Gisela Brinker-Gabler, retired professor of comparative literature, died Thursday,
June 6, 2019, in New York City. Throughout her career in academia, she touched the
lives of hundreds of colleagues, students and friends, leaving a lasting impression
that will not be forgotten.
Those who knew her and wish to leave their thoughts and memories about her are welcome
to do so here.
Comments:
February 28, 2021
I am just learning of your passing. Thank you for your faith in your graduate students,
warmth, encouragement and enthusiasm. I will always remember you fondly. Thank you
for welcoming me Into Comparative Literature and celebrating when I completed my studies
at Binghamton.
- Meredith M. Gadsby
June 7, 2020
Wir vermissen einen wunderbaren Menschen. Du bleibst immeer in unseren Herzen. Gedenken
an Deinen ersten Todestag. 6. Juni 2020
- Gabler, Christel, Peter und Gerrit mit Familie
June 6, 2020
For our loss of You, there is no real language to grasp this void, but I will try
to work with the resource You have been dedicating your own life to, here. You always
sourced and shaped this resource to a better use, and for a higher purpose in academia.
You have helped, assisted, and guided us, Your students, not only from an academic
point of view to find our very own path, but also for our own life perspective.
For what You have done and meant for us,
for what stays with us,
from You, in our past, present, and future forever.
Because, as You once told me, something will always remain.
Dankeschön, liebe Professor Gisela Brinker-Gabler.
- Annemarie Fischer
Nov. 18, 2019
Liebe Gisela! I still recall our conversation in German on Freud, and how excited
you were with my work on Abstract Expressionism. And how you appreciated the embroidered
stole from Pakistan - you always had an eye for beauty! Sie sind weg aber nicht von
unseren Herzen. You are gone, but remain in our hearts. Mit freudlichen Grussen -
Best, Tamkin.
- Tamkin Hussain
Nov. 17, 2019
Still in shock that we lost such a kind soul. Cannot overstate how much she did for
me. From her classes to her counsel, such a remarkably caring and brilliant example
of what a professor should be. Miss her so...
- David Kilpatrick
Oct. 31, 2019
In only a few hours, on November 1, your accomplishments will be lauded in the presence
of your husband and son, your colleagues, former students, and friends on the campus
where you inspired such a great number of us. During the moments your close friend
and collaborator Sid Smith lauds your stellar scholarship and publications, I will
light a candle in your honor in my home on Ecuador's coast, look out at the ocean,
and thank you for your guidance, deep friendship and trust. You imprinted your warmth
and kindness onto my life in more ways than I can say. You inspired me to be a kinder
and more forgiving person toward others and myself. For this gift I will forever be
grateful. Rest in peace my friend.
- Ingeborg Majer O'Sickey
Oct. 30, 2019
Dear Gisela,
I know that you have said your final Adieu, but I still feel the presence of your
aura of light and grace. It was a privilege to be your colleague and friend for
so many years. I admired your intellectual global leadership, your dedication to scholarship
and to your your students, whom you proudly mentored, steering them into fields they
could shine in, fellowships, publications and careers.
I appreciated the collaboration you fostered between departments.
Your departure has left a gap and a wound in the life of many of your friends, including
mine. At the convention of the Council of European Studies in Reykjavik in 2020,
a symposium will be held in your honor. Your friends at the CES, many of whom--like
myself--joined because of your inspirational leadership in comparative cultural studies,
will be there to honor you, presenting research you inspired. RIP.
With love and respect,
- Rosmarie Morewedge
Oct. 30, 2019
There are few people you meet in your life that truly change the course that you are
on. But Gisela literally changed everything for me. I first met her when I was enrolled
in her Transnational Modernism class eight or nine years ago. I was a deeply disillusioned
creative writing grad student, committed to leaving Binghamton at the end of my first
semester. However, Gisela's enthusiasm for her material and her students reminded
me of my own love of literary studies. The passion that she exhibited in her teaching
and through her work was utterly transfixing; I wanted to exude that very same unity
of thought and passion in my own work and life. At the end of this fall semester,
I left the English Department and re-enrolled at SUNY Binghamton as a doctoral student
in Comparative Literature. Gisela inspired me to do so many things that I would never
have even attempted without her support and guidance.
Last December, I finally defended my dissertation. I was shaking with anxiety as I
reentered that
very same conference room where I attended Gisela's graduate seminar years before.
