Janet Hegman Shier

www.janetshier.com

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EDUCATION                             
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, MI
Master of Arts in German Language and Literature, 1983 Thesis: A Profile of Major German Expressionist Journals
Graduate Program, Slavic Languages and Literatures, (41 academic credits toward Ph.D.),1979-84 

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, East Lansing, MI
BA in German and Russian with High Honors, 1977; Honors: Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Delta Phi Alpha
Activities: MSU Russian Chorus, Freiburger Russischer Chor
Study Abroad: Albert-Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg, Germany, 1975-76  

ADDITIONAL STUDY AND RESEARCH 
Harvard Project Zero Summer Institute, Cambridge, MA, 2001 and 2003
Portfolio Assessment, Interdisciplinary Arts Education, and Teaching for Understanding 
Goethe Institut Teacher Training Seminar, Dresden, Germany, Summer 1997 
Institute for Political Research, Wiesneck, Germany, Summer 1986                                                                  
Germany:  FRG & GDR (Summer Seminar) 
The Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA, 1981
Immersion Course for Advanced Speakers of Russian                             
Sveučilište u Zagrebu/The University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, 1978-1979
Intensive Croatian, Certificate of Proficiency 

TEACHING & ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE 

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, MI, 1980-2020
Lecturer IV in German, Residential College, 1984-2020; Associate Program Head,1986-1988; Program Head 1988-2020
Administrative Responsibilities: hiring and training of instructors, development of intensive German syllabi and proficiency testing materials, program web site; course sites (CTOOLS and Canvas) set up and management, program brochures, advertising, recruitment, and program events, e.g., guest artists. 

Residential College Special Projects Coordinator- developed initiatives to increase interaction between RC alumni and current RC students (Career Directions Workshops, Mentorship and Internship possibilities); Co-Director (with Lynn Malinoff) of Partnerships in Academic Learning through Service (PALS), a service-learning project (literacy corps) involving UM students working with at-risk high school and elementary students (Wayne Westland schools, 1997-2000). 

Residential College Academic Advisor (1987-2020), General Advising, Study Abroad advising, Senior Auditor

Courses Taught in English: First Year English Writing Seminar: “Routes and Roots: Journeys From and To the Self” (2019); The Self, the Other, and the Self as Other in Text, Image, and Performance (2004, 2006); Women’s Health Awareness (team-taught in 1996 with Kate Mendeloff and Barb Sloat; team-taught in 2000 with Jennifer Myers); “Cultures in Dialogue” (team-taught with Olga Lopez Cotin 2006); mini-courses: Beyond the Stigma: Israel, Palestine, and the US Through the Arts (taught in cooperation with the UM Honors Program); Intro to German Art and Culture; Contemporary German Theater. 

Courses taught in German: Intensive First-Year German, Intensive Second-Year German; Accelerated Review of German; From the Page to the World Stage; German Theater Today; Cultures in Dialogue: Crossing External and Internal Borders, The Learning Plays of Brecht; Winterreise (Schubert & Jelinek); The Arts and Politics of Weimar Germany; GRIPS: German Children’s Theater (team-taught with Visiting Professor, Gerhard Fischer); Swiss Theater (team-taught with Martin Walsh); Germany—East/West Relations; The Modern German Short Story. Faculty advisor for students doing Foreign Language Applied to Independent Readings (FLAIR) and for students, doing “College Teaching.” 

UM RC Deutsches Theater (1985-2020), Founder and Director. Developed ongoing use of foreign language theater as a teaching tool at UM and developed portfolio assessment for interdisciplinary arts and language projects. Directed and produced 50 German language plays, many complete with original music, film, and original translations into English, projected as supertitles. Led over 50 theater workshops (improvisation, stage diction, “image theater”) for teachers and for students. 

