Dr. Helga G. Braunbeck, Professor
German Section Coordinator

Withers Hall 301
phone: 919-515-9320, email: Helga_Braunbeck@ncsu.edu
Ph.D. in German Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

Dr. Helga G. Braunbeck oversees and provides advising for German Studies majors, study abroad, and internship opportunities in the German-speaking countries. Her current research project investigates how different media of artistic expression such as visual art, music, film and dance can be incorporated into literary texts via references and simulation and is focused on the works of late 20th century German author from Prague, Libuše Moníková. She has published a book about the issue of authorship and the subject in the work of East German writer Christa Wolf: Autorschaft und Subjektgenese: Christa Wolfs Kein Ort Nirgends (Vienna: Passagen, 1992). Her teaching activities include German Studies courses at all levels, including recent courses on environmental issues, German science, society, and technology, and German sports culture.

Dr. Ruth V. Gross, Professor
Department Head of Foreign Languages and Literatures

Withers Hall 310
phone: 919-515-9310, email: ruth_gross@ncsu.edu
Ph.D. in German Literature, Yale University

Ruth Gross studied German and Comparative Literature at Northwestern and received her PhD from Yale University. Before coming to NC State in 2003, she taught at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music and University of Texas at Arlington, where she was also dean of the College of Liberal Arts.  Her books include PLAN and the Austrian Rebirth (1982) and Critical Essays on Franz Kafka (1990), which she edited.  She is also co-author and editor of A Franz Kafka Encyclopedia (2005) and coeditor of Traveling between Worlds: German-American Encounters (2006) and Kafka for the Twenty-First Century (2011). Her recent articles, in addition to many on Kafka, deal with the works of Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, and the Austrian novelist Albert Drach. Since coming to NC State she regularly teaches “Introduction to German Literature,” “German Lyric Poetry”, and “20th Century German Literature.”

Dr. Lynda Nyota, Assistant Teaching Professor

Withers Hall 205
phone: 919-515-9279, email: lknyota@ncsu.edu
Ph.D. in German Studies, Duke University

Dr. Nyota's research explores the works of contemporary women authors from Eastern and Central Europe, writing in German. Her work examines the ways in which historical and political trauma shapes the writers’ approach to narrative. Her areas of interest include studies into Trauma, Holocaust Studies and Narrative Theory with a special emphasis on 20th and 21st Century Literature and Film.

Dr. Lutz Kube, Associate Teaching Professor
German Minor Adviser

Withers Hall 225
phone: 919-515-9280, email: lkube@ncsu.edu
Ph.D. in German Literature, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Director of the NC State Vienna Summer Program

Dr. Lutz Kube advises NC State's German minors and the NC State chapter of the German Honor Society, Delta Phi Alpha. He teaches all levels of German and coordinates the lower sections in our program. On a regular basis, he directs the NC State summer program in Vienna. His publications include articles on German film, Günter Grass, Botho Strauss and Günter de Bruyn. His teaching interests include East German Studies, German Civilization, and German film.

Dr. Lauren Brooks, Assistant Teaching Professor 

Withers Hall 304
phone: 919-515-9304, email: ljbrooks@ncsu.edu
Ph.D. in German Literature and Culture, Pennsylvania State University

Dr. Brooks’ research focuses on Kafka’s absurdist treatment of authority across his corpus by analyzing his humor through the U.S. situation comedy Seinfeld, a topic she enjoys incorporating into her teaching. She also does extensive work in foreign language pedagogy, with a focus on project-based learning. In the last decade, she has taught a range of German language curriculum from novice to advanced, including writing-intensive, conversation, and literature and cultural studies courses. Dr. Brooks also spent close to seven years living and working in the city of Bremen, Germany and goes back every chance she gets.

Dr. James Brown, Associate Teaching Professor

Withers Hall 304
email: jhbrown3@ncsu.edu
Ph.D. in German Literature, University of North Carolina

Dr. Brown's research engages the borders between art history and literature by investigating the multiple functions of the rhetorical device of ekphrasis in Arthurian romances. It considers illustrated manuscripts from the 14th to the 16th centuries and frescoes and elucidates the close connections between medieval literary culture and material culture, the vibrant symbiosis of word and image, and medieval and modern modes of perception. Before coming to NC State, Dr. Brown taught all levels of undergraduate and graduate German Studies courses at the University of Kansas.