Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures

Language(s) Taught

German

Teaching/Research

Teaching areas include German language and culture, medieval German literature, fairy tales, Arthurian legends, "Mittelalterrezeption"/medievalism.

Degrees/Certifications

PhD, German, The Pennsylvania State University
MA, German, University of Wisconsin-Madison
BA, English, University of Rochester

Academic Achievement

I received a Fulbright Grant to teach and do research at the University of Graz (Austria) in spring 2020.  In 2016, I was honored to receive the Appalachian Global Leadership Award  and the award for Outstanding Faculty Advisor in the College of Arts and Sciences for 2014.

Personal Bio 

When I'm not in the office, you might find me: playing the violin, Nordic walking, trying out interesting recipes, watching Tatort, reading JRR Tolkien, swinging on the porch, or planning the next trip to... well, Germany, Austria or the UK. Iceland is on my bucket list!

Publications/Presentations

New Book

Medieval Literature on Display: Heritage and Culture in Modern Germany (Bloomsbury 2020)

New Project

Recontextualising Medieval Heritage and Identity in Contemporary Austria (under contract with ARC Humanities Press)

Grants

2010-2012 Award of UISFL Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages grant from US Department of Education: Making Local to Global Connections: Strengthening Foreign Languages across the Curriculum at Appalachian State University. Co-principal investigator with Dr. Beverly Moser, Associate Professor of German. $300,000

2014-2016 Award of UISFL Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages grant from US Department of Education: "From the South to the Global South." Co-principal investigator with Dr. Beverly Moser.

Publications in Print

Book: Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra. Topographies of Gender in Middle High German Arthurian Romance. New York: Garland, 2001

Blog Post

Leaving Siegfried Behind: Reimagining Monuments in Austria and the American South: https://botstiberbiaas.org/voices-reimagining_monuments/ (Botstiber Institute of Austrian American Studies)

Selected Articles

Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra, “Sites of Imagination and Memory: Museal Remediation of Grimms’ Märchen for the Twenty-first Century.” German Quarterly Special Issue German Fairy Tales and Folklore in a Global Context, Vol. 94.2 (Spring 2021) 229-239.

Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra. "Past Present, Future Present? Visualizing Arthurian Romance and the Beholder's Share in a World that Refuses to End." In: The End-Times in Medieval German Literature Eds. Ernst Ralk Hintz and Scott E. Pincikowski (Camden House 2019): 144-168.

Meyer, Evelyn and Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand.  sine mugens nicht erdenken: wand ez kan vor in      wenken rechte alsam ein schellec hase: Women’s German Medieval-Arthurian Scholarship. Journal of the International Arthurian Society (JIAS) 7.1 (2019): 61-90.

Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra. “Siegfried, Dornröschen und Luke Skywalker: Die Inszenierung eines  deutschen Mittelalters für ein globales Publikum im Wormser Nibelungenmuseum.”   Abhandlungen zum Rahmenthema ,Die Auslandsgermanisten und ihr Mittelalter‘. Ed. Nathaniel Busch, et al. Jahrbuch für internationale Germanistik, Vol. L/2 (2018): 195-208.

Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra. “From Bystander to Upstander: Reading the Nibelungenlied to Resist Rape Culture.” In Teaching Rape in the Medieval Literature Classroom:         Approaches to Difficult Texts. Ed. Alison Gulley. Leeds UK: ARC Humanities Press, 2018, 63-77.

Hellenbrand, Jack and Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand. “Welcoming the Stranger: Global Learning, International Education, and the Pedagogy of Gastfreundschaft.” karlsruher pädagogische beiträge (kpb). Pädagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft und Fachdidaktik. (78/2011) 95-110.

Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra. “Performing Medieval Literature and/as History: The Museum of Wolframs-Eschenbach.” In Defining Neo Medievalisms (II). Studies in Medievalism XX. Ed. Karl Fugelso. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2011, 147-170.

Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra. “Excalibur’s Siegfried and the Music of Myth.” Yearbook for the Society of Medieval German Studies Vol. 1. (Spring 2009): 34-49.

Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra. “Uta and Isolde: Designing the Perfect Woman.” The Politics and Aesthetics of Gender in the Middle Ages. Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Illinois Medieval Association. In Essays in Medieval Studies. Vol 19. Morgantown: West Virginia Press, 2002, 70-89. Reprinted in
Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism (CMLC) volume 96. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Farmington Hills, MI Thomson Gale/Gale Cengage, 2008.

Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra. “daz hat diu harpfe getan”: Music and the Performance of Courtly Culture in Middle High German Courtly Literature. Courtly Arts and the Art of Courtliness. International Courtly Literature Society 2004. Ed. Keith Busby and Christopher Kleinhenz. Rochester, NY: Boydell and Brewer, 2006, 635-651.