Study Abroad. Designed and led 19 annual study immersion trips to Germany related to Arts, Theater, Dance and Intercultural Dialogue; generated funding through numerous grants from UM (2002-2020). Created study trip blogs. University of Michigan, College of Literature, Science and Arts, 1980-1984Teaching Assistant, Department. of Germanic Languages and Literature and in the Residential CollegeEnglish Composition Board TA for Slavic 451 & 452 (Survey of Russian Literature of the 19th Century & 20th Century)           

GRANTS AND AWARDS 

  • The “Janets” Award (RC Excellence in Foreign Language Study Award for outstanding graduating RC language students) was named after me as of 2016

  • The RC Educational Artistry Award (for creativity and dedication in the service of a liberal arts education), April 2005

  • UM Global Educator Award2013

  • Golden Apple Award nominee, 2020

  • Ruth Sinclair Excellence in Advising Award, 2003

  • Excellence in Teaching Award, U-M, Summer 1996, 2000

  • First Annual Teaching Excellence Award (State of Michigan), 1990

  • RC Artists in Residence Grant (The Spoken Word), 2006, 2009, 2014

  • Public Goods Grant (Arts at Michigan) for Zwischen Rap und Ramadan artists’ residency of Element 3 (Freiburg), 2006

  • GCC, ISAC and International Institute Awards for Cultures in Dialogue course and Deutsches Theater study trips (Grants),    2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.

  • GIEU- Munich Arts and Identity Project (OIP Grant), 2004

  • ELF Funding Awarded for study trips to Germany, 2013, 2015, 2017

  •  Interdisciplinary Faculty Associates Award (with Jennifer Myers) for Women’s Health Awareness Collaboration, 2000

  • YoHA (Year of Humanities and the Arts) Award (with Ann Savageau), 1998 for Artist’s Residency of Rolf Wojciechowski (Berlin)

  • Marion and Henry Bloch Award for interdisciplinary “Women and Illness” course (with Kate Mendeloff), 1995

  • Goethe Institute and STaDAF (German government) grants for German-language play production, 1987-2008

• Numerous grants from Arts at Michigan, Ginsburg, CES, and RHA for visiting scholars, artists and play productions 

THEATER EXPERIENCE 

Director/Producer, Translation Blaubart. Hoffnung der Frauen (Loher), April 2019

Director/Producer, Script, Film Winterreise (Schubert & Jelinek montage of scenes), April 2018

Director/ Producer, Film, Music: RC Deutsches Theater Durch die Jahre—Alumni performance as part of the RC 50th    Reunion, opening night gala, October 2017

Director/Producer, Film, Music Nacht mit Gästen (Weiss), April 2017

Director/Producer, Film, Music, Translation of Unschuld (Dea Loher)), April 2016

Director/Producer/Film & Translation Zusammen kaputt (montage; original script), April 2015
Producer, A Pizza the Size of the Sun and The Butter Battle, Dance Theater (Choreography by Jacalyn Carley); Berlin   MORUS14, May 2014

Director/Producer/Original Music and Film, Die schwarze Spinne (Widmer), April 2014

Director/ Lesen Gegen das Vergessen, dramatic reading; works by banned writers in the Third Reich, Berlin, May 2013

Director/Producer/Original Music and Film, Kommt ein Mann zur Welt (Heckmanns), April 2012

Director/Producer/Original Music and Film, Ein Tag am Strand (Bremmer), April 2011

Director/ Lesen Gegen das Vergessen, dramatic reading; works by banned writers in the Third Reich, Berlin, May 2010

Director/Producer/Original Music and Film, Unschuld (Loher), April 2010

Director/Producer/Original Music, Die jüdische Frau, December 2010

Director/Producer/Original Music, Die Bombenfrau (Saiko); Keene Theater Opening Gala, Oct. 2009

Director/Producer/Original Music, Films, Honor, Shame and Sacrifice: Scenes from Four Contemporary European Plays, April 2009

Director/Producer/Original Music, Nacht mit Gästen (Weiss), 2008

Director/Producer/ Mixed Music, Ballade von drei wichtigen Männern sowie dem Personenkreis um sie herum(Jelinek), April 2008

Director/Producer/, Blaubart, Hoffnung der Frauen (Loher), April 2007

Producer for Performances by Visiting German Artists (Element 3 Dance Theater concerts with film and discussion): Zwischen   Rap und Ramadan and Die Judenschublade with guest director and filmmaker, Margarethe Mehring Fuchs, September 2006

Director/Producer/Script Editor, Displaced Stories, (original script) performed in English, Spanish, and German, April 2006

Director/Producer/Original Music, Der Rattenfänger (Ende), April 2005

Director/Producer/Original Music, Die schwarze Spinne (Widmer), April 2004

Director/Producer/Original Music, Die Eisprinzessin (Waechter), Nacht mit Gästen (Weiss), April 2003

