Ever since I started studying English, I developed a distinct passion and a huge curiosity about the United States. I always knew I’d eventually end up in the U.S. – at least for some time. During high school? No, I felt too young to go abroad for a longer time. After high school graduation? No, the pressure to do something ‘sensible’ towards my future career was too dominant. That’s why I ended up studying business administration and starting vocational training as an industrial clerk at the same time. Was that fun? Not really.
Instead, I decided to become a vocational school teacher for business and – what a surprise – study English as a Foreign Language at Leuphana University. That’s when I finally seized the opportunity to go abroad. For one year, I worked as a teaching assistant for German as a Foreign Language at a tiny university in Ohio. Finally, I was able to mingle and – to some extent – become part of American culture. “Ms. Fischer, I assume you misspelled your name? Why is there a ‘c’ in your last name?” some of my students would ask. If the first thing that strikes my students is my ‘misspelled’ American name, I’m all happy. One letter does (not) make a difference.
Now I have two more semesters to go before I finish up with my graduate program. I feel honored and excited to join the American Studies Blog team and to discover more about America.
Since 2015, I’ve been studying environmental sciences at Leuphana University Lüneburg, and I’m absolutely fascinated by the diversity of topics this subjects entails. Through my studies, I’ve noticed that everything is intertwined and that culture and ecology cannot be addressed separately.
Before coming to Lüneburg, I studied to be a teacher for German and English in the beautiful city of Dresden. Even though I changed my major to environmental sciences, my passion for language and cultural diversity has stayed with me ever since. Fifteen months of travelling in between studies has greatly enriched my perspectives on life. But as much as I love being abroad, I also need a place to come home to and do the things I love: read, write, watch good movies, take a walk in the woods, and get involved in projects that make the world a little more sustainable. And when I’m not doing any of the above, I’m tech support for the American Studies Blog.
In 2012 I started studying Cultural Studies in Lüneburg with Cultural Theory and Analysis and Media and Communication Studies as my main subjects and Philosophy as my minor. In the following years, I gained insights into a variety of viewpoints and approaches affiliated with the broad term of “culture” and learned that studying culture can be a very personal experience. As is writing, which has become a personal passion of mine that has grown with the number of semesters passing. However, it wasn’t until recently that I got the opportunity to contribute to the American Studies Blog, which I see as a potential merging and solidification of many fields of personal interest: the USA, writing fiction, journalistic writing and involving myself in various artistic, media, historical, sociological and philosophical topics from the perspective of a writer who has something to share.