Petra S. McGillen

|Associate Professor
Academic Appointments

Associate Professor of German Studies

"You're right; our writing tools take part in the forming of our thoughts," Friedrich Nietzsche said to his secretary in 1882. Nietzsche's statement captures what lies at the core of my research: I work on the material history of creativity and knowledge production in German literature and culture, ca. 1750 to 1900. In particular, I explore the impact of different forms and media of notation—from doodles to writers' notebooks, from lists to databases—on creative writing processes and knowledge production. My other research and teaching interests include media and book history in 18th and 19th-century Germany, print and material culture, textual practices, intellectual technologies, history of information, the transnational history of journalism, and the emergence of fake news.

Personal Website

Contact

Petra.McGillen@dartmouth.edu
(603) 646 2218
Dartmouth Hall, Room 209D
HB 6084

Department(s)

German Studies

Education

  • Ph.D. Princeton University, 2012
  • M.A. Princeton University, 2009
  • M.A. University of Sussex, England, 2006
  • B.A. Universität Potsdam and Fachhochschule Potsdam, Germany, 2005

Selected Publications

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Speaking Engagements

  • "Dear Fake Reader: A Short Typology of Invented Advice Columns in the Late Nineteenth-Century Press." Presentation, Research-in-Progress Competition at the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, Columbia University, New York City, March 2026.

  • "Inglorious Resistance: The Opposition Press's Exploitation of 'Sitting Editors' in Imperial Germany." Research Paper, 33rd Annual Sachsman Symposium on the History of the Nineteenth-Century Press, Augusta University, Georgia, November 2025.

  • "Imperial Germany's Fall Guys: 'Sitting Editors' and the Faking of Journalistic Responsibility in the Late Nineteenth Century." Invited Research Talk, JHistory Salon [international working group of journalism historians led by Elliot King, Loyola University], October 2025 (via Zoom).

  • "Der Schiffbruch der Argo. Eine Studie zur Buch- und Journalförmigkeit bei Theodor Fontane." Invited Research Talk, Journalliteratur edieren, Workshop at the College for Social Sciences and Humanities Universitätsallianz Ruhr, Essen, Germany, September 2025.

  • "Formative Fakes: Manipulation und die Ursprünge des modernen Journalismus, 1842–1900." Invited Research Talk and Workshop Session, AG 19. Jahrhundert, Institut für Neuere deutsche Literatur, Philipps Universität Marburg, Germany, April 2024.

  • "Everything is Visible, but Nothing is Proven: Fake News in Nineteenth-Century Germany." Invited Lecture and Seminar Session, Landmarks of European Identity, Undergraduate History Seminar, Princeton University, NJ, September 2024 (via Zoom).

  • "Realism: A Media Practice." Invited Talk and Graduate Studies Workshop, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Yale University, May 2023 (via Zoom).

  • "Fake Eyewitnessing and Predictive Reporting in Nineteenth-Century Visual News." Invited Lecture and Intensive Graduate Studies Seminar, Doctoral Research Training Group "Small Forms," Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, May 2022.

  • "Sketched with an 'Oracular Pencil:' The Manipulation of Time in the Nineteenth-Century Press." Invited Lecture, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, March 2022.

  • "Schneller, als die Zeit erlaubt – Praktiken des predictive journalism im späten 19. Jahrhundert." Invited Lecture, Institut für Germanistik, Vergleichende Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany, February 2022 (via Zoom).

Works In Progress

  • Second Book Project: Formative Fakes: Manipulation and the Origins of Modern Journalism in the Long Nineteenth Century.

  • "Walter Scott on the Assembly Line: History of a German Translation Factory" [journal article related to my third book project].

Selected Works & Activities

  • "When in Doubt, Get Geeky: Opening Up Humanities Research to Students: A Working Model." Invited talk about the C19 Student Research Fellowship Program, Professional Development Series, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, November 4, 2025.

  • Public conversation (via Zoom) with Austrian writer Clemens Setz about fake literary codes for the virtual exhibition #LiteraturBewegt: Punkt, Punkt, Komma, Strich, curated by Vera Hildenbrandt and Heike Gfrereis, Literaturmuseum der Moderne, Marbach, Germany, April 2022.

  • "Media Inventories of the German Nineteenth Century," public humanities panel talk (via Zoom) with Ilinca Iurascu and Sean Franzel, Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada, 19 November 2021.

  • Video interview (pre-recorded) about Theodor Fontane's creative process for the exhibition Fontane.200/Autor, curated by Heike Gfrereis, screening at the Fontane-Museum in Neuruppin, Germany, March–December 2019. 

  • "Fontane war ein Pionier der Fake News" [Fontane was a pioneer of fake news], interview about my research, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 20, 2017.

  • Op-Ed "Techniques of 19th-century fake news reporter teach us why we fall for it today," The Conversation, April 5, 2017.

Selected Scholarships and Awards

Jonathan Crewe Fellowship for Associate Professors [competitive one-course release], Dartmouth College, Spring 2026.

Best Faculty Paper Award for “Inglorious Resistance: The Opposition Press’s Exploitation of ‘Sitting Editors’ in Imperial Germany.” 33rd Annual Sachsman Symposium on the 19th-Century Press, Augusta University, Augusta, Georgia, November 2025.

2025 Frank J. Guarini Award for Extraordinary Contributions to Off-Campus Programs (with Petra Bonfert-Taylor), Dartmouth College, June 2025

Winner of the fourteenth Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Germanic Languages and Literatures, awarded for The Fontane Workshop, Modern Language Association, December 2020.

David Bloom and Leslie Chao Fellowship, Dartmouth College, 2020.

Karen E. Wetterhahn Memorial Award for Distinguished Creative or Scholarly Achievement, 2020.

Enhanced Junior Faculty Fellowship [competitive one-year sabbatical], Dartmouth College, 2017–2018.

Dean of the Faculty Mentoring Award, Dartmouth College, 2017.

Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/American Council of Learned Societies, 2011–2012.

Courses

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