I grew up in southern Germany, where I studied German and Theology at the University of Eichstätt. While working as a student assistant for my professor of Medieval German, I helped transcribe medieval manuscripts — work that fitted perfectly with my long-standing interest in the detail and history of language. This work led me to Oxford as a graduate student at St Edmund Hall, where I specialised in Medieval German Mysticism. I was awarded my MSt in Research Methods in Modern Foreign Languages in 1998, funded by the British Academy, and subsequently completed the last year of my Staatsexamen in Germany.

In the years that followed, I taught German at secondary level and in adult education near Manchester. My experience preparing students for A level German deeply informed my approach to university teaching: I value clarity, structure and creativity and enjoy helping students build both confidence and curiosity in the language.

I returned to Oxford in 2013 to continue my work in German and have been teaching Brasenose students since 2018. I am a Lecturer in German Language for several colleges, teaching translation into German, grammar and Business German, as well as providing tutorials for visiting students. For the Oxford Language Centre, I teach German for Theologians.

I have family in Germany and still visit several times a year, which keeps me closely connected to the culture and linguistic nuances I teach.

I teach translation into German to students in all year groups, using a wide range of literary texts to develop grammatical precision, stylistic awareness, and confidence in written German. I enjoy selecting diverse voices and styles that reflect the richness of German literature, helping students to engage both analytically and creatively with language. Grammar is an integral part of our work, supporting clear and accurate translation. In the first and final years, we also focus on preparing for the translation exams through targeted practice and discussion.

One of the things that makes the German course at Oxford unique is the close, collaborative nature of our teaching. In prose translation tutorials, we work in small groups, which means that everyone has the opportunity to contribute, share ideas, and develop their own approach to language. We combine individual work with partner and small-group activities, and our discussions are often lively and wide-ranging — exploring not only how best to translate a text, but why certain choices matter. These conversations often shape how students think about their future translations and deepen their understanding of how language works.