Education:
1980-86 Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin (awarded May 1986) Dissertation:
"Feminism and Austrian Women Writers in the Second Republic," Barbara Becker-Cantarino (Director)
1976-77 M.A., Department of German, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1972-76 B.A., Washington College, Chestertown, MD, magna cum laude with
Departmental Honors in German
Academic Employment:
University of Michigan-Dearborn (Full Professor of German, Sept. 2003-April 2020; Associate Professor of German, Sept. 1995-August 2003; Assistant Professor of German, Sept. 1992-August 1995)
Miami University (Visiting Assistant Professor of German, June 1988-June 1992 & Jan.-May 1987)
Hamilton College (Visiting Assistant Professor of German, Sept 1987-May 1988)
Guest Teaching Positions:
Guest lecturer. University of Vermont. Department of German and Russian. (Sept-Dec. 2021).
Fulbright-Gastprofessorin, Universität Wien, Vergleichende Literatur und Amerikanistik (March-June 2016)
Fulbright-Gastprofessorin, Universität Salzburg Germanistik und Geschichte (March-June 2003)
Gastdozentin, Universität Leipzig, Deutsches Seminar (April-July 1998)
Publications:
Books:
Austria, Made in Hollywood (Rochester: Camden House: 2019; paperback edition: 2023).
Reclaiming ‘Heimat': Trauma and Mourning in Memoirs by Jewish Austrian Réemigrés (Detroit: Wayne State UP: 2001)
Against the Horizon: Feminism and Postwar Austrian Women Writers (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988).
Textbooks:
Deutsch: Na klar!,( first-year text). Robert DiDonato, Monica Clyde, and J. Vansant (New York: McGraw Hill-Random House, 19901, 19952, 19983, 20116).
Blickwechsel (second-year reader). Ed. J. Vansant with Janet K. Swaffar, Katherine Arens, Sandra D. Shattuck, and Marie-Luise Gättens (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990).
Articles and Chapters:
"From Austrian Refugee to American Citizen: Wilhelm Mandl's Correspondence as Biographical Work." In: Von der Exilerfahrung zur Exilforschung. Zum Jahrhundertleben eines transatlantischen Brückenbauers. Festschrift zu Ehren von Guy Stern. Frederick A. Lubich & Marlen Eckl, ed. (Würzburg: Konighausen & Neumann, 2022): 491-499.
"Ludwig Laher als Filmemacher." [Porträt Ludwig Laher]. Klaus Zeyeringer, ed. , In: Die Rampe 3 (2021): 135-142.
"Exposing Traumatic Tears in History: Film-making in Ilse Aichingers' Die größere Hoffnung." In: Zwischen Abschied und Ankunft. Between Departure and Arrival Ilse Aichinger/Helga Michie. Geoff Wilkes, ed. (Würzburg: Konighausen & Neumann, 2021): 103-109.
“‘French people here are very kind but too shallow to understand us’: A Young Exile’s View of France and the French, 1939-1940.” In: Feuchtwanger und die Erinnerungskultur in Frankreich / Feuchtwanger et la culture memoriélle en France. Daniel Azuélos, Andrea Chartier-Bunzel, and Frédéric Teinturier, eds. (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2020): 313-27.
With Cornelia Szabo-Knotik, "Moving Images: Changing Perspectives: A Transatlantic Interdisciplinary Look at Billy Wilder's The Emperor Waltz (1948). In: Ideas Crossing the Atlantic. Theories, Normative Conceptions and Cultural Images. Waldemar Zacharasiewicz and Christoph Irmscher, eds. (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2019): 413-23.
“’Bitte vergeβt nicht, alle Briefe gut aufzuheben’: Shared Agency in einem Briefwechsel österreichisch-jüdischer Schüler in der Emigration.“ S.I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation 8 (2019) 1, 4-19.
“Austrian and Dust Bowl Refugees Unite in Three Faces West.” Journal of Austrian-American History, Vol, 1, No. 1 (2017): 98-116.