Director/Producer, Blaubart (Loher), April 2002

Director/Producer/ Original Music, Der Rattenfänger (Ende) April 2001

Director/Producer, Script editor: She Says: Stories of Women’s Health and Illness. Original script based off patient  interviews) from the course: Women’s Health Awareness, UM Taubman Center & Keene Theater, Dec.2000

Director/Producer/Conductor, Cabaret production featuring original works by students (in German) and the Ballet/Opera: Ein Herz, ein Sparkassenbuch, April 1999

Director/Producer, Brecht-Abende, plays, songs and poster exhibition,100th Anniversary of Brecht’s birth. April 1998

Director/Producer/Musical Score, Parabeln für das Theater: Was kostet das Eisen? (Brecht), Das Elefantenkalb (Brecht),  Die Ausnahme und die Regel (Brecht), Nacht mit Gästen (Weiss), April 1997

Project Co-Director, Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Stories of Women, Illness, and Healing (with K. Mendeloff and   B. Sloat), Residential College and U-M Hospital, April 1996                                                                
Set/ Properties Master, Nestwärme (Schwaiger), performed by professional actors from Berlin, sponsored by the Residential College in  cooperation with the Ann Arbor Goethe Institut, Nov.1995

Director/Producer, Singapore Sling (Bauer) and Die Bienenkönige (Jelinek), 1995

Director/Producer, So oder so; a cabaret of performance art, poems and songs by Jandl, Valentin, and others, 1994

Director/Producer/Music. Ballade von 3 wichtigen Männern sowie dem Personenkreis um sie herum (Jelinek), 1994

Director/Producer/ Original Music, Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches (Brecht); 1993

Director/ Original Music, The Jewish Wife (Brecht), performed in English, 1993                            •

Director/Producer/Musical Arrangement, Das Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis (Brecht);1992

Director, Mugnog-Kinder (Volker Ludwig),1991.

Director/Producer, Wie dem Herrn Mockinpott das Leiden ausgetrieben wird (Weiss); 1990.                        •

Director/Producer, Cabaret Tingeltangel (cabaret scenes from German and Swiss cabarets of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s); Pioneer High School and U-M, 1989.

Properties Master, Baal (Brecht), performed by the Brecht Company of Ann Arbor, 1988.

Actor, Lux in Tenebris (Brecht), performed by The Brecht Company of Ann Arbor, 1988.

Director/Producer, Biedermann und die Brandstifter (Frisch); 1987

Director/ Producer, Scenes from: Furcht und Elend des III. Reiches (Brecht); 1986

Producer/Co-Director with B. Rifkin, Istorija s metranpazhem (Vampilov); performed in Russian, 1986

Director/Producer, Lux in Tenebris (Brecht) and Er treibt einen Teufel aus, 1986.

Director/Producer, Die Kleinbürgerhochzeit (Brecht), 1986.

Director/ Producer, Besuch der alten Dame (Dürrenmatt), 1985

PUBLICATIONS 

Translation and subtitles, German Documentary Film: Zwischen Rap und Ramadan (Mehring-Fuchs), 2006 

“The Arts and the Second Language Curriculum: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Actively Engage Students in Their Own Learning.” Invited chapter: Body and Language. Intercultural Learning Through Drama. Ed. Gerd Bräuer (Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing), 2002 

“From the Page to the Stage: Creative Speaking in Foreign and Second Language Instruction,” Perspectives in Foreign Language Teaching, Vol. 8. Proceedings of the18th Annual Youngstown State University Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and Literatures, 1995, 145-167. 

“The Arts for Language’s Sake: Bridging the Gap Between Classroom and Culture in the Foreign and Second Language Learning Experience. Perspectives in Foreign Language Teaching, Vol. 6. Keynote address, published in the Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference on the Teaching of FL and Literatures, 1993, 21-39. 

“Integrating the Arts in the Second Language Curriculum: Fusing the Affective and the Cognitive.” Foreign Language Annals: Vol. 23, No. 4. Sept. 1990, 301-316. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1990.tb00375.x  

PRESENTATIONS Presented over fifty conference talks, keynote addresses, and theater workshops in the US and Germany. Co-led, produced, and hosted workshops, performances, and exhibitions by musicians, dancers, artists, and theater practitioners. A partial list of invited workshop and performance guests of RC Deutsches Theater, includes: Alena Acker (NY); Augusto Boal (Brazil); Paul Brody (Berlin); Barbara Brown (Ann Arbor); Jacalyn Carley (Berlin); Kathleen Chalfant (NY); Mary Ellen Guinn (Ann Arbor); Dan Kahn (Berlin); Sukie Keita (Phoenix); Michael Lee (Ann Arbor); Liz Magnes (NY); Bridge Markland (Berlin); Margarethe Mehring-Fuchs and Element 3 (Freiburg), Nadja Raszewski and TanzTangente, (Berlin), Johanna Rieken (Freiburg), Kabarett Rohrstock (Rostock), Rolf Woijciechowski (Berlin).

