The Society

Please use the links to the left to learn more about our group.

Mission Statement

The Goethe Society of North America was founded in December 1979 in San Francisco as a non-profit organization dedicated to the encouragement of research on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and his age.

As a learned society, the organization seeks to:

  • stimulate a reappraisal of the pertinence of Goethe’s thought in modern times;

  • foster scholarly lectures and symposia about Goethe and his age;

  • develop extensive research facilities for the study of eighteenth-century literature and culture; and

  • re-emphasize Goethe’s concept of world literature in terms of today’s globality of cultural discourses.

Board of Directors

President

Professor Heidi Schlipphacke
Department of Germanic Studies
University of Illinois at Chicago
601 S. Morgan Sdt, MC 315, 1516 UH
Chicago, IL 60607
Telephone: (312) 996-0965

Vice President

Professor Sean Franzel
School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
University of Missouri
221H Arts & Science Building
Columbia, MO 65211-7400
Telephone: (573) 882-1915

Executive Secretary

Professor Claire Baldwin
Department of German
Colgate University
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, NY 13346
Telephone: (315) 228-7281

Directors-at-Large

Professor Daniel DiMassa
Humanities & Arts Department
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Salisbury Labs 106
Worcester, MA 01609-2280
Telephone: (508) 831-5000 x5388

Professor Ellwood Wiggins
Department of German Studies
University of Washington
338 Denny Hall, Box 353130
Seattle, WA 98195
Telephone: (206) 543-4189

Secretary-Treasurer

Professor William Carter
Department of World Languages and Cultures
Iowa State University
3102 Pearson Hall
Ames, IA 50011
Telephone: (515) 294-1610

Editors of the Goethe Yearbook

Professor Sarah Eldridge
718 McClung Tower
1115 Volunteer Blvd.
Knoxville, TN 37996-0470
Telephone: (865) 974-9758

Professor Eleanor Ter Horst
Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literature
University of South Alabama
322 HUMB, 5991 USA Drive, N
Mobile, AL 36688
Telephone: (251) 461-1527

Book Review Editor

Professor Joseph D. O’Neil
Department of GRAMELAC
Miami University
Irvin Hall 170
400 E. Spring St.
Oxford, OH 45056
Telephone: (513) 529-2514

Editor of the Book Series

Professor John Lyon
Chair, School of Modern Languages
Professor and Charles Smithgall Jr. Institute Chair
Georgia Tech
613 Cherry St. NW
Atlanta, GA 30332-0375

Editor of the Newsletter

Professor Burkhard Henke
German Studies Department
Davidson College
209 Ridge Road
Box 5000
Davidson, NC 28035