Richard Apgar

Richard Apgar serves as Associate Professor of German and German Studies and Chair of the Department of German & German Studies at the University of the South (Sewanee). His academic career includes prior teaching appointments at Elon University, the University of Mannheim in Germany, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, demonstrating extensive international and domestic teaching experience.

Professor Apgar earned his B.A. in German Studies from Davidson College (1997) and completed his Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2008). His doctoral research focused on Enlightenment pedagogy through the work of Joachim Heinrich Campe, establishing foundational expertise in 18th-century German children's literature and its engagement with global exploration.

His research program centers on 18th-19th century German travel literature, non-European cultural representation in Enlightenment texts, and emerging media culture during this transformative period. Professor Apgar's work uniquely bridges literary analysis with historical context, examining how German literature processed expanding global horizons during the Enlightenment era. His scholarship reveals critical connections between pedagogical frameworks, cross-cultural encounters, and media evolution in pre-modern Europe.