Research
Contemporary German-language literature
My research focuses on contemporary (late 20th and 21st-century) German-language literature, with a particular interest in younger writers, especially women writers, authors of non-German origins and literature from the former GDR. I have published extensively on Nobel Laureate Herta Müller. Currently I am working on a co-edited volume (with Karen Leeder) on the work of Ulrike Draesner, and a co-edited volume (with Andrew Plowman and Kate Roy) on contemporary German-language short story writing.
Berlin in Literature
My current research project examines German-language anthologies of Berlin literature, using a corpus of more than 90 texts from 1885 through to the present. I am interested in the use of the anthology form, the (changing) images of the city expressed through these compilations of literature, and the representation of different groups of authors within the publications.
I have also published a number of articles on contemporary Berlin fiction, examiningBerlin as a site of border crossings, Turkish-German Berlin, autobiography, history, and the persistence of East Berlin in the contemporary metropolis, as well as contributing a chapter on women's writing about Berlin to the Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Berlin. I have supervised a PhD project on post-1989 English-language literature set in Berlin, and welcome proposals for comparative projects.
Translation
In addition to my research, I also translate contemporary German literature (and occasionally also from Dutch). My translations include three volumes of short stories: Long Days, by Maike Wetzel, the anthology Berlin Tales, and Swallow Summer, by Larissa Boehning, which was shortlisted for the Warwick Women in Translation prize 2017. I am currently working on the translation of Maike Wetzel's debut novel, Elly, for Scribe UK.
Research grants
Identity and the City: Berlin in Contemporary Narratives in German.
LEVERHULME TRUST (UK)
April 2006 - March 2008
Emerging Writers workshop and volume
BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)
September 2009 - November 2010
Research collaborations
Dr Brigid Haines
University of Swansea
Co-edited volume on Herta Müller
Prof Stuart Taberner
University of Leeds