Anja Karen Kölling - Research Associate

Anja Karen Kölling holds a university degree in Modern German Literature, Linguistics, Psychology, and Theatre Studies from Freie Universität Berlin (graduated 2007). She further broadened her academic profile through postgraduate studies in Applied Literary Studies and German as a Foreign Language (DaF).

Her international teaching experience began in 2000 with German as a Foreign Language instruction and cultural work at the Casa de Cultura Alemã of the Universidade Federal do Ceará in Fortaleza, Brazil. Over the course of her career, she has worked at the Deutsches Haus at NYU/ New York University, UFRRJ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Università degli Studi di Milano in Milan, Italy, the Goethe-Institut in Berlin and Lisbon, Portugal, and the GLS Language School in Berlin.

After several years as a teacher in welcome and German-language classes at Modeschule Berlin (2015–2018), Karen Kölling worked in adult education as a project manager and editor at Cornelsen Verlag / publishing company (2018–2020). In parallel, she contributed as a volunteer trainer at the Netbased Learning Institute in Berlin and led freelance professional development courses and coaching for teachers of German as a Foreign/Second Language (DaF/DaZ). From 2021 to 2024, she was a DAAD lecturer and taught at Università degli Studi di Milano in Milan, Italy.

Born in Potsdam, she returned to her hometown and has been actively engaged since 2024 at the University of Potsdam in promoting everyday multilingualism and fostering theory–practice transfer within the innovative teaching project "Teaching German in Multilingual Primary School Classes.“ Since 2025, she is a member of the academic staff in the team of Prof. Dr. Winnie-Karen Giera at the Junior Professorship for Inclusive German Didactics at the University of Potsdam. Her current focus is on theatre-based pedagogical methods, embodied learning, and pronunciation training in relation to reading competence in German language teaching.

Her academic profile is shaped by the close interaction of teaching practice, teacher education, and research, as well as the development of practice-oriented didactic concepts for publishers and language schools. She has received DAAD scholarships several times in support of her academic work.