Education: After passing her Zwischenprüfung (intermediary examination) in Older German Literature and Language, History, and Art History at Christian-Albrechts Universität in Kiel, Germany, Claudia Bornholdt continued her studies in the US. She earned her M.A. in German from Bowling Green State University (1996) and her Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures, Medieval Studies, and Historical Linguistics from Indiana University Bloomington (2001).
Teaching: Previous to her appointment at CUA, Claudia Bornholdt taught in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), first as a lecturer and then as assistant professor. At UIUC, she taught undergraduate courses in the German language program and undergraduate and graduate courses on medieval German and Scandinavian language, literature, and culture in the German department and in the Program in Medieval Studies. She has served as language coordinator for the basic German language program and she has trained graduate students in the Theories and Methods of German Language Teaching. She is a strong proponent of study-abroad programs, and has taught many intensive German summer language courses for American college students in Vienna and in Graz, Austria.
At CUA, Claudia Bornholdt teaches courses on all aspects of German language, literature, and culture, from intermediate German to literature and culture courses both in German (Introduction to German Literature I+II, Senior Seminar, German Theater: Text and Performance) and in English (The Nibelungenlied: Myth and Ideology, Austria in Literature and the Arts). She is currently planning a new study abroad program in Austria for the summer 2010.
Research and Publications: In her research, Claudia Bornholdt focuses on medieval German and Scandinavian as well as French and Latin literature. She is particularly interested in the early days of vernacular writing and the transfer of literary texts, motifs, patterns, and genres across languages and cultural boundaries.
She has published a monograph entitled Engaging Moments: The Origins of Medieval Bridal-Quest Narrative (De Gruyter, 2005); her second book, Saintly Spouses: Chaste Marriage in Secular and Sacred Narratives From Medieval Germany (12th and 13th Century), will appear later in 2009 with the University of Arizona Press. Claudia Bornholdt has presented her research at more than 25 conferences and symposia. She has published various articles on medieval German and Scandinavian literature, book reviews for JEGP, Speculum, German Quarterly, Colloquia Germanica, and Medium Aevum, and she has written dictionary entries for the forthcoming Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages.
At the moment, Claudia Bornholdt is completing a chapter on Chrétien’s Arthurian Romances in the North (Erex saga, Ívens saga, Parcevals saga, and Valvens þátt) that will appear in the book Arthur of the Norse. Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. She is also completing two articles, one on the legend of St. Alexis in Scandinavia and one on the Norwegian Þiðreks saga.
Service: Claudia Bornholdt serves as the Advisor for the German majors and minors and as the advisor for the undergraduate student’s German Club. She created and maintains a website for the German program and is actively involved in German cultural events on and off campus. In addition to tirelessly working for her German students, she serves as the coordinator for the Medieval Student Club and as a member on the Curriculum Committee and the Steering Committee for the Center of Medieval and Byzantine Studies at CUA. In the Academic Year 2008/09, she moreover serves as secretary for the faculty meetings in the School of Arts and Sciences.
