Department of World Languages

Education

• Ph.D. German Language and Literature, University of Oregon
• Fulbright, Universität Bielefeld, Germany
• M.A. German Language and Literature, Portland State University
• B.A. English/Secondary Education, Boise State University

Biography

Damiano Bio

Professor Carla Damiano’s career at Eastern Michigan University began in 2001. Prior to coming to EMU, Dr. Damiano taught at Georgetown College, Georgetown, KY (1998-1999), and at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA (1999-2001). She earned a BA in English (a minor in German) from Boise State University (1986), an MA in German from Portland State University (1990), and a PhD in German from the University of Oregon in 1998.  Career honors include two Fulbright grants as a graduate student: a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship (1990-1991, Bielefeld), and a Fulbright Research Grant (1994-1995, Bielefeld). At EMU, Professor Damiano earned highest honors awarded to faculty for teaching with the Ronald Collins Distinguished Faculty Teaching I award (2005), and most recently she was awarded Germany’s highest honor bestowed on citizens and noncitizens for services to the nation, the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany  (Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande) in 2021. 

Damiano’s career-long research interests and publications have centered around post-WWII German literature, with special focus on the works of author Walter Kempowski, whom she was privileged to meet at the Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik in 1988. Career-long publications on the author culminated in the 2020 co-edited reference work entitled, Walter Kempowski Handbuch. 
On a broader scale, Damiano’s research and teaching have crossed over into memory studies, Holocaust literature, and more recently, international Jewish women’s writing. Her current research project focuses on a comparative study of German Reunification and its lingering aftermath in works by former East German author Gabriele Eckart, and Germany’s Nobel Prize laureate Günter Grass.

Courses

International Jewish Women's Writing. Interdisciplinary course (Women's and Gender Studies, World Languages, Jewish Studies, English) co-created and co-taught with Elisabeth Däumer.