Curriculum Vitae

Born: September 14, 1966 in Berlin, Germany

Professional Career

  • 2022– Co-editor of Anglia (with Eva von Contzen, Martin Middeke, Gabriele Rippl, and Daniel Stein).
  • 2021–2023 Head of the English Department of the Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 2019– Cluster Director (since 2023 with Anne Eusterschulte, 2019–2023 with Anita Traninger) of the Cluster of Excellence Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective (EXC 2020 Temporal Communities).
  • 2015– Deputy Speaker of the Friedrich-Schlegel-Graduate School for Literary Studies, Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 2015– Member of the Editorial Board of Frühmittelalterliche Studien [Early Medieval Studies].
  • 2012–2021 Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Anglia.
  • 2012–2024 Deputy Speaker of the Collaborative Research Centre Episteme in Motion: Transfer of Knowledge from the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period [Stellvertretender Sprecher DFG-Sonderforschungsbereich 980 Episteme in Bewegung: Wissenstransfer von der Alten Welt bis in die Frühe Neuzeit].
  • 2012– Series Advisor Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture.
  • 2011–2015 Vice Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and the Humanities of the Freie Universität Berlin with special responsibility for research issues.
  • 2009–2011 Head of the English Department of the Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 2009–2011 Head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Studies in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Early Modern Period of the Freie Universität Berlin [IZ Mittelalter – Renaissance – Frühe Neuzeit].
  • 2009–2019 Member of the Advisory Board of the Association of Medievalists in the German-Speaking Countries [Mediävistenverband].
  • 2009 Offer of the Chair of Medieval English Language and Literature at the Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, declined [Ruf auf die W3-Professur für Ältere Anglistik an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, abgelehnt].
  • 2008- Member of the Friedrich-Schlegel-Graduate School for Literary Studies, Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 2006– Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature, Freie Universität Berlin [W3-Professur für Englische Philologie mit einem Schwerpunkt Literatur des Mittelalters und der Renaissance].
  • 2004–2006 Associate Professor of Medieval English Literature [Juniorprofessor], Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
  • 1999–2003 Senior Lecturer [Wissenschaftlicher Assistent, C1], Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 1995–1999 Lecturer [Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter], Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 1995 Personal Assistant to the First Vice President of the Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 1993–1994 Part-Time Lecturer [Lehrbeauftragter], Freie Universität Berlin; English Language Teacher, Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency, in the service of the Federal State of Brandenburg’s High School Teacher Training Programme, Kyritz.
  • 1987–1990 Student Research Assistant to Professor Klaus Dietz, Chair of English Historical Linguistics and Medieval Literature, Freie Universität Berlin.

Education

  • July 2005 Professorial Dissertation [Habilitation] at the Technische Universität Dresden. Title of the Professorial Dissertation: Performing the Middle Ages from Beowulf to Othello.
  • 1998 Dr. Phil., Summa cum laude, Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 1994–1995 Visiting Affiliate Graduate Research Student, Yale University.
  • 1991 High School Teacher Examination [1. Staatsexamen für das Höhere Lehramt, the equivalent of an MA], very good [sehr gut], Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 1984 School Leaving Certificate [Abitur], Albert-Schweitzer-Oberschule [Gymnasium], Berlin.

Scholarships, Grants, External Funding

  • 2023– Principal investigator of the research unit FOR 5323 [DFG-Forschergruppe 5323] Aetiologies – Founding Narratives in Literary, Scholarly, and Scientific Discourses [Aitiologien: Figuren und Funktionen begründenden Erzählens in Wissenschaft und Literatur] at the Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 2019– Cluster of Excellence (EXC 2020) Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective.
  • 2016–2022 Principal investigator of the research unit FOR 2305 [DFG-Forschergruppe 2305] Discursivizations of the New. Tradition and Renewal in Medieval and Pre-modern Texts [Diskursivierungen von Neuem] at the Freie Universität Berlin; funding the subproject 02 (together with Prof. Dr. Wolfram Keller, Humboldt-University Berlin) “Troynovant Revisited. Strategic Hybridisation in the Competing Traditions of Classical Antiquity in English Literature c. 1380 – 1680” [“Troynovant Revisited. Strategische Hybridisierungen in den konkurrierenden Antikentraditionen der englischen Literatur zwischen ca. 1380 und 1680”].
  • 2016–2019 “DEEPDEAD: Deploying The Dead: Artefacts and Human Bodies in Socio-Cultural Transformations”, HERA-Project (Humanities in the European Research Area).
  • 2015–2024 Associate member of the research unit Cinepoetics at the Freie Universität Berlin.
  • 2012–2024 Principal investigator of the Collaborative Research Centre Episteme in Motion. Transfer of Knowledge from the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period. Project B01: “Artefacts, Treasures and Ruins - Materiality and Historicity in the Literature of the English Middle Ages”, Head of Concept Group II: “Time and Historicity”.
  • 2012–2020 Associate Member of the Special Research Group [Kollegforschergruppe] BildEvidenz.
  • 2008–2011 Principal investigator of the Special Research Group [DFG-Forschergruppe] Topics and Tradition [Topik und Tradition] at the Freie Universität Berlin; funding the project “Ekphrasis: Tradition and Literariness in the English Middle Ages and Early Modern Period” [“Ekphrasis: Tradition und Literarizität in der englischen Literatur des Spätmittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit”].
  • 2008–2010 Successful application (together with Prof. Dr. Dr. Russell West-Pavlov) for a grant within the Excellence Cluster “Languages of Emotion” as part of the Federal Initiative of Academic Excellence: “Passion and Distinction: The Functions of Love in the Late Medieval and Early Modern English Literature” [“Passion und Distinktion: Funktionen der Liebe in der englischen Literatur des Späten Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit”].
  • 2000 VG Wort grant for the publication of Clerks and Courtiers: Chaucer, Late Middle English Literature and the State Formation Process.
  • 1994–1995 DAAD-scholarship for research and study at Yale University.
  • 1993–1994 NaFöG doctoral dissertation grant [a grant awarded to doctoral candidates by the federal state of Berlin].
  • 1987–1990 “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”-scholarship.

Memberships in Scholarly Societies

  • Anglistenverband
  • Mediävistenverband
  • New Chaucer Society
  • Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft