About
Todd Maslyk is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. He received both his BS in Germanic Languages and Literatures and his BSE in Chemical Engineering Magna Cum Laude from U of M in 2016. As part of his undergraduate German degree, he completed a thesis on Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will in the context of the aesthetic theories of Richard Wagner, receiving high honors. Todd also completed an MSE in Biomedical Engineering at Michigan in 2017, during which he received a Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant for work on the development of a selectively apoptotic cell line.
Todd is interested in the exchange of legal knowledge between Germany and Imperial Japan that took place between 1868 and 1945 as well as the cultural and intellectual context in which that exchange was embedded. Beyond the Germany-Japan connection though, Todd’s research interests extend to media theory, film, translation studies, fascist aesthetics, and the international perception of German-speaking Europe in the long 19th century. He also seeks to apply his interdisciplinary background to the investigation of the nexus of history, science, literature, and culture.
