Braden Ross is a PhD student in the Francophone, Italian and Germanic Studies department at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2021 she graduated summa cum laude from Franklin & Marshall College with a double major in German and English, as well as a minor in Italian. In 2023 she earned her master’s from the University of Illinois, where she taught first and second semester German. While at U of I, Braden was awarded the Ruth E. Lorbe Excellence in Teaching Award and was invited to present at the Teaching Share Fair (“Effective Warm-Ups: Building Rapport, Instilling Confidence, and Piquing Interest”). Her master’s thesis, titled “Portrait of a Fascist: Identity and Independence in Joseph Roth’s Das Spinnennetz (1923)” explores the futility of individualism in a mass movement as well as expression of gender in the Weimar Republic. As an alumna of the State Department’s Kennedy-Lugar Y.E.S. Abroad Program, I.E.S. Abroad, F&M in Italy, the Middlebury Language School, and a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Braden believes strongly in the communicative approach to language learning and finds joy in both her research and teaching.