Professors Duhl and Lamb-Faffelberger Advance Scholarship through Editorial Positions at International Journals

Professors Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger and Olga Anna Duhl

Lafayette’s international reputation continues to grow as Olga Anna Duhl and Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger, professors of foreign languages and literatures, have been appointed editors of leading peer-reviewed journals in their fields. Both professors are dedicated to maintaining and elevating the high intellectual caliber of the publications.

Duhl, who specializes in French, will serve as the correspondent representative of the U.S. for Le Moyen Français (Middle French). Now published by Brepols, Belgium, the journal is one of the few publications in the world that focuses on the 14^th and 15^th centuries, a period of transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance during which France developed its national identity and a centralized monarchy form of government that dominated its political system until the French Revolution. That time period also saw the fall of Constantinople, which fractured the Christian and Muslim world.

The topics of Le Moyen Français relate closely to Duhl’s research interests in late medieval and early Renaissance French literature and theater. She has published in the journal for several years and plans to guide it in an interdisciplinary direction, connecting France with other countries worldwide, and encourage submissions from younger scholars. While journal topics tend to be very specialized, Duhl still expects to incorporate her experience as correspondent into her classes, particularly her advanced seminar.

“I would like to share with my students my experience as correspondent and the latest research in this area,” says Duhl, who is co-coordinator of the College’s Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern studies program. “This will help them understand the history behind contemporary French cultural issues.”

Lamb-Faffelberger, who specializes in German, has begun a three-year appointment as co-editor of Women in German Yearbook, one of the top seven peer-reviewed journals in her field. She also is a member of the Women in German organization’s steering committee. The journal publishes scholarly essays that deal with German-speaking literature through the ages with a decidedly feminist and gender focus.

Like Duhl, Lamb-Faffelberger sees her research interests and journal participation intersect. She teaches courses in Lafayette’s women’s and gender studies program and currently is designing a course on women in literature. Her roles as editor and professor help her students develop crucial writing skills important for all their classes.

“I bring that knowledge into my classroom by teaching students who their audience is, how to design content-based thesis questions, and proper format,” she says. “It’s been a very fruitful experience to pass on to students.”

Lamb-Faffelberger also is the editor of the Austrian Culture series, which just released its latest volume “Staging EXPORT: VALIE zu Ehren.” She was co-editor of the Festschrift with Carola Hilmes of University of Frankfurt, Germany. It features contributions by such noted artists as Elfriede Jelinek, Olga Neuwirth, and Marina Abramovic, among others.

A recipient of Lafayette’s Marie Louise Van Artsdalen Prize for outstanding scholarly achievement and Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Faculty Award for superior teaching and scholarship, Duhl has lectured at conferences in the U.S. and abroad. She has received the Folter Fellowship in the History of Bibliography from the Bibliographical Society of America and has been selected to serve on the National Committee for the Walter J. Jensen Fellowship for French Language, Literature and Culture awarded annually by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She is the author of numerous articles and books including a groundbreaking critical edition about a late medieval “fools” play, Sotise A Huit Personnaiges [Le Nouveau Monde] (Sotise Played by Eight Characters [The New World]) (Geneva, Droz).

In 2006, Duhl organized an international conference on “Love and Medicine in the Renaissance” at University of Bourgogne, bringing together scholars from various academic disciplines and countries. The conference was inspired by her involvement with an international team of scholars at the University of Bourgogne Research Center, “Interactions Culturelles Européennes” (European Cultural Interactions).

Lamb-Faffelberger most recently was awarded the ACTFL/Cengage Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Instruction Using Technology for incorporating technology into her teaching. She also 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 is the author of seven books dealing with contemporary Austrian literature and film. In 2007, she published on the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature Elfriede Jelinek: Writing Woman, Nation, and Identity.A critical anthology.

Lamb-Faffelberger played an instrumental role in securing a grant for Lafayette’s Max Kade Center for German Studies, of which she has served as director since 2002. In addition to funding the technologically advanced headquarters for the study of German at Lafayette, the Max Kade Foundation annually awards funds for interdisciplinary programming with a German focus and the Max Kade writer-in-residency as well as the Max Kade guest professorship.