People

Eric Rentschler

erentsch@fas.harvard.edu

Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures

Eric Rentschler received his academic training in German literature, German history, and European intellectual history, studying in Stuttgart, Bonn, and Prague, before taking his doctoral degree at the University of Washington. He has been awarded...

Chip Robinson

crobins@fas.harvard.edu

Teaching Assistant

Chip Robinson holds a PhD in Germanic Languages from the University of California Los Angeles 2017, MA in Medieval Icelandic Studies from the University of Iceland 2015, MA in Scandinavian from the University of California Los Angeles 2013, as well as MS...

Mark Römisch

Teaching Assistant

Mark Römisch earned his M.A. in German Literature, Communication, and Computer Linguistics from Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and also has a BFA in Acting/Theatre. Before returning to Harvard in 2025, he taught at Wellesley College, Northeastern...

Judith Ryan

jryan@fas.harvard.edu

Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Research Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Emerita

Professor Ryan received her B.A. from Sydney University, Australia, and her Dr. phil. from the University of Münster, Germany. Before coming to Harvard, she taught for many years at Smith College. In addition to receiving grants from the Alexander von...

Therese Shire

therese_shire@g.harvard.edu

Therese Shire earned an M.A. in Music Education at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna as well as in German Literature at the Universities of Karlsruhe and Vienna, before receiving her M.A. at Harvard. She is highly interested in the...

Anne Shreffler

acshreff@fas.harvard.edu

James Edward Ditson Professor of Music, Department of Music

Anne C. Shreffler’s research interests include the 20th-century musical avant-garde in Europe and America, with special emphasis on the political and ideological associations of new music. Other research interests include historiography, composers in...

Doris Sperber

sperber@fas.harvard.edu

Research Assistant; course catalog; room reservations

Doris was born in Nüremberg, Germany, but grew up (speaking German at home) in the Midwest, mainly near Chicago. She studied International Relations at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Her free-time interests include yoga, meditation, gardening, biking...

Riley Spieler

person

William Stewart

william_stewart@fas.harvard.edu

Department Associate

William Stewart is a scholar of cultural history, media studies, and theories of art and architecture in 20 th- and 21 st-century Europe. His research focuses particularly on the impact that mathematical discourses around quantification, axiomatics, and...

Simone Stirner

simonestirner@fas.harvard.edu

Assistant Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures

I am an interdisciplinary scholar of German and Comparative Literature working on poetry and poetics, memory studies, and the intersections of critical and creative practices. My first book, Poetic Grief: Form and Remembrance after National Socialism, is...

Max Street

Max Street studied Philosophy, Literature and Natural Sciences in Tübingen, Durham and Ann Arbor, culminating in an undergraduate thesis entitled “Bodily Conditions of Thought in Aristotle”, prior to joining Harvard’s GLL program in 2022. His thesis...

Maria Tatar

tatar@fas.harvard.edu

John L. Loeb Research Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and of Folklore and Mythology, Emerita

Senior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows

Professor Tatar received her Ph.D. from Princeton University. Her teaching and research interests include Weimar Germany, German Romanticism, folklore, children's literature, and cultural studies. She serves on degree committees in Folklore and Mythology...