Heidi Denzel joined the faculty at Dartmouth in 2019 as Visiting Associate Professor and has taught classes in Intercultural Communication, German, French and Spanish Studies, Comparative Literature, and Film and Media Studies. Previously, she worked at the Goethe-Institut, at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, the Global Center of Politics of the Freie Universität Berlin, and at the department of World Languages and Cultures at Georgia State University. She is the author of a monography on biographical fiction, the co-editor of the special issue Framing Islam: Faith, Fascination, and Fear in Twenty-First-Century German Culture and has published on topics of global politics, migration and border studies, media monitoring and media activism, literary tourism and interdisciplinary pedagogy.

Building on her research, teaching and volunteering in the field of dialogue, migration and human rights, she co-founded the interdisciplinary initiative FLOW-Foreign Languages Offering Wellbeing.  Since 2022, Dr. Denzel has been working on topics of mental health and wellbeing and is interested in developing creative strategies for student-centered learning, Universal Design of Learning and engaged pedagogy. Her current research and teaching interests focus on dialogue, voice, somatic bodies, and meditation (e.g., Conversations in Polarized Societies – The Mo:Lab Dialogue Principle and Music, Vocal Techniques and Mental Health). She co-convenes the University Seminar Personal, Public and Planetary Wellbeing at Dartmouth and is exploring human-tree relationships in cultural practices and poetic and mindful philosophies like Shinrin-yoku (Japanese: Forest Bathing) and Waldeinsamkeit (German: woodland solitude) through interdisciplinary lenses.

More articles about FLOW: 

Heidi Denzel and Nicolay Ostrau: "Responding to the Mental Health Crisis Among our Language-learning Community: A Report on the Pilot Project FLOW (fFreign Languages Offering Well-being)." Die Unterrichtspraxis 56.1 (2023): 21-24.

"Verbum Ultimum: Baby Steps Toward Student Wellness: Small Changes in the Classroom Could Have a Big Impact on Student Mental Health and Wellbeing."    

- "German Courses Integrate Student Wellness into Curriculum."