Faculty/Staff Profile
Julia Karen Baker, Ph.D. German Studies; M.A. German Literature; Magistra der Philosophie
Volpe Library & Media Center (LIBR) 303 
(513) 235-7048
More Information
Dr. Julia K. Baker is a native of Graz, Austria. She holds degrees in German/English literature and linguistics, as well as certificates to teach German and English as a second language (1998) from Karl-Franzens Universität http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at. As an undergraduate student, Dr. Baker 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 German for international students at the university.
In 1999, the Fulbright Commission in Vienna warned Dr. Baker not to fall in love during her study abroad year in Bowling Green, Ohio http://www.bgsu.edu. Since there really was not much else to do besides reading and studying, she ended up falling in love after all, and not only obtained a degree, but also an American husband. After getting married in Austria, the Bakers spent two jolly good years in Swansea, where Dr. Baker drank quite a few cups of tea and taught at the University of Wales in Swansea http://www.swan.ac.uk , while Mr. Baker, a photographer, took photos of Welsh brides and sheep.
In Swansea, Dr. Baker also received a certificate in translation technology and worked as a freelance translator. After returning to the USA, she joined the Department of German Studies at the University of Cincinnati http://www.uc.edu to pursue a Ph.D. in German Studies. While in graduate school, she had two babies and proudly delivered her academic baby in 2007 - 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, literature, film, and culture courses at all undergraduate levels. Her academic interests include contemporary German and Austrian literature, family novels, and (documentary) film, childhood trauma, German-Jewish life-writing, women studies, madness in literature and transcultural literature. Her publications include book reviews, interviews with documentary film makers, scholars, and Holocaust survivors, articles on the purpose of humor in transnational literature, as well as the fictional life-writing by Lore Segal, Binjamin Wilkomirski, and Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt. She is currently working on a volume on the representation of family in the German speaking world, tentatively entitled "Familiar Stories: Conversations about the German Family."
At Tennessee Technological University, Dr. Baker is the faculty liaison for the German Club and the Tech LAMBDA association. She has taught all elementary German courses, Introduction to German Literature, courses on Berlin and Vienna, a contemporary literature course, a course on immigration, exile and the concept of alterity (together with Dr. Barnard and Dr. Groundland), a course on German film, and on German Childhood and Children's Literature.
Dr. Baker always looks forward to taking students of German, as well as business and engineering students to Berlin during spring break and to Vienna during the summer.
