German MA Student
Teaching Assistant
Christian Olias is from Potsdam, study program in Freiburg for becoming teacher in Latin and history – studied archaeology as well – interested especially in ancient history and sociocultural perception – final thesis of his Staatsexamen-study program was about perception of borders in ancient times, particularly in the late Roman empire.
This also influences his research interest within the Master German Studies – border perception in mental ways. How does language create borders, how does it define identity, how does it include or exclude people – identity and border studies is a major interest of his.
In addition to that Christian would really like to learn how to teach German as a foreign language, as he would like to become teacher, preferably at secondary schools, but also at other education institutes.
In his free time, Christian likes to play Volleyball or, as Germans usually tend to do, soccer. Hiking and backpacking fills his holidays. It needs to satisfy a few demands: first of all he likes to do sports, secondly he likes to get to know new areas in an intensive way, and thirdly he typically chooses areas which might have an interesting historical background like the Hadrians Wall in England or a another hiking route that he began from Izmir to Istanbul via Pergamon and Troy.
Christian also enjoys singing in a choir – and has expressed the hope to continue this interest in East-Lansing as he was doing before in Potsdam and Freiburg (Bachchor Freiburg; Singakademie Potsdam).
Another passion of his are Fantasy novels like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.