Magdalena Tarnawska Senel, Ph.D.
Director of the Language Program

Director of Undergraduate Studies

mtarnawska@humnet.ucla.edu

Magdalena Tarnawska Senel received a Magister of German Philology degree at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland; an M.A. in German and a Ph.D. in German at the University of California, Irvine. She also studied German literature and linguistics at the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule in Aachen, Germany.

She has researched and taught many aspects of 19^th-, 20^th-, and 21^st-century German culture, literature, social history, and gender studies. Her professional experience includes teaching courses in German language, literature, and culture, plus literature in translation, and interdisciplinary humanities at the University of California, Irvine; University of Colorado, Boulder; DePauw University in Indiana; University of Wyoming in Laramie; Oklahoma University, Norman; and University of California, Los Angeles.

Her research culminated in two publications, a book, ‘…und Medea war eine Ärztin’: Constructions of Femininity in Public Debates about Medical Education for Women in Germany and Austria between 1870 and 1910 (2007), and a book chapter, “The First Generation of German Female Students: Autobiographical Perspectives on the Contested Space of Gender and Knowledge” in Dominant Culture and the Education of Women (2008).

By conducting research and teaching at UCLA, she currently pursues her three academic passions: (1) language teaching methodology and pedagogy; (2) theory of culture, cultural studies, and intercultural communication; and (3) intersections of literature, politics, migration, and pop-culture in contemporary Germany. These three academic passions overlap, as she develops a wide range of strategies that help students acquire German language skills faster, engage in an in-depth exploration of German culture, and refine their critical thinking skills.

At the moment, she is working on an article “Promoting Social Responsibility, Critical Thinking, and Self-Discovery in Advanced German Language Courses” that was presented at the 2011 ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) conference. The article introduces several thematic modules for advanced German language courses: gender, race, class, relationships, national identity, values, war, and global dimensions. In addition to improving students’ German language skills and knowledge of German culture, history, and literature; all modules are designed to introduce specific sociopolitical issues, encourage students to take a stance, re-think their own relationship to these issues, and engage in a more conscious attitude towards their own identity.

As her most enriching experiences derive from interacting and engaging with different cultures in a critical, analytical, and also casual way; she is very passionate about encouraging her students to learn German language, explore German literature and culture, and travel to German-speaking countries.