As a teacher and scholar, I seek to instill an appreciation of the world’s complexities and sustained excitement for intellectual pursuits.  My teaching invariably involves confronting students with an unfamiliar element: the sound of a foreign language, the values of another culture, a black–and–white movie with intertitles, or simply an unknown text from a different time and place.  Rather than smoothing over differences between cultures, histories, or expectations, I ask students to investigate and accept what is removed from their own experience, using difference then connections as a tool for (self) reflection.  This challenge, which comprises a single class period, a semester, and the entire curriculum and includes German and non-German classes from freshman to graduate level, informs my commitment to the classroom and my pledge to continually improve my teaching.