Although I seem to be spending more and more time working in the areas of instructional technologies and second language acquisition (reviewing articles and textbook proposals, editing the American edition of Berliner Platz 1), my research interests still center on the eighteenth century. I have written and spoken mainly on Goethe and Schiller. In the past, the Goethe Society of North America (GSNA) has given me the opportunity to organize and chair a number of its panels at professional meetings. Since December 2001 I have been serving on the board of the Goethe Society as editor of the Goethe News and Notes and webmaster.

In 1997, I co-organized an international conference here on campus, entitled Approaches to Weimar: The Second Davidson German Studies Symposium. The volume that grew out of that conference is entitled Unwrapping Goethe's Weimar. Essays on Cultural Studies and Local Knowledge (eds. Burkhard Henke, Susanne Kord, and Simon Richter) and appeared with Camden House in 2000. I am currently working on a book project entitled, Schillers Tragödie des Usurpators. "Auf ein Wort: was fällt Ihnen zu Goethe ein?" -- "Schiller."

Since coming to Davidson, I have served a three-year term as Representative in the Delegate Assembly of the Modern Language Association and have been an active member of the NC-AATG, the North Carolina chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German, of which I am a member for life. After serving on the executive council as Testing Chair and webmaster for several years, I was elected Vice President in 2005 and served as President from 2007 to 2009. In 2012, I was awarded the AATG/Goethe-Institut's National Certificate of Merit for outstanding achievement in furthering the teaching of German in the United States.  

I recently began work on the AP German Language and Culture Development Committee and have greatly enjoyed it. Helping to strengthen the articulation between secondary and post-secondary education has been a long-standing interest of mine. In 2004, I founded the German Summer Institute, an annual opportunity for high school teachers of German to earn continuing education credits. As one might expect from middle-aged faculty, I have also sat on and chaired numerous committees here at Davidson. I have been chairing the Department of German Studies since 2002 while also serving as language coordinator and supervisor of teaching assistants. As the E. Craig Wall, Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, I am now also chairing the interdisciplinary Humanties program, which has been in existence at Davidson for over 50 years. And I can't wait for my next sabbatical!