“Cohesive Epistolary Networks in Exile.” In: Networks of Refugees from Nazi Germany: Continuities, Reorientations, and Collaborations in Exile, ed. Helga Schreckenberger (Amsterdam: Brill/Rodopi, 2016): 247-261.
“Political and Humanitarian Messages in a Horse’s Tale: MGM’s Florian,” Austrian History Yearbook 42 (2011): 164-184.
“‘Damit nie der Kontakt verloren geht’: Rundbriefe Wiener Gymnasiasten jüdischer Herkunft 1938-1942.” In: Alltag im Exil. Daniel Azuélos, ed. (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2011.) 137-151. Proceedings to conference in Amiens, France, November 2009.)
“Facing Austria’s National-Socialist Past: Film Adaptations of Literature,” Shadows of the Past: Austrian Literature of the Twentieth Century, ed. Hans Schulte and Gerald Chapple (New York: Peter Lang, 2009), 161-178.
“Involuntary and Voluntary Travel in Egon Schwarz’s Unfreiwillige Wanderjahre and Die japanische Mauer.“ Ed. Johannes Evelein. (Amsterdam: Rodolpi, 2009), 369-384. (Proceedings to conference of the American Society of Exile Studies, Sept. 2006).
“Jewish-Austrian identities in Bruno Kreisky’s Zwischen den Zeiten.“ Fünfzig Jahre Staatsvertrag. The State Treaty Fifty Years On. (Munich: iudicum, 2008), 71-82. (Proceedings to conference at Trinity College, Dublin in Nov. 2005).
“Hollywoods ’Wien’ als transnationaler Gedächtnisort.“ Jenseits von Grenzen. Transnationales, translokales Gedächtnis. (Vienna: Präsens Verlag, 2007), 183-196. (Proceedings to conference at the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Vienna, Nov. 2005.)
“Österreichische Geschichte(n) aus Hollywood—1938-1948,” in Österreich in Geschichte und Literatur (mit Geographie). 51.3 (2007): 130-139.
“Innenanschichten und Auβenseiter: Das Bild der USA in Autobiografien zweier Exilschriftsteller” with Guy Stern. Aufbau 3 (26 February 2004): 26-27. (70th Anniversary Issue).
“Political Memoirs and Negative Rhetoric: Kurt Waldheim’s In the Eye of the Storm and Im Glaspalast der Weltpolitik.” Biography 25.2 (Spring 2002): 343-62.
"'Die Bäume müßten Trauer tragen': Mapping the Past in Elisabeth Reichart's Komm über den See." Towards the Millenium: Interpreting the Austrian Novel 1971-1996. Ed. Gerald Chapple (Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 2000), 185-201.
“Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music: The ‘Denazification’ of Austria in American Cinema.” From World War to Waldheim: Politics and Culture in Austria and the United States. Ed. David Good & Ruth Wodak (New York: Berghahn, 1999), 165-86.
"Österreichbilder im amerikanischen Film nach 1945." Das ist Österreich: Innen- und Außensichten. Ed. Ursula Prutsch & Manfred Lechner (Vienna: Döcker Verlag, 1997), 287-310.
“‘Warum hast du sie sonderbehandelt?’: ‘Die Zigeunerin’ in Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumers Der weibliche Name des Widerstands,” Konflikte, Skandale, Dichterfehden in der österreichischen Literatur. Ed. Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler, Johann Sonnleitner, and Klaus Zeyringer (Berlin: Schmidt Verlag, 1995), 236-47.
“‘Harry Lime und Maria von Trapp treffen sich am Stammtisch’: Die Entnazifizierung Österreichs in amerikanischen Filmen.” The Sound of Austria. Ed. John Bunzl (Vienna: Braumüller, 1995), 169-84.
"Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer's Der Schwimmer. A Linguistic Novel," Modern Austrian Literature 27.1 (1994): 71-88.
"Challenging Austria's Victim Status: National Socialism and Austrian Personal Narratives," German Quarterly 67.1 (1994): 38-57.
"Wieviel Kanon braucht der Mensch?" Die einen rein. Die anderen raus. Der österreichische Kanon. Ed. Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler, Johann Sonnleitner, and Klaus Zeyringer (Berlin: Schmidt Verlag, 1994), 161-71.
