Elizabeth Mittman is the 2023 recipient of the MSU Award for Outstanding Service to Education Abroad, which recognizes faculty and staff who give their time, energy, and creativity to the development and implementation of education abroad programs that support MSU's commitment to providing students with high-quality international education opportunities.

Mittman is an associate professor of German Studies in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures in the College of Arts and Letters. Her primary research focus is East German and postsocialist studies; additional research and teaching interests include film and visual culture, autobiography and life writing, memory culture, and gender studies. She is currently working on a book project on gender, voice, and the problem of authenticity in representations of the German Democratic Republic. 

Mittman has served on the editorial board of the German Quarterly and held leadership positions in the Coalition of Women in German. She was recently elected to a three-year term as Great Lakes regional delegate to the Modern Language Association’s Delegate Assembly. Dr. Mittman is currently serving as the education abroad coordinator for the German Studies program at MSU, where she oversees three distinct offerings for students to immerse themselves in German language and culture. In 2006-2007 she served as academic director of the Academic Year in Freiburg, a long-standing consortium program in which MSU participates along with several other Big Ten universities. She has led MSU's six-week summer education program, German Language and Culture in Mayen, several times, and will be co-leading that program in summer 2023 as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.  

Mittman was nominated for the award by Shawn Loewen, professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. “Dr. Mittman has played a crucial role with students and has been pivotal in ensuring stability in the leadership and staffing of the German education abroad programs at MSU. Her sustained and substantial contribution to education abroad during her time at MSU has helped make the German program a leader for education abroad in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures,” said Loewen.

Read more about Mittman’s work:

• German Study Abroad Program Celebrates 50 Years of Life-Changing Experiences