UNM German Studies Professor Peter Pabisch has been named the Distinguished Max Kade Research Professor, an honor that included funding to a panelist at an international conference on the cultural aspects of the German language.
The conference, "Future Chances of the German Language in Eastern Europe," took place at the University of Graz in Austria in November.
Pabisch said more than 120 researchers from 33 nations attended the conference. He was one of only two Americans invited.
Pabisch said that knowledge of German culture before WWI has increased during the last 10 years. He added that both positive and negative perspectives in German culture were discussed at the conference.
"We talked about presenting German culture as something that is not an international affliction," Pabisch said. "But we also discussed some of the sad features of German past, such as the Holocaust."
Pabisch's visit to Austria was funded by the Max Kade Foundation, an organization founded in 1944 to promote scientific and technical progress, to further the peaceful co-existence of nations and to advance German-American relations.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"The foundation named me distinguished research professor because I've been among the leading American researchers in this field for a long time," Pabisch said. "It honored me very much and hopefully did the same for my University."
Pabisch was born and educated in Vienna, Austria, and immigrated to the United States in 1969. He has been at UNM since 1972 and was made a full professor in 1984.
In 2001, he received the UNM Best Faculty Award in International Studies.
German is one of the world's most popular languages and is still very important, Pabisch said.
He added that it is important for college students to learn about other cultures.
"However, even UNM has recognized the need for international studies and language programs," Pabisch said.
In 1976, Pabisch co-founded the German Summer School of New Mexico. The program, which features total immersion in German language and culture, operates under the auspices of UNM, Pabisch said.
"The major contribution of the summer program has been to make our students more aware of the international situation and context of the world today through the venue of German," he said.
Pabisch said the graduate studies program in the German Department has had an enrollment increase of 400 percent during the '90s. He attributes that increase to the summer school program, as well as campus activities.
"We are still relatively small, but we've become a very productive entity within the UNM web of academia," he said.
A large portion of Pabisch's contribution to the understanding of German culture has been his work in translation. He is one of America's leading authorities on German dialects and has translated several volumes of poetry.
"I have written poetry and done scholarly work of my own in German. The translations of those materials were done by myself and my colleagues," Pabisch said. "As far as pure translations are concerned, we try to do things that are meaningful to our teaching."
Along with some of his students, Pabisch has recently taken on the job of translating the letters of the Franz Huning family. Huning was an important member of the Albuquerque community during the end of the 19th century, who built a castle near present-day 14th Street and Central Avenue.
Pabisch said that working on the Huning project has been a good experience because it is local, which helps students get interested.
The German Department is not the only program at UNM that has benefited from Pabisch's expertise. In 1994, he started a program, through the summer school program, that sends 20 American journalism students to Germany every year.
"It gives the students a chance to go and see how the media system works in a different country," Pabisch said. "I guess it's something that I can say I did for journalism."
