Ingrid Zeller

For over three decades, I have taught German with great enthusiasm, finding fulfillment in guiding learners as they explore and deepen their engagement with the German language and its rich cultural contexts.

I teach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where I offer courses across all levels of instruction. My research and teaching interests focus especially on architecture, film, and music, and I regularly design interdisciplinary courses that integrate these areas. As director of the German Writing Center, the German Club, and as one of the leader of our summer program in Berlin, I work closely with students, support their development as writers and language learners, and help create engaging, practice-oriented learning opportunities both on campus and abroad. In addition, I lead architecture tours, both walking tours and river cruises, in both German and English as a bilingual certified volunteer docent with the Chicago Architecture Center.

Originally from Munich, I relocated to the United States with my family at the age of fourteen, settling in New Jersey. I studied piano at the Manhattan School of Music and pursued graduate work in German Studies, Language Pedagogy, and Modern Languages at Columbia University in New York City.

Collaboration and community-building are, in my opinion, central to our profession. My commitment to serving as a GEM is inspired largely by my own profoundly helpful exchanges with experienced colleagues over the years. I am eager to share my expertise in established pedagogical approaches, as well as insights drawn from my own teaching practice, in meaningful dialogue with fellow educators.