Meet the Berlin Faculty
Classes at the Berlin Program are taught by local faculty, the Center Director, and by Stanford Faculty in Residence. Many instructors hold regular appointments at German universities or have served in prominent positions in policy organizations, research institutes, and editorial boards. Most non-language courses are taught in English, but customarily there is at least one seminar taught in German each quarter.
Faculty in Residence
Each quarter, one Stanford professor serves as Faculty in Residence in each of the BOSP program locations. These faculty teach classes in their own disciplines, developing courses that incorporate unique features of the local culture and environment or that provide comparative perspectives on a particular topic. View a list of current and future faculty.
Local Faculty
Diana Böbe (Instructor)
Diana studied at the Freie Universität Berlin as well as the Université d’Orléans, France (M.A. in American Studies, French and Latin American Studies, 2008), and the Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, France (M.A. in German Studies, 2011). She has taught German as a Foreign Language at Nice University in France, and since September 2011, she has been a language instructor at the Stanford University Program in Berlin. Since October 2015, Diana has also been teaching for the Technical University Berlin (Department: German as a Second Language) where she prepares prospective subject teachers to integrate language promotion for students with German as a first or second language in everyday lessons.
Diane's courses include 1Z - Accelerated First and Second Quarter German, 3B – German Language and Culture, 21B - Intermediate German, and 24B - Advanced German.
Uli Brueckner (Lecturer)
Uli studied political science, German Literature, and European Studies in Würzburg and Berlin. His fields of interest are European integration, Political Economy, Cultural Policy and Diplomacy. From 1994-2002, he held the Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration at the Department of Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin. He was also a visiting professor in Szczecin, Shanghai, Stanford, Moscow, Paris and Ljubljana. In 2003, Uli Brückner was appointed EU Jean Monnet Professor at Stanford University/Berlin. He works with the European Commission, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the institute for cultural diplomacy in Berlin.
Uli organizes the H.G. Will Study Trips of BOSP Berlin to new and future EU member states.
Uli's courses include A People's Union? Money, Markets, and Identity in the EU and Shifting Alliances? The European Union and the USA.
Wolf-Fabian Hungerland (Lecturer)
Fabian received his Ph.D. in economics at Humboldt-University of Berlin in 2018, where he specialized in international economics and economic history. His research focuses on German economic history and globalization in the long run. In parallel, Fabian has been working as an economist for Berenberg Bank since 2012. With Berenberg, he covers emerging markets, particularly Eastern Europe. Before all this, Fabian obtained a master's degree in economic history at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Göttingen. He also studied at University of Warwick and the Kiel Institute of the World Economy. In his free time Fabian enjoys a good hike or canoe trip with camping, he likes to swim -- and tries to learn the tabla.
Fabian’s courses include Globalization and Germany
Martin Jander (Lecturer)
Martin was born in Freiburg. During his studies of German, History, Sociology, and Political Science in the late 1970s and early 1980s in West-Berlin, he became interested in opposition in the East Germany, a topic that continues to be one of his main fields of research, both in his graduate work (Ph.D. in Political Science at the FU Berlin in 1995), and as researcher at the F.U. Berlin. He has been teaching German and European history in the Berlin programs of New York University and FU-BEST since 2001, and started teaching in the Stanford Program in 2007. German left-wing terrorism is presently one of his fields of research in a project of the Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung. His many publications include "Formierung und Krise der DDR-Opposition" (Berlin, 1996) as well as teaching materials on various German historical topics for “Geschichte betrifft uns” (Aachen) and several guide-books focused primarily on Berlin.
Martin's courses include The Long Way to the West - German History from the 18th Century to the Present and Berlin vor Ort.
Wolf-Dietrich Junghanns (Lecturer)
Wolf studied philosophy at the University Rostov on Don, Russia (Diploma 1984), and at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Dr. phil. 1990). He has taught at the Technische Hochschule Magdeburg (1984-86), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (1986-87, 89-90), Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA (1992). In addition to teaching, Wolf serves as coordinator of the "Krupp Internship Program for Stanford Students in Germany."
Research: Fields of interest are social and political philosophy, intellectual history, cultural studies, and sports studies (esp. boxing). Numerous publications on sports-related topics, such as: Schmeling 21. Das "deutsche Boxidol" in Monumenten und Biographien. Berliner Debatte Initial. Sozial- und geisteswissenschaftliches Journal, 22 (2011) 2, 111-175.
Wolf's courses include Theory from the Bleachers: Reading German Sports and Culture (Winter Quarter) and Sports, Culture and Gender in Comparative Perspective (Spring Quarter).