"Andreas Okopenko: Naiver Realist und zorniger Moralist," Protokolle 1 (1993): 7-28.
"Nationalsozialismus und Autobiographien verfolgter Frauen." Nationalsozialismus in der österreichischen Provinz (Vienna: Mitteilungen des Instituts für Wissenschaft und Kunst, 1991): 2-7.
"Ways of Remembering: Der Bockerer as Play and Film" Austrian Writers and the Anschluß (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, 1991), 271-85.
"Liebe und Patriarchat in der Romantik: Sophie Mereaus 'Amanda und Eduard'." Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung. Ed. Sylvia Wallinger and Monika Jonas (Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, 1986): 185-200.
"Bertolt Brecht's 'Leben des Galilei': The Story of a Transformation." Neue Germanistik 2 (1981-82): 53-63.
Afterword:
“Afterword,” Hilde Spiel Return to Vienna: A Journal. (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press: 2011), 112-123.
Review Articles:
*“Illustrating Intersections: Ten Years of Feminist Criticism on Austrian Women Writers,” Women in German Yearbook 16 (2000). Ed. Patricia Herminghouse and Susanne Zantop. 13-38.
"Die Rezeption Elfriede Jelineks in den USA." Echos und Masken: Die internationale Rezeption Elfriede Jelineks. Ed. Daniela Bartens (Graz: Droschl Verlag, 1997), 196-219.
Edited Volumes:
Journal of Austrian American History. Special Issue: Austrian Children and Youth Fleeing Nazi Austria. Vol. 4. 2020.
“Wenn sie das Wort Ich gebraucht”: Festschrift für Barbara Becker-Cantarino von FreundInnen, SchülerInnen und KollegInnen, ed. with John Pustejovsky (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013).
(Mit) Schwarz lesen. Essays und Kurztexte zum Lesen und Gelesenen von Egon Schwarz. (Vienna: Praesens, 2009).
Schwarz auf Weiβ. Ein transatlantisches Würdigungsbuch für Egon Schwarz with Ursula Seeber (Vienna: Czernin, 2007).
Modern Austrian Literature with Geoffrey C. Howes. 33.1, 2-38 1/2 (2000-2005 [total 10 issues])
Interviews:
“Interview with Maja Haderlap,” Modern Austrian Literature 47.3 (Fall 2014): 93-100.
"Interview mit Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer." Modern Austrian Literature 22.1 (1989): 107-20.
"Interview mit Elfriede Jelinek." Deutsche Bücher 15.1 (1985): 1-9. Reprinted in: Literatur im Gespräch. Ed. Andrea Kunne and Bodo Plachta (Berlin: Weidler Buchverlag: 2001): 246-52
On-line Teaching Units:
“Exil, Rückkehr, Heimkehr—Topographien des Erinnerns,” Österreichische Literatur im Exil seit 1933,” director of project Karl Müller, under Praxisfelder at http://www.literaturepochen.at/exil.
Podcasts and Blogposts
"'The Gayest City in Europe--Not Paris but Vienna'." Boydell & Brewer (2023).
"Austrian Children and Youth Fleeing Nazi Austria." The Botstiber Austrian-American Podcast. Hosted by J. Vansant.
"Austria Made in Hollywood." Ingeborg Bachman Centre for Austrian Literature and Culture (25 October 2021).
"Virtual Talk with Elizabeth Anthony." The Compromise of Return. The Wiener Holocaust Library, London.(1 October 2021).
“I expect that this letter will be terribly long”: Hans (John) Kautsky’s First letter from the U.S.A. Botstiber Institute for Austrian American Studies (2020).
“A Habsburg Archduke in Hollywood”’ Botstiber Institute for Austrian American Studies (2019).
“‘Austrians were never so bad as the Germans’”’ Boydell & Brewer (2019).
Translations:
Gerhard Roth, The Story of Darkness. Helga Schreckenberger and J. Vansant (Riverside, CA: Adriadne Press, 1998).
Ulrike Klepalski, "Midsummer Night." Helga Schreckenberger and J. Vansant, in: Against the Grain (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, 1997): 127-33.
