Associate Professor
1006 Lee Hall
Education
- Ph.D. in German Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- M.A. in Modern German Literature with minors in Older German Literature/German Linguistics as well as English and American Literature and Linguistics, Christian-Albrechts-Universität (Kiel, Germany)
- B.A. in English with a minor in German, The Pennsylvania State University
Joined CMLL in: 2004 Office Hours: Wednesday 3:30pm-4:30pm; Thursday 2:00pm-4:00pm
Research Interests
- 18th-century literature and culture
- German drama
- Marriage and gender in literature
- Hypochondria, illness, and medicine in literature
Teaching Interests
All areas of German language, literature, and culture
Notable Awards
- German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Re-Invitation Program Research Grant, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, June-August 2007
- Humanities and Arts Research Program (HARP) Research Fellow, Mississippi State University, 2005-2006
- Phi Beta Kappa, The Pennsylvania State University
Recent Publications
- Marriage, Gender, and Desire in Early Enlightenment German Comedy, Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2012), 198 pp.
- “Kranke Frauen: Hypochondriac Women in Comedies by C. F. Gellert and L. A. V. Gottsched.” Orbis Litterarum 70.4 (2015): 263-305.
- “Hypochondria, Onanism, and Reading in Goethe’s Werther,” Goethe Yearbook 19 (2012): 117-41.
- “Hypochondria as Withdrawal and Comedy as Cure in Dr. Willibald’s Der Hypochondrist (1824),” German Life and Letters 65.1 (2012): 1-19.
Dr. Potter has published articles on writers such as C. F. Gellert, J. W. von Goethe, L. A. V. Gottsched, J. M. R. Lenz, Th. J. Quistorp, and J. E. Schlegel, among others, in journals such as German Life and Letters, The German Quarterly, the Goethe Yearbook, Lumen, Orbis Litterarum, and Seminar.
Other Languages
French (reading knowledge)