Ela Gezen Co-organizer of New England German Poetry Slam Contest

Ela Gezen, associate professor and undergraduate program director in German and Scandinavian studies, together with Kerstin Hämmerling at the Goethe-Institut Boston (and with the support of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German), is organizing a poetry slam contest for German language learners at schools and colleges across New England in spring 2021.

Participating teachers have access to video tutorials and teaching materials, as well as suggestions for additional resources to include in the classroom. Entries will be evaluated by a jury panel and the top three winning videos in each category (middle school, high school, college) will be presented at the big virtual slam finale in April, which is National Poetry Month.

Students enrolled in Kerstin Mueller Dembling and Julia Feldhaus' classes will participate and represent UMass' program of German and Scandinavian studies.