Roberto Simanowski
Assistant Professor of German Studies:
German Studies
Phone: +1 401 863 2168
Roberto_Simanowski@brown.edu
Professor Simanowski's areas of interest include 18th- century literature and culture, modern German literature and culture, digital aesthetics, nationalism, and identity
Biography
2003 Assistant Professor: Department of German Studies, Brown University
2002 Guest Professor: Cultural Studies in Digital Media, University of Jena
2001-2002 Visiting Scholar: Department of Germanics, University of Washington
2000-2001 Lecturer: German Department, Universities of Göttingen and Erfurt
1999 Founder of dichtung-digital.org, online journal on digital aesthetics
1998-2000 Postdoctoral Fellow: German Department, Harvard University
1997-98 Research Fellow: Special Research Program on "Internationality of National Literatures," University of Göttingen
1996 Lecturer: Filologia Germanska, Mikolaja Kopernika University of Torun
1996 Ph.D., Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, German Language & Literature
1991 German as Foreign Language, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
1985-1990 M.A. Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, German and History
Interests
Roberto Simanowki has finished three books on digital culture and aesthetics. Digitale Medien in der Erlebnisgesellschaft. Kultur – Kunst – Utopie (Digital Media in the Society of Event: Culture, Art, Utopia) published with Rowohlt in fall 2008 explores the cultural, social and political ramifications of digital media; Reading Digital Arts. In-Depth-Analysis and Historic Contextualization (forthcoming with University of Minnesota Press in 2009) and Ereignis und Bedeutung in digitaler Kunst. Prozessualität – Transformation – Spektakel (Event and Meaning in Digital Arts. Process – Transformation – Spectacle; forthcoming with Transcript in 