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Philip Sweet

Professor

Writing, Lang and Lit, School of

Address:

Hemphill Hall 4305
PO Box 6937

Headshot of Philip Sweet

As former Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for decades, I have been involved in the creation, promotion and administration of many foreign language programs. But I now teach German, French and the cross-cultural Germanic Sagas and Myths course here at Radford University. Learning foreign languages is so much fun because it also includes hands-on encounters with other cultures. I know this firsthand from my own Fulbright experience and my graduate studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Universität Freiburg. These cross-cultural experiences for students happen not only in my courses but also in the encounters students have with native speakers outside of class, thanks to our conversational opportunities in the foreign language lab and our study abroad programs. I often hear from former students that their study abroad experiences uniquely prepared them for further study and career advancement.

Relevant Courses

Germanic Sagas and Myths (CCST 110): In this course taught in English, students read and retell ancient myths and sagas. We explore the historical, cultural and religious contexts of these stories and compare them with more contemporary culture and art forms. In addition to early Nordic and Germanic artifacts, we also use visual art, film and opera in this class to discuss deities, heroes, associated symbols and adventures.

Reading German Film (GRMN 300): We both read and watch popular and essential German films in their historical and cultural contexts and then discuss and write about them, especially as related to our own times and cultures.

German Conversation (GRMN 303): This course offers students essential phrases that are useful in manifold conversational tasks and also familiarizes them with useful, widely used idioms. This affords students a treasure of phrases ready to use with amazing overlapping of illocutionary force and with an astounding breadth of ways to express various speech acts. We talk the whole time every day in class!

Service Roles

German Studies Minor Advisor: Given the wide applicability of language learning in many fields, I learn about the students' career interests and help them discover how their foreign language study can support and clarify their future plans.

Curriculum Committee Member: We receive curricular proposals from all departments and schools in the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences (CHBS) and make suggestions for revisions.

German Study Abroad Advisor: Both German and non-German majors benefit from a study abroad experience in a German-speaking country. I help students select an appropriate program and stand beside them along the way in course choices and in specifics of living and studying abroad. Students' careers are often turbo-charged by these experiences abroad, and they often make key career contacts.

Select Publications & Presentations

  • July 2023 talk at the Glencoe Gallery and Museum's Mary Draper Ingles Festival summarizing the history of German immigration to the U.S.
  • March 1, 2020 and February 2023 presentation at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum in Newbern, Virginia on the Germanic origins of the Wilhelm Tell saga as part of the museum's celebration of Adam Hance, the founder of Newbern.
  • March 2019 "Nature, a Model for Rebellion in Schiller's Wilhelm Tell" at the Bicentennial celebration of the Wilderness Road Regional Museum in Newbern, Virginia.
  • Mountain Interstate Foreign Languages Conference Oct. 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee: "Presuming Germanic Women: How Germanic women projected power, and when it went too far for the men, in pre-medieval and medieval narratives."
  • Meeting of the Price Historical Society April 18, 2017 on the topic: "What life would be like if they (German immigrants in the U.S.) had stayed behind."

Education Experience

  • Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan
  • M.A. in Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan
  • B.A. in German and English, University of Richmond

Other Interests

Outdoor interests add a variety to my academic pursuits. For a number of years, I have been advisor to the Radford University Skeet Club and have taught Hunter Education in the local community as a Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) volunteer.

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