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For Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger, professor and head of foreign languages and literatures and director of the Max Kade Center for German Studies, a recent 10-week teaching experience in South Africa proved so inspiring that she is planning to teach Lafayette’s first South African interim abroad course called Voices of South Africa.
From mid-July to mid-September, Lamb-Faffelberger was a visiting professor at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. She taught in the German section during the university’s third term and participated in the teaching and research activities of the department. She also delivered two public lectures during her visit, as well as an academic paper.
The first public lecture, presented in German, was entitled “STIMMEN DER GEWALT: Vergleichende Überlegungen zu Elfriede Jelineks Die Klavierspielerin (1984) & Michael Hanekes La Pianiste (2001)” or “Voices of Violence: A Comparative Study of Elfriede Jelinek’s Piano Teacher (1984) and Michael Haneke’s film adaptation La Pianiste (2001).” The second lecture, in English, dealt with towns, spaces and bridges on the eastern borders of Germany and the new relationships established with their Polish and Czech neighbors.
Lamb-Faffelberger also participated in the one-day Freud Symposium, which took place Aug. 31 at the University of Stellenbosch Sasol Museum. There she delivered a paper entitled “Resisting Oedipus: Elfriede Jelinek and Sigmund Freud.”
Faffelberger was invited to the University of Stellenbosch by Carlotta von Maltzan, chairperson of Stellenbosch’s department of foreign modern languages. Maltzan was a guest professor in the foreign languages and literatures department at Lafayette in fall 2003.
“You just fall in love with South Africa; it’s an absolutely spectacular place,” says Lamb-Faffelberger. “Besides the beauty of the countryside and reserves, there is also the people. It’s fascinating to see and take part in the transition of a country that has so much going for it. Our students must experience this; they must make the effort to experience Africa.”
In her proposed course, which she will teach with Rex Ahene, professor of economics and business and coordinator of the Africana Studies program, Lamb-Faffelberger hopes to introduce students to South Africa, its colonial past, and its present transition period. They will step back into history to hear about and experience the legacy of apartheid and speak with a former inmate at Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for nearly 30 years.
She also hopes to build a bridge between Lafayette and a local South African community. With this in mind, students will lend a hand at the Kayamandi Township School and visit an AIDS hospital in Gugulethu.
Students in the course will examine South Africa’s role in the continent’s future and collaborate on various projects with local university students. Lafayette students will surround themselves with South African art and music and the sounds of Xhosa, one of South Africa’s indigenous languages, and Afrikaans.
Lamb-Faffelberger hopes students will learn to appreciate the ancient art of winemaking and to respect the fierce winds and waters of the Indian Ocean at Cape Hope. At New Year’s, they will have the opportunity to listen to the mysterious sounds of nature in the famous Kruger National Park since eco-tourism and game viewing are crucial sources of income for the South African economy.
“It’s not enough to read a book,” Lamb Faffelberger says. “Students must go abroad and experience people and personal stories. We must raise awareness; Africa cannot be forgotten and we must act quickly to preserve peace. Unless we do this, we will all feel the result.”
Lamb-Faffelberger is the author of five books, several of them anthologies dealing with contemporary Austrian literature and film. A member of the Lafayette faculty since 1992, she regularly includes students in her research and guides them in their own independent research projects.
She played an instrumental role in securing a grant for Lafayette’s Max Kade Center for German Studies, which was dedicated in 2003. In addition to funding the technologically advanced headquarters for the study of German at Lafayette, the Max Kade Institute awarded $5,000 to help fund a German library and a series of visiting scholars and writers-in-residence hosted by Lafayette’s department of foreign languages and literature.
Citing her as “one of the world’s experts on contemporary Austrian literature and film,” the University of Calgary hostedLamb-Faffelberger as she delivered its 2005 Humanities Nobel Lecture. She also discussed the work of Jelinek, recipient of the 2004-05 Nobel Prize in Literature, for three consecutive evenings at the Austrian Embassy last year. In addition, she presented “The Power of Language,” about Jelinek’s latest play, at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Association of Teachers of German in Baltimore. She was quoted extensively about the announcement of the Nobel Prize in newspapers around the country, including the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Seattle Times, Buffalo News, St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, and Concord (N.H.) Monitor.
She is a past recipient of the Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Faculty Lecture Award and the Delta Upsilon Award for outstanding teaching and mentoring. She earned her Ph.D. from Rice University.