I am writing to urge you and your colleagues to reconsider the recently announced redundancy of my colleague and fellow researcher Dr Anne Simon of the School of Modern Languages, an internationally renowned scholar in British German Studies.
I am given to understand that the decision was taken on the grounds that the reduction of German to 5 FTEs (one Professor, four lecturers), was necessary to ensure the financial viability of the Faculty, and that the least damaging way of achieving this reduction, in order to protect the future of the subject, would be to disinvest from the Medieval/Early Modern component of the subject of German.
Contrary to this view, I, together with other colleagues in German Studies, consider this action as highly damaging to the future of the subject at the University of Bristol on the following grounds.
The loss of the Medieval/Early Modern expert will make it impossible for the Department of German to offer a credible well-balanced programme of German Studies that will be up to the standards normally associated with an internationally recognized university. The periodisation of literature and culture on which the decision appears to be based, no longer provides the basis for today’s teaching and research. The most stimulating courses and the best of cutting-edge research favour thematic and interdisciplinary approaches crossing the boundaries of cultures and periods. They draw heavily on the expertise of scholars such as Dr Simon with an intimate knowledge of the history of the German language, literature and culture. Her research and teaching in the areas of, for example, travel literature, city culture, text and illustration, gender studies, religion and literature are prime examples. Losing this expertise will not only have serious repercussions for the academic viability of the subject of German at Bristol, but will also diminish the Faculty’s potential to offer up-to-date interdisciplinary teaching, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
I hope that you and your colleagues will give these considerations some thought and reconsider your decision in the interests of the subject, the Faculty and the University of Bristol.