Author: Vridhagiri Ganeshan
Prof.Dr.V.Ganeshan (16th April 1947*), presently ‘Visiting Professor’ both at the Department of German Studies and Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at the Emory University, Atlanta/USA, was till January 2007 Professor of German at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. He was Head, Department of German, CIEFL (1978-1980, 1982-1984, 1986-1987 and 1988-1990), Head, Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bombay (1980-1982), Dean of Studies (Foreign Languages), CIEFL (1986-1987, and 1991-1993), Coordinator, Academic Staff College (German), CIEFL (1990-1994). He was also the Vice-chancellor of the CIEFL during 1996-1997 and 2004-2005.
He studied Hindi Literature, History and Political Science at the Osmania University, Hyderabad (1962-1967), Germanistik and Internationale Politik at the Universität München (1967-1975) from where he obtained his MA (1972) and Dr.phil. (1975). His doctoral thesis was on "Das Indienbild deutscher Dichter um 1900". He also has a Sprachlehrerdiplom (1970) from the Goethe-Institut, München.
His fields of specialization are German Studies, Methods of Teaching German as a Foreign Language (DaF) and Cross-Cultural Communication. He has published two books in German as well as over 70 articles in professional journals both in India and abroad. He has also presented papers at numerous international conferences and conducted workshops on German Literature and Cross-Cultural Communication.
He received Scholarship from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) (1967-1972), was awarded a Fellowship by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Germany (1972-1975) and was a Humboldt-Fellow at the Universität München (1987-1988 and 1994-1995). He was selected for the "Jakob- und Wilhelm Grimm-Preis" of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) in the year 1990 for his "scientific and educational contribution to the advancement of German Language and German Philology". He has lived for 8 years in Germany, has widely traveled in Europe and has visited various other countries like Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the USA.
He is married and has two daughters. Ashwini is doing her Ph.D. in Spanish at the University of Texas, Austin/USA. Nivedita has just finished her first year of BA with French as major at the Georgia State University in Atlanta. His wife, Usha Ganeshan, was a Teacher of German at the Goethe-Institut (Max Müller Bhavan) in Hyderabad (1984-1994). Subsequently she underwent training as Montessori Therapist for mentally handicapped children in Germany. Since January 2003 she is working as a Montessori Teacher in Atlanta/USA and is presently associated with the Decatur Montessori School.
Prof.Dr.V.Ganeshan is available for academic assignments, delivering lectures and conducting workshops on German Literature and Culture, Teaching German as a Foreign Language (DaF), Cross-cultural Communication and Hinduism in the context of World Religions.
