Angiras Arya

Angiras Arya is a Lecturer in the German Department at Princeton University,

where he is writing a doctoral dissertation on Rilke’s Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge.  After undergraduate studies at Amherst College and a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in Austria, Angiras earned his M.A. in German from Princeton University in 2009.   In the Fall of 2017, he taught German 503: Intermediate German for Academic Reading.  He developed the course to meet the needs of graduate students who have demonstrated a basic level of German reading proficiency and need further guidance in reading German texts for their research. 

Angiras teaches all of the 100-level courses that constitute the German Department’s language sequence.   From 2011 to 2013, he developed and taught German 101R/102R.  This course was designed for the specific needs of graduate students wishing to conduct research in German while living in a German-speaking environment.  Emphasizing both communicative proficiency and close-reading skills, the course combines the German 101/102 curriculum with primary and secondary textual and multi-media materials from a wide range of fields, including literature, theology, philosophy, art history and science. 

As a collaborator on Prof. Jamie Rankin’s innovative der | die | das online textbook project since 2013, Angiras contributes content, serves as a developmental editor, and creates materials for classroom instruction.  He also spearheaded its adaptation for the Graduate Summer Reading Course, which he has taught since 2014. 

In the Fall of 2016, he taught German 207, Studies in German Language and Style: Society, Politics and Culture in Germany 1890-1945, conducted oversight of German 105, and administered both the departmental graduate reading exam as well as the Fulbright and DAAD language evaluations. 

From the Fall of 2013 to the Summer of 2017, Angiras served as the Assistant Director of the Summer Work Program, which arranges summer internships in Germany for Princeton undergraduates.  He updated the program’s data-management system and increased students’ access to funding.  To meet the growing demand for academic and professional opportunities in Germany, he expanded the range of internships offered, introducing new programs in STEM research, internships at law firms specializing in art restitution, and joint projects with German universities and Princeton alumni.  In response to requests from students, he collaborated with the Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst to develop the Refugee Support: Policy & Application internship, which combines academic work in German refugee policy with practical service experience.