Rose Fisher

Rose Fisher holds a BA in Psychology and German from Millersville University and a Ph.D. in Germanic Linguistics and Language Science from Penn State University. Beginning in the Fall, 2025, she is an Assistant Professor of German Studies at Michigan State University. As a former member of the Amish community in Lancaster County, PA she is a native speaker of both Pennsylvania Dutch and English and enjoys dabbling in additional languages and language varieties.

Rose is an enthusiast of all things German (history, culture, food, etc.) and loves to teach and speak the language. Nonetheless, her research interests focus squarely on Pennsylvania Dutch, the language of her childhood and heritage. In the face of immense pressure to shift to English, Pennsylvania Dutch is an immigrant language that has been extraordinarily resilient. It has been in use for nearly 300 years and continues to thrive in the US to this day. The largest groups of modern-day speakers are separatist Amish and Mennonites whose unique cultural values pervade and shape the language along with outside forces such as contact with English. In her research, Rose’s aim is to investigate not only the structural aspects of this living, evolving language, but also to shed light on how culture, religious beliefs, and language contact drive language evolution. Given the many different groups that speak Pennsylvania Dutch and their geographical spread across North America, there is much that is unknown about the dialectology of the language. These communities and their language/dialects are not only fascinating objects of study, but are also formative components of Rose’s own identity.

To learn more, visit her website: https://rosefisher.weebly.com/