Sylvia Klötzer (Lecturer)
Sylvia received her Master's degree in German Language and Literature from the Freie Universität (F.U.) in Berlin, Germany in 1987, her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1992, and her Habilitation in Cultural Studies at the University of Potsdam in 2005. Teaching and research positions include 1991/2 Prof. at Williams College, 2005 at UMass Amherst; postdoc and researcher at the Potsdam Center for Contemporary History (ZZF) 1995–2000; she has been teaching at Potsdam University (Institut für Germanistik) since 2006 and at the Stanford Program in Berlin since 2009.
Her publications include Satire und Macht: Film, Zeitung, Kabarett in der DDR. Köln 2006. and Aussichten. Deutsch als Fremdsprache für Erwachsene.(co-author). Stuttgart: 2011, 2012.
Sylvia's courses include German 1Z - Accelerated First and Second Quarter German and German 2Z - Accelerated Second and Third Quarter German.
Karen Ruoff Kramer (Director & Lecturer)
Karen has been the Director of the Stanford Program in Berlin since 1980. She studied at Stanford University (B.A. in English Literature; Ph.D. in German Studies) and at the Freie Universität Berlin (Master's of Arts in Philosophy, Comparative Literature and American Studies). She has been a guest professor at Stanford’s campus in Palo Alto on several occasions and is the author of academic and literary texts, including Academia, Exzellenz hat ihren Preis, Ariadne/Argument, 2021 and The Politics of Discourse: Third Thoughts on New Subjectivity (NY/Bern: NYU Ottendorfer Series, 1994). Karen sits on the boards of the German Fulbright Commission and of the Will Foundation, is Curatorium Member and Fellow of the Institut für Kritische Theorie, is founding member of the AASAP (Assoziation Amerikanischer Study Abroad Programme in Deutschland), member of the Stanford Club of Germany, e.V. (and, not to forget, of the Förderverein der Freiwilligen Feuerwehr Krummensee, e.V.). In 2002 she was awarded the German Federal Medal of Honor (Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande) for her contributions to relations between Germany and the United States and between Germans East and West. She is a published novelist and poet, plays the cello, and dances with horses.
Students can get in touch with Karen concerning:
- Academic advising, including courses at German universities, directed reading, and honors thesis research.
- Courses and curriculum.
- General advising and concerns.
Karen's courses include Contemporary Theater and Split Images: A Century of Cinema.
Leah Muir (Lecturer)
Composer Leah Muir’s music has been performed by many international venues such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bruckner Orchester Linz with Dennis Russell Davies and David Friedman, the Münchener Biennale, Wien Modern, MärzMusik, Academy Schloss Solitude, Wiener Konzerthaus, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Aspen Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Ars Electronica, Soundtrack Cologne, as well as many established new music ensembles and soloists. Muir is a Docent at the Berlin University of the Arts where she is the Artistic Director and cofounder of Ensemble ilinx, Studio for New Music at the Berlin University of the Arts in conjunction with Prof. Elena Mendoza. Ensemble ilinx plays repertoire from the 20th and 21st century whereas the concert series Zoom + Focus is only for student composers, where over 150 new compositions from students have been premiered over the last 5 years. Many of these productions are in collaboration with Klangzeitort—Institut für Neue Musik UdK HfM, an organization of the Berlin University of Arts and the Hanns Eisler Conservatory, which sponsors new music concerts and other transmedial productions of which she is also a member of.
Leah’s courses include: Ways of Hearing: Exploring Berlin through its Music
Matthias Pabsch (Lecturer)
Matthias received his PhD in 2001 at the Institute of Art and Visual Studies, Humboldt University Berlin. He is an Artist and Architectural Theorist. In 2010, he was appointed Adjunct Professor at Duke University, and he has been teaching at the Stanford Program in Berlin since 2006.
His work as an artist has been shown widely, both in Germany and internationally. His publications include “Architektur und Städetbau am Potsdamer Platz “(1998) and “Pariser Platz – Architektur und Technik. Vom manuellen zum digitalen Zeitalter” (2002).
Matthias's courses include Cityscape as History: Architecture and Urban Design in Berlin and Berlin vor Ort.
Matthew Stephen (Lecturer)
Matthew studied political science, history and classics at the University of Otago (2003-2006, B.A. (Hons), M.A., 2007-2008) before undertaking a PhD at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Berlin Graduate School for Transnational Studies (2009-2013) where he graduated summa cum laude. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Global Governance at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. He has been a visiting researcher at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg, the Department of International Relations at Hebrew University Jerusalem, and the University of Sydney. His research focuses on the interaction of international power shifts, legitimacy and international institutions from a variety of theoretical perspectives. He has published on these topics in journals such as the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, the European Journal of International Relations, Global Governance, Global Society, Globalizations, and the Review of International Studies. He has also taught at the Freie Universität Berlin, University of Potsdam, Charles University, and the Berlin Summer School for Social Sciences.
Matthew's courses include Lessons of Berlin in International Politics.