Maryann Overstreet

Maryann Overstreet is a Professor and Chair of German Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She holds an MA in German and a PhD in Linguistics, having studied at UH Mānoa, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Her teaching spans all levels of German, including graduate courses on pedagogy, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis. She currently teaches upper-level courses on conversation, phonetics, grammar, and reading.

Her research focuses on German language teaching, pragmatics, and discourse analysis, with notable contributions on 'general extenders' (e.g., 'and stuff,' 'or something'). Her work has influenced studies across multiple languages and forms the basis of her textbook The Routledge Modern German Reader (2016). She has published in journals like Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German and Journal of Pragmatics.

• Awards: College Teaching Award, Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
• Service: Representative for UHPA, Faculty Senate; co-founder of the German Benevolent Society scholarship.

Her academic service includes strengthening ties with the local German community and advancing German Studies at UHM. She has also authored/co-authored two influential books and contributed to interdisciplinary research on linguistic expressions.