Christopher Wickham, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Modern Languages and Literatures
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Bio
Christopher J. Wickham is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He earned his B.A.(Hons) and M.Phil. at the University of Reading (UK) and his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He taught at the Universität Regensburg, Germany, Allegheny College, PA, and the University of Illinois at Chicago before moving to UTSA in 1991. Dr. Wickham taught at the German Summer School at Middlebury College for seven years and directed the “UTSA in Munich” study abroad program for many years. He retired from teaching in 2017.
His research focuses on German regionalism, Bavarian dialect, cinema, poetry, singer-songwriters, travel writing, Texas Germans, and German painters. He authored a monograph on the dialect of Diendorf, Bavaria (1987) and a book on the notion of Heimat (1999). He has edited books on German cinema and television (1992, with Bruce A. Murray) and German literature and culture (1991, with Karl-Heinz Schoeps). His recent book publications include Comanches and Germans on the Texas Frontier (2018, with Daniel J. Gelo), Comanches, Captives, and Germans: Wilhelm Friedrich’s Drawings from the Texas Frontier (2022, with Daniel J. Gelo, C.B. “Hoppy” Hopkins, and Bryden E. Moon, Jr.), The German Texas Frontier in 1853: Ferdinand Lindheimer’s Newspaper Accounts of the Environment, Gold, and Indians (2024, with Daniel J. Gelo), and Eyewitness on the German-Comanche Frontier: Theodore Specht’s Newspaper Reports, 1853-1857 (2026, with Dan Gelo). Drs. Wickham and Gelo received the 2018 Presidio La Bahia Award for best book on early Texas history (for Comanches and Germans on the Texas Frontier) and the 2023 Ed Mergele Award for best book on history or genealogy from Kendall County (TX) Genealogical Society (for Comanches, Captives, and Germans). In 2025 the latter book also received the Citation of the Publications Awards Committee of the San Antonio Conservation Society.
Dr. Wickham’s recent articles include: "Mid-Century Cultural Tectonics: Unpacking the Ying Tong Song Core Sample" in Journal of European Popular Culture (2021); "Remembering Exile: Jews in the American Dystopia in Axel Corti’s Santa Fé (1985)" in Nancy Membrez (ed.), War and Remembrance: An Anthology of Critical Essays (2021); "Dokąd i z powrotem: Spojrzenia na trylogię żydowską Axela Cortiego" in Jakub Gortat (ed.), Pamięc o narodowy socjalizm w filmie austriackim (1945-2020) (2023); and “The Exile Returns as Conquering Soldier: Collisions of Past and Future in Konrad Wolf’s Ich war neunzehn and Axel Corti’s Welcome in Vienna” (2024). His translation of Heinrich von Kleist’s "Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden" ("On how we gradually make up our thoughts while we are talking") appeared in 2019. His annotated bibliography of Adelbert von Chamisso’s tale Peter Schlemihl was published in 2021. Dr. Wickham is an occasional contributor to the German literary magazine Literatur in Bayern. He is currently working with anthropologist Daniel J. Gelo on topics related to German immigration to Texas including a study of the contribution of 19th century Texas botanist and publicist Ferdinand Lindheimer to the development of Texas-German identity.
Research Interests
- German Language
- German Literature
- German Culture
- German Regionalism
- German Immigration to Texas
Degrees
- Ph.D. in German Literature, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison (1982)
- M.Phil. in German Linguistics, Reading Univ., U.K. (1974)
- B.A.(Hons.) in German and Linguistics, Reading Univ., U.K. (1972)
