{"id":11292,"date":"2010-04-01T07:00:32","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=11292"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:43:03","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:43:03","slug":"outstanding-ta-urges-students-to-keep-an-open-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/04\/outstanding-ta-urges-students-to-keep-an-open-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Outstanding TA’ Urges Students to Keep an Open Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\"<p>Martina<\/a>
Martina Luke speaks with undergraduate Jens Schmidtke. Photo by Jessica Tommaselli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What should students do when they have earned their degree? For Martina L\u00fcke, who was named ‘Outstanding Teaching Assistant for 2009-2010,’ the answer is simple: they should earn another one.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what she\u2019s doing, anyway.<\/p>\n

A native of Germany, L\u00fcke studied history, German, and education as an undergraduate, and earned her Ph.D. in education from the University of Hamburg. She then decided that it was time to embark on a career in teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come from a family of teachers, and I love to explain things, so teaching was a natural career choice for me,\u201d says L\u00fcke. \u201cBut I was working towards a tenure track position as a teacher, and I knew that if I was accepted for it, I would be there forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I thought \u2013 now or never. I was in my late 20s, I knew that there was still so much out there for me to learn, and it was simply that: now or never.\u201d<\/p>\n

Determined to study abroad, L\u00fcke came to UConn to pursue what she thought would be a \u201cquick\u201d master\u2019s degree in German literature. The arrangement offered the best of both worlds for, as L\u00fcke explains, it allowed her to learn and teach at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as my degree was coming to a close,\u201d she says, \u201cmy advisor approached me about staying. They liked my teaching, they liked my writing; in the end, they tried to convince me to switch from an MA to a Ph.D.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00fcke decided to stay and complete her doctorate under Professors Katharina von Hammerstein and Anke Finger, both faculty members in German studies and comparative literature in the department of classical and modern languages. She says their constant support and encouragement were important factors in helping her decide to stay.<\/p>\n

Von Hammerstein says, \u201c[Martina has] proven that she has what it takes to make a difference in the field of German literacy and cultural scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n

A versatile and productive scholar, L\u00fcke has published numerous articles and presented material at both national and international conferences, all while working on her second dissertation and acting as a cultural ambassador between the United States and Germany.<\/p>\n

L\u00fcke says people find it strange that she is pursuing a second doctorate: \u201cBut I look at it like this: the more you learn, and the more you exchange ideas, the better. So much pain in the world comes from not knowing things \u2013 not knowing other cultures, not knowing other people, not knowing other ideas. When you really look at it, you see that evil sprouts at its root from ignorance.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00fcke credits her love of knowledge and learning to the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant, whom she read in high school. It was Kant\u2019s belief that man could only come to understand the most important of philosophic questions by first understanding the sources and limits of human knowledge; that one must strive to understand as much of the world around them, in order to understand oneself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first read Kant, his ideas literally blew my mind,\u201d says L\u00fcke. \u201cHis motto \u2018dare to know\u2019 is essential to me as a human being, student, and instructor. It holds the key to each person\u2019s intellectual liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00fcke is currently studying representations of violence and warfare in German Romanticism and will complete her Ph.D. in May. Upon graduation, she plans to go back into teaching, at either the high school or college level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019ve taught my students one thing,\u201d she says, reflecting on her time as a TA, \u201cI hope it is that they should love and enjoy the opportunities they have to learn. I hope that they will be open-minded and willing to try new things, I hope that they will look at the world from different perspectives, and \u2013 above all \u2013 I hope that they will dare to ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martina L\u00fcke encourages students to exchange ideas and be willing to try new things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-11292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 05:37:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11292"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37585,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11292\/revisions\/37585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11292"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=11292"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}