Decker, Craig J.

Craig Decker teaches a range of language, literature, and culture courses, from introductory German classes to seminars on topics in modern Austrian and German studies.  He is particularly interested in communicative language pedagogy and in the intersections of literature and history and literature and other media.  He has frequently taken students abroad, on Bates Fall Semester Programs to Berlin, Germany and Vienna, Austria, as well as Short Term programs in Austria.

Craig Decker’s scholarship focuses on those moments where social, literary, and cultural history intersect.  He has a long-standing interest in the history and theory of the “Volksstück” (popular drama) and in representations of the fascist past.  In addition to several articles on these topics, he has edited Balancing Acts: Textual Strategies of Peter Henisch (2002) and Austrian Identities: Twentieth-Century Short Fiction (2004).  His work as a translator includes an English-language version of Peter Henisch’s Steins Paranoia (2000).  Most recently, he served as the editor for German-language drama for the Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama (2007) and from 2008–11 as the editor of Modern Austrian Literature.