Berlin (German Academic Exchange Fellowship 1992-93).

See a year-by-year Chronology here!


Teaching Interests:

In addition to teaching German language and culture courses, my interests include intercultural communications, German phonetics and dialects, German literature since the Enlightenment, German civilization, computer-assisted language learning, and German business culture. I enjoy combining literature with computer-aided materials in the Internet, such as this rendering of Erlkönig by Goethe.


Research Interests:

My current research involves the writings of Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Heinrich Böll (1917-1985), about whom I maintain an extensive English language website with an online bibliographic database. I published a major study on the topics of history, crime, violence and the victim in both Böll's nonfictional and fictional works: Heinrich Böll als Moralist [Heinrich Böll as Moralist].

I have also presented papers on the role of computer-mediated instruction and materials, technology in teacher training, and Business German. I contributed to the important anthology on foreign language instruction, Pedagogy of Language Learning in Higher Education: An Introduction.

My on-line curriculum vitae is also available here: Curriculum Vitae.


Creative Projects:

I produced and directed a documentary film on the small city of Staufen in Breisgau. I am interested in multimedia development and computer-assisted language learning, including Podcasting, and have made various reading and listening materials for a short German Cultural History. I worked on various language learning projects, besides the ongoing Germania Project.


Service:

I have served on the Educational Technology Center Advisory Committee, the Second Life Advisory Committee, and the MSCD Financial Exigency Committee. I was Chair of the MSCD Technology Initiatives Committee. I served many years on the MSUD Commencement Committee, and have been an Assistant Faculty Marshall at over twenty-five commencements.

Serving often in the Faculty Senate, I have been Chair of the Instructional Resources Committee and the Rules Committee. I have been the Webmaster for the Department of Modern Languages, and am a Faculty Advisor for Phi Sigma Iota, the National Foreign Language Honor Society, and Delta Phi Alpha, the National German Language Honor Society. 

I have often been involved with the Race for the Cure and Habitat for Humanity, and served as a Board Member for Schulhaus Denver, a non-profit German language school. I have volunteered at Waldsee, the German language immersion programs, sponsored by Concordia College.


Professional Affiliations:

A former Chapter President and Webmaster of the Colorado/Wyoming Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG), I am a Life Member of this national association.

Active in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the Small Undergraduate German Programs Special Interest Group of ACTFL, I served in the latter as Vice-President, President and Webmaster.

A former voting Board Member of the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers (CCFLT), I served also as the Webmaster. I have served as a member of the National Advisory Council for the JYM Program in Munich, and participate often in the German Studies Association (GSA).


Awards:

In the Summer of 2016, I participated in the DAAD / Fulbright Summer Academy for Faculty in German hosted by the Universität Leipzig. In the Fall of 2013, I was honored to be a Guest Researcher of the University of Cologne and the Heinrich Böll Archive. For the 2007-08 academic year, I was awarded sabbatical leave and had the privilege of being a Fulbright Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Universität Siegen in Siegen, Germany.

I was awarded a President's Performance Stipend for Teaching Excellence. Based on the recommendation of the Chair of the Department, the Dean of the School, and the Vice-President for Academic Affairs, these one-time awards recognized outstanding performance in teaching.

As a recipient of a Bright Ideas / Best Practices Teaching Award at a Metro State Annual Fall Conference, when my submission on guiding students to create "Cybertrips to German-speaking countries" was one of four judged by faculty peers to be exceptional, I received both recognition at a conference and a professional development stipend. I was also awarded an Excellence in Academic Advising Award.


Personal:

I am darn lucky to be married to Jacque and am the often exhausted father of Christian and Alexandra. My father, Charles L. Glatz (born 1907), served as a Captain, U.S. Army Medical Corps, in the Second World War and participated in the military government of the Allied Occupation after the war ended. My mother Dorothy was a registered nurse and state health worker.

My paternal grandparents,
Josefine (born 1883) and Karl Glatz (born 1876), arrived at Ellis Island from Wiener Neustadt, Austria, in 1906. My maternal grandfather was a steelworker in Braddock, Pennsylvania.


Regularly Taught Courses:



Metropolitan State University of Denver


Modern Languages



Please send suggestions or comments to: glatz at msudenver.edu 

 

 Last Modified: October 29, 2022