FSEM 119   The Danube

Faculty Profile for Professor Miller

One river. Draining from some 14 European countries. Entraining still more languages, cultures, and imaginaries. From Black Forest to Black Sea. A large traversal west-east watershed and yet again a site of catastrophe: amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, the Danube must be sailed again. In theory and history, geography and politics, cinema and art. If Europe’s most multinational river is indeed an “experiment affecting the whole world,” much is at stake. Students who successfully complete this seminar receive credit for CORE C184 and satisfy the Core Communities requirement.

Matthew Miller teaches in Colgate’s German Department and the Core Curriculum. A Germanist by training, his research addresses literature and culture across central Europe’s turbulent history, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. In the Fall of 2023, he is teaching Core Danube (which counts towards the Core Communities part of the curriculum) as a First-Year Seminar to introduce incoming Colgate students to education in the liberal arts as well as European Studies.