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Shanna Stann '02 (Coudersport, Pa.), a double major in Russian & East European Studies and International Affairs, is wrapping up an independent study on “The Transformation Process of East German Women After Reunification.”
Stann has been conducting research on how employment and educational opportunities have changed for women in the former East Germany since reunification. Stann presented her findings at the 16th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) April 25-27 at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, joining more than 30 other Lafayette students at the conference.
Stann was a child when the Berlin Wall fell and Germany was reunified, but over the past year, she has become deeply aware of the changes wrought in those heady days of 1989 and 1990.
“In East Germany, it used to be a lot easier for women to maintain a career and get more of an education,” Stann says, explaining that the former German Democratic Republic funded programs to encourage women to pursue careers in science and technology, and many of those opportunities disappeared after reunification. “They soon found themselves unemployed by the thousands.”
Stann adds that East German women didn't enjoy full equality under the communist government.
“They had a double burden in that they had to maintain their households,” she says, explaining that the government programs didn't change attitudes about male and female roles.
Now, Stann says, the German government has begun programs that encourage women to further their education and pursue careers, and also give men incentives to participate more fully in family life.
Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures, helped Stann choose the topic and guided her through her first semester of work. During the spring semester, Katalin Fabian, assistant professor of government and law, served as Stann's adviser.
“They both did a great deal of work with me,” Stann says, explaining that Lamb-Faffelberger launched her in the right direction and Fabian helped push her toward her goal and urged her to explore new areas.
“She's very diligent, extremely reliable, and very structured,” Fabian says, explaining that the subject matter is “very complex and difficult” and that Stann was able to describe her findings clearly, but with subtlety.
Stann was able to do some of her research from primary sources written in German because she honed her German language skills living in Austria as a child and near Potsdam, in the former East Germany, as an exchange student in high school. She says she was drawn to the research partly because of her love of that area of Germany.
A member of the U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at Lafayette, Stann also spent time in and near Wiesbaden, Germany, last summer in an internship with the Army Signal Corps, the unit she plans to join after graduation.
Stann traveled to Russia with a small group of students led by Rado Pribic, Oliver Edwin Williams Professor of Languages and chair of the International Affairs and Russian & East European Studies programs, during the January 2000 interim session.
A graduate of Portville Central, Stann is a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority; Phi Beta Kappa; Dobra Slova, the Russian language honors society; Delta Phi Alpha, the German language honors society; Scabbard and Blade, the ROTC honors society; and the campus ROTC color guard. She worked for the Lafayette Phonathon for the past four years, serving as a supervisor during her junior and senior years.
She is a three-year recipient of the College President's Award in the Department of Military Science, awarded annually to the outstanding cadets from each class in terms of overall achievement, measured by scholastic excellence, leadership, military performance, and extra-curricular involvement.
Last year, Stann received the Rexroth Prize in German Language Studies Award in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, which is given to a student for meritorious achievement in German.
In her first year, Stann received the Leopard Medal, awarded to the first-year cadet who contributes the most to the advancement of Army ROTC at Lafayette. The cadet must be academically in the top 10% of the ROTC class and top 25% of the class.
A National Leader in Undergraduate Research. Shanna Stann ’02 (R) presented her research with Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures, at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.