Herminghouse graduated from Knox College in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. She received her M.A. in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1968 from Washington University. Her research focuses primarily on nineteenth and twentieth-century German literature, especially on women authors and the relation between literature and its social and institutional context in East Germany. Much of her recent work has dealt with culture and the construction of national identity.
Herminghouse is an internationally known scholar, editor and educator. In 1991 she received a grant for travel and study from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has co-edited the book Literatur und Literaturtheorie in der DDR and has served on the editorial staff of "The German Quarterly," published by the American Association of Teachers of German.
This lecture is funded by the Johnson Lectureship in Modern Languages.
Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college, located in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,100 students from 42 states and 33 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.
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