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Dr. Christina Frei

Dr. Christina Frei

Freie Universität Berlin

International Summer and Winter University

(FUBiS)

Email
cefrei[at]sas.upenn.edu
Homepage
Faculty page University of Pennsylvania

Ph.D., University of California at Davis in German with designated emphases in Second Language Acquisition and Feminist Theory and Research. Frei teaches in the Department of French/Francophone, Italian and Germanic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and offers regularly courses in German language and literature.

She specializes in constructivist curriculum design, intercultural communication, and diverse applications of technology for teaching and learning world languages and cultures and co-authored a textbook for introductory/intermediate German language and culture: Augenblicke German through Film, Media and Texts, 2021.

In her capacity as Executive Director of Language Instruction for the School of Arts & Sciences, she oversees language Instruction and the language education community across SAS, The Wharton Business School/Lauder Institute MBA/MA program, College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS), The Educational Linguistics Division of The Graduate School of Education. Thus, she is involved in promoting the sustained quality of language and culture instruction for more than 42 languages taught at Penn. 

Frei also chairs the Penn Language Center, home of many less commonly taught languages. In her role as educational leader she secured several grants: NEH, Fulbright and STARTALK. With the support of the Department of Education and the Institute for International Education (IIE), Frei conceptualizes and directs the Fulbright pre-semester orientation for foreign language teaching assistants. The PLC, secured a NEH grant for the EPIC initiative: Educational Partnerships with Indigenous Communities in collaboration with the late Dr. Timothy Powell that facilitated tribal scholars and language educators to create sustained approaches to the teaching of language and culture based on indigenous knowledge systems.

Frei designed and implemented the curriculum of the language program at the Freie Universität Berlin international Summer and Winter University (FUBiS).

Projects also include research in the affordances and efficacy of theme-based and constructivist curricular design for post-secondary language education. See her co-authored articles “Teaching Perspectives: Intercultural Development at All Levels” in The Language Educator, Jan/Feb 2018 and "Implications of the AP World Language Curriculum for University Language Programs" in AAUSC Volume 17, 2016.

  • Summer 2023, Summer 2024
    Visiting Professor, Freie Universität Berlin International Summer and Winter University, FUBiS
  • 2019 – 2022
    Undergraduate Chair, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures,University of Pennsylvania
  • 2017 -2022
    Visiting Professor, German Language Summer School, Middlebury College
  • 2017
    Academic Regional Director of Lauder Europe Summer Immersion Program, University of Pennsylvania
  • 2013 – present
    Inaugural Executive Director of Language Instruction for the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
  • 2011-present
    Adjunct Associate Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
  • 2008-2011
    Adjunct Assistant Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
  • 2008 – present
    Chair and Academic Director of Penn Language Center, University of Pennsylvania
  • 2007 – 2009
    German Language Coordinator, Freie Universität Berlin International Summer and Winter University, FUBiS
  • 2006 – 2009
    Consultant, ERG Universitätsservice GmbH
  • 2005 – present
    Senior Lecturer in Foreign Languages
  • 2005 – 2022
    Director of Language Instruction, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania
  • 2000 – 2005
    Lecturer in Foreign Languages, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania
  • 1993 - 2000
    University of California at Davis
    Ph.D., German with Designated Emphases in Feminist Theory and Research and in Second Language Acquisition, University of California, Davis. March 2002.
  • 1991 - 1993
    University of California, Davis
    B.A., German with Honors.
  • 1999 - 1990
    College of the Redwoods, Eureka, CA
    A.A. with Honors, Major in Psychology.
  • University of Pennsylvania
    GRMN 002: Lords of the Ring-Freshman Seminar
    GRMN 101-102: Elementary German 1 + 2
    GRMN 103-104: Intermediate German 1 + 2
    GRMN 105: Intensive German Penn-in-Berlin
    GRMN 215/203: Text and Context; Homo.Cyber Project
    GRMN 216: Introduction to Literature
    GRMN 269: Erinnerungsorte-Introduction to German Culture
    GRMN 301: Handschrift zu Hyptertext
    GRMN 356: Dark Deeds-German crime novels
    GRMN 387: Life in-between-Contemporary German Authors
    GRMN 399: Independent Study
    GRMN 516: Teaching Methods
    GRMN 517: Technology & Foreign Language Teaching
    GRMN562: Early Modernism (anchor course)
    EDUC 670: Second Language Development (Educational Linguistics, GSE)
    GRMN 999: Independent Study-Course Design
    ICOM 100: Intercultural Communication (online course for LPS/BAAS)
  • Middlebury Language School
    GRMN3107A Deutsch, Stufe 1 Leseverstehen im Kontext
    GRMN3418A Deutschland Verstehen: Migration, Asyl, Flucht, und Vertreibung
    GRMN3200B Deutsch Stufe 1,5: Zwischentöne
    GRMN6690A Methods of Teaching German as a Foreign Language
    GRMN6692A Curriculum Planning
    GRMN6671A Digital Pedagogy
    GRMN6672A Diversifying the German Curriculum
  • Freie Universität Berlin International Summer and Winter University, FUBiS
    Semi-intensive Intermediary courses
  • Academic Honors
  • NCOLCTL Walton Award (Nomination) 2019
  • ACTFL-NYSAFLT Anthony Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education 2017
  • AATG Outstanding German Educator Award 2017
  • SAS Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Affiliated Faculty 2010
  • Transatlantisches interkulturelles Nachwuchsförderungsprogramm (TraiNDaF) 2001-2002
  • Professors for the Future Honors Program, UCDavis 1999-2000
  • University of California at Davis Fellowship 1998-99
  • Consortium for Women and Research Graduate Research Award, UCDavis 1998
  • Graduate Studies Travel Award 1997
  • Kaplan Award for Excellence in Student Teamwork 1997
  • Teaching Award for Outstanding Graduate Students 1997
  • Emilyn Louise Vaage Scholarship 1992-1993

