Biography
Jean Conacher is Senior Lecturer in German within the School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics and an active member of the Centre for Applied Language Studies at the University of Limerick.
Her research interests include GDR Studies, literature and film in post-unification Germany, and language-in-education policy, pedagogy and practice. She welcomes enquiries from potential postgraduate students in any of these areas. Recent supervisions include Clive Earls's doctoral study of English-medium degree programmes in Germany (PhD awarded 2013) which was published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2016.
Her publications include Perceptions and Perspectives: Exploring Connections between Ireland and the GDR (ed. with Gisela Holfter and Deirdre Byrnes, 2019), German Reunification and the Legacy of GDR Literature and Culture (ed. with Deirdre Byrnes and Gisela Holfter, 2018), and Intercultural Contact, Language Learning and Migration (ed. with Barbara Geraghty, Bloomsbury, 2014). A monograph entitled Transformation and Education in the Literature of the GDR was published by Camden House in January 2020.
Research Interests
GDR Studies; literature and film in post-unification Germany; language-in-education policy, pedagogy and practice; new language-learning environments
If you are interested in collaborative projects and/or postgraduate supervision in any of the above areas, please contact me at jean.conacher@ul.ie.
Teaching Interests
My teaching interests are wide-ranging and research-informed.
Within German Studies, I teach language, literature and culture across a range of modules, with a particular interest in GDR Studies, 20th & 21st century literature and applied language studies (grammar in context, translation and interpreting).
At postgraduate level within Teacher Education, I am centrally involved in the teaching of language pedagogy (particularly target-language teaching, learner autonomy and syllabus & planning for the language classroom) for students on the Professional Masters in Education (Languages).
Professional Activities
Education
- 2018 Institute of Linguists - Diploma in Translation
- 1991 University of Aberdeen - Ph.D.
- 1986 University of Aberdeen - Master of Arts
Association
- 2009 Member, Committee for Modern Language, Literary and Cultural Studies, Royal Irish Academy
- 2008 Co-Chair, Association of Third-Level Teachers of German in Ireland (ATLTGI)
- 2007 Committee Member (co-opted), Association of Third-Level Teachers of German in Ireland (ATLTGI)
- 1997 ordinary member, German Studies Association of Ireland (formerly ATLTGI)
- 1990 Member, Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland
Employment
- 2000 Scottish CILT, University of Stirling - Research & Development Fellow
- 1996 University of Limerick - Senior Lecturer in German
- 1991 University of Limerick - Lecturer in German
- 1990 University of Limerick - Assistant Lecturer in German
- 1988 University of Aberdeen - Demonstrator, Department of German
- 1986 Wilhelm-Pieck-Universität, Rostock, GDR - Gastlektorin für Englisch
Award
- 1986 - Douglas Yates Prize for German Translation
- 1983 - DAAD Scholarship (German Academic Exchange Service)
Language
- German
- French
- Italian
- Portuguese