Katja Altpeter-Jones
Ph.D. Candidate, German Studies and Literature
Last spring, Katja Altpeter-Jones ran the Austin Marathon, and her success in training for and completing the marathon reassured her that she has the stamina to write a dissertation. But physical is not the only strength she brings to her education; this German Studies student is serious about taking advantage of interdisciplinary learning. Since she arrived at Duke in 1995, Katja has taken classes in women’s studies, history, art history, religion, and literature, as well as classes in her home department.
Her diverse academic history stems from her interest in a wide range of topics, which Katja catalogues as including “gender and sexuality in medieval and early modern literature and culture; material culture in medieval and modern Germany; oral, manuscript, and print culture; the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period in twentieth century popular culture; the sixteenth century artist Lucas Cranach; and the nude—especially Venus—in 15th and 16th century German art.”
Katja spent a year of her undergraduate career at Davidson College, where she developed a fondness for working in a smaller academic environment. After receiving her M.A. in English from the Universität Würzburg in Germany with a minor in French literature and English language pedagogy, Katja looked to Duke for another opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of a smaller school, such as smaller class size and more one-on-one contact with professors. Duke’s German Studies department especially appealed to Katja because of its commitment to interdisciplinarity, both in theory and practice. One benefit of this commitment, Katja says, is “that I now dare ask bigger questions than when I studied in Germany, where literary studies often still are essentially formalist in orientation.” Presently, Katja works with Ann Marie Rasmussen of the German department and Tom Robisheaux of the History department; she says that she has “worked very productively with Hans Van Miegroet in Art History” as well.
Katja says she found graduate school attractive because “I always had excellent language and literature teachers in secondary school. They were inspiring both as teachers and as people. I felt that I benefited greatly from their presence in my life. Being a teacher and scholar, being somebody who passes on not only knowledge, but also inspiration and enthusiasm, curiosity, and critical faculties seemed and still seems appealing to me. I believe that—at its best—teaching is social engagement.”
A neglected 13th century literary text is the basis of Katja’s dissertation, entitled “Love, Language and the Economics of Exchange in Konrad Fleck’s Flore and Blanscheflur.” Ann Marie Rasmussen, her advisor, first introduced her to Fleck’s text at a time when Katja was searching for something upon which to center her research. “I realized that the text would allow me to bring together my interest in feminist theory, in psychoanalysis, and in issues related to material culture in the Middle Ages,” notes Katja.
Flore and Blanscheflur concerns two child lovers, a Muslim prince and a Christian girl, who are separated by their parents. The girl is sold to a harem, so the prince disguises himself as a merchant, sets out on an Arthurian-type quest to find her, and buys her freedom from the harem.
In her dissertation, Katja says, she analyzes “how the language of love in this text is usurped by a language of mercantile exchange and profit...how the blurring of lines between love and commerce fits historically into a time of intensifying international mercantile exchange and momentous shifts in the economics of exchange.” She asserts that the goal of her “quest is to develop a theory for the deployment of gender as economic category (female is that which is being exchanged, male is he who exchanges) at this historic moment at which medieval society finds itself on the cusp of capitalism, suspended, as it were, between a precapitalist and feudal system of gift and loyalty exchange and an emerging system of increasingly impersonal commodity exchange.” In addition to her dissertation work, Katja has explored Duke University Library’s Jantz Collection, in connection with a class she took with history professor Tom Robisheaux.
Working on a grant with three other students in three different departments underscored to Katja why Duke is a great place to work and learn. She explains: “For the project we were proposing we needed to get several faculty members in different departments to commit as speakers and presenters. After just a day of emails and phone calls we had all the speakers lined up. I think that this kind of cooperation is possible only in a relatively small academic community like Duke.” And the Duke community is just as impressed by Katja. This past year she was nominated by her department for the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and she was awarded the Lisa Lee and Marc Ewing Teaching Fellowship in Women’s Studies for the upcoming school year.
As for living in Durham, Katja says “you kind of love it and hate it at the same time. I like it that I see familiar faces at the grocery store and in pubs. I feel that I am part of a community, both at Duke and in Durham. I like the roughness of Durham compared to Raleigh and Chapel Hill. At the same time, I wish that Durham (and Duke) did more to support arts and culture in Durham and to help revitalize downtown.”
Years from now, among the things Katja thinks she will most remember and value about her time at Duke are her advisers, her friends, and “some of the niches for exciting intellectual exchange at Duke: within the Women’s Studies program, for example.”
Thomas Robisheaux Associate Professor, History
Katja has always been interested in an interdisciplinary approach to literature. This is not easy to do. There is a great deal of lip service given to the ideal of interdisciplinary work in cultural studies in the academy today, but the reality is often quite disappointing, especially when it comes to genuine historical understanding.
Katja tries to make this difficult work a reality, however. She has taken almost as many graduate courses in history and art history as in literature and cultural studies. This blending of interests is now becoming evident in her dissertation research as well as in a course she will be teaching in the fall. Katja knows how to read a text closely, and to read it within the context of meanings possible in its historical settings. She knows how to tease other meanings out of it using modern theories, of course, but what sets her work apart for me is a mature understanding that texts have meaning within historical time.
(This profile originally appeared in the Fall 2001 issue of The GRIND.)