Stephanie M Hilger

Stephanie M Hilger serves as Professor across multiple units at the University of Illinois, holding primary appointments in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and Program in Comparative and World Literature within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Additional affiliations include French and Italian, Gender and Women's Studies, the Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences at Carle Illinois College of Medicine, and the European Union Center. Since 2021, she has expanded her interdisciplinary work into medical humanities through the medical college.

Her research centers on eighteenth-century literature and culture through the dual lenses of gender studies and medical humanities. Hilger investigates how Enlightenment-era discourses constructed sexual ambiguity, particularly through medical case studies of so-called 'hermaphrodites,' arguing for intersectional analyses of sex/gender, disability, race, and ethnicity. Her work bridges historical literary analysis with contemporary medical humanities frameworks, examining physician-writers and the evolution of embodied cognition concepts.

Hilger's publication trends reveal a sustained focus on Enlightenment gender dynamics that has progressively integrated medical humanities perspectives. Early works analyzed German women's responses to the French Revolution, while recent scholarship examines eighteenth-century medical discourses on intersex bodies and their implications for modern health humanities. Her edited volumes systematically establish German studies as a critical site for medical humanities innovation.

• Presidential Initiative Award for 'The Art of Medicine' public outreach project
• 2017 Medical Scholars Program Outstanding Advisor of the Year
• Center for Advanced Study Fellowships (2008, 2019)
• Goethe Society Essay Prize (2016)
• Lynn Martin Award for Distinguished Women Teachers (2011-2012)

As an award-winning advisor, Hilger has received multiple teaching honors from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and was recognized as Outstanding Advisor by the Medical Scholars Program. Her grant portfolio includes significant funding from the Presidential Initiative to Celebrate the Impact of the Arts and Humanities for curriculum development and public outreach initiatives connecting medicine with the humanities. Current projects include an edited collection on Medical Humanities in German Studies and research on eighteenth-century physician-writers.