Biography

I have been a lecturer at Aberdeen University since 2014. As an undergraduate I studied German and Philosophy, before spending a year in Japan. To pursue my interests in literature and culture I studied for a masters in Comparative Literature, and for a PhD at the 'Languages of Emotion' excellence cluster of the Free University Berlin.

Education

2013     PhD Literary Studies (magna cum laude)

            Free University of Berlin

2009     MA Comparative Literature (distinction)

            University College London (and intercollegiate status at SOAS)

2007     BA Hons Philosophy and German (first class)

            St Anne’s College, University of Oxford

Internal Memberships

German Examinations Officer

German Year Abroad Coordinator

Research Overview

My areas of interest encompass German literature from the Romantic period to the present day, and are also informed by my background in Comparative Literature. A central concern in my work is in how people relate to and position themselves within the wider environment.

My first book Metamorphosis in Modern German Literature (Legenda, 2016) looks at imaginings of becoming non-human and other as a way of grappling with problematic identities. The monograph takes a comparative and historical approach, and traces cultural changes in thinking about bodies, identity and emotion.

Through my interest in the boundaries of the human, I have become interested in how we relate to other beings and to our environment. The environmental crisis has also mobilised me to work on understanding environmental culture. I am particularly interested in issues of agency, and our sense of autonomy and control in relation to environmental and climatic phenomena. I have recently begun a new research project on narratives of floods and flooding in literature from the nineteenth century to the present day.

I welcome enquiries from prospective postgraduate students with interests in any of my areas of research.

Teaching Responsibilities

I teach a range of undergraduate courses on German language, literature, culture and history. My honours options include:

Environmental Crisis in Literature and Culture

Humans and Others: Modernity and its Discontents

Transgression: From Sturm und Drang to Romanticism

Fairytales and Feminism