Literary and cultural studies (the European Enlightenment and the history of educational ideas)
Education
- PhD (Queen’s University)
- MA (Mannheim University)
- BA (McGill University)
Q&A
What is your favourite class?
I enjoy teaching the introductory language courses. The students bring so much enthusiasm to the classroom, and what they accomplish in 12 weeks is phenomenal.
What is important about your research?
I do historical work but my research questions are always informed by contemporary society. I look at the Enlightenment origins of democratic thought, religious tolerance, gender equality, and progressive pedagogy.
What should people know about you?
I am an optimist, through and through. Enlightenment thought speaks to me because I believe that human beings are capable of using reason and imagination to improve society. As a university instructor, I hope I get to play just a small role in that process.
Teaching interests
Recent courses:
- GER 101 and 102 Online: Elementary German
- GER 334/431: Exploring German Literature
- CI 200: Transcultural Studies
- GER 271 Online: German Thought and Culture
Research interests
Literary and cultural studies (the European Enlightenment and its contemporary reception)
Selected research:
- Speltz, Andrea. "How to Read: Lessons from Christoph Martin Wieland's ShandeanTurn in Der Neue Amadis." Monatshefte für deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur 111.1 (2019).
- Speltz, Andrea. "Hands off Herder: The New Right's Appropriation of an Eighteenth-Century Cultural Theorist." Publications of the English Goethe Society 87.2 (2018).
- Speltz, Andrea. "War and Sentimentalism: Irony in Voltaire's Candide, Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm." Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 44 (2017).
Selected publications
Speltz, Andrea and Esleben, Jörg. "Multicultural Politics at Stratford Festival: Birgit Schreyer-Duarte's Nathan the Wise and Antoni Cimolino's Birds of a Kind" Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 58.2 (2022).
Speltz, Andrea. "Mit sanfter Gewalt: Rape and Sexual Violence in the Works of Christoph Martin Wieland." German Quarterly 93.2 (2020).
Speltz, Andrea. "How to Read: Lessons from Christoph Martin Wieland's Shandean Turn in Der Neue Amadis." Monatshefte für deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur 111.1 (2019).
Speltz, Andrea. "Hands off Herder: The New Right's Appropriation of an Eighteenth-Century Cultural Theorist." Publications of the English Goethe Society 87.2 (2018).
Speltz, Andrea. "Internalizing Sexual Discipline: The Role of the Imagination in Rousseau's Emile and Wieland's Agathon." Lessing Yearbook 45 (2017).
Speltz, Andrea. "War and Sentimentalism: Irony in Voltaire's Candide, Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm." Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 44 (2017).
Speltz, Andrea. "Multiperspectivism in Christoph Martin Wieland's Cyrus." Lessing Yearbook 42 (2015).
Speltz, Andrea. "Daphne's Desires: Polyperspectivity and Female Happiness in Wieland's Agathon, La Roche's Fräuleins von Sternheim and Lessing's Emilia Galotti." Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 42 (2011).
Design projects
Elementary German II (GER 102 Online)
Exploring German Literature (GER 334/431)
Philosophies of Education (ARTS 130)
Transcultural Studies (CI 200)