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If the German‐speaking world is conceived of as a pluralistic society, open to migration, and integrated in global networks, then what could Heimat mean for German Studies? This article presents a rationale and curricular design model for critically unpacking the cultural narrative of Heimat within a globalized context. As numerous scholars have argued, Heimat is a complex, possibly untranslatable concept that expresses both belonging and exclusion. Its connection to nationalism, racism, and propaganda in German history is well known, and we argue that its most recent reemergence in public and political discourse presents pressing implications for German instruction. Given all of the cultural energies embedded into the concept, this article considers how we might reframe Heimat in our courses to build students' critical thinking skills and global perspectives. Through recent curriculum reform efforts in our undergraduate German program, we have implemented an iterative approach to critically probing the layered meanings of Heimat via multiple texts and avenues for student engagement at each level of the curriculum. By engaging the concept through a spiraling, content‐driven design, students confront the implications of Heimat as an organizer of German identities and a discursive vehicle for achieving a more inclusive Germany and German Studies.

Environmental issues have received significant attention in German Studies for a number of years, leading to innovations in both research and pedagogy. More recently, attention has focused on applied pedagogical practices such as service‐learning projects and bilateral exchanges related to environmental sustainability. While these initiatives offer numerous potential benefits, as shown in research on high‐impact practices, and while the topic may attract students to learn German, these forms of teaching entail a range of challenges and questions for educators that are distinct from the work traditionally carried out in German language pedagogy. This co‐authored article offers resources for working through these challenges and introduces a collection of free online materials currently in development. We suggest a model of critical environmental thinking in the classroom that asks students to use the target language to reexamine familiar concepts and daily practices connected to the environment and apply their knowledge of other cultures to multimodal projects.

This article describes strategies that the author employed to make a general education course titled "Fairy Tales and Folklore" more diverse and inclusive. Students read primary texts and secondary articles as part of ongoing debates, then form their own arguments within the debate, thus coming to understand how fairy tales are embedded within open and ongoing critical discussions about contemporary culture. Further, students analyze a classic work of Native American literature that, like the Grimm Brothers' Kinder-und Hausmärchen, employs folklore within a project of cultural nationalism, but with very different implications due to systems of power and oppression that emerge at the intersection of folklore and colonization. Finally, students create new tales out of their own experiences. Through analysis of diverse texts, debate, and creative writing that emphasize the role of storytelling as resistance, the course described here takes first steps toward turning the fairy-tale classroom into a space of empowerment.

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