Kate Schaller

Kate received a dual BS/BA in Human Biology and German (2013), as well as an MA in German Studies (2015), from Michigan State University. To combine her interests in German language and culture with her pre-med background and experience in the healthcare system, in her MA studies she developed an online resource, “Gesundheit: German healthcare information for Mayen program participants”, designed to help study abroad students navigate practical and cultural aspects of German healthcare. At MSU she also taught introductory German and assisted with programming for the Center for Language Teaching Advancement’s language school. She joined the department at Vanderbilt in 2015, and is part of the joint program in Comparative Media Analysis and Practice (CMAP). Her dissertation project concerns depictions of mental illness, primarily anxiety and depression, in German cinema from 1972 through the present. Her other research interests include German and American popular culture; digital humanities and the creation of digital and multimedia projects; and culture teaching, particularly in the context of study abroad. She was  a Mellon Graduate Fellow in Digital Humanities for the 2017-18 academic year, and served as Graduate Fellow and the Social Media Coordinator for the Center for Second Language Studies from 2017-2019.