On Wednesday, March 25, the Medavi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center opened its doors to the Brothers Grimm Haus of North America — a hub for student engagement and a learning space for students from various programs, faculty, and general visitors.
Claudia Schwabe, who has a doctorate in German studies, co-founded the Brothers Grimm Society of North America, a nonprofit organization to promote the legacy of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and now acts as the program’s vice president.
“There's a lot more about fairy tales, what they can teach us about compassion, about selflessness and good morals, but that's at the heart of it,” Schwabe said.
Before forming the partnership with Utah State University, the group had acted solely online —publishing articles and interviewing scholars. But now, Schwab hopes to expand the program.
“I'm looking forward to future events. We're doing academic events, such as workshops and conferences,” Schwabe said. “I hope to have a nice exhibit at the library here on campus to showcase our amazing Little Red Riding Hood collection.”
Schwab's vision is to offer internships through the program, promote the fairytales, and host student events on campus, while also having scholarly events, like symposiums, workshops, and conferences.
Paul Daybell, the special collections librarian at USU, spoke on the collaboration.
“It's a real way for kids to be able to connect to books and history and other languages and sort of these universal stories that everyone's familiar with, but there are so many different versions,” he said. “And then we also work a lot with the folklore students and English students and art students. So the beauty of fairy tales is they are applicable in so many different disciplines.”
On April 10, the Haus will host a craft night for young kids at the Logan Library.
“Come here to our Brothers Grimm Haus, let me see how I can bring them into your life,” said Schwabe.