Dr. Lorie A. Vanchena

Lorie Vanchena
  • Associate Professor
  • Director, Max Kade Center for German American Studies
  • World War I Immigrants Poetry | 19th c. German culture in America | Cultural transfer and identity
she/her/hers

Contact Info

Wescoe Hall, Room 2076
1445 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Max Kade Center for German-American Studies (Sudler House)
1134 W. 11th St.
Lawrence, AL 66044

Personal Links

Research —

Dr. Vanchena's current research focuses on German immigrant culture in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is creating a scholarly digital archive of poems written by German Americans during the First World War. She uses this poetry to examine how German immigrants and their descendants defined their national identity from 1914 to 1918. She also engages with the local history museum to study the Turner movement in Lawrence, KS.

Research interests:

  • World War I Immigrants Poetry
  • 19th-century German culture in American
  • Cultural transfer and identity
  • Reinhold Solger
  • 19th-centur Political literature

Teaching —

Dr. Vanchena teaches courses on the German-American experience, German-language literature, and contemporary German-speaking Europe. She regularly teaches lower-level and advanced online courses for the BGS degree completion program.

Teaching interests:

  • German-language literature
  • German-American experience
  • Contemporary German-speaking Europe
  • Online courses

Selected Publications —

Vanchena, Lorie A. “Reading German Culture, 1789-1918: Distant Readings/Descriptive Turns: Topologies of German Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century,  Washington University in St. Louis 21st St. Louis Symposium on German Literature & Culture,.” Web Publishing (article, blog, etc.). JLT - Journal of Literary Theory. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter, July 28, 2012. http://www.JLTonline.de.

Vanchena, Lorie A. “Transatlantische Interpretationen Des Amerikaerlebens: Reinhold Solger’s Anton in Amerika.” Book Chapters. In Amerika Im Europäischen Roman Um 1850. Varianten Transatlantischer Erfahrung, edited by Alexander Ritter, 237–50. Vienna: Praesens Verlag, 2011.

Solger, Reinhold. Anton in America: A Novel from German-American Life. Books. Edited by Werner Sollors. Vol. 3 of New Directions in German-American Studies. Vol. 3. New York: Peter Lang, 2006.

Vanchena, Lorie A. “From Domestic Farce to Abolitionist Satire: Reinhold Solger’s Reframing of the Union (1860).” Book Chapters. In German Culture in Nineteenth-Century America: Reception, Adaptation, Transformation, edited by Lynne Tatlock and Matt Erlin, 289–316. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2005.

Vanchena, Lorie A. Political Poetry in Periodicals and the Shaping of German National Consciousness in the Nineteenth Century. Books. Edited by Jeffrey L. Sammons. Vol. 26. New York: Peter Lang, 2000.

Selected Presentations —

Vanchena, L., & Crist, A. (11/20/2017). The WWI Immigrant Poetry Digital Humanities Project. Hall Center Digital Humanities Seminar. Lawrence, KS

Vanchena, L. A. (9/30/2011). A Transnational Perspective: Germans Fighting for the Union and German National Identity. German Studies Association Annual Conference. Louisville, KY

Vanchena, L. A. (4/30/2011). Solger, Freiligrath, Schiller: Transatlantic Cultural Transfer. Hall Center for the Humanities, Early Modern Seminar and Modernities Seminar, University of Kansas. Hall Center for the Humanities

Awards & Honors —

K. Barbara Schowen Undergraduate Research Mentor Award

Center for Undergraduate Research

2017

J. Michael Young Academic Advisor Award

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

2015

Grants & Other Funded Activity —

Dean's Award for Exceptional Student Mentoring, Research Excellence Initiative. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. $3500.00. Submitted 11/1/2017 (1/1/2017 - 8/31/2017). University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded. $1000 in research funds and $2500 in summer salary, in lieu of a course release

Seed Grant. KU Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities. $14928.51. Submitted 12/1/2014 (5/1/2015 - 5/31/2016). University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded. Awarded for the KU Editorial Branch, American World War I Poetry Digital Archive, a collaborative project with Kansas State University. KU Editorial Branch focuses on immigrant poetry written in response to WWI. Funds three undergraduate research assistants who are identifying, transcribing, encoding (XML), and annotating poetry.

General Research Fund Award. University of Kansas. $5888.00. (12/31/2009). University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded. Research trips to the Library of Congress and the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin

Revisitation Research Grant for Faculty. German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdiens). (12/31/2007). Foreign (company, govt, agencies, etc.). Status: Funded. One month of archival research in Frankfurt am Main and Karlsruhe, Germany

Franklin Research Grant. American Philosophical Society. $1000.00. (3/31/2005). Not-for-Profit (not Foundation). Status: Funded. One week of research at the Library of Congress.

Memberships —

German Studies Association, Modern Languages Association