Research Interests

Modern literature; theories of modernism; women's literature and cultural production; gender theories; contemporary intercultural/interlingual writing.

Degrees

Dr. Phil. - German, Philosophy, Education. University of Cologne

1. Philologische Staatsprufung German, Philosophy sumina cum laude. University of Cologne.

Academic Employment

1993- - Department of Comparative Literature – State University of New York at Binghamton - Professor

Department of Comparative Literature – State University of New York at Binghamton - Visiting Associate Professor

Department of German – University of Cologne - Lecturer

Department of Comparative Literature – University of Essen - Lecturer

Department of Gennan – University of Florida, Gainesville - Assistant Professor (tenure track)

Editorial Activities

Editor of the book series: "Die Frau in der Gesellschaft" Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt a.M. (Germany)

Honors, Fellowships, and Grants

2001 Keynote Address - "Sexing the Body: The Bio-Politics of Sexual Construction." Ninth Annual Interdisciplinary German Stuedies conference at the University of California at Berkeley, March 15-17

2001 Luncheon Address - "The Translator/Critic in the Age of Globalization." Kentucky Foreign Language Conference at the University of Kentucky at Lexington

2000 Ida Cordella Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor. Spring, University of Iowa

2000 International Institute for Cultural Studies, Vienna, Austria. Conference Grant "Polyglot Spaces, Polyglot Practices. The Politics and Poetics of Multilingual Textual Production"

1999/2000 Kaethe-Leichter-Visiting Professor for Gender and Women's Studies, Fall/ Winter Semester, University of Vienna, Austria

1998 Dean of Harpur College, Binghamton University. "Modernity and Identity," Workshop-Series Grant

1996 Invited, Symposion Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft "Kanon Macht Kultur" September, Marbach, Germany

1996 DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), New York -Conference Grant "Ingeborg Bachmann Symposion"

1996 Austrian Culture Institute, New York - Conference Grant "Ingeborg Bachmann Symposion"

1995-98 Executive Committee MLA Division for Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century German Literature

1992 Invited Guestspeaker at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Teachers of German., Charlottstown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

1991 John Kade Foundation, New York - Conference Grant "The Question of the Other"

1991 DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) - Conference Grant "The Question of the Other"

1991 Distinguished Visiting Scholar (NEH) Spring, University of Minnesota, Morris

1986-88 Research Fellowship, German Research Society (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)

1985-86 Research Grant Ministry of Science and Research of the State of Northrhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf

1983-85 Research Grant, Ministry of Science and Research of the State of Northrhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf

1984 Invited Guestspeaker, German-Netherland-Society Lecture Tour (Amsterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht, Nijmegen)

Publications

A. Books

1. Deutsche Dichterinnen vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Gedichte und Lebensläufe. Ed. with introduction. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Fourth edition: 1991; more than 40.000 copies sold.
An anthology of sixty women poets. The book contains a substantial 50 pages introduction, outlining the literary history of women writers in German speaking countries from the Middle Ages to the present, and short biographies of the 60 women poets.
Reprint: Sophie's Library

2. Poetisch-wissenschaftliche Mittelalter-Rezeption. Ludwig Tiecks Erneuerung
altdeutscher Literatur. Goppingen: Kummerle Verlag, 1980. 299 pp.
A monograph focusing on the poetic and scholarly reception of the Middle Ages by the Jena Romantics, especially Ludwig Tieck; with an overview of the reception of the Middle Ages from Renaissance to Romanticism.

3. (Ed.) Zur Psychologie der Frau. Frühe Texte von Lou Andreas-Salomé, Hedwig Dohm, Isolde Kurz, Rosa Mayreder et. al. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1978.
362 pp. [Introduction to texts and authors 32 pp.]
An anthology of texts by largely forgotten women writers of the 19th and early 20th centuries on the subject of gender roles, concepts of femininity, and the psychology of women.

