Hartmut Lutz

Hartmut Lutz is professor emeritus and former chair of American and Canadian studies: Anglophone literatures and cultures of North America at the University of Greifswald, Germany. He is the founder of the Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, a research centre for Canadian and American literature studies at Greifswald. Beginning in the 1980s, he pioneered the field of Indigenous literary studies by establishing intercultural bridges and trans-Atlantic connections with leading Indigenous authors, scholars, educators, activists and intellectuals from Canada and the United States. He initiated studies on "Indian" stereotyping and coined the term "Indianthusiasm" to describe the fascination Germans have with all things "Indian". Throughout his career, Lutz put in practice the "nothing about us without us" principle set forth by Indigenous people and devoted himself to asking for their thoughts and to collaborating on bringing their words to a wide public in North America and Europe.