Rate My Professor May Mergenthaler

Her research specializes in German literature, culture, and intellectual history from the 17th century to the present, poetry and theory of poetry and literature, literary criticism and the cultural public sphere, Environmental Humanities and Nature Writing, Gender Studies, memoir, and cultural memory. Key publications include her monograph Zwischen Eros und Mitteilung: Die Frühromantik im Symposion der “Athenaeums-Fragmente” (Schöningh, 2012) and co-edited volume Cultural Transformations of the Public Sphere (Lang, 2015). Selected articles are “Hölderlin’s ‘Der Ister’ and Ecology in Rochelle Tobias’s ‘Untamed Earth’” (MLN, 2021), “Fridays for Future zwischen Ökologie und Gerechtigkeit” (Non Fiktion, 2021), “‘o heylsams Nichts’: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik” (Colloquia Germanica, 2021), “Mayröckers Scardanelli (2009) als Herausforderung an die Lyrikkritik” (Metzler, 2020), and “Zur Entstehung der Naturlyrik: Licht in Goethes ‘Mayfest’” (Germanic Review, 2019). She is completing a book on functions, concepts, and figures of light in German poetry from the 16th to early 19th centuries. Awards include the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (2020-2022), Ohio State Virginia Hull Award (2020), Arts and Sciences Research Award, and Women in German Best Article Prize (2009).