• Biography

    Interdisciplinary work that studies the interface between literature and science is my primary interest; and I'm also interested in how broader, international perspectives are necessary in order to best understand both nature and culture. I write about and teach ecocriticism, a literary approach that studies how literature engages and portrays the physical world and environment.

    • Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, University of Washington
    • M.A. in Comparative Literature, University of Washington 
    • B.A. in Biology, University of Puget Sound 

     Books, Edited Volumes, and Special Journal Issues:

    • German Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene, co-editors Caroline Schaumann and Heather I. Sullivan. Palgrave Macmillan in series edited by U. Heise: Literatures, Cultures, and the Environment, 2017.
    • Special issue and Introduction of New German Critique, August 2016, volume 128: “The Challenge of Ecology to the Humanities: Post-Humanism or New Humanism?” Guest Co-Editors Heather I. Sullivan and Bernhard Malkmus.
    • The Early History of Embodied Cognition from 1740-1920: The in German (Medical) Science, Music, and Literature, co-edited by John McCarthy, Nicholas Saul, Heather I. Sullivan, and Stephanie Hilger. Leiden: Brill/Rodopi Press, 2016.
    • Special issue of Colloquia Germanica 44.2 (2011) on “Dirty Nature,” guest co-editors Heather I. Sullivan and Caroline Schaumann. (published 2014).
    • Special issue of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment 19.3 (2012) on “Material Ecocriticism: Dirt, Waste, Bodies, Food, and Other Matter,” guest co-editors Dana Phillips and Heather I. Sullivan, 445-447.
    • Heather I. Sullivan, The Intercontextuality of Self and Nature in Ludwig Tieck's Early Works. New York: Peter Lang, 1997.
    • In progress: monograph, The Dark Green: Plants, People, and Spores in the Anthropocene. (about 2/3 complete).

    Essays, Introductions, and book Chapters:

    • Essay for special volume on “Petrofictions” Heather I. Sullivan, “Petro-Texts, Plants, and People in the Anthropocene: The Dark Green,” in Green Letters 24.2 (2019), edited by Hannes Bergthaller, Christa Grewe-Volpp, and Sylvia Mayer.
    • Essay, co-authored: Heather I. Sullivan and James Shinkle, “The Dark Green Ecology in the Early Anthropocene: Goethe’s Plants in Die Metamorphose and Triumph der Empfindsamkeit,” Goethe Yearbook 26 (2019), 143-62.
    • Chapter: Heather I. Sullivan, “Goethes Metamorphose der Pflanzen: Die Materie des Grünen,” Materie des Geistes, eds. Sieglinde Grimm & Roman Bartosch, Winter Verlag, 2018, 75-99.
    • Chapter, Heather I. Sullivan, Goethes Concept of Nature: Proto-ecological Model,” in Ecological Thought in German Literature and Culture, edited by Gabriele Dürbeck, Urte Stobbe, Hubert Zapf, and Evi Zemanek. Lanham: Lexington, 2017, 17-29.
    • Invited essay: Heather I. Sullivan, “Goethe’s Colors: Revolutionary Optics and the Anthropocene,” Eighteenth Century Studies, 51.1 (2017), 115-24.
    • Chapter co-authored, Caroline Schaumann and Heather I. Sullivan, “Hybrid Environments in the Anthropocene: Recent Fiction,” in Readings in the Anthropocene: The Environmental Humanities, German Studies, and Beyond, edited by Sabine Wilke and Japhet Johnstone. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017, 38-61.
    • Chapter: Heather I. Sullivan, “The Dark Pastoral: A Trope for the Anthropocene” for my co-edited volume with Caroline Schaumann, German Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, 25-44.
    • Chapter: Heather I. Sullivan, “The Materiality and Ecology of Blue: Goethe and Jeannette Schäring,” invited for Swedish volume, Matter in Motion and the Mysticism of Nature’s Colour: The Art of Jeanette Schäring, edited by Frødi Lazlo, Sjöbackevägen, Sweden: Förlaget 284, 2017, 242-252.
    • Magazine essay: Heather I. Sullivan, “Recent German Environmental Literature: Writing Environmental Change and Catastrophe,” World Literature Today March 2017: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2017/march/recent-german-environmental-literature-writing-environmental-change-and-catastrophe
    • Chapter: Heather I. Sullivan, “Material Ecocriticism and the Petro-Text” invited essay for The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities. Eds. Ursula K. Heise, Jon Christensen, and Michelle Niemann. London: Routledge, 2017, 414-423. 
    • Introduction: Co-authored, Heather I. Sullivan and Bernhard Malkmus for special volume of New German Critique 128 (August 2016), “The Challenge of Ecology to the Humanities: An Introduction.”
    • Essay: Heather I. Sullivan, “Threatening Animals” essay for special volume of Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism on “Past the Human: Narrative Ontologies and Ontologies Stories: Part I,” edited by Serenella Iovino, 4.1 (2016), 39-52.
    • Chapter: Heather I. Sullivan, “Agency in the Anthropocene: Goethe, Radical Reality, and the New Materialisms,” in The Early History of Embodied Cognition from 1740-1920: The by John McCarthy, Stephanie Hilger, Nicholas Saul, and Heather I. Sullivan, Leiden: Rodopi/Brill, 2016.
    • Essay: Heather I. Sullivan, “The Dark Pastoral: Goethe and Atwood” in special volume on the Pastoral in Green Letters 19.4 (2015): 1-13.
    • Chapter: Heather I. Sullivan, “Materialism Ecocriticism,” in German volume Ecocriticism: Eine Einführung, edited by Gabriele Dürbeck and Urte Stobbe. Cologne, Germany: Böhlau, 2015, 57-67.
    • Essay: Heather I. Sullivan, “Nature and the ‘Dark Pastoral’ in Goethe’s Werther.” Goethe Yearbook 22 (2015): 115-132. (Awarded a 2016 annual essay prize from the Goethe Society of North America.)
    • Co-authored essay, Gabriele Dürbeck, Caroline Schaumann and Heather I. Sullivan, “Human and non-human Agencies: The Anthropocene, Material Ecocriticism, and the Contributions of Literature.” Ecozon@ 6.1 (2015): 118-136.
      • TRANSLATION into Korean of this essay for the Korean-language book, Ilryuse: Jomang goa Jeonmang (The Anthropocene: Perspectives and Prospects), with DDWorld in Seoul, December 2016.
    • Essay: Heather I. Sullivan, “Dirty Traffic and the Dark Pastoral in the Anthropocene: Narrating Refugees, Deforestation, Radiation, and Melting Ice,” Literatur für Leser 37.2 (2014): 83-97. (pub. 2015).
    • Chapter: Heather I. Sullivan, “The Ecology of Color: Goethe’s Materialist Optics and Ecological Posthumanism,” in Material Ecocriticism; eds. Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2014; 80-94.
    • German 
    • Ml&L/GRST (German Studies in English) 
    • Comparative Literature 
    • GNED - First Year Seminar 

