About

I received my PhD (2004) and 'Habilitation' (2008) from the University of Tübingen. In 2009 I joined the English Department of the University of Potsdam as  Chair of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures. A lot of my work in Potsdam has been collaborative, conducted and published together with my wonderful colleagues. I was vicepresident of GAPS (Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies) between 2012 and 2015. Since 2016, I am co-spokesperson of the Research Training Group (DFG Graduiertenkolleg) minor cosmopolitanisms, a programme focussing on PhD training conducted in close collaboration with partners in South Africa, India, Australia and North America. From 2025, I will be a member of the Research Unit (DFG Forschungskolleg) Collaborations: Assemblages, Articulations, Alliances, running a project on Oceanian Poetic Collaborations. My main research project over the past ten years or so has focussed on the figure of Tupaia, a Polynesian master navigator who joined the crew of Captain James Cook on his first voyage to Oceania.