Dr. Matthew Pollard

I hold my degrees from Queens and McGill, with studies in Trier and a PAD assistantship in the Saarland in between. I began teaching at UVic in 1997 as a sessional, became a regular faculty member in 2004, and was promoted to Associate Teaching Professor in 2019. Film, language teaching, and visual arts (mainly painting) are my primary personal and teaching interests.

This coming September I will be teaching and coordinating GMST 101 with our new guest DAAD lecturer Christina Seeck and my colleague Dr. Elena Pnevmonidou. Last semester Dr. Helga Thorson and I successfully piloted the open educational resource Grenzenlos Deutsch as the new “textbook” for GMST 101. I look forward to continuing with this curriculum, not only for GMST 101 but also for GMST 102 in the Spring of 2025.

In terms of culture courses, I will be offering GMST 100 (Introduction to Germanic Studies), in which we explore and become informed about German-speaking culture and identity. I am particularly excited to offer once again an introduction to Franz Kafka (GMST 367), a course which is cross-listed with the English Studies program as ENSH 340K.

In January, I will be continuing my commitment to German language teaching with GMST 101 and 102. Finally, after a three-year hiatus, the extraordinary art movement German Expressionism will be the focus of GMST 355. The course invites students to explore painting, film, and literature in from 1905 to 1933 and beyond.