Gerhild Scholz Williams is the Barbara Schaps Thomas and David M. Thomas Professor in the Humanties in Arts and Sciences, Vice Provost, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Ph.D in Comparative Literature at the University of Washington.

Her most recent publication is Mothering Baby: On Being a Woman in Early Modern Germany: Johannes Praetorius's "Apocalypsis Mysteriorum Cybeles, Das ist Eine Schnakische Wochen-Comedie (1662)".  Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2010.  Other publications include Ways of Knowing in Early Modern Germany: Johannes Praetorius as a Witness to his Time. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006; On the Inconstancy of Witches: Pierre de Lancre's Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et Demons (1612). Harriet Stone and Gerhild Williams, trans. Tempe: Arizona Center for Texts and Studies, 2006; (with Alexander Schwarz, Lausanne) Existentielle Vergeblichkeit: Verträge in Melusine, Faust und Eulenspiegel. Berlin: Schmidt Verlag, 2003; Defining Dominion: The Discourses of Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern France and Germany. Ann Arbor: Michigan UP, l995; and Trans. Christiane Bohnert; Hexen und Herrschaft: Die Diskurse der Magie und Hexerei im frühneuzeitlichen Frankreich und Deutschland. München: Fink, 1998. She has co-edited a number of volumes; the most recent is Paracelsian Moments: Science, Medicine, & Astrology in Early Modern Europe (Sixteenth Century Texts and Studies 64. Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2002). She has published many articles in books and journals on early modern German and French literature and culture.

Williams’s research interests include early modern French and German literature; Theory & Practice; Translation; early modern science and print media. Her research has been supported by grants from the Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany, and a Fulbright Senior Scholars Grant, among others.

Research Interests

Early Modern German and French Literature, Magic/Daemonlogies/Witch Theory, Media and Culture, Reformation Movements, Translation Theory and Practice, Travel Narratives, Volksbuch/Novel

Current Courses - Spring 2013

L21 Ger 521 - From Volksbuch to Novel

Selected Publications

Gerhild Scholz Williams, William Layher. Consuming News: Newspapers and Print Culture in Early Modern Europe, 1450-1700. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009 (=DAPHNIS 37, 1-2)

Ways of Knowing in Early Modern Germany: Johannes Praetorius as a Witness to His Time. Literary and Scientific Cultures of Early Modernity. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.