Scott Windham
Associate Professor of German in the Department of World Languages and Cultures
Department: World Languages and Cultures
Email: swindham@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-5841
Brief Biography
News & Notes
Education
BA, Davidson College, 1993
PhD in Comparative Literature, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2002
Leadership Positions
Co-director, German Studies program, 2005-present
Assistant Director in the Core Curriculum, with responsibility for Core capstones and the independent major, 2019-23
Chair, Department of World Languages and Cultures, 2008-12
Director of Language Learning Technologies, 2002-08
Research
My SOTL research focuses on helping students develop the linguistic, cultural, and critical thinking skills necessary to think deeply about German culture and cultural products—literature, film, visual art, political discourse, and so on—so that they can participate meaningfully in German society. In particular, I look at the relationship between grammar study and critical analysis. Because grammar is the central meaning-making system of any language, good grammar instruction will focus less on "rules" and "getting things right" and more on expressive possibilities. This will help students write, speak, and think critically and in culturally-appropriate ways.
Another research interest is post-1945 representations of Germany and the Germans. Because the debate over public complicity in the Holocaust is often framed in terms of how best to represent Holocaust perpetrators, good literature and other art often creates a productive conflict between opposing portrayals of perpetrators. The opposition creates possibilities for multiple interpretations, resulting in a more nuanced, because conflictual, portrayal of Holocaust perpetrators.
Current Projects
The "synonym thoughts" project with Olivia Choplin (French) draws from transfer theory (e.g. Bass & Moore, eds., 2017), plurilingualism (e.g. Cenoz & Gorter, 2013), and writing pedagogy (e.g. Mancho´n, ed., 2020) to help students use their native language as a rich resource for thinking and writing critically in another language.
National research study on undergraduates' motivation for studying (and not studying) languages. Elon is taking part in a national study organized by ACTFL, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Elon data collection is led by Binnan Gao, Brandon Essary, Mena Marino, Pablo Celis-Castillo, and me.
Analysis of Stanley Kramer's 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg, with an emphasis on its commentary on morality, politics, and complicity in the United States.
Publications
In progress. Shawyer, S., & Windham, S. (Performance, 2028). Die Dreigroschenoper [The Threepenny Opera] (S. Shawyer & S. Windham, Translation & Adaptation). Original work by B. Brecht.
Under review. Redmann, J., LaFountain, P., Lange, K., Tripp, M., & Windham, S. (2026). Multi-level undergraduate language courses. ALD Bulletin.
In press. Choplin, O., Adamson, A., Meinking, K., & Windham, S. (2026). Fostering a culture of pedagogical progress and care: A case study from the United States. In N. Rao & L. Norton (Eds.), Academics in higher education and informal professional development: An authentic approach. Bloomsbury.
Windham, S., & Lange, K. (2024). I still don’t get it: Easy versus difficult grammar in intermediate German. Die Unterrichtspraxis, 57, 103–117. https://doi.org/10.1111/tger.12272
Windham, S., & Lange, K. (2023). Confronting disruptions through student agency. Die Unterrichtspraxis, 56, 193–196. https://doi.org/10.1111/tger.12230
Lange, K., & Windham, S. (2023). Trial, error, and success: Recruitment and retention initiatives in a small German program. In E. H. Uebel, F. A. Kronenberg, & S. Sterling (Eds.) Language program vitality in the United States: From surviving to thriving in higher education (pp. 267–283). Palgrave Macmillan/Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43654-3_25
Windham, S., Decato, J., Gatti, E., Hatcher, A., Lackaff, D., Lange, K., & Sinn, A. (2020). Education for global civic participation and a career: German Studies in the 21st century at Elon University. In R. Pope-Ruark, P. Motley, and W. Moner (Eds.), Redesigning liberal education: Innovative design for a twenty-first-century undergraduate education (pp. 177-89). Johns Hopkins UP.
Windham, S. (2009). Peter Weiss’s Die Ermittlung: Dramatic and legal representation and the Auschwitz Trial. In A. Kluge & B. Williams (Eds.), Re-examining the Holocaust through literature (pp. 29-60). Cambridge Scholars. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.elon.idm.oclc.org/lib/elon-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1114280
Windham, S. (2008). Staging the audience: Peter Weiss’s The Investigation. In D. K. Jernigan (Ed.), Drama and the postmodern: Assessing the limits of metatheatre. Cambria Press.
Presentations
Windham, S., & Childs, M. (2025, October 4). Artificial intelligence in the world language classroom [conference presentation]. 2025 fall conference of the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina, Winston-Salem, NC, United States.
Lange, K., & Windham, S. (2024, September 23). Recruitment and retention initiatives in a small German program [Invited conference presentation via Zoom]. Language Program Vitality conference, Berkeley, CA, United States.
Lange, K., & Windham, S. (2023, November 18). Best practices for multi-level courses [conference presentation]. 2023 Convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Chicago, IL, United States.
Lange, K., & Windham, S. (2022, November 19). Community, curriculum, career: Practices for growing German programs [conference presentation]. 2022 Convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Boston, MA, United States.
Lange, K., Celis-Castillo, P., & Windham, S. (2022, November 18). Ungrading the world language classroom [conference presentation]. 2022 Convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Boston, MA, United States.
Windham, S. (2019, November 23), presenter and panel chair. Promoting literacy through research-driven grammar instruction [conference presentation]. 2019 Convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Washington, DC, United States.
Windham, S. (2018, October 10). Why we still need grammar instruction but still need to do it better [invited talk hosted by the Department of German and the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures]. Notre Dame, IN, United States.
Windham, S. (2017, October 21). Better grammar instruction to improve students’ literacy [conference presentation]. 2017 fall conference of the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina, Durham, NC, United States.
Ajjan, H., Murfin, M., Otos, K., & Windham, S. (2017, August 17). Teaching failures and what we learned [conference presentation; closing plenary]. Fourteenth Annual Teaching and Learning Conference at Elon University, Elon, NC, United States.
Adamson, S., & Windham, S. (2012, November 17). Using a faculty research group to achieve scholarship-driven curriculum reform [conference presentation]. 2012 Convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Denver, CO, United States.
Professional Activities
Personal Information
Skills
brand-new novice Italian
novice level Spanish
used to know Latin...
reading knowledge of French
very advanced abilities in German