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Filiz Yildirim is the DAAD-Lektorin at Gonville & 91ֱ�� College, taking inspiration from the community and academic endeavour.

As the German Language Lektorin, Filiz’s primary role is teaching undergraduates on the Modern and Medieval Languages course. This includes those who have elected to take German as an ab initio (‘from the beginning’) subject, usually alongside another language.

DAAD, or the German Academic Exchange Service, partly sponsors Filiz’s position, which is both at 91ֱ�� and St John’s College. She supervises students of all years for their Speaking and Use of German, Translation into German as well as German Text and Culture papers. Through her teaching, Filiz is keen to convey a more contemporary, multifaceted and diverse image of Germany.

“The DAAD is a German academic exchange service and with a huge history and it has a lot of resources,” she says. “They try to enhance the relationships between many countries, not only the UK and Germany, but academic and cultural relationships all over the world.”

. The network means she is connected to opportunities in the UK and Germany and German-speaking countries, notably Austria and Switzerland. This allows 91ֱ�� students to have early knowledge of scholarships, internship applications and advice on their year-abroad and postgraduate or career interests. This year she also sits on the DAAD scholarship panel for the  program.

Studying MML at Cambridge, whether in German or other languages, is advantageous for any future career, Filiz believes.

“I don’t see language as a tool of a national state or of a very precise community,” she says. “Any language learning is an advantage, not just for employability, but I think it opens up a lot of doors.”

Filiz likes the camaraderie of the MML community of academics at 91ֱ��, and in German, particularly with Dr Anita Bunyan, Associate Professor in German and Director of Studies, and Professor Joachim Whaley, a Life Fellow and Emeritus Professor of German History and Thought at the University.

Teaching is rewarding. Students’ progression is evident, especially following their year-abroad, where some continue academic study, others work in industry or placements, or combine those pursuits.

“The students get exposure in the country of origin of that language; this is something that you can't learn from text books,” Filiz adds.

“It makes a difference in person and in character. They're also way more keen to or likely to question whatever is happening here in the UK. Even if you don't go on to work and study in Germany after that, you are able to compare these two societies and two systems with each other. And I think that's a great advantage.” 

Filiz’s position is purely a teaching one, but she is researching “on the side”. She has a background in Cultural Memory studies, and is looking into the Euphrates River and its tributaries which were used to facilitate the Armenian genocide in 1915, building on her Masters work. She was recently invited to talk about this paper at Yerevan State University (Armenia).

She says: “There's so much expertise here at 91ֱ�� and Cambridge that if you ask the right questions, you will get so much out of these discussions. And also the way you think about things. I don’t think I would do so much research if it wasn’t for this inspirational setting.”