Ana-Isabel Aliaga-Buchenau

Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau is Professor of German. Currently she is serving as Chair of the Department of Languages and Culture Studies. She was awarded the prestigious Bank of America Teaching Award in 2021 and the Board of Governors’ Excellence in Teaching Award in 2022. She was a nominee for the Carnegie/Case Professor of the Year in 2011 and from 2009-2012 she was honored with the Bonnie E. Cone Teaching Professorship at UNC Charlotte. A native of Germany, Buchenau’s training is in comparative literature. She has served as Professor of German at Charlotte. Her outreach work with the German community of the greater Charlotte region has resulted annuallly in approximately thirty scholarships of $2500 each for German majors to study abroad in Germany. In her research, Buchenau focuses on 19th century immigrants from Germany and their literary production. In particular, she is interested in women immigrants to the Americas. She also works on the translation of memoirs and novels from Spanish to English or German to English. Her research enhances her teaching expertise. She teaches upper level German classes as well as translation classes and has previously taught Spanish, French and General Education classes.

Education

Ph.D. Comparative Literature, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (1997)

Staatsexamen, Georg-August Universität Göttingen, Germany  (1993)

M.A. Comparative Literature, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1991)

Zwischenprüfung (B.A. equivalent) Georg-August Universität Göttingen, Germany (1989)

Appointments

Chair, Department of Languages and Culture Studies, UNC Charlotte, 2023-present

Associate Chair, Department of Languages and Culture Studies, UNC Charlotte, 2014-2023

Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature, UNC Charlotte, 2006-present.

Assistant Professor of German and Comparative Literature, UNC Charlotte, 2002-06.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English and German, Davidson College, 2000-02.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Honors, University of Southern Mississippi, 1997-99.

Awards and Honors

• Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2022
• Bank of American Teaching Award, 2021
• New Student Convocation Keynote Speaker, UNC Charlotte, 2021
• Marshal, UNC Charlotte, December 2018-present
• Phi Beta Delta, Member, Fall 2018
• University Marshal, UNC Charlotte, May 2018
• Bank of America Teaching Award, Finalist, 2012
• Carnegie/Case Professor of the Year, Nominee, 2011
• Bonnie E. Cone Teaching Professorship, UNC Charlotte, 2009-2012

 Specific Research Interests

• Holocaust
• Women in literature
• Immigration
• German literature in the nineteenth century
• Realism
• Naturalism
• Translation (German <-> English, Spanish->English)