I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. My research areas include the representation of reading in German literature, concepts of the medieval futures, medieval mystical and devotional theory and practice, and narratives of migration. My received a concurrent PhD in German and Medieval Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2022, and spent two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati.
An overview of my current research projects.
My research project examines the historical role of the fictional reader in the hermeneutic, media-technological, and aesthetic developments of medieval German literature. I analyze scenes of reading – moments when a fictional character reads a book or a story within their own narrative – and other representations of reading within medieval texts to examine this evolving cultural practice during the technological, cultural, scientific, and religious transformations of the European Middle Ages. Amid the digitalization of our modern reading culture, my research into the literary representations of reading demonstrates how, historically, reading practices, medial and technological developments, and imaginative literature have shaped the practice of reading as well as its function in society.
This transdisciplinary project examines conceptualizations of the future in the European Middle Ages. It investigates medieval cultural practices that engendered knowledge about, made sense of, and planned for an inevitable future. I aim to challenge existing heuristic models of the medieval future by expanding beyond eschatological and apocalyptic texts to include other literary, civic, and scientific texts that assumed concepts of the future. The project adds needed historic context to modern Futures Studies while challenging Medieval Studies – a discipline with a clear historical focus – to reconsider the future's place in the past.
My work on medieval mysticism focuses on the somatic and affective elements of its textual and devotional practices. By focusing on the role of the reader and reading in both historic practices and rhetorical textual constructions, I argue that reading afforded theological and somatic knowledge of and experience with the divine. I also demonstrate the various practical and imagined uses of the book – in codex form – to connect the devotee to the divine. This work challenges academic distinctions between male and female devotional and literary practices as well as divisions between the medieval mind and body.
My work on contemporary literature examines the literary and filmic narrativization of migration to Germany. I specifically focus on the use of canonical or classical literary motifs, characters, and forms – like frame narrative structures, found manuscript motifs, fairy tales, and the reading hero – that expose the colonial underpinnings of concepts fundamental to a traditional conceptualization of German-language literature like Bildung, authorship, and literacy. My research challenges prevalent “humanitarian” or empathetic readings of the genre by recognizing the complex interaction of alienation, humor, and literary tradition found in many of these narratives that require a critical and historicized mode of reading and interpretation.
An overview of current publications and conference papers.
A selection of classes I have taught and developed.
This course explores issues of cultural diversity through the recent history of migration to Germany. Students analyze literary, dramatic, and filmic narratives of migration that engage the consequences of migrations since the 1950’s. Special attention is paid to the portrayal of dominant and marginalized cultures, the active rhetorical othering of foreigners, religious minorities, and other “non-Germans” as well as the rise of right-wing cultural protectionism. Students question literature, theater, and film’s roles in addressing, critiquing, and shaping the current discourse and its interaction with other forces that frame migration including immigration law, news media, and politics.
This graduate seminar reassesses the thematic role of reading in German-language literature and its practical role in the literary sciences more generally. In light of increased digital reading practices, students investigate media-technological changes from the Middle Ages to the 21st century and their effect on reading as a cultural, social, and professional practice. We analyze literature’s effect on historical reading cultures and practices through reading protagonists and scenes of reading, and we explore critiques of critical and suspicious reading practices and alternative approaches including distant, surface, reparative, and hyper reading.
This graduate seminar introduces students to a range of premodern German-language textual genres through seemingly anachronistic research topics. By exploring the applicability of decidedly modern topics – like fiction, race, the future, and history – for premodern textual archives, we identify distinguishing characteristics of premodern textual cultures and engage issues faced by modern researchers when working with premodern texts and cultures. The course includes textual examples from poetry, epics, romances, drama, mære, and religious writings to the proto-nov
This first-year seminar introduces students to the wide-ranging implications and consequences of human language. We discuss the origins and historical evolution of languages, commonly held linguistic attitudes and language ideologies, and language’s effects on personal and communal identities. We also engage critically the field of linguistics and its history to see how it has not only been used to expand our understanding of language’s place in human cultures but also to promulgate nationalistic, colonialist, and racialized ideologies. Throughout the semester, students learn about the myriad ways of studying language and culture in various departments and programs at UC.
In this undergraduate introduction to German literature, we address questions fundamental to critical literary studies as we explore the history of German-language literature. Our exploration is divided into four thematic issues critical to literary studies: Representation and Reality asks how texts reflect on and construct what we call reality. Media and Form explores what media literature operates with and what it does with them. Nation, State, Community focuses on the political communities that texts construct and propose. And Self-representation and Identity Construction questions how the modern self is invented by and constructed in literary texts. To explore these questions and themes, we read an eclectic selection of texts from the Middle Ages to today.
Medieval German literature offers fantastic narratives of dragons and knights, moving tales of lovers and saints, and indescribable encounters with the divine and the foreign; however, the manuscript culture that preserved these stories also make them difficult for modern scholars, let alone casual modern readers, to access. In this course, we read a variety of medieval texts, including epic, romance, poetry, religious devotion, and drama to confront the linguistic, intellectual, and material challenges they pose to a modern audience. We explore modern digital tools for accessing, reading, interpreting, and disseminating medieval stories, while trying to preserve and highlight the unique elements of premodern literature.
Since September 2024
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto
August 2022 to August 2024
Visiting Assistant Professor of German at the University of Cincinnati
March 2021 to March 2022
Associated Fellow at the Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies at the Universität zu Köln
March to October 2021
Fulbright Fellow at the Universität zu Köln
Fall 2015 to Summer 2022
Concurrent Ph.D. Student in German and Medieval Studies and Graduate Student Instructor at the University of California, Berkeley
2013 to 2015
Admissions Counselor at the University of Pennsylvania
Concurrent Ph.D., 2022
University of California, Berkeley, German and Medieval Studies
Master of Arts, 2016
University of California, Berkeley, German Studies
Bachelor of Arts, 2011
University of Pennsylvania, English (with distinction), German, and Classics
summa cum laude
Interested in collaborating? Curious about my research? Or keen to grab a coffee? Then I look forward to your email!