Dr. Achim Kopp

Born and raised near Heidelberg in southwestern Germany, Dr. Achim Kopp double-majored in Latin and English at the University of Heidelberg. As an undergraduate, he spent a year as a German assistant teacher at two high schools in Birmingham, England. During his graduate studies, he added another year abroad, this time as a German teaching assistant at Bucknell University (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania). In 1988, he passed the state examination for high school teachers in his home state of Baden-Württemberg, followed by a doctoral degree in English and Latin from the University of Heidelberg in 1994. After a three-year teaching engagement at Susquehanna University (Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania), he joined the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of Mercer University in 1997.

Education

• Erstes Staatsexamen, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany
• Dr. phil, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany

Specialty

Dr. Kopp specializes in:

• German American studies, with a focus on Pennsylvania German and Moravian studies
• English linguistics
• Classical studies, with a focus on Latin language and Roman literature

Professional Interests

Dr. Kopp’s primary research interest has been in German American studies. While his early work focused on language maintenance and shift in Pennsylvania German communities, he later edited and published the manuscript of a forgotten German grammar by the German American scholar Francis Lieber. Most recently, he collaborated with his colleague in the Mercer History Department, Dr. John Thomas Scott, in a research project on the Moravians in colonial Georgia, which resulted in a 2023 volume containing the journals of four Moravian leaders in Savannah between 1734 and 1737.

At Mercer, Dr. Kopp’s teaching has focused on his second area of expertise, classical studies. As the sole full-time faculty member in Latin, he teaches all levels of Latin, including a series of eight upper-level seminars. While Dr. Kopp has not published in the classics, he has supervised several undergraduate research projects on Roman authors, including Caesar, Cicero, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, and Catullus. Over the years, he has also taken numerous groups of Latin and classics students to Rome, Campania, Sicily, Florence, Venice, Paris, Crete, Spain, and Turkey on summer and spring break programs as well as the long-standing Mercer On Mission program in Corinth, Greece.

In addition to his current duties as faculty member and associate dean, Dr. Kopp has served as chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and director of the Great Books Program. Outside of Mercer, he was a member of the executive board of the Society for German American Studies and continues to serve on the editorial board of the Yearbook of German American Studies.

Other Interests

In his spare time, Dr. Kopp enjoys reading and traveling with his wife, Kristen. Having been interested in sports (particularly team handball and tennis) all his life, Dr. Kopp more recently picked up running, with several 5Ks, 10Ks, half-marathons, and marathons under his belt.

Recent Publications

Books

• (With John Thomas Scott): The Journals of the Moravian Mission to Georgia, 1734-1737: From Herrnhut to Savannah. 2023. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press / Rowman & Littlefield.
• Francis Lieber’s Brief and Practical German Grammar. 2008. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
• The Phonology of Pennsylvania German English as Evidence of Language Maintenance and Shift. 1999. London: Associated University Presses.

Articles

• (With Kathryn D. Kloepper and Charlotte S. Thomas:) “Qualitative, Narrative Assessment of the Mercer University Great Books Program.” In: M. Kathleen Burk and David DiMattio (eds.). Qualitative Narrative Assessment: Core Text Programs in Review. 2018. Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC). 111-34
• “Abraham Reeser Horne’s Pennsylvania German Manual.” Yearbook of German-American Studies 45. 2010. 107-27. Reprinted in Journal of the Center for Pennsylvania German Studies at Millersville University 19/2. 2013. 3-16.
• “Evidence of Convergence in Pennsylvania German.” In: Joshua R. Brown and Leroy T. Hopkins Jr., (eds.). Preserving Heritage: A Festschrift for C. Richard Beam. Supplemental issue of the Yearbook of German-American Studies, Volume 2. 2006. 49-65.
• “Language Attitude across Society and Generations in a Pennsylvania German Speech Island.” In: William D. Keel and Klaus J. Mattheier (eds.) German Language Varieties Worldwide: Internal and External Perspectives / Deutsche Sprachinseln weltweit: Interne und externe Perspektiven. 2003. Frankfurt Peter Lang. 87-115.
• “‘. . . of the most ignorant stupid sort of their own Nation’: Perceptions of the Pennsylvania Germans in the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” Yearbook of German-American Studies 35. 2000. 41-55.
• “Die Phonologie des Englischen der Pennsylvaniadeutschen als Indikator für Spracherhalt und Sprachverlagerung.” Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 64/1. 1997. 1-36.
• “The Matched-Guise Technique in Practice: Measuring Language Attitudes within the Pennsylvania German Speech Community.” In: Joseph C. Salmons (ed.). The German Language in America, 1683-1991. 1993. Madison, WI: Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies. 264-83.

Contact Dr. Achim Kopp

(478) 301-2761
kopp_a@mercer.edu
Office: Knight Hall, Room 107 (faculty office); Godsey Administration Building, Room 104 (Dean’s Office)