Elfriede Jelinek, President Evening Breeze. Helga Schreckenberger and J. Vansant, in: new anthology of contemporary austrian folk plays (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, 1996): 293-318.
Gerhard Roth, The Calm Ocean. Helga Schreckenberger and J. Vansant (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, 1993).
Sophie Mereau "Flight to the City," with biographical introduction in Bitter Healing: Anthology of German Women Writers from Pietism to Romanticism. Ed. Jeannine Blackwell and Susanne Zantop (Nebraska: U of Nebraska P, 1990), pp. 371-73 & 380-399
External Grants and Fellowships for Research or Research-related Activities:
2021-2022 Sosland Foundation Fellow, Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies.
Vienna Wiesenthal Senior Fellowship 2017-2018 (for academic leave 2017-2018 to work on letter edition).
Fulbright Teaching/Research Grant, 2016 (for four months to teach at the University of Vienna and do research on letters)
Botstiber Grant: (for academic leave Winter 2011 to work on “Austria: Made in Hollywood).
NEH Summer Seminar: German Exile Community in California, Stanford University, 2007 (to participate in intensive 6-week seminar to work on Austria: Made in Hollywood).
Research Grant for German Exile Studies, Leon Feuchtwanger Archive, University of Southern California, (travel grant to work on “Austria: Made in Hollywood,” July 2004).
Dorot Fellowship, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, at The University of Texas at Austin (travel grant to work on “Austria: Made in Hollywood,” June 2003-August 2004).
Fulbright Teaching 2003 (for four months to teach at the University of Salzburg and do research)
NEH Summer Stipend (to work on project "Reclaiming Heimat: Memoir Literature of Jewish Austrian Exiles,” August-September 1998)
Leo Baeck/German Academic Exchange Service Fellowship (to carry out research at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, 1997)
Fulbright Research Grant (to carry out research in Vienna, Austria, Feb-July 1991)
Stipendium für Bewerber aus aller Welt, Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung (to carry out research in Vienna, Austria, Oct-Feb 1990)
NEH Travel to Collections Grant (to carry out research in Vienna, Austria, June 1990)
Austrian Government Grant (dissertation research in Vienna, Austria, Feb-June 1984)
Fulbright-Hays Full Grant (Graduate Fellowship to Vienna, Austria, Sep 1982-Jan 1984)
Courses taught:
German Studies/Culture:
Vienna: A Multi/Interdisciplinary Study
Contemporary Culture in the German-speaking countries Culture, History, Literature in the BRD
Representations of New Minorities in Film and Literature in the Federal Republic of Germany (third year)
Images of Women in Germany: 1945-Present
Representations of National Socialism in Literature and Film (Honors)
Contemporary German Cultures (Focus on National and Individual Identity)
Jüdisch-österreichische Identitäten in Literatur, Autobiographie und Film nach 1945
National Cinema (Germany)
Literature:
Introduction to German Literature 800-1790
Introduction to German Literature 1890-Present
Postwar and Contemporary Literature in the German-speaking World (upper division/graduate)
Postwar and Contemporary Women Writers in the German-speaking World (upper division/graduate, and in Women's Studies Program in translation)
Representations of National Socialism in Postwar and Contemporary Literature in the German-speaking World (upper division/graduate)
Autobiographische Literatur: Literarische Autobiographien in Österreich nach 1945
The First Holocaust Novel: Franz Werfel’s The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
German Across the Curriculum (Reading courses taught in conjunction with):
History: Germany before Hitler
Anthropology: Culture and International Business
History: The Reformation Era
History: Freud’s Vienna
Language:
First through fourth semester--four skills language program
Fourth semester Women's Literature Course (co-designed in 1982 with two other graduate students)
Business German
German for the Professions
"The Texture of Memory" M.A. Liberal Studies Program (Winter 2001, Fall 2002, Winter 2004, Fall 2010)
“Formen des Erinnerns”
“Capstone Experience: Place,” (with Kathleen Wider in Fall 2005; alone Fall 2008)
Membership in Professional Organizations: