She knew little about the people and the country on the other side of that border – the German Democratic Republic, better known as East Germany.
Lange grew up in particularly dynamic times, an inquisitive person who grew to wonder about the people, landscapes, and cultures around her. She pursued both anthropology and environmental studies as an undergraduate, focused on learning about the complexities of the world around her in multi-faceted ways.
She approached her second graduate degree slowly. After a long period of consideration that included many field walks and conversations, she found herself enrolled in UVM’s Field Naturalist Program. Her time there helped hone her skills for seeing, interpreting, and communicating.
Lange became a writer and a commentator for Vermont Public Radio. Some ten years ago she decided to focus her curiosity and skills on her home country, seeking to understand -- and write about -- the social and ecological dimensions of the Cold War border that had divided Germany, and what reunification had meant.
Cheryl Carmi from the UVM Foundation recently caught up with Lange to learn about the path that had brought her to UVM and where it’s led since then — a path that came to include a nearly 1,400-kilometer bike ride to immerse herself in learning, her time writing “Phantom Border: A Personal Reconnaissance of Contemporary Germany,” based on that experience, and what she’s doing now.
