Lorie A. Vanchena, Ph.D.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - School of Language, Literatures & Cultures - Department of German StudiesRoom 2078
Room 313
Spring Office Hours:
W: 9:00 – 11:00 am and by appointment at the Max Kade Center
Teaching interests: the German transatlantic experience, German literature of the modern era, introduction to contemporary German-speaking Europe
Research interests: World War I Immigrant poetry published in the United States, immigrant identity formation, cultural transfer
Education
Ph.D., Germanic Languages and Literatures, Washington University
M.A., Germanic Languages and Literatures, Washington University
B.A., Germanic Languages and Literatures, History, Washington University
Teaching
I teach courses on German-language literature and culture, the German transatlantic experience, and contemporary German-speaking Europe
Teaching Interests
- German-language literature
- Culture of German-speaking Europe
- Transatlantic
- German-American
- Contemporary German-speaking Europe
Research
My research focuses on poetry written by immigrants in the U.S. in response to WWI; German ethnic culture in America, cultural transfer and transformation, cultural identity; Reinhold Solger; and 19th-century German political literature, nationalism, and national identity.
Research Interests
- World War I
- Immigrants
- Poetry
- 19th-century German culture in America
- Cultural transfer
- Cultural identity
- Immigrant identity
- Reinhold Solger
- 19th-century
- Political literature
- Nationalism: national identity
Service
I serve as Academic Director of the European Studies Program, which is coordinating KU's WWI Centennial Commemoration 2014-2018. I also serve as Academic Director of the Max Kade Center for German-American Studies and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures.
Selected Publications
Vanchena, L. A. (2012). Reading German Culture, 1789-1918: Distant Readings/Descriptive Turns: Topologies of German Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century, Washington University in St. Louis 21st St. Louis Symposium on German Literature & Culture,. JLT - Journal of Literary Theory(2012) Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. http://www.JLTonline.de
Vanchena, L. A., & Ritter, A. (2011). Transatlantische Interpretationen des Amerikaerlebens: Reinhold Solger's Anton in Amerika. In , Amerika im europäischen Roman um 1850. Varianten transatlantischer Erfahrung (pp. 237-50). Vienna: Praesens Verlag.
Solger, R. Vanchena, L. A., & Sollors, W. (2006). Anton in America: A Novel from German-American Life, Vol. 3 of New Directions in German-American Studies. New York: Peter Lang.
Vanchena, L. A., Tatlock, L. & Erlin, M. (2005). From Domestic Farce to Abolitionist Satire: Reinhold Solger's Reframing of the Union (1860). In , German Culture in Nineteenth-Century America: Reception, Adaptation, Transformation (pp. 289-316). Rochester, NY: Camden House.
Vanchena, L. A., & Sammons, J. L. (2000). Political Poetry in Periodicals and the Shaping of German National Consciousness in the Nineteenth Century, New York: Peter Lang.
Selected Presentations
Vanchena, L. & Crist, A. . (11/20/2017). The WWI Immigrant Poetry Digital Humanities Project. Hall Center Digital Humanities Seminar. Lawrence, KS
Vanchena, L. A. (09/30/2011). A Transnational Perspective: Germans Fighting for the Union and German National Identity. German Studies Association Annual Conference. Louisville, KY
Vanchena, L. A. (04/30/2011). Solger, Freiligrath, Schiller: Transatlantic Cultural Transfer. Hall Center for the Humanities, Early Modern Seminar and Modernities Seminar, University of Kansas. Hall Center for the Humanities
Selected Grants
Vanchena, Lorie A, Dean's Award for Exceptional Student Mentoring, Research Excellence Initiative, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, $3,500, Submitted 11/01/2017 (01/01/2017 - 08/31/2017). University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded.
Vanchena, Lorie A, (Principal), Seed Grant, KU Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities, $14,929, Submitted 12/01/2014 (05/01/2015 - 05/31/2016). University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded.
Vanchena, Lorie A., General Research Fund Award, University of Kansas, $5,888, - 12/31/2009). University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded.
Vanchena, Lorie A., Revisitation Research Grant for Faculty, German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdiens), - 12/31/2007). Foreign (company, govt, agencies, etc.). Status: Funded.
Vanchena, Lorie A., Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society, $1,000, - 03/31/2005). Not-for-Profit (not Foundation). Status: Funded.
Selected Awards & Honors
K. Barbara Schowen Undergraduate Research Mentor Award
Center for Undergraduate Research
2017
J. Michael Young Academic Advisor Award
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
2015
Professor Vanchena joined the department in 2008 as Associate Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures. Her monograph, Political Poetry in Periodicals and the Shaping of German National Consciousness in the Nineteenth Century (2000), demonstrates that between 1840 and 1871 German periodicals regularly featured poems as part of the public debate over contemporary political developments. In 2006 she published Anton in America: A Novel from German-American Life, the first English translation and scholarly edition of a work written in 1862 by the witty intellectual revolutionary, historian, and journalist Reinhold Solger. She has also published articles on nineteenth-century German and German-American literature.She is currently working on a scholarly digital edition of World War I immigrant poetry published in the United States. Her research interests also include the reception and transformation in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America of German ethnic culture, immigrant identity formation, and German nationalism and national identity.
Professor Vanchena has received grants from the American Philosophical Society, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She is the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Exceptional Student Mentoring, Excellence in Research Initiative, KU College of Arts & Sciences, and also a Seed Grant from the KU Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities..She received the K. Barbara Schowen Undergraduate Research Mentor Award from the Center for Undergraduate Research and the J. Michael Young Academic Advisor Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
