Dr Ruth Whittle FHEA, NTF

Photograph of Dr Ruth Whittle

Department of Modern Languages
Senior Lecturer in German Studies
HeFI Fellow

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 3218
Email
r.whittle@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Ashley Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

As a student you are most likely to know me in my role as the School’s Senior Tutor. I teach courses on 19th- and 20th-century German literature as well as Translation in Practice and language classes, particularly business German.

I have widely researched and published in the areas of language study and internationalisation, and women in German literature and literary history.

In my latest research project (funded by CLAD) I looked  into how to achieve transformational changes with language students as reflective learners and how this could impact positively on the relationship between staff and students as a community of learners and teachers.

Teaching

  • I teach German language and literature at all levels.  My particular interests are in developing the concept of the Birmingham Languages Graduate and I like to use a range of technologies in my teaching;
  • Awarded a NTF (National Teaching Fellowship) in 2014.
  • HeFI Fellow (2018)

Postgraduate supervision

I am interested in supervising theses dealing with narratives of (personal, gendered, professional, national) identities as well as on pedagogical aspects of teaching and learning, particularly the role of mindset and reflection in deep learning.

Find out more - our PhD German Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

My research interests include 19th- and 20th-century literature as well the role of reflection and mindset for deep learning. In my current research I investigate students’ feelings in connection with their mindset in order to find out effective ways of individualising further personal tutoring. This research is taking place across a number of schools, and will therefore also be useful for determining whether Modern Languages students are similar or different and have different needs from students in other disciplines.

Other activities


  • LCAHM Senior Tutor
  • Senior Tutors’ Representative on SAEC
  • LCAHM Representative on the Pebble Pad Steering Group
  • Mentor for BEACON Scheme applicants and reviewer of BEACON applications

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Klapper, J, Glöckel, K & Whittle, R 2011, Modern German Grammar - Third edition. Routledge.

Klapper, J, Whittle, R & Zojer, H 2011, Modern German Grammar Workbook - Third edition. Routledge.

Klapper, J, Dodd, W, Eckhard-Black, C & Whittle, R 2008, Modern German Grammar (Chinese translation). Routledge/Dalian University of Technology Press.

Kord, S & Whittle, R 2008, Re-Thinking the German Enlightenment; A Special Number in Honour of David Hill Special Issue of German Life and Letters 61.1. Not Known.

Whittle, R & Pinfold, D 2005, Voices of Rebellion: Political Writing by Malwida von Meysenbug, Fanny Lewald, Johanna Kinkel and Louise Aston. Peter Lang.

Article

Whittle, R 2008, 'The Quest for German Nationhood and the Reception of Women in Histories of German Literature 1835-1872', German Life and Letters, vol. 61, pp. 137-153.

Whittle, R 2004, '"Die neue Frau" in the correspondence of Johanna Kinkel, Malwida von Meysenbug and Fanny Lewald', German Life and Letters, vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 256-267. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0016-8777.2004.00284.x

Chapter

Whittle, R & Whittle, R 2012, Die ‘Beheimatung’ der Frauen des Berliner Salons in der deutschen Literaturgeschichte. in Akten des XII. Internationalen Germanistenkongresses Warschau 2010 Vielheit und Einheit der Germanistik weltweit. Publikationen der Internationalen Vereinigung für Germanistik (IVG), vol. 5, Peter Lang, Oxford/Bern, pp. 157-161.

Whittle, R 2011, Karl Gutzkow in der deutschen Literaturgeschichte. in Impotenter Reflexionsschwelger oder‚ Ritter vom Geist’?.

Höhne, S & Whittle, R 2011, Völkisch-nationale Weiblichkeitsentwürfe bei Ludwig Geiger und August Sauer. in peer-reviewed conference volume August Sauer – ein Intellektueller in Prag im Spannungsfeld von Kultur- und Wissenschaftspolitik, Prag, Nov 2008, volume.

Whittle, R, Bland, XX & Müller-Adams, E 2007, “The Reception of Women’s Political Writing about the 1848 Revolution in the Context of the German Search for Identity - Fanny Lewald (1811-1889) in the German Family Narrative 1872 to World War I”. in Frauen in der literarischen Öffentlichkeit 1780-1918.

Whittle, R, Leuschner, V & Stumman-Bowert, R 2003, Die Identitätssuche der Deutschen im Spiegel der Malwida von Meysenbug-Rezeption. in Malwida von Meysenbug zum 100. Todestag 2003.

Book/Film/Article review

Whittle, R 2012, 'Kilchmann, Esther. Verwerfungen in der Einheit. Geschichten von Nation und Familie um 1840. München: Fink, 2009', The German Quarterly, pp. 700 words.

Whittle, R 2011, 'Review of...Annette KUHN, Historia, Frauengeschichte in der Spirale der Zeit. Opladen / Farmington: Barbara Budrich 2010', Journal of Contemporary European Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 139-141. https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2011.554202

Whittle, R 2009, 'Schwellenüberschreitungen: Politik in der Literatur von deutschsprachigen Frauen 1780-1918. Ed. by Caroline Bland / Elisa Müller-Adams. Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2007', The German Quarterly, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 116-118.

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

  • How students respond to transition (from school to university, from university to year abroad, from university to work) and how to support these experiences of transition