Management of the Language Centre
Robert Wolf
Head of the Language Centre
has been the director of the Language Centre since 1 October 2022 and is very excited about this new responsibility. After completing his teacher training (French-Spanish-Sport) in Erlangen and a Master's degree (DaF) in Bamberg, he held a number of positions at various universities (Erlangen, Göttingen, Paderborn) and has always been keen to share his enthusiasm for both foreign languages and his native tongue, or to learn more languages himself, applying the motto: si te atreves a enseñar nunca dejes de aprender. (If you dare to teach, never stop learning). When he isn't busy with languages, Robert likes to backpack across the world or leave it all behind and go scuba diving.
Contact: robert.wolf@uni-bayreuth.de
Mary Redmond
Assistant Head of the Language Centre and Coordinator for English
was born and raised in the Irish capital Dublin. There and later in Berlin, she studied linguistics and worked at several universities in Ireland and Germany. Mary has been employed at the Language Centre of the University of Bayreuth since 2000 and has been head of the English department since 2011. She also supports management as deputy head of the Language Centre.
Her motto, loosely based on Socrates: Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. For Mary, each language is a world of its own, which makes the Language Centre a galaxy!
Contact: mary.redmond@uni-bayreuth.de
Dr. Oliver Hepp
Coordinator for German as a Foreign Language (DaF)
was a freelance lecturer for many years and has been working at the Language Centre as a full-time lecturer for German as a Foreign Language (DaF) since 2018. He has been team coordinator for DaF since 2020. Oliver discovered his passion for teaching during his German studies at the University of Bayreuth, where he also completed his PhD on the vampire in 19th century literature.
Language has always played a leading role in his professional life. As a former journalist, Oliver has written about football, golf and ice hockey for the sports magazine Kicker and the Mittelbayerische Zeitung, among others. As a research assistant to Carsten Träger, Member of the Bundestag for Fürth, he wrote press releases and speeches and helped to manage Carsten's media appearance(s). In his free time, Oliver treads the boards at the Studiobühne Bayreuth, reads a lot, or tries to find out how long it takes to watch all the shows on Netflix.
Contact: oliver.hepp@uni-bayreuth.de
Gesa Dyckerhoff-Six
Coordinator for Teaching English
is originally from Canada, has been teaching English since the winter semester 08/09 and is team coordinator for the teacher training programme at the Language Centre. She likes the idea that words, like people, have good and not so good friends. For example, acquire and knowledge get along brilliantly, while get and knowledge are extremely reluctant to hang out with each other (we call friendship amongst words 'collocation'). 'Show me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are!' We become much more familiar with new, cool words - and it's funnier too - when we get to know their best buddies at the same time. Gesa loves the music of Bach, but also enjoys dancing flamenco and spending her free time engaging with art and philosophical, social and political issues.
Contact: Gesa.Dyckerhoff-Six(at)uni-bayreuth.de
María José Ruiz Frutos
Coordinator for Spanish
was born in Madrid and is the team coordinator for Spanish. She came to Bayreuth in 2003 for her Erasmus studies and was very enthusiastic about the great diversity of the Language Center. At that time that she attended language courses in German, Swahili as well as Turkish, she also was able to expand her passion for languages in her studies of Hispanic & German Studies and Foreign Language Teaching. Areas of interest to her are natural language processing, intercultural communicative competence, and technologies in foreign language teaching.
Since 2005 she has been teaching Spanish at the University of Bayreuth, her favorite word being ¿vale? She sees language teaching as a means of interacting with other people and learning about other cultures. For her, every language is like a bicycle that allows you to reach different destinations, to develop yourself and to always enjoy the ride! She also enjoys discovering new places on her bike. ¡Vamos!
Contact: ruizfrutos@uni-bayreuth.de
Dott.ssa Elena Ritossa
Coordinator for Italian
originally comes from the vicinity of Trieste, in the northeastern part of Italy, and has been working as an Italian lecturer at the Language Center since 2012. She studied philosophy and didactics of Italian in Trieste, Padua, Tübingen, and Perugia. Since her school days, she knew that teaching was her vocation, and she enthusiastically imparts her language and culture to the students with passion and empathy. Her focus in teaching is on fearless communication and the development of intercultural competences with the aim of reconsidering stereotypes. For this reason, she has realized several projects in the past to bring Italian and German students closer both on-site and offline, encouraging cultural exchange. She is highly motivated to continue in this direction and to find new ways to build bridges between the two cultures together.