Welcome Our Newest Guest Blogger: Kristine Haglund Harris

12 Responses to Welcome Our Newest Guest Blogger: Kristine Haglund Harris

1. Greg Call on February 6, 2004 at 8:20 pm

   Tag, Kristine. Welcome aboard.

2. Kaimi on February 6, 2004 at 8:24 pm

   It’s great to have you aboard, Kristine — I look forward to reading your posts.

3. Kristine on February 6, 2004 at 8:49 pm

   Thanks, guys. I still suspect that you invited me to blog in hopes that the software glitch that prevented Claudia from commenting while she was a guest blogger is still operative :)

4. Matt Evans on February 6, 2004 at 9:02 pm

   Welcome Kristine, it will be fun to have you be the one initiating the topic of conversation.

5. Russell Arben Fox on February 6, 2004 at 9:03 pm

   Kristine, what was/is the focus of your German studies? Literature, film, history, philosophy, religion, all of the above? I came late to things German–for the first two years of my Ph.D. program I stuck with East Asia and did non-Western and comparative political thought. Then I started reading the communitarian philosopher Charles Taylor, and realized I needed to understanding Johann Gottfried Herder (a big influence on Taylor) and all the early romantics. German classes here and there and a few months in Frankfurt (back in ’99) have been all we’ve been able to afford, but it was enough for my dissertation, which will hopefully be a book (on Herder and nationalism) before the year’s out. I’d love to hear what your interests and areas of expertise are.

6. Bob Caswell on February 6, 2004 at 10:55 pm

   Kristine-

   If I may be so bold as to ask you a couple questions:

   1) What part of Germany and when?

   2) I’m really interested in understanding how you are a mother of three, have two degrees, and are potentially seeking a third. This is not very stereotypical of women in the Church. How do you/did you do it? No really, I’d be interested in a brief autobiography (or not so brief, you decide).

7. Kristine on February 6, 2004 at 11:09 pm

   Russell, mostly lit., although the incredibly broadly defined German Studies major was an excuse for me to do everything I wanted to do as an undergrad–lots of music history, a little sociology, some philosophy (Spinoza & Kant, especially), and some history. My MA is in lit., especially Romanticism, though I looked more at late stuff and conceptions of the Oriental in Kleist & Fontane. I really like the earlier stuff better, but orientalism was the flavor du jour when I was finishing up, so I abandoned the project I should have done on Fichte and Novalis. Anyway, I probably have at least the rudimentary version of the skills to appreciate your book, and I’ll look forward to reading it.

   Bob, your second question deserves a longish answer, and I’ll try to answer it in a way that’s more interesting than just auto-bio. The answer to the first is short–Marburg, 1982-83 (yeah, I’m really old).

8. Russell Arben Fox on February 7, 2004 at 12:58 am

   Too bad you abandoned Novalis–I’m writing a short piece (that’ll maybe become a longer essay, and maybe even appear in some form in my book) on his “Christenheit oder Europa” right now, and it’s fascinating stuff. I’m not particularly interested in the movement after Schleiermacher or thereabouts; I think the basic insights of Herder and the Sturm und Drang were soon lost.

   We should talk about it sometime. Maybe I’ll send you some chapters when they’re ready to go to my publisher.

9. Melissa on February 7, 2004 at 1:28 am

   Yeah Kristine!

   Looking forward to reading more of you blogs here.

10. lyle on February 7, 2004 at 4:09 am

    Kristine:

    Ok…I’m jealous now! ;)
    But if guest status is based on # of [quality] posts, then hopefully I’m only a year [or forever] or so behind!!!

    Do you like Goethe too? I have two friends John Fowles and Dr. Kerry (sp) who are Goethe go-go-goers.

11. Kristine on February 7, 2004 at 10:17 am

    Russell, “Die Christenheit oder Europa” is what I was working on–I’d love to read your chapter(s).

    Lyle, my undergrad thesis was on Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. I don’t know if “like” is even a word one can use in relation to Goethe; he simply must be reckoned with, and it’s fortunate that his writing is so lucid and lovely that the reckoning is almost always a pleasure.

    Hi Melissa!

12. Adam Greenwood on February 7, 2004 at 10:24 am

    Welcome, Kristine Haglund Harris.