Dr. Rachel Ritterbusch

Dr. Rachel Ritterbusch joined the Modern Languages faculty at Shepherd University in 2004 after teaching French and German for several years in the St. Louis area. Dr. Ritterbusch received her M.A. from University of Munich in 1993 where she studied not only French but German and Spanish as well. However, a great deal of her learning took place outside the classroom in the various student jobs she held, ranging from cashier at Burger King to translator/secretary with international patent attorneys. After returning to the U.S., Dr. Ritterbusch pursued doctoral studies in French at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she wrote her dissertation on Marguerite Duras, a prominent 20^th-century French woman author. 

Dr. Ritterbusch’s areas of specialization include 19^th- and 20^th-century French literature, French and Francophone culture, and film. She is also interested in the application of second-language acquisition theory to the classroom and has recently conducted a study focusing on difficulties that native English speakers have when learning the German case system. For fun, Dr. Ritterbusch likes to read, cook, hike, and explore the Appalachian mountain area.