Contact: Peter Pabisch 277-5335 Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920

November 13, 2002 MAX KADE FOUNDATION NAMES PABISCH DISTINGUISHED RESEARCHER University of New Mexico Professor Peter Pabisch, German Studies, has been named Distinguished Max Kade Research Professor and will serve as panelist and moderator at a conference at the University of Graz in Austria next week. Pabisch, one of only five United States members of German PEN, an international association of writers, is an authority on dialectic German. Among his recent publications is a translation of German dialect poetry in both standard German and English. The purpose of the conference is to explore how the German language is spoken in Central Europe. "German has been spoken at some point in time since the middle ages in Romania, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia and all the way to Kazakstan," said Pabisch. Pabisch said that once the Iron Curtain fell, many German descendants living in those places relocated to Germany. "More than three million people immigrated back to Germany in the last ten years," he said. More than 200 scholars will look at the status quo of German in central, eastern and southeastern Europe during the conference. In addition to language, they will study the cultural side, Germany's music and literature. "As the European Union looks to expand by adding 10 new members in 2004, German is growing as a second language," said Pabisch. "German regularly follows Russian and English as a second language of choice among Europeans," he said. "I am very pleased and honored to be named research lecturer by the Max Kade Foundation," said Pabisch. In addition to participating in the conference, Pabisch will write a scholarly piece to be included in the published papers of the conference. The conference is also supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. # # #

The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981