Rebecca Schaefer
Lecturer, Modern Languages and Culture
Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
College of Liberal Arts
Program Coordinator, German
585-475-2018
Office Hours
Mondays and Wednesdays 2:30-4:00 p.m. and by appointment
Office Location
Rebecca Schaefer
Lecturer, Modern Languages and Culture
Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
College of Liberal Arts
Program Coordinator, German
Education
BA/MA, University of Siegen (Germany); Ph.D., Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany).
Bio
Dr. Rebecca Schäfer is the Program Coordinator for German Studies at RIT. She received her Ph.D. from Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany. Before joining RIT, she taught at Mainz and, from 2022 to 2025, at Binghamton University (SUNY). She teaches all levels of the German language curriculum as well as interdisciplinary, cross-listed outreach courses, i.e., on German film history or German literary and critical theory. Spanning German-speaking and transnational contexts, her research and publications often discuss sexuality, gender, age(ing), and especially temporality, such as her dissertation and ensuing monograph on alternative temporalities in contemporary film and visual culture, which was awarded the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Award. She is currently working on a series of articles: about German and acts of transnational language transfer in the music of Rosalía, Lady Gaga, and the broader global pop music scene; about conceptualizations of temporality and (non)futurity in the German-speaking climate discourse; and about the temporalities and heterotopian spaces of Techno and the nightclub. She is an alumna of the Harvard Institute for World Literature (IWL).
Beyond her academic career, she’s also worked in media and the cultural sector, including as a journalist covering the German Bundesliga, the UEFA Champions League, and the Olympics, and as a senior publicist for the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).
585-475-2018
Areas of Expertise
German Language
German Cinema
German Culture & Civilization
Temporality Studies
Sexuality Studies
Film Studies & Visual Culture
Age(ing) Studies
Popular Culture.
Select Scholarship
Invited Keynote/Presentation
Schäfer, Rebecca. "‘Time No Longer Exists, It’s Wonderful:’ Queer Temporalities and Transnational, Heterotopian Spaces in the Films of Austrian Filmmaker Patric Chiha." 121st Annual Meeting of the Pacific Ancient & Modern Language Association (PAMLA). PAMLA. Palm Springs, CA. 7-10 Nov. 2024. Conference Presentation.
Schäfer, Rebecca. "Finding Futurity in Your Fifties: Queer Age Narratives in Contemporary Documentary Film." Symposium Rated Queer – Deconstructing Narratives of Age. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 4-5 Apr. 2023. Conference Presentation.
Schäfer, Rebecca. "‘Look at These Children Playing!’ Queer Temporalities and Narratives of Age(ing), the Transgender Body, and Perpetual Adolescents in J. Soloway's Transparent." 113th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Ancient & Modern Language Association (PAMLA). PAMLA. Portland, OR. 6-8 Nov. 2015. Conference Presentation.
Schäfer, Rebecca. "‘A Perfect Child Caught in a Freeze-Frame?’ (Non-)Aging, (Non-)Futurity, and the Transhuman, Posthuman, and Non-Human Child in Contemporary Science Fiction Film." 130th Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association (MLA). MLA. Vancouver, Canada. 8-11 Jan. 2015. Conference Presentation.
Schäfer, Rebecca. "‘And the Oscar Goes to…’: Celebrating Performances of Otherness and the ‘Excessive’ Celebrity Body in Hollywood Film Culture." Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association (ASA). ASA. Los Angeles, CA. 6-9 Nov. 2014. Conference Presentation.
Full Length Book
Schäfer, Rebecca. Time(s) of Lives: (Non-)Normative Temporalities, Age(ing), and Kinship Narratives in Contemporary U.S. American Culture. 1st ed. Heidelberg, Germany: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2021. Print.
Book Chapter
Schäfer, Rebecca. "Mother(hood) Monster? Lady Gaga, Family Discourse, and Alternative Modes of Kinship." Family and Kinship in the United States: Cultural Perspectives on Familial Belonging. Berlin, Germany: Peter Lang, 2016. 101-122. Print.
