In memoriam: Airi Miriam Jokiniemi (1937-2002)

Airi Miriam Jokiniemi (1937-2002) passed away on March 16, 2002, after a long battle with cancer. She was a professor of German literature in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at York University (Toronto). Miriam joined the department as a lecturer in 1967 and became Assistant Professor in 1974 after completing her doctoral dissertation on Alfred Dublin. Miriam was cross-appointed to the School of Women's Studies and was a long-time supporter of Women in German. A founding member of the Ontario Goethe Society (1973-74), served on their Executive Committee from 1989 on. She was Vice-president of the Ontario Association of Teachers of German from 1995 until her death, a member of the York University Centre for Jewish Studies, and a member of the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German. Miriam's research focused on the literature of East Germany and on Berlin. In her publications, explored the representation of older women in East German fiction and wrote about the stereotypes surrounding old age and ageing and the way women have internalized these stereotypes. In addition, Miriam was always enthusiastic about Berlin: especially loved the culture of from the twenties to the present, with its films and cabarets. She was also intent on integrating contemporary events into her teaching and research. Thus, when the wall came down, gave several conference papers on the representation of the in contemporary songs and ballads and organized a session on Berlin after the Wall at the annual conference of the AATG. Moreover, Miriam was innovative in her teaching and concerned about pedagogy. In the early 1990s redesigned the introductory German literature course to include issues of age, gender, and Otherness. A four-- week unit on the Holocaust also became part of this course -an indication of her intellectual honesty and courage. Based on her experience in the classroom, Miriam later gave several talks on pedagogical strategies regarding teaching the Holocaust in the German classroom. She recently co-edited, together with Nancy Lauckner, a collection of articles on the subject, Shedding Light on the Darkness: North American Germanists Teach the Holocaust (Berghahn 2000). Miriam's interest in the Holocaust also incorporated a feminist angle: cared about the work of female survivors and in 1991 lectured on The Survivor as Old Woman in the Autobiographical Fiction of Grete Weil. She was instrumental in introducing to her department new courses that stimulated interest in German Studies. A colleague testifies to her interest in pedagogy and methodology: she also audited courses in lifewriting and film studies so that could integrate those methodologies into her courses; the Film Course developed attracted Film Studies majors, as well as students of German literature. …

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