4. (Ed.) Frauenarbeit und Beruf. Frühe Texte von Lily Braun, Clara Zetkin, Ricarda Huch, Alice Salomon et. Al. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1979. 455 pp. [Introduction to texts and authors 42 pp.]
An anthology of texts by women of the bourgeois, proletarian and radical feminist movements on the subject of women and work, equity, wages, division of labour.

5. (Ed.) Fanny Lewald: Meine Lebensgeschichte, Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1980. 296 pp. [Introduction 20 pp.]
The first reprint (abridged version) or one of the most important autobiographies of the 19th century by the famous Jewish woman author Fanny Lewald.

6. (Ed.) Frauen gegen den Krieg. Frühe Texte von Olive Schreiner, Selma Lagerlöf, Rosa Luxemburg, Claire Goll et. al. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1980. 340 pp. [Introduction to texts and authors 45 pp.]
A collection of critical essays, prose and poetry by women writers of the 19th and 20th centuries as well as documents of the largely forgotten women's peace movements at the beginning of the century.

7. (Ed.) Toni Sender:Autobiographie einer deutschen Rebellin. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag,1981. 323 pp. [Introduction 18 pp.]
The first German edition of the autobiography by the Jewish socialist Toni Sender, one of the very few women "Reichstagsabgeordneten" in Weimar Germany, who later escaped the Nazis, and immigrated to the United States to become a high ranked official in the United Nations.

8. (Ed.) Kämpferin für den Frieden:Bertha von Suttner. Frankfurt: Fischer
Taschenbuch Verlag,1983. 216 pp.[Introduction 20 pp.]
The first anthology of Bertha von Suttner's writings. Selections from her memoirs, diaries, her political writings and speeches with an introduction.

9. Lexikon deutschsprachiger Schriftstellerinnen:1800 -1945 Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag,1986 (with K. Ludwig and A. Wöffen). 364 pp.
Bio-bibliographies of 214 women writers from the 19th to the 20th century.

10. (Ed.) Deutsche Literatur von Frauen.Vol.1: Vom Mittelalter bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhundert. Munich: C.H. Beck Verlag, 1988. 558 pp.
A collection of critical essays on German women writers from the early Middle Ages to the 18th century.

11. (Ed.) Deutsche Literatur von Frauen.Vol.2:Vom 19.Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. München:C.H.Beck Verlag,1988. 584 pp.
A collection of critical essays on Geman women writers from the 19th to the 20th century.

12. (Ed.) Encountering the Other(s).Studies in Literature,History and Culture. Albany:State University of New York Press, 1995. 416pp.
Contributors to this book from German, English, Spanish, philosophy, history, political science, and education focus on the serious political questions posed by the problems of strangeness, "the other." With a variety of perspectives, ranging from the biological to the psychological, the essays address cultural, and political implications of 'otherness.'

13. (Ed.) Writing New Identities:Nation,Gender and Multiculturalism in Contemporary Europe. Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press, 1997. (together with Sidonie Smith)
The essays of this book explore from a variety of theoretical and critical perspectives the interrelationships of nationalisms, gender and representation practices. They take up diverse cultural texts, personal narratives films, essays, magazines, poetry, fiction, across the breadth of Europe, from Ireland to Russia,from France to the former Yugoslavia, from Sweden to Germany and Italy.

14. (Ed.) "If We Had the Word." Ingeborg Bachmann: Views and Reviews, Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, 2004. (together with Markus Zisselsberger)

In preparation

(Ed.) Polyglot Spaces, Polyglot Practices.The Politics and Poetics of Multilingual Textual Production. Albany: State University of New York Press (together with Sidonie Smith).

Moderne und Geschlecht.A booklength study on the position of women and the concept of femininity in theories of modernity,paying close attention to an exploration of modern literature.


Current Projects

I have the following writing project underway:
Weiblichkeit and Moderne, a booklength study on the position of woman in theories of modernity by Adorno/Horkheimer, Benjamin, Nietzsche, Freud and Simmel, paying close attention to an exploration of the literature by Lou Andreas-Salome, Hedwig Dohm, Franziska zu Reventlow and Helene Boehlau.