Tennessee Tech University

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Dr. Julia K. Baker is a native of Graz, Austria. She holds a Magistra der Philosophie in German and English literature and linguistics, as well as certificates to teach German and English as a Foreign Language (1998) from Karl-Franzens Universität http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at. As an undergraduate student, Dr. Baker spent a year in Brisbane, Australia where she studied English at the University of Queensland http://www.uq.edu.au/. After graduation, she taught both English and German in an Austrian high school, as well as at her alma mater. In 1999, Dr. Baker spent a year as a Fulbright Student at Bowling Green State University http://www.bgsu.edu in Ohio and obtained a Master of Arts in German Literature. From 2000-2002, she taught German to Welsh, British and international students at the University of Wales http://www.swan.ac.uk/ where she also completed a certificate in translation technology and established herself as a freelance translator. In 2002, she returned to the USA to join the department of German Studies at the University of Cincinnati http://www.uc.edu. In 2007, she completed her Ph.D with a dissertation entitled "The Return of the Child Exile: Re-enactment of Childhood Trauma in Jewish Life-Writing and Documentary Film." Dr. Baker has taught German language and culture courses at all undergraduate levels, as well as designed syllabi for upper-level literature courses. Her academic interests include contemporary German and Austrian literature and film, German-Jewish life-writing, women studies, madness in literature and transcultural literature. Recent publications include an article on Binjamin Wilkomirski's memoir Fragments and Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt's fictional life-writing (published in Trajectories of Memory: Intergenerational Representations of the Holocaust in History and the Arts (Cambridge Scholars Press, forthcoming in 2009). She is currently translating interviews she conducted together with Imelda Rohrbacher (Universität Wien) with Austrian documentary film makers Ruth Beckermann and Mirjam Unger (accepted for publication in the Women in German Yearbook, forthcoming in 2009). At TTU, Dr. Baker has taught German 1010 and Introduction to German Literature. She is also the faculty liaison for the German Club. Dr. Baker looks forward to collaborating with her colleagues on preparing a course on global issues, as well as teaching courses on Berlin and Vienna, which will include taking students to Germany's and Austria's capitals.