CV

Education

1983-1989:

• Studied German, Romance and History in Bern.
• Stays abroad in Paris (1986/87) and Prague (1990).

1991-2001:

• Assistant to Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Proß at the Institute for German Studies at the University of Bern.
• Parallel to this, two-year study of ancient Greek.

1994:

• Doctorate in modern German literature. Title of the dissertation: Worte und Werte. (Words and Values).

2001:

• Habilitation in modern German literature and general and comparative literature. Title of the habilitation thesis: Elemente einer Geschichte der Autobiographie (1450–1820) (Elements of a history of autobiography (1450-1820)).

 

Positions

2001-2004:

• Lectureships and substitute chairs at the Universities of Bern, Neuchâtel and Münster.

2002-2004:

• Management of the Swiss National Science Foundation research project. Title of the research project: Ordo naturalis‘ und ‚ordo artificialis‘ in der Frühen Neuzeit. ('Ordo naturalis' and 'ordo artificialis' in the early modern period).

2004:

• Appointed professor for modern German literature with a focus on early modern times and the history of knowledge at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster.

since 2016

• Dean of Faculty 09 – Philology.

since 2022

• deputy speaker of the CRC Law and Literature.

Memberships and external, honorary functions

• Board member of the Grimmelshausen-Gesellschaft e.V.
• Co-leader of the Hamann-Kolloquiums
• Board member of CRC ‚Recht und Literatur‘.
• Spokesman of Graduiertenkollegs des CRC ‚Recht und Literatur‘.
• Board member des Zentrums für Wissenschaftstheorie der WWU.
• Delegate of the local group Münster for the DHV.
• Academic Advisory Board of Germanistik.ch.

Current Projects

2017–2021

• „Literaturforschung und Energiewende. Entwicklung und Applikation einer transdisziplinären Modelltheorie“ [Literary Modelling and Energy Transition – Development and Application of a Transdisciplinary Theory of Models], together with Arnim Grunwald (KIT/ITAS), Veit Hagenmeyer (KIT/IAI), Ines Langenmeyer (KIT), Klaus Stierstorfer (Hauptantragsteller) and Matthias Erdbeer (WWU), funded by the VolkswagenStiftung.

since 2019

• Head of sub-project A 01 Interpretation 01 Sovereignty over texts - law and literature in the dispute over judicial censorship together with Prof. Dr. Fabian Wittreck and A 03 The law of empirical psychology. The Pitaval as milieu and process literature between 1750 and 1850 at the CRC 1385 Law and Literature together with Prof. Dr. Peter Oestmann.