Kristin Rebien, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, German
Comparative International Studies
CINTS Advisor; German Program Director
College of Arts and Letters
SDSU
Bio
Kristin Rebien earned Master's degrees in Germanistik and Political Science from the Universität Leipzig in Germany and a Ph.D. in German Studies from Stanford University. Her research interests include twentieth and twenty-first century German literature; literature and culture in European Studies; and memory studies.
She has published articles on iconic postwar writers including Heinrich Böll, Paul Celan, and Johannes Bobrowski; literary institutions, such as Gruppe 47 and the Ingeborg Bachmann Preis; and theories of reading. Recent work has focused on GDR memory discourses in young adult literature and European imaginaries in German literature. She is the co-editor (with Michel Mallet and Maria Mayr) of Unrealized Futures in Post-Socialist Memory and Culture (de Gruyter, 2024), part of the Media and Cultural Memory series. She is currently working on a monograph, Narratives of Unity: Europe in the German Literary Imagination since 1945.
At SDSU, Dr. Rebien teaches courses in German, European Studies, and Comparative International Studies. She directs the German Program and serves as an undergraduate advisor for German and Comparative International Studies. Before joining SDSU, she taught at Princeton University.
Areas of Specialization
Twentieth and Twenty-First Century German Literature; European Cultural Studies; Memory Studies
Courses
Comparative International Studies
- CINTS 435, Global Activism and Social Change
European Studies
- EUROP 101, Introduction to European Studies
- EUROP 301, Contemporary Europe
German Studies
- Literature, Literary Awards, and the Literary Market (GERMN 575)
- German Literature and the European Union (GERMN 575)
- Modern German Literature (GERMN 520)
- German Politics (GERMN 435)
- Society and Culture (GERMN 430)
- Innovation and Transformation (GERMN 411)
- Stories and Histories since the Middle Ages (GERMN 410)
- German Film (GERMN 320)
- Grammar and Composition (GERMN 301)
- Zeitgeist and Pop Culture (GERMN 300)
- Beginning and Intermediate German language classes
Student Opportunities
Mentor, Schuman Challenge, annual competition hosted by the European Union’s Delegation to the United States in Washington, D.C.
Grants
SDSU Division of Research and Innovation Research Grant, 2022, 2025
Critical Thinking Grant in the Humanities and Social Sciences, SDSU College of Arts and Letters, Fall 2009, Fall 2013, Fall 2015, Fall 2017, 2024
Book Manuscript Development Grant, SDSU Division of Research and Innovation (DRI), 2022
Mid-Career Grant (MCG) for Faculty Professional Development in the Humanities and Social Sciences, SDSU, 2019
College of Arts and Letters Award for Exceptional Service to Students, SDSU, 2017 and 2019
Outstanding Faculty Award, SDSU College of Arts and Letters, 2013 and 2018
Publications
Book
Michel Mallet, Maria Mayr, Kristin Rebien, eds. Post-Socialist Memory in Contemporary German Culture. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024.
Recent Articles
“The Missing Piece: Implicated Subjects and the Fullness of GDR History in Young Adult Literature.” German Life and Letters (accepted and in production; expected fall 2026)
“Return from the Future: Ingo Schulze’s Open-Ended Wende Narratives.” Post-Socialist Memory in Contemporary German Culture. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024. 75-99.
“Sarmatien als politsche Utopie im Zeitalter der Berliner Mauer“ [The Political Utopia of Sarmatia in the Age of the Berlin Wall] Sarmatien – Germanica Slavica – Mitteleuropa. Vom Grenzland im Osten über Bobrowskis Utopie zur Ästhetik des Grenzraums / Sarmatia – Germania Slavica – Central Europe: From the Borderland in the East and Bobrowski’s Utopia to a Border Aesthetics. Sabine Egger, Stefan Hajduk & Britta C. Jung, eds. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht unipress (Deutschsprachige Gegenwartsliteratur und Medien), 2020. 103-118.
“Jenseits der Grenzen: Europa in der zeitgenössischen deutschen Literatur.“ Das Politische in der Literatur der Gegenwart [Politics in Contemporary Literature]. eds. Stefan Neuhaus, Immanuel Nover. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2019
“Whose Nation? Johannes Bobrowski’s Case for Inclusive Communities and Basic Liberal Rights.” German Studies Review 40.3 (2017)
“Cosmopolitan Perspectives: Globalization and Transnationalization in Contemporary German Literature.” Transcultural Identities in Contemporary Literature. eds. Irene Gilsenan Nordin, Julie Hansen, Carmen Zamorano Llena. Amsterdam: Rodopi: 2013. 111-132.
“Literary Awards and the Practice of Aesthetic Judgment.” Journal of Austrian Studies; 45:3-4 (2012).
“Kunstbetrachtungen: Paul Celan über den Surrealisten Edgar Jené.” Der Betrachter ist im Text! Kunstrezeption in der deutschsprachigen Literatur nach 1945. ed. Sylwia Werner. Berlin: Trafo, 2012. 299-316.
“Gruppe 47: Literature, Politics, and the Political Economy of Postwar Publishing.” German Life and Letters 62.4 (2009), 448-64.
“Dichten, Denken, Lesen: Theories of Reading in Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger.” The Germanic Review, 84.1 (2009), 59-83.
“Dimensions of Engagement: Politics and Aesthetics in Heinrich Böll’s Early Fiction.” The German Quarterly 80.3 (2007), 350-67.
Service
- German Program Director
- German Undergraduate Advisor
- Comparative International Studies Co-Advisor (with Emily Schuckman-Matthews and Zamira Abman)
- Departmental Scholarship Committee
- Many more departmental, college, and university committees
- Fulbright Campus Interviews and Language Assessments for German
Community Engagement
- Board of Trustees, Albert Einstein Academy Charter Schools, San Diego, a public charter school (K-8) with a German program