Skip to main content
University of North Dakota
University of North Dakota
    • Admitted Students
    • Current Students
    • Families of Current Students
    • Faculty & Staff
    • Alumni
    • Email
    • Blackboard
    • Campus Connection
    • Employee Self-Service (HRMS)
    • Starfish
    • Degree Map
    • Zoom
  • Directory
  • Academics
  • Admissions
  • Student Life
  • Research
  • Athletics
  • Majors & Programs
  • About
University of North Dakota
  • Academics
  • Admissions
  • Student Life
  • Research
  • Athletics
  • Majors & Programs
  • About
  • Request Info
  • Visit
  • Apply
  • Request Info
  • Visit
  • Apply
  • Home
  • Directory
  • Thyra Knapp
Portrait of Thyra Knapp

Thyra Knapp

  • Department Chair, Associate Professor of German Studies, Teaching & Leadership

Contact Info

  • Email: thyra.knapp@UND.edu
  • Office: 701.777.4657
  • Dept: 701.777.3813

Office Address

Gamble Hall, Room 330O
293 Centennial Drive Stop 7189
Grand Forks ND 58202-7189

Biography

Since coming to UND in 2011, I have enjoyed teaching German language, literature, and culture on all levels of instruction. In the German Studies Program, I find that my research informs my teaching every day, and sharing this passion with my students invariably sparks their interest as well.

My research focuses on the interrelation of image and text in German literature of the twentieth century; more specifically, the ways in which visual art is perceived and interpreted in both prose and poetry. Questions of aesthetics and representation at the intersection of these media are explored in my dissertation ("Ja, Ihr seid gemalt": Ekphrasis and the Outsider in Three Postmodern German Novels, 2008), portions of which have been published as articles in Seminar, Monatshefte, and German Quarterly. 

Introductory German (First Year)

Intermediate German (Second Year)

Conversation and Composition (Third Year)

German for Writing Proficiency: Advanced Grammar

Self and Society: The First-Person Narrative

Die Deutschen I: Vom Germanentum bis zur Aufklärung

Die Deutschen II: Von der Weimarer Republik bis zur Jahrtausendwende

German Culture through Film

Vom Falken bis zum Panther: A Survey of German Poetry

German Stories, German Histories: Deutsche Literatur von der Aufklärung bis zum Fall der Mauer

Literature in Translation: German and Scandinavian Crime Fictions

Literatur auf der Bühne: A Survey of German Drama

Business German

German for Reading Knowledge

Introduction to German Cultural Studies

Metropolis: City and the Self (MCLL Capstone)

“Spiraling Toward Happiness: City and the Self in Christa Wolf’s Unter den Linden,” Feminist German Studies 34 (2018) 101-124.

“Shadowland: Swiss Identity and Urs Faes’s Ombra,” German Studies Review 38:3 (2015) 617-633.

“Gerhard Richter and the Ambiguous Aesthetics of Morality,” Colloquia Germanica 45:1 (2012) 95-112 [published spring 2015]

Walking the Tightrope, Riding the Ring: Movement and Meaning in German Circus Imagery," Germanic Notes and Reviews 44:2 (Fall 2013) 18-27.

"Picturing German: Teaching Language and Literature through Visual Art." Die Unterrichtspraxis 45:1 (Spring 2012) 20-27.

"Taboo and Tragedy in Frank Wedekind's Frühlings Erwachen." Upstage online journal (February 2012) http://www.oscholars.com/Upstage/issue3/taboo3.html

"'Beim Straucheln und beim Stürzen und beim Schreien': Representation and Identification in Gert Hofmann's Der Blindensturz." The German Quarterly 84:3 (Summer 2011) 328-343.

"'Trennung, Teilung, Spaltung': Ekphrasis as the Unifying Fissure in Anne Duden's Das Judasschaf." Monatshefte 102:3 (Fall 2010) 360- 383.

"Mediating Marginality: Ekphrasis and the Outsider in Christoph Geiser's Das geheime Fieber." Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 46:4 (November 2010) 419- 436.

Summer 2017   Office of Instructional Development Summer Development Grant: Go Global Academy

Summer 2017   Arts and Sciences Summer Cluster Proposal Grant: Go Global Academy

Spring 2016      Max Kade Foundation Grant for UND Students to Travel to Berlin

Fall 2014          Office of Instructional Development Flexible Grant for the FLARR Conference

Fall 2014          Senate Scholarly Activities Committee Travel Grant

Fall 2013          Senate Scholarly Activities Committee Travel Grant

Summer 2013   Office of Instructional Development Summer Mini-Project Grant

Spring 2012      Senate Scholarly Activities Committee New Faculty Scholar Award

Spring 2012      Max Kade Foundation Grant for UND Students to Travel to Berlin

Fall 2011          Faculty Instructional Development Travel Grant

Fall 2011          Senate Scholarly Activities Committee Travel Grant

Summer 2010   Fulbright Commission Baden-Württemberg Seminar for American Faculty in German and German Studies

2009 -2010       Nominee, Excellence through Commitment Outstanding Faculty Member in the University Core Curriculum, Southern Illinois University

2004-2005        University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School Advanced Dissertator Fellowship

1998-1999        Graduate Direct Exchange Scholar, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

1994-1995        Graduate Direct Exchange Scholar, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn

Ph.D. 2008       Department of German, University of Wisconsin-Madison

                       Dissertation: “Ja, Ihr seid gemalt”: Ekphrasis and the Outsider in Three Postmodern German Novels

1998-1999       Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Graduate Direct Exchange Award)

M.A. 1998        Germanic Languages and Literatures Department, University of Kansas-Lawrence

1994-1995       Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (Graduate Direct Exchange Award)

B.A.  1994        Germanic Languages and Literatures Department, University of Kansas-Lawrence

Edit Profile
We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience.

By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies, Privacy Information.

Ready to Enroll?

  • Request Information
  • Schedule a Visit
  • Apply Now
  • UND.info@UND.edu
  • 701.777.3000
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Contact UND
  • Campus Map
  • Events Calendar
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Explore Programs
  • Employment
  • Make a Gift
University of North Dakota

© 2023 University of North Dakota - Grand Forks, ND - Member of ND University System

  • Accessibility & Website Feedback
  • Terms of Use & Privacy
  • Notice of Nondiscrimination
  • Student Disclosure Information
  • Title IX
©