Selected Presentations and Workshops 

  • “Aus Nichts wird Etwas: Bild als Schreibanlaß und Schreiben als Bildanlaß. Ein Buchkunst Workshop.” Presented as part of Sprachwochen Berlin, invited visual journaling workshops, Berlin, May 2019. 

  • Theater workshops and performance with youth at MORUS 14, Neukölln (Berlin), May 2009, 2010, 2014. 

  • Intergenerational image theater workshops with UM alumni & UM students, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020.   

  • “Chance Favors the Prepared Mind.” Invited fireside chat for the RC Republic. 2013. 

  • “Theater im Deutschunterricht.” 6-hour invited workshop for German teachers at Pennsylvania AATG, Oct. 2009. “Brecht: The Exception and the Rule.” Theater workshop for Undergraduates, co-led with Martin Walsh, 2009. 

  • “The Play within the Play within the Classroom.” Invited panel presentation at NEMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association), Boston, Feb. 2008. 

  • “Interkultureller Dialog für deutsche und ausländische Studierende: Theater, Identität, und soziale Verantwortung” (co-led   workshop with Agnieszka Pietlicka)((LMU- University of Munich Institut für interkulturelle Kommunikation), 2004. 

  • U-M MLK Symposium Workshop: “Change: A Theater and Movement Workshop,” co-led with Gayle Martin (WCC Dance), 2003. 

  • “An Arts Approach to Strengthening Community: or Knowing Now What We Knew Then: Using the Arts to Tap Strength and Recapture Perspective.” Women’s Health Day Conference:  WCC, Oct. 2002. 

  • “Theater im Deutschunterricht;” Keynote presentation for the Indiana Chapter of AATG (Am. Assoc. of Teachers of German), April 2002. 

  • “The Same, Only Different. Identity and the Study of ‘Foreign’ Language and Culture.” Talk and Workshop for prospective UM students (several presentations, e.g.,“Cornucopia”) 

  • “Journaling and Creative Work for Healing.” Presented at the Women’s Health Day Conference: “Who’s Caring for the Caregiver”, U-M Hospital Women’s Resource Center, Oct. 2001. “Theater im Unterricht” (invited workshop: Status Games and Theater of the Oppressed), Goethe Institut Ann Arbor1999 

  • “Bridging to all Learning Styles through the Arts” Indiana Foreign Language Association Conference, November 1999. 

  • “The Message is the Medium: Collaborating with Artists to add Depth, Texture, and Composition to the Foreign Language Learning Experience.” Midwest Association of Language Learning Technologies, Ann Arbor, October 1999. 

  • “Integrating the Arts into the Curriculum,” a ‘Best Practices’ Workshop; Conference on New Integrations of Research, Scholarship, and Undergraduate Education, Ann Arbor, March 1999. “The Theatre of Healing: The U-M RC Arts and Science Collaboration on Women and Illness,” American Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference, Chicago, IL, August 1997.

  •  "Get Them Out of the Classroom. A Sequel to Get Them Out of Their Seats," invited workshop, Bowling Green University, June 1997. 

  • “One in Eight”, presentation to U-M Medical Students, invited by Breast Cancer Awareness Task Force. May 1997.  

  • “Innovative Teaching: Theater and Drama; and The Arts Across the Curriculum,” Panelist at Conference on Residential Colleges and Living/Learning Communities. Ann Arbor, March 1996. 

  • “Kreativeres Sprechen. Improvisieren im Unterricht,” 3-hour invited workshop for German teachers, Webers Inn, Ann Arbor, sponsored by the Goethe Institut. October 1995. 

  • “Get Them Out of Their Seats,” 3-hour invited workshop for visiting ESL teachers from the Yamaha Music Corporation School in Saporo, Japan. Mercyhurst College, Erie, PA, 1995. 

