Associate professor of German Robert Tobin has received a Fulbright grant to travel and study in Germany during his sabbatical this spring.

	As a Perry Scholar, senior German major Tanja Englberger went to Samoa last summer to assist professor Robert Tobin in a search for literary reflections of Germany's colonial experience there. Back on campus, she meets with Tobin, left. He has won a Fulbright for study in Germany this spring.

Tobin's Fulbright project, "Nationality and Sexuality: The Rise and Fall of Identity in Germany," covers German literature and culture from 1870 to the present. The project begins with the observation that around the same time the German state was established in 1871, the modern vocabulary for sexuality was invented in German, with words for "homosexual" and "heterosexual" being used for the first time. So the question, says Tobin, is whether there was a peculiar mentality in the German-speaking world of the late 19th century that was interested in establishing identity based on nationality and sexuality.

Tobin said he will continue the investigation to the present day. The vocabulary is becoming more inclu-sive, and at the same time there appear to be, at least in North-western Europe, a loss of national identities and an emphasis on the European or the regional identity. So, Tobin asks, "has there been a decline in this kind of thinking about identity in terms of nationality and sexuality?"

One of the sub-themes of his investigation will be the relationships among German, Jewish, and gay identities in this time period. Tobin said he hopes eventually to publish a book on his findings.