Overview
Professor emerita of German at Duke University, serving on the Advisory Committee for Duke's Graduate Liberal Studies Program, and co-founder, with Clayton Koelb, of the Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies (2008). I received my BA from the University of Oregon and PhD from Yale University, both in the field of Germanic Languages and Literatures. From 2015 to 2024 I was the Rgt. Hon. John G. Diefenbaker Memorial Chair in German Literary Studies at the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), where I also was PI for a large SSHRC Insight Grant, "Medieval Badges: Visual Communication and Identity Formation." Trained as a literary scholar, I have published extensively in the field of medieval gender studies, including masculinity studies. For the past ten years my research has focussed on medieval material cuture, visual studies, and art history.
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Professor Emerita of Germanic Languages and Literature
·
2016 - Present
German Studies,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Scholarly Works
The Romantic Middle Ages of German Studies: On the Past and Present of a Popular Subject. With an afterword by Racha Kirakosian
Journal article COLLOQUIA GERMANICA · March 1, 2026 Link to item CiteWhat Is Reading?
Book section · 2026 Open Access Link to item CiteRecent Grants
Bridging Past and Present in German Studies: Two Workshops with Professor James A. Schultz (German, UCLA)
ConferencePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation · 2012 - 2012Materiality and Visuality in the Story of Tristan and Isolde
ConferencePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation · 2006 - 2007Fragmentation and Difference: New Readings of Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan und Isolde
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation · 2005 - 2005View All Grants
Education
Yale University ·
1985
Ph.D.
University of Oregon ·
1976
B.A.