Welcome letter to students WS 25/26

Dear students of English and American Studies at JMU Würzburg,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you back to our university this winter semester 2025/26! To those of you joining us for the first time, I’d like to extend a warm welcome on behalf of all colleagues. We hope that you will soon feel at home at JMU and actively engage in our community of readers, researchers, writers, and learners. The building may look like a construction site from the outside (it is…), but we hope you will find some warmth and inspiration inside – in our classes, lectures, seminars, and other activities.

In this letter, I’d like to share some general information with you and reiterate how important it is to be critical thinkers and life-long learners at this time and age. Over the summer, I read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new novel Dream Count(2025), which reminded me of the author’s famous TED talk on The Danger of a Single Story, in which Adichie states: 

The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar. (Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, The Danger of a Single Story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg)

In 2025, we need to remember the dangers of a single story more than ever. No matter which classes you take – Linguistics, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, American or English Literature and Culture – we all have the opportunity to critically engage with other stories, other worldviews and other fields of learning and thinking. As lecturers and researchers, we are equally interested in your perspectives and thoughts. So please, be an active participant in our classes at this institution of teaching, learning and research!

Finally, some highlights (and reminders):

• The registration period for classes has been brought forward in response to the student survey last year. Thanks again to all students who participated in the survey!
• Regular attendance is part of an active learning process. Please attend all classes. 
• If your semester plans change – and only then – please deregister from WueStudy. This gives other students a chance to take up your place. 
• Use your university email address for all university-related communication.
• Remember to register for exams if you would like to receive credit points.  
• Write term papers, presentations and all other assignments yourselves! All forms of plagiarism and AI-generated papers will result in failure (see: https://www.neuphil.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/04110100/2024/Selbstaendigkeitserklaerung_AngAm_25-6-24.pdf)
• If you would like to get advice on academic writing, the ‘Schreibzentrum’ offers courses: https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/schreibzentrum/ 
• Our Erasmus programme offers excellent opportunities to go abroad every year, e.g., to Cambridge, Liverpool or Warwick. Check out: https://www.neuphil.uni-wuerzburg.de/anglistik/study-programmes/auslandsaufenthalt/

I wish you – and all of us – a successful and inspiring start into the new semester! 

Kind regards,

Prof. Dr. Kirsten Sandrock
(Chair of the English Department)

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