Faculty Profile for Dr. Margaret Eleano Menninger

profile photo for Dr. Margaret Eleano Menninger
Dr. Margaret Eleano Menninger
Professor — History
TMH 230
phone: (512) 245-2188
Scholarly/Creative Work
Awards
Grants
Service

Biography Section

Biography and Education

 Margaret Eleanor Menninger has been a member of the Department of History since 2001 and is a former NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities. Menninger is the current Executive Director of the German Studies Association, a multi- and interdisciplinary association of over 2000 scholars in German, Austrian, and Swiss history, literature, culture studies, political science, and economics. GSA holds an annual conference and publishes a scholarly journal, the German Studies Review. Members are generally professors and advanced students at universities and colleges in North America, although there are hundreds of international members all over the world.

Menninger was born in Cambridge, England, and grew up in Eugene, Oregon, and Iowa City, Iowa. She received her A.B. with honors from Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1986. Menninger was a Rotary Scholar at Georg-August Universität in Göttingen in 1986-87. Menninger has worked in publishing for both Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston and Carl Hanser Verlag in Munich. She received her A.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1991 and 1998 respectively where her research was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service and the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C.

Teaching Interests

 Modern Europe, Western and World Music, Western and World Civilizations

Research Interests

 Menninger’s research interests include cultural philanthropy, civil society, and regional identity and bourgeois culture in Germany. She has additional interests in the social history of music, cultural diplomacy and the history of Scandinavia, particularly Iceland.

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • Menninger, M. E. (2022). A Serious Matter and True Joy: Philanthropy, the Arts, and the State in Leipzig (1750-1918). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers. Retrieved from https://brill.com/view/title/61705
  • Imhoof, D., Menninger, M. E., & Steinhoff, A. J. (Eds.). (2016). Introduction. In The Total Work of Art: Foundations, Articulations, and Inspirations (pp. 1–27). New York: Berghahn Books.
  • Imhoof, D., Menninger, M. E., & Steinhoff, A. J. (Eds.). (2016). The Will to Heal: Gesamtkunstwerk and Memorial Music since 1945 with Julia Goodwin. In The Total Work of Art: Foundations, Articulations, and Inspirations (pp. 295–329). New York: Berghahn Books.
  • Imhoof, D., Menninger, M. E., & Steinhoff, A. J. (Eds.). (2016). The Total Work of Art: Foundations, Articulations, and Inspirations. New York: Berghahn Books. Retrieved from http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=ImhoofTotal
  • Menninger, M. E. (2022). A Serious Matter and True Joy. BRILL. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004507807

Selected Awards

  • Award / Honor Recipient: Favorite Professor, Alfred H. Nolle Chapter of the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society. April 1, 2015
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Favorite Professor, Alfred H. Nolle Chapter of the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society. August 1, 2013 - May 1, 2014
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Presidential Distinction Award for Excellence in Teaching, Texas State Faculty Awards Program. August 1, 2012 - May 1, 2013
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Presidential Distinction Award for Excellence in Teaching, Texas State Faculty Awards Program. August 1, 2011 - May 1, 2012
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Dean's Excellence Award in Teaching, College of Liberal Arts. August 1, 2004 - May 1, 2005

Selected Grants

  • Menninger, Margaret Eleanor. Research Enhancement Program, Texas State University, Institutional (Higher Ed). (Funded: 2001). Grant.
  • Menninger, Margaret Eleanor. NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities, Texas State University, Texas State University. (Funded: September 1, 2015 - May 31, 2018). Grant.

Selected Service Activities

Executive Director
German Studies Association
January 1, 2021-December 31, 2025
Secretary
German Studies Association
December 15, 2018-May 1, 2020
Member
Faculty Representatives and College Liaisons Committee
November 11, 2024-Present
Member
Ad Hoc Committee on the Development of a TXST Humanities Center
August 27, 2024-Present
Member
Merit and Performance Advisory Committee
August 26, 2024-Present