Charlie Johnson

Candidate statement

Charlie Johnson received their MA from the University of Illinois in Chicago in 2021 and is currently a PhD student, TA, and Head TA in the department of Germanic Studies at UIC. As a TA, Charlie is committed to practicing inclusivity in the classroom with an emphasis on gender-inclusive language. While interested in inclusive pedagogy, Charlie’s dissertation “Trans/Figurations” investigates ruptures in binaries and gender identity in German literature from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century and the ways in which gender is entangled with the concept of "Bildung." In 2019 they received the Max Kade Fellowship and have earned Max Kade travel grants for attending conferences and studying abroad. They have also received the Astrida Orle Tantillo Bridges award, a competitive, merit-based internal scholarship that has been used to carry out various projects relating to their research. They have also won Robert Kauf awards for excellence in teaching and research. Charlie recently presented a paper at ACTFL on the topic of gender-inclusive language and one titled “Gender Ambivalence in Musil’s Törleß” at the Austrian Studies Association conference. They are working on a forthcoming publication on gender-inclusive language with Unterrichtspraxis. Charlie is a member of the German Studies Association, the Austrian Studies Association, AATG, and ACTFL.