    Recent Grants, Stipends, Sabbaticals, and Academic Honors

    • 2019 - Mellon Grant for summer Undergraduate Research with Abbi Davidnova on the Dark Green: Ecofeminism and Plant-Human kinship
    • 2018 - Co-Author of $800,000 Mellon Grant for Undergraduate Research in the Arts and Humanities at TU with Chad Spigel; awarded in 2018 for five years
    • 2018 - Course Development Grant, TU, LAC: German Eco-Science Fiction
    • 2018 - Member of Expert Panel for Arctic University of Norway Research Grant; Approved in 2018 for 24 million NOK (Norwegian Kroner) = ~$2,800,000; interdisciplinary project “Relics of Nature: Natural Heritage in a Shifting World”
    • 2018 - Trinity University Research Sabbatical Granted for Spring 2018
    • 2016-17 - Z.T. Scott Fellowship at Trinity University for outstanding teaching and advising
    • 2016 - Annual Goethe Society of North America Essay Prize for 2015 essay, “Nature and the ‘Dark Pastoral’ in Goethe's Werther,” published in Goethe Yearbook.
    • 2016 - Trinity Summer Stipend for research on “Dark Pastoral and Environmental Lit”
    • 2015 - Trinity Course Revision Grant for GERM 3302: Oral and Visual, Graphic Novels.
    • 2015 - Mellon Grant: Undergraduate Summer Research: Cli Fi & the Dark Pastoral
    • Chair of ad-hoc Translation Committee providing grants to support international ecocriticism for ASLE, the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, 2013-2016.
    • Reviewer of essays for the academic journals: Ecozon@; ISLE, Goethe Yearbook, Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, European Romantic Review, The German Quarterly.
    • Member of Trans-Atlantic Research Network in the Environmental Humanities, Seattle, WA
    • Member of International Research Group in the Environmental Humanities, Torino, Italy
    • Outside Reviewer of German, Russian, Classics department at Occidental College, 2013
    • Advisory Board Member of Ecozon@, the European ecocriticism journal.
    • Director at Large for North American Goethe Society, 2012-present; reader for annual prize and co-organizer of conference taking place at U Pittsburg, November 2014.
    • Review of book manuscripts for U of Virginia P, Wesleyan UP, and the Ohio State UP.
    • Review of book proposals for U of Virginia Press.
    • Review of Tenure case in German for a University in Mississippi, 2012.
    • Review book for Council of Graduate Schools’ 2011 “G.O. Arlt Award in the Humanities.”
    • Community Service on “mi vida” wellness and healthy food committee at St. Anthony’s Catholic Elementary School, and book fair volunteer, 2006-present.
    Trinity's Highest Faculty Honor Granted to German Studies Professor
    Monday, May 16, 2016
    Heather I. Sullivan, professor of German in the Department of Modern Languages…
    Faculty
    The Trinity Story