Rita Katalin Laszlo

Ph.D. in Germanic Studies, University of Toronto, 2026
M.A. in Germanic Studies, University of British Columbia, 2017
B.A. in Hispanic Studies and Honours in Germanic Studies, University of British Columbia, 2014

TEACHING INTERESTS

• German as a foreign language;
• Hungarian as a foreign language;
• Contemporary German Culture & Media;
• Literature & Philosophy at the Intersection of German Enlightenment and Romanticism;
• Literature & Philosophy: Life, Death, Meaning

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

• literary representations of belief in German Romanticism and German Gothic literature;
• 18th, 19th, and 20th century German literature and thought, Enlightenment, Critical Theory;
• reading literature as philosophy;
• intersections of poetry and trauma; the influence of Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge” (1945) on Benjamin Hackman’s “Archie & His Gang in: The Day of Atonement” (2023)

“The Limits and Boundaries of Clarity in Schiller’s Der Geisterseher,” (paper presentation). Graduate Research Colloquium, Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures, University of Toronto, Toronto, April 12, 2024.

“The Limits of Knowledge and the Act of Believing in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Der Magnetiseur,” (paper presentation). Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Theory and Philosophy, 47^th Annual German Studies Association Conference, Montréal, Oct. 5-8, 2023.

“Rethinking Leichtgläubigkeit through German Language, Literature and Thought,” (online paper presentation). Mind & Memory in Germanic Studies, Conference of the German and Dutch Graduate Student Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison, February 25-26, 2022.

“Vortrag zum Thema Leichtgläubigkeit,” (guest lecture presentation for GER 430: Stories of the Mind with Dr. Christine Lehleiter), University of Toronto, Toronto, Nov. 27, 2018.

“Between Gullibility and Thoughtlessness: From Ágnes Heller to Hannah Arendt,” (guest lecture presentation fot PHIL 385: Existentialism with Dr. Steven Taubeneck), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Aug. 9, 2018.

“Ver Sacrum, the Seminal Magazine of the Vienna Secession,” (guest lecture presentation for GER 150: German Culture and Civilization with Dr. Peter Schweppe), Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, Toronto, Feb. 13, 2018.

“Storm or Progress: Engagements with the Anthropocene,” (paper presentation). Engagement in the German Tradition, Graduate Conference, Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures, University of Toronto, April 26-28, 2018.

The Proximity of Cultures, (organizer). Graduate Student Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. April 7, 2017. Keynote Speaker: Dr. Asma Sayed (MacEwan University).

“On the Relevance of Proximity” (paper presentation). The Proximity of Cultures, Graduate Student Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. April 7, 2017.

R. D. Laing: Existentialism and Buddhism, (organizer). University of British Columbia, Vancouver. April 3, 2017. Guest lecture: Andrew Feldmar (psychologist-psychotherapist).

“Literature in Action: Atmospheres of the Kafkaesque – Vor den anderen,” (short film presentation). 41st Annual Women in German Conference, Coalition of Women in German, Banff, October 13–16, 2016.

“On Metaphors and Estrangement at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century,” (paper presentation). 21st World Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, University of Vienna, Vienna, July 21–27, 2016.

“Is There Another Acceptable Interpretation of Kafka’s Fiction?” (paper presentation). On Souls Selves and Literary Techniques, CENES Graduate Student Colloquium, March 21, 2016.