Department

 Junior Year in Munich an der Universität München e.V.

Biography

Christina Weiler grew up in Oberstdorf, which is a beautiful town in the Bavarian Alps—famous for skiing, snowboarding, and ski jumping—about two hours south of Munich. After completing her Abitur in Oberstdorf, she studied German, English, and Spanish at the University of Freiburg, where she received a teaching degree (Erstes Staatsexamen für Lehramt an Gymnasien) and an M.A. (Magister Artium) in these subjects. During an Erasmus semester, she had the opportunity to study abroad at the University of Valencia in Spain. Inspired by this life-changing experience, she went abroad again for a competitive year-long teaching internship at the Holy Family Community School in Rathcoole, Dublin.

After her studies in Freiburg, Christina went to the U.S., where she completed her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Purdue University in 2017. Since 2023, she is the Administrative Director in Residence of the Junior Year in Munich (JYM) at the Universität München e.V., where she is also teaching German culture, conversation, and internship courses. Before joining the JYM team in Munich, she served as German language program director and teaching assistant professor in German at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At UNC–Chapel Hill, she taught German language, literature, and culture courses as well as a graduate course on German language pedagogy. She has also served as vice president and president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. Her core principles as an instructor are the critical engagement with real-world issues and authentic materials, inclusive community building, and active collaboration.

She holds a voluntary faculty position at the rank of Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Wayne State. Her research focuses on German literature, culture, and philosophy of the long eighteenth century in a comparative and interdisciplinary framework, with a special interest in environmentalism, cognition, and the philosophy of the arts and senses. She has published on Herder, Novalis, Alexander von Humboldt, and E.T.A. Hoffmann, and she has co-edited a volume entitled Memory in German Romanticism: Imagination, Image, Reception (2023).

Education

Ph.D., Comparative Literature, Purdue University, 2017.

M.A., Magister Artium: English, German, and Romance (Spanish) Philology, Freiburg University, Germany, 2012.

Erstes Staatsexamen, Lehramt an Gymnasien for German, English, and Spanish, Freiburg University, Germany, 2011.

Awards and grants

 Christina has received various teaching and research awards; highlights include:

• 2017: Induction to Purdue Teaching Academy, one of twelve inductees campus wide.
• 2017: Graduate Teaching Award of Outstanding Achievement, School of Languages and Cultures, Purdue University; also in 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012.
• 2017: Promoting Research Opportunities to Maximize Innovation and Scholarly Excellence (PROMISE) Award, Purdue University; also in 2016.
• 2015: Grant of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv / German Literary Archive, Marbach, summer seminar “Roman und Romanverfilmung / Novel and Film Adaptation.”

Selected publications

Edited Volume

• 2023: Memory in German Romanticism: Imagination, Image, Reception. Routledge Studies in Nineteenth Century Literature. Eds. Christopher R. Clason, Joseph D. Rockelmann, and Christina M. Weiler. Routledge.

Refereed Book Chapters

• 2023: “Alexander von Humboldt beyond Planet Earth: Exploring the Infinite and Unreachable in Cosmos.” Alexander von Humboldt: Perceiving the World. Eds. Beate I. Allert, Christopher R. Clason, Niall A. Peach, and Ricardo Quintana-Vallejo. Purdue University Press. 265–288.
• 2023: “Memory and Self-Reflection in Sophie Tieck Bernhardi von Knorring’s Fairy Tale ‘Der Greis im Felsen’ (1800).” Memory in German Romanticism: Imagination, Image, Reception. Eds. Christopher R. Clason, Joseph D. Rockelmann, and Christina M. Weiler. Routledge. 95–116.
• 2022: “Romantic Reflections and Reconfigurations: Intertextual (Dis-)Assembly in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s ‘Die Abenteuer der Sylvester-Nacht.’” Assembly and its Other in German Romantic Literature and Thought: The Inexhaustible Gathering. Eds. Robert E. Mottram and Christopher R. Clason. Liverpool University Press. 143–160.
• 2021: “Mothering, Animals, and the Surveillance State in the Anthropocene: An Ecofeminist Reading of Birgit Vanderbeke’s Die Frau mit dem Hund.” The Tender Gaze: Compassionate Encounters on the German Screen, Stage, and Page. Eds. Muriel Cormican and Jennifer William. Camden House. 206–220.
• 2020: “The Metaphysical Machinery of Mining in Novalis’s Works.” Romantic Automata: Exhibitions, Figures, Organisms. Eds. Michael Demson and Christopher R. Clason. Bucknell University Press. 204–220.

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