Currently Teaching
MLGR-201
Beginning German I
4 Credits
This is the first course in a two-course sequence. The sequence provides students without prior exposure to the language with a sound basis for learning German as it is used today in its spoken and written forms. The goal of the sequence is proficiency in communication skills with an emphasis on oral proficiency. The sequence also acquaints students with contemporary culture and life in the German-speaking countries. Students must take a placement exam if this is their first RIT class in German and they have some prior study of German.
MLGR-202
Beginning German II
4 Credits
This is the second course in a two-course sequence. The sequence provides students without prior exposure to the language with a sound basis for learning German as it is used today in its spoken and written forms. The goal of the sequence is proficiency in communication skills with an emphasis on oral proficiency. The sequence also acquaints students with contemporary culture and life in the German-speaking countries.
MLGR-310
German Conversation and Oral Practice
3 Credits
This course is designed to help students further develop two of the four basic language skills: listening and speaking. Students will expand on skills they have attained in previous language courses with particular emphasis on the advancement of their speaking proficiency in German. Through a task-based approach the course aims to assist students in learning to speak German with a greater degree of fluency and accuracy. Students will communicate solely in German throughout the course. Each class session will consist of communicative activities and practice. The learning of the German language will occur through the completion of communicative tasks in different formats and circumstances (e.g. interviews, situational sketches, oral projects). There will be little emphasis on grammar, but the emphasis on pronunciation and vocabulary will be significant. Authentic audiovisual materials will be an integral part of the course, as will the submission and review of spoken samples of German on the part of the student via MyCourses.
MLGR-351
Modern German Culture through Film
3 Credits
This course is organized around the notion of what Germany is today and the historical, social, cultural and literary determinants of that concept. Through a series of texts, films and videos designed to introduce the students to contemporary German society, thought and cultural practices, the course seeks to explore the following questions: What is Germany today? What is it to be German today? How do the Germans see themselves, and how are they seen by others? In what ways do cultural practices, globalization, and ethnicity influence the formation of modern German identity (and is there one?)? Where do these notions come from? How does that compare to notions of identity and society in the US? Discussions will include analysis of cultural stereotypes, family life, sports, language, media, politics, immigration, etc. The focus of this course is cultural analysis, exploration, and comparison. In order to critically examine these questions, this course focuses on various aspects of modern German culture from the 1950’s to the present. Since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, German society has undergone numerous changes, which manifest themselves politically, socially, culturally and economically. Through films, readings in history and social science, magazine articles, literature and books, this course will scrutinize these changes and their meaning within the context of present-day German society.
MLGR-401
Advanced German I
3 Credits
This is the first course of a two-course sequence at the advanced level. This sequence is designed to develop in-depth proficiency in the four language skills of speaking, understanding, reading, and writing. This sequence develops the ability to understand and communicate freely on a variety of familiar and unfamiliar topics by expanding the vocabulary base and by discussions, compositions, and oral reports based on cultural and literary texts and audio-visual materials. The sequence includes a rigorous study of advanced grammatical structures and usage. Students must take a placement exam if this is their first RIT class in German and they have prior study of German.
MLGR-415
Professional German
3 Credits
The course gives students an opportunity to study professional language and culture as well as to practice presentation and negotiation skills, especially in professional and formal contexts. Students will improve speaking, listening, reading and writing skills developed in the elementary/intermediate sequence to master formal interactions in German. They will learn professional vocabulary, expressions, and grammatical structures through readings, conversation, and discussion. They will cultivate expressive skills through discussion, writing assignments, and a video tutorial project. This course will be useful for students who are planning to seek employment in international companies or in companies doing business abroad, and also for students who want to learn more about business in the target culture. This is a language class; proficiency equivalent to Intermediate German II is required.
MLST-449
Special Topic Modern Lng
3 Credits
This upper-level course will focus on a specific theme or topic in modern languages, chosen by the instructor, announced in the subtitle, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same, so be sure not to repeat the same topic.
WGST-449
Topics in Women’s and Gender Studies
3 Credits
This variable topic course examines one or more themes, figures, movements, critical questions or issues in the areas of women's and gender studies. The topic for the course is chosen by the instructor, announced in the course subtitle, and developed in the syllabus. Topics in WGST can be taken multiple times provided the topic(s) being studied has changed.