Petra S. McGillen
Associate Professor
Appointments
Associate Professor of German Studies
Area of Expertise
Material Media History,
German Literature and Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century,
Intellectual Technologies,
Print Culture,
The History of Modern Journalism and Fake News,
The History of Knowledge Production,
Literary Realism,
Book History
Biography
"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.
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
Taught Courses
Publications
Taking Stock: Media Inventories in the German Nineteenth Century. Edited by Sean B. Franzel, Ilinca Iurascu, and Petra S. McGillen. Cultures and Practices of Knowledge in History; 18. Berlin; New York: De Gruyter, 2024.
Der Fontane-Workshop. Realismus-Manufaktur im Zeitalter der Druckmaschinen. Aus dem Englischen von Joe Paul Kroll in Zusammenarbeit mit der Autorin. Fontaneana; 19. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, November 2023. [German translation of The Fontane Workshop]
The Fontane Workshop: Manufacturing Realism in the Industrial Age of Print. New Directions in German Studies; 26. New York; London: Bloomsbury Academic, July 2019.
"Das 'Repertorium C. Maÿ' als Phantasma und Verfahren der Vielschreiberei." In Kolportage und Moderne. Literarische Verfahren und Formate zwischen Populär- und Hochkultur. Eds. David Brehm and Katharina Scheerer. Freiburg i.Br.: Rombach, 2025, 75–101. DOI: 10.5771/9783988580108-75
"The Polytechnic Journal advertises new high-speed printing technology for the uneven German print market (1826)" [critical introduction]; "Andreas Bauer and Friedrich König, 'High Speed Presses of Mssrs. Bauer and König in Oberzell near Würzburg' [translation, with Frances Pool-Crane]. In Cultural Journalism in Germany, 1815-1848: A Critical Anthology. Ed. Michael Swellander and Sean Franzel, Camden House 2025, 120–27. DOI: 10.2307/jj.25577214.15
"Wilhelm Hauff picks apart contemporary belletristic journals (1827)" [critical introduction]; "Wilhelm Hauff, 'The Belletristic Journals in Germany'" [translation, with Frances Pool-Crane]. In Cultural Journalism in Germany, 1815-1848: A Critical Anthology. Ed. Michael Swellander and Sean Franzel, Camden House 2025, 128–141. DOI: 10.2307/jj.25577214.16
"Sketched with an 'Oracular Pencil': Predictive Drawing and the Manipulation of Time in Nineteenth-century Illustrated Weeklies." Media History 30.2 (2024): 129–147. DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2024.2343483.
"'I Was There Today': Fake Eyewitnessing and Journalistic Authority, from Fontane to Relotius." Journalists and Knowledge Practices: Histories of Observing the Everyday in the Newspaper Age. Ed. Hansjakob Ziemer. London; New York: Routledge 2023, 25–49. DOI: 10.4324/9781003111993-3
"The False Correspondent's Real Scene of Writing: Capturing an Elusive Figure in the History of Nineteenth-Century News Work." Modern Language Notes 136.5 (December 2021): 1032–1049 [Comparative Literature Special Issue: The Scene of Writing, ed. Bryan Klausmeyer, Johannes Wankhammer, and Andrea Krauss]. DOI: 10.1353/mln.2021.0078
"Fontane Goes to J-School. Theodor Fontanes Englandjahre und die Entstehung journalistischer Autorität im Pre-Truth-Zeitalter." Colloquia Germanica 52.1–2 (Fall, 2020). Special Issue on Theodor Fontane. Ed. John Lyon and Brian Tucker, 11–26.
"The Business of Criticism: Theodor Fontane and Wilhelm Hertz's Media Campaign for Vor dem Sturm." Market Strategies and German Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century. Ed. Vance Byrd and Ervin Malakaj. Interdisciplinary German Studies. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2020, 282–311. DOI: 10.1515/9783110660142-011
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.
Contact