  • Grants
  • University of Pennsylvania: Penn Language Center
  • NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grant entitled “Digital Humanities from an Indigenous Perspective,” administered by Educational Partnerships
    with Indigenous Communities (2018 – 2021) $75,000
  • US Department of Education: Institute of International Education
    Fulbright Summer Orientation (2010 – 2020) $770,000
  • StarTalk National Security Language Initiative (NSLI)
  • Excellence in Leadership Summer Institute (2011-2012) $192,000
  • University of Pennsylvania: Germanic Languages and Literatures
    SAS Language Teaching Innovation Grant 2008, 2009, 2013, 2018
    Consortium Grant 2001, 2004
  • Venture Grant 2001
  • Augenblicke: German through Film, Media, and Texts, co-author Bridget Swanson, University of Vermont and Glenn Levine, University of California, Irvine. [479 pp., fully integrated online platform, and ancillary materials] AATG / XanEdu, September 2021. Print book: ISBN 9781711493930, Ebook: ISBN 9781711493947.


Work in Progress

  • Second edition of Augenblicke: German through Film, Media, and Texts, anticipated publication date 2024.
  • “Transformative Teaching and Learning through Critical Media Literacy,” co-author Bridget Swanson and Margaret Strair.
  • “Dynamic Individualized Networks of Practice to Build World Readiness,” co-author Meredith Hacking.


Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • “Teaching Perspectives: Intercultural Development at All Levels” with co-authors Deborah Page and Margaret Strair in The Language Educator, Jan/Feb 2018, pp. 44 – 48.
  • “Implication of the AP World Language Curriculum for University Language Programs” with co-authors Bridget Swanson, Glenn S. Levine, and Heather Willis Allen in The Interconnected Language Classroom: Critical Transitions and Interfaces in Articulated K-16 Contexts, Eds. Johanna Watzinger-Tharp and Per Urlaub. AAUSC Vol. 17, 2016, pp. 99 – 117.
  • “Co-Constructing Learning: The Dynamic Nature of Foreign Language Pedagogy in a CMC Environment,” with co-authors Nelleke van Deusen-Scholl and Edward Dixon in CALICO Special Topics Edition, Volume 22, Number 3, 2005, pp. 657 – 678.
  • "Using Instructional Technology to Facilitate Active Learning." University of Pennsylvania Almanac, Volume 50 Number 22, 2004, 8.
  • CD-ROM for textbook Deutsch Na Klar! 4/e. McGraw-Hill, 2003. ISBN 0-07-249253-8
  • CD-ROM for testing bank Fokus Deutsch, McGraw-Hill, 2000. ISBN 0-07-236912-4.
  • CD-ROM for textbook Deutsch Na Klar! 3/e, McGraw-Hill, 1999. ISBN 0-07-236252-9.
  • "Minds, Bodies and Memories: The mind/body split in Christa Wolf's Kassandra." Focus on Literatur, University of Cincinnati, Volume 6, I, Spring 1999, pp. 1 – 15.

Reviews

  • Literatur, Lehren, Lernen: Hochschuldidaktik und germanistische Literaturwissenschaft. Susanne Hochreiter, Ursula Klingenböck (Hg.) Modern Austrian Literature, Vol. 40, No. 3, 2007, pp. 124-126.
  • Rafik Schami, Milad: Von einem, der auszog, um einundzwanzig Tage satt zu werden. Focus on Literatur, University of Cincinnati, Volume 6, I, Spring 1999, pp. 78-79.
  • The Body and Eucharistic Devotion in Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg’s Meditation, by Kathleen Foley-Beining, Women in German Newsletter, Spring 1999, Number 78, pp. 22-23.
  • Grimmelshausen the Storyteller. A Study of the Simplician Novels, by Alan Menhennet, German Studies Review, Volume XXII, Number 1, February 1999, pp. 111-112.