Staff

Kari is originally from a small town in eastern Texas. Unfortunately she did not ride a horse to school or live on a ranch, though she often wishes that she had. In 2003, she received a B.A. in History from Yale University, and in 2012 completed an M.A. in English Linguistics at the University of Tübingen where she also worked as a graduate student assistant for Prof. Susanne Winkler and with Dr. Janina Radó at the SFB 833.

She has been teaching English as a Second Language at a variety of levels since 2003. As a New York Teaching Fellow, she completed her student teacher training, was certified as a K-12 teacher for ESL and Social Studies and taught high school students in the Bronx, NY. She then moved across the pond to continue her TESOL training and instruct college students and professionals in Baden-Württemberg where she has been a certified Cambridge ESOL examiner since 2009.

One of her hobbies includes striving to improve her German language skills as well as acquire a sufficient amount of survival Swabian. She also enjoys travelling, discussing history and politics, and continuing her research in the field of linguistics. Kari is delighted to be teaching Academic English in the American Studies and English Departments here in Tübingen.

Jonathan Sharp was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied music (violin/piano) at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and received his MA in English language and literature from the University of St. Andrews in 1999. After St. Andrews, where he met neither Prince William nor Kate, he moved to Vienna, where he worked as a music director in various theatres, and began acting. In 2001, he started teaching English at the University of Vienna, as well as helping to develop a department drama group. In 2007 he moved to Munich to take up a post at the English department of the LMU, where he taught language and drama courses for 4 years. In Munich he also studied acting at the Performing Arts Studio (PAS), and further developed his main research and practical interest: drama in English for non-native speakers. He is excited to be joining the team at Tübingen!

In his spare time he likes trying to keep his violin playing up to some kind of acceptable standard, playing football with anyone who will let him join in, and enjoying the great outdoors in Germany and elsewhere.

Elisabeth Chaghafi has a fine collection of degrees, including a doctorate in English literature, which she received in 2013 from the University of Oxford. During her time there, she was a keen rower, but sadly also a useless one, for which she likes to blame the fact that she wasn’t tall enough.

She has taught at Tübingen since 2014. In her classes, she is a stickler for logic and structure of argument and occasionally sneaks in the odd bit of literature.

In her spare time she likes to indulge in her hobbies, which include old books, silent films, 16th-century literature, and palaeography – which is particularly good news for you if you think you have messy handwriting, because she has almost certainly seen worse from some guy who died in 1620.

Robert McColl received his doctorate from Liverpool University in 2006, following a thesis on the historical romance in Byron and Scott. Following a CELTA course in Madrid, he taught for two years in London and Santander, before becoming Assistant Professor of English at Alfaisal University, Riyadh, from 2008-10. From 2010-14, he lectured at Ruhr University, Bochum, teaching a variety of courses in both Sprachpraxis and Literature. He has been at Tübingen since 2015.

Within Sprachpraxis, he has particular interests in written economy, ‘creative’ writing, debate and recital. He also hosts a monthly ‘occasion’ for writers to read and critique their own and others’ work. When possible, he continues to write on Lord Byron, Bob Dylan, folk and blues. He is the author of an inexorable, probably unpublishable, comic romance and, from time to time, casts sidelong glances at music and drama.

He has no hobbies.