Regine Schwarzmeier

Biography

Dr. Regine Schwarzmeier grew up in southern Germany and has lived in the US for many years. Her interest in a career in Foreign Languages and German Studies was awakened by the intriguing story of two high school teachers who had taught German for some time at an International School overseas. Through contacts with people from all over the world, she became fascinated by different cultures and wanted to experience some of them first-hand. Thus, the combination of studies in at least one foreign language and one's mother tongue seemed to her the perfect basis for living and pursuing a career abroad. In high school, she studied English, French, Italian and Russian and traveled extensively in Europe. She received the equivalent of a B.A. degree with a double major in German and English & American Studies from the University of Regensburg. Her undergraduate studies were enriched by participating in a year long exchange program between the University of Regensburg and Vanderbilt University. After working for the Office of International Education at the University of Regensburg, she returned to Vanderbilt University where she entered the M.A. / Ph.D. program in German. Her doctoral dissertation was a close study of the life and work of the 18th century author Friederike Helene Unger with emphasis on the role and situation of women in literature and society.

At Belmont University, Regine teaches not only all levels of German but also a broad array of courses on literature, culture and film. In her capacity as Director of Belmont's exchange program with the Technical University Dresden and Co-Director of the exchange program with the University of Applied Sciences in Deggendorf, she advises American students going to study in Germany as well as students coming from Germany to Belmont. Outside the classroom, she enjoys spending time with members of the German Club and residents of the Max Kade German House who sponsor and organize a variety of campus-wide activities and events to promote the use of foreign languages and the awareness of foreign cultures among students. In May 2003, she was honored to receive Belmont's Presidential Faculty Achievement Award.