WWU's Cornelius Partsch awarded the 2024 Goethe‐Institut/American Association of Teachers of German Certificate of Merit

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WWU's Cornelius Partsch awarded the 2024 Goethe‐Institut/American Association of Teachers of German Certificate of Merit

October 24, 2024

Cornelius Partsch, professor of German in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, has been awarded the 2024 Goethe‐Institut/American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Certificate of Merit. He is one of only five educators nationally to be recognized this year.

The Certificate of Merit honors educators who have demonstrated achievement in furthering the teaching of German in the United States through outstanding instruction, creative and successful activities promoting German, innovative curriculum and successful course design, successful interdisciplinary cooperation, and significant contributions to the profession.

Partsch has taught at all levels of the German curriculum as well as courses in the Honors Program at Western. Known for his development of new courses on relevant topics that are of great interest to Western students, he has recently offered an upper-division German course on sustainability and an Honors seminar titled "World's Most Dangerous Border" on migrant/refugee stories around the Mediterranean Sea. From 2007-2011, Partsch was a member of the Goethe-Institut Trainer Network, and he has presented on topics in curricular design and world language pedagogy at venues such as the Washington Association for Language Teaching conference and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages annual convention. He is co-author of the German textbook Treffpunkt Deutsch with colleagues Margaret Gonglewski (The George Washington University) and Beverly Moser (Appalachian State University), which is under contract to appear in a new edition in the online learning environment at LingroLearning. Besides his engagement in world language pedagogy, curricular development, and assessment, Prof. Partsch has published several literary translations and maintained active research programs in the areas of jazz and film studies, spy fiction, and Holocaust Education.

The German program in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, which was designated an AATG Center of Excellence in 2013, offers a German major and minor, majors in German with an elementary or secondary teaching endorsement, and dual-language majors in French/German and German/Spanish.

Partsch will be honored in a virtual ceremony held by the AATG on November 10 to celebrate this year's awardees. "With their dedication to excellence in German language and culture instruction, these award recipients promote the transatlantic friendship between the US and German-speaking countries and foster the much-needed intercultural awareness so their students can lead successful lives in a globalized world," notes Angelika Becker, president of the AATG.