Brian Mothersole

“Riding through Berlin on a bike on a warm summer night” is an experience Brian Mothersole wouldn’t want to miss. Brian is really interested in the way literary ideas and works translate across cultural and temporal boundaries. “Literature has always been the focus of my studies,” he says, and “German Studies gives me the perspective of another language and its literary canon.” A frequent visitor to Germany, most recently Brian went to the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach for a research project on the young Hermann Hesse. Supported by both a Focus Europe Fellowship and a Leebron Smyth Summer Travel Scholarship, this research project will also be the backbone of an upcoming Fulbright Scholarship application. Brian, who says that he works best at night, especially likes the small class sizes in German Studies and that the professors are able to give each stuent individual attention, but also the ability to travel and “the cool feeling of being able to spak another language.” Among the German majors Brian holds somewhat of record: over the last few years he has been to almost every major German city—only Frankfurt am Main, Essen and Cologne are still missing from his list. Between German Studies, listening to jazz and writing fiction, his professors have no idea how he found the time to head three committees at Hanszen College and be involved in O-Week. — Brian is now off to Germany on a Fulbright Teaching Grant and will start a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at UT-Austin next year. We wish him all the best.