Merger In Liberal Arts, Strasser To Head Unit

5-20-97
University Park, Pa -- Dr. Gerhard F. Strasser, professor of German and comparative literature, has been appointed head of the newly established Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages by Dr. Susan Welch, dean of College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State. The Department brings together faculty formerly in the Departments of German and Slavic and East European Languages.

The departmental restructuring is a result of the College's five-year strategic planning process. The new unit was developed in response to predicted enrollment trends in foreign language study and to provide more cost-effective administrative and technology support for faculty and students in the unit.

"A basic principle of this restructuring is to improve the quality of the activities performed by the units involved and to allow them to benefit from efficiencies of scale in such administrative functions as course scheduling, job searches, curriculum planning, and financial operations,"said Dean Welch. "The larger faculty base of the combined units will permit all of the normal activities of the departments to be carried out more effectively and with some reduction of administrative costs."

Professor Strasser, a member of the German and comparative literature departments since 1979, specializes in European literature of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, on the history of ideas in the 16th and 17th centuries, and in language pedagogy. He is the author of Lingua Universalis: Kryptologie und Theorie der Universalssprachen im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (1988) and co- editor of Johann Joachim Becher (1635-1682) (1993).

In addition to contributions to books and scholarly articles, he has co-authored and co-edited numerous language text-and workbooks. In 1985 and 1991 he received Faculty Research Grants from the American Philosophical Society, and he has also held grants from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and from the Fritz-Thyssen and the Volkswagen Foundations.

Before coming to Penn State, Professor Strasser was on the faculty of Northwestern University. He received his doctorate in comparative literature from Brown University in 1974, and his undergraduate and M.A. degrees from Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany.

None of the existing programs of the departments will be changed as a result of this merger. The existing graduate programs of the former Department of German will continue, as will the joint M.A. program in Russian and Comparative Literature. No faculty or staff will be discharged as a result of this reorganization, and all faculty tenure processes currently in place will continue. The new department will be located in Burrowes Building, which will become largely devoted to language and literature offices. The merger is effective as of July 1, 1997, following its recent approval by the University's Faculty Senate and the Board of Trustees.

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Editors--For further information contact Donna Williams (814)863-1827.

Contact: Christy Rambeau (814) 865-7517 (office) (814) 237-9046 (home) cmr7@psu.edu