Biography

Manfred Lukas Schewe's professional life has oscillated primarily between two cities of comparable size and beauty, Oldenburg in the North of Germany and Cork in the South of Ireland (European Capital of Culture in 2005).

He studied German, English, History, Political, Social and Educational Sciences at Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg from 1975-81. Subsequently, from 1982 - 1987, he held a position as lecturer/DAAD-Lektor at the German Department, National University of Ireland, University College Cork (UCC). Having been awarded a scholarship by the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst / German Exchange Service), he returned to North Germany to complete a PhD-research project and a special drama/theatre training course at Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg. There he also lectured in German Studies, Intercultural Education and Drama/Theatre Pedagogy from 1988 until 1994, when he returned to Ireland with his wife and two children. He has been back at UCC ever since and holds a position as Senior Lecturer in the Department of German.

While his academic home discipline is German Studies/German as a Foreign language, his teaching and research is characterised by a distinctly interdisciplinary orientation. He has developed holistic approaches to the teaching and learning of language, literature and culture by building bridges between different but complementary disciplines: German Studies, Literature Studies, Intercultural Studies, Drama and Theatre Studies, Education, Applied Linguistics and Language Pedagogy.

His numerous publications have focused mainly on aspects of drama-based teaching and learning, including the third edition of Fremdsprache inszenieren (1993),Towards Drama as a Method in the Foreign Language Classroom (1993), Texte lesen und inszenieren (1995), Pädagogische Konzepte für einen ganzheitlichen DaF-Unterricht (2000), Foreign Language Literature through Drama. A Research Project (2003) and Dramapädagogik und fremdsprachlicher Unterricht (2004).

Over the years he has received many invitations to give workshops and guest lectures at renowned institutions in different parts of the world.

Given the interdisciplinary orientation in his teaching and research and special interest in aspects of German/Austrian/Swiss Drama and Theatre of the 20th and 21st centuries, he continues to represent the Department of German on two inter-departmental programmes at UCC, the undergraduate and postgraduate programme in Drama and Theatre Studies and the MA Programme in Applied Linguistics. He has been director of the MA Programme in Applied Linguistics since 2001.

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