Name: Michelle Stott James
BYU employee since: 1988
My job at BYU is… associate professor of German. I teach German literature, but also critical theory and advanced writing courses. I have just finished a six-year term as the chair of the German and Russian department.
Currently I’m working on… preparing the Critically Annotated Collected Works of Elisa von der Recke.
I get most excited about my work when… I am in class with my students, and when I really have the chance to work on my research project.
The philosophical background to most German literature …sparked my interest in my field.
The best advice I’ve ever got about teaching is… to love your students.
When I have 30 minutes of free time, you can find me… trying to find documents relating to the Recke collected works.
My most cherished memory at BYU is… greeting graduates and shaking their hand as they walk across the stand at graduation.
You’ll never find me without… a book.
I’m most looking forward to… going back to regular teaching, now that my term as chair has ended.
If I could travel anywhere… I would go to Vienna because I left my heart in the opera house there.
