33.1960, All: Obituary Ursula Schaefer (1947-2022)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-33-1960. Sun Jun 12 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.1960, All: Obituary Ursula Schaefer (1947-2022)

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Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2022 23:05:35
From: Claudia Lange [Claudia.Lange at tu-dresden.de]
Subject: Obituary Ursula Schaefer (1947-2022)

 
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Ursula Schaefer,
Professor Emerita of English Linguistics and Medieval Studies, at the age of
74 on 7 June 2022. We will remember her as an outstanding scholar, inspiring
teacher, and dedicated university administrator.

Ursula Schaefer was born in Überlingen in the South of Germany in 1947. She
studied English and history in Freiburg and Munich and became lecturer in
English philology at Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, where she completed
both her PhD and her postdoctoral dissertation. The latter on 'Vokalität:
Altenglische Dichtung zwischen Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit' (‘Vocality’:
Old English Poetry between Orality and Literacy), testified to her enduring
interest in orality and literacy, a scholarly project which took her from its
emergence in the Freiburg collaborative research centre
(Sonderforschungsbereich) via many publications to another collaborative
research centre at Technische Universität Dresden. Before she took over the
Chair of English Linguistics at TU Dresden in 1999, she served as Professor of
Medieval English Literature at Humboldt University Berlin in 1993, where she
also became pro-vice chancellor in 1996. Her aptness for administrative
matters was also apparent at TU Dresden, where she was dean of the Faculty of
Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies from 2003 to 2006 and then again
pro-vice chancellor from 2010 to 2013. Upon retirement, she moved back to her
beloved Freiburg, where she continued giving lectures, but finally found more
time to play tennis.

Ursula Schaefer belonged to that dwindling group of scholars who proudly bore
the label ‘philologist’: her expertise ranged from Anglo-Saxon poetry via
Middle English standardizations to present-day language ideologies. Her
numerous publications include two monographs (on Middle English poetry and
‘Vocality’), various edited collections, more than 40 articles and
encyclopaedia entries, and a textbook on Middle English (co-authored with Lilo
Moessner). As a fierce defender of professional integrity, she pursued
research for its own sake regardless of its capacity for generating grants –
even though she was successful in obtaining them.

In addition to her other endeavours, Ursula Schaefer conceptualised and
established the Master’s degree in “Europäische Sprachen” (“European
Languages”) at TU Dresden, which, as a cross-linguistic and international
linguistics degree, continues to attract students from Europe and beyond.

We will miss Ursula Schaefer’s expertise, friendship, and mentorship; we will
always remember her booming voice, her impeccable sense of style, her almost
limitless generosity and her fine sense of humour. She will not cease to
inspire us.
 


Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable



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