Europe Fluvial: Multilingual Cultural Studies On‐Site

This article details recent efforts to develop the undergraduate German curriculum with a focus on innovations in on‐site linguistic and cultural‐historical learning. Amid challenges stemming from the shifting functions of higher education, the changing profiles of student interests, and the evolving contours of our field, 21 st ‐century German Studies in the U.S. increasingly finds itself in a mixed position of duress and opportunity. To continue to assert the value and relevance of our undertaking, we will likely do well to pursue German Studies' global turn. Without forfeiting the critical backbone of the discipline or our commitment to language acquisition and the emancipatory potentials of Bildung , we can articulate our areas of inquiry capaciously, for example, elaborate Germanophone Studies within a landscape of multilingual and multinational humanities as well as demonstrate German Studies' sensitivity and responsiveness to students' orientations, interests, and needs. Highlighting such efforts with regard to curricular innovation and on‐site learning, “Europe Fluvial” presents reflections on a cocurricular trip with students of French and German to the upper Rhine region as a case study of what multilingual European cultural studies can accomplish.