Magdalena Tarnawska Senel

Lecturer, Department of Germanic Languages, UCLA

The Director of the Language Program, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Lecturer at the Department of Germanic Languages at UCLA, Dr. Magda Tarnawska Senel has researched and taught many aspects of 19^th-, 20^th-, and 21^st-century German culture, literature, social history, and gender studies. Dr. Tarnawska Senel’s approach to teaching is informed by cultural studies (interdisciplinary focus, social critique, pressing political issues, analysis of popular culture and daily practices) and critical pedagogy (education as a means to a just society and to the emancipation of underprivileged/oppressed social groups). Her teaching philosophy and practice align with bell hooks’ approach to education as “teaching to transgress” against racial, sexual, and class boundaries. She strives to help students understand the cultural, political, and historical forces that have shaped lives of different individuals and communities – ultimately encouraging them to become agents of change for, instead of conformists to, systems that do not work.