Yet, the moment I sat down and saw Giselaâ??s comforting smile, I recalled her enthusiasm
with which she imbued her own lifeâ??s work and I suddenly felt like there was nothing
to fear, that I was in the company of someone who sincerely cared about me, my life
and my work.
As I have begun to work independently on research projects, I always recall something
Gisela
said in class one day: "I prefer to teach what I love and I am lucky to find work
where I am constant
contact with what I love. In my writing, in my research and in my teaching, I always
replay this
statement in my head as a challenge to myself, a confirmed curmudgeon. I think we
should all aspire to be like Gisela in this way: To approach one's work as an act
of love and devotion.
- Ross Lipton
Oct. 29, 2019
Professor Brinker-Gabler was and is my mentor about life. She was really more than
someone I knew in a professional capacity. I lost a big supporter. I feel lucky to
have gotten to know her in my first semester at Binghamton. It is an honor to have
had the opportunity to learn from her and spend time with her. RIP.
- Seo Yeon Paik
Oct. 29, 2019
Dr. Brinker-Gabler was such a light. She was invested in her students, in their professionalization,
and in them as people. With incredible warmth, she pushed her students to think more
critically, to read closer, and to perform their scholarship more rigorously. She
is one of the main reasons why I am in graduate school now, and I found my project
-- my passion -- thanks to a class I took with her in undergrad. She is missed, dearly.
- Rebecca Forney
Oct. 29, 2019
Gisela was a member of my dissertation committee in Comp. Lit. She stepped on at the
last moment when another committee member stepped off at the last moment. I was already
a tenured faculty member when I earned my PhD-- a tricky business. Gisela was unfailingly
kind, friendly, courteous, knowledgeable and generous to a fault-- in the end I felt
blessed that things turned out as they did.
Just to be in her presence was a rare gift of calm and sanity. Later, when we had
become almost-friends, I would admire the beautiful photographs she posted on Facebook.
She was also the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in real life. I mean, she was
dazzling. Her blue eyes, clear and rather dreamy, seemed to look at you from the soul
openly, like a child's almost, without artifice. I learned not only from the particular
resources, books, ideas etc she shared, but by the example she set. Since I already
taught, she reminded me one can speak quietly but with authority; be gentle but strong;
friendly but not overly-familiar; one can never be too kind.
Finally, a trivial memory. On my first visit to her office, I was nervous-- I had
never met her , and here she had agreed to serve on my PhD committee. She offered
me a chocolate she had brought back from I think Switzerland. She kept a small bowl
of them on her desk, beautifully wrapped in foil. It was the most delicious piece
of chocolate I've ever eaten-- my husband and I searched for that brand for years,
without success.
May her memory be a blessing, and may her loved ones be comforted by her memory.
May they have the courage of the strong, as she did.
- Liz Rosenberg
Oct. 29, 2019
Professor Brinker-Gabler was a wonderful professor who could convey such enthusiasm
and insight for students writing their dissertation. She would always make time to
discuss my research. She is a light who continues to shine bright in the sky among
the literary scholars of our time.
- Deborah Spanfelner
Oct. 28, 2019
I am sure Gisela will be remembered for her stellar scholarship, her dedication to
teaching and advising, as well as her service for the Department of Comparative Literature
and Binghamton University. Although I am deeply saddened as I realize that I will
never again see her around on the 15th floor of the Library Tower, what I miss the
most is all those times in which, away from campus and the department, we were able
to be good friends and laugh together over a good meal and a glass of wine. I miss
her joie de vivre, her warmth, her optimism, her enthusiasm. I miss the way she used
to call my name in her lovely accent. I shall cherish that for as long as I live.
RIP, dear Gisela!
- Rosemary Arrojo
Oct. 28, 2019
Dear Gisela, I will never forget your personal and intellectual generosity, your flamboyant
and upbeat presence, and your energetic forging of cross-Atlantic alliances. You made
me feel at home in Binghamton and in the department of comparative literature. With
your personal style you seemed to dance through life; I could feel the warmth radiating
when you were in the house. Your research and teaching on modernism, feminism and
autobiography never failed to garner enthusiastic response; I will continue to learn
from your work. You are truly dearly missed for the dynamic woman you are. In loving
memory, Jeroen