  • “From the Page to the Stage: Creative Speaking & L2 Learning,” workshop at the 18th Annual Youngstown State University Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and Literatures,  Oct 1994. 

  • “Kreatives Sprechen im Fremdsprachenunterricht,” invited 7-hour theater workshop. Calvin College, September 1994. 

  • “Wer A und B sagt, kann und aber muss nicht unbedingt C sagen.” Invited workshop for the Ohio Wesleyan University Summer Teacher Institute, July 1994. 

  • “Alas, poor Yorick, I know this language well. From the Page to the Stage.” Invited workshop for the U-M Instructional Workshop Series, December 1993. 

  • “The Arts for Language’s Sake: Bridging the Gap Between Classroom and Teaching of Foreign Languages and Literatures,” Keynote address, Youngstown State University Conference on the Teaching of FL and Literatures, Youngstown, Ohio, October 1992. 

  • “Counseling the Foreign Language Learner,” 1992 MFLA conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan, October 1992. 

  • “The Visual and Theatre Arts in Foreign Language Instruction,” 3-hour workshop at the 1992 MFLA conference, Grand Rapids, MI, October 1992. 

  • “Higher Education Options for Gifted/Talented Students,” invited panelist, Michigan Conference on the Gifted, Flint, MI. 1990. 

  • “Integrating the Arts in the Second Language Curriculum,” invited paper, ACTFL Conference on National Priorities for the 1990s, Boston, MA.1989.  

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

National

  • ACTFL Conference on National Priorities for the 1990s. Co-Chair: The Arts and the FL Curriculum. Boston, MA, 1989.

  • AATG (American Association of Teachers of German). Elected Officer (Secretary/Treasurer), Mich. Chapter,1987-90; Founding Editor of Michigan AATG Newsletter (1987-1998).

  • Advisory Board, Wayne State University Junior Year in Munich. 2000-2008. Executive Advisory Board, 2008-present

  • Invited Trainer, Goethe Institut Netzwerk: Trainers of the Trainers, Focus Group for German instruction, 1995- 2005.

University of Michigan

• International Institute, Selection Committee for the II Individual Fellowship for Research/Internships Abroad, 2010

• Fulbright Campus Interview Committee, 2010, 2018 

• Planning Committee, Provost’s Seminar on Educating Globally Competent Students, 2010

• Foreign Language Instruction Committee, 1991-92

• Language Lab Steering Committee, 1988-1991. Elected Chair, 1989, 1990-1991

• Freiburg Steering Committee, 1993-96 UM Residential College

• RC Academic Advisor, 1987-present. Academic Advisor, Orientation Speaker, and Senior Auditor (2006-2020)

• RC Special Projects Coordinator, 1997-2004

• RC Executive Committee, 1993-1995, 1996-1998. 2001-2008, 2011-2014, 2019- 2020

• RC Curriculum Planning Committee, 1990-1992, 2000-01, 2003. 2004-present

• RC Faculty Evaluation Committee, 1987-88, 1989-90, 2013- 2018, 2020

• RC Board on Academic Standing, 1987-1994, 1995-2020

• Faculty Representative on RC Director’s Advisory Committee, 1995-2015

• Co-Director (with Lynn Malinoff) of PALS Literacy Corps (UM and Wayne Westland Schools)

• Task Force Chair: RC Admissions and External Relations, 1999

• 30th and 40th RC Reunion Planning Committees, 1997, 2007 

• RC Mentorship Program, faculty planning committee, 1996

• RC/LSA Liaison Committee- 1995-1996

• Long Range Planning Committee, 1988- 1995

• Student Life Committee, 1986-87

• Keene Theater Renovation Task Force, 2008-2009

• Task force on RC Community, 2019-2020

• Selection Committee for Internship Abroad & Brown Fund, 2000-2009   

ARTS EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Book Arts: Bookbinding classes, Hollander’s, 1996 to 2006

Painting (acrylics and mixed media) K. Watterworth; Visual Journaling, O. Avineri, 2012 to present

Photography: (black and white, color, and studio photography), filmmaking, music composition and music mixing courses taken at Washtenaw Community College, 1996-2010

Computer and tech skills: website & blog set-up, i-Movie, Animoto, PowerPoint, Illustrator, Photoshop, Logic, CTools, Canvas, Zaption, FlipGrid, EdPuzzles.                                                                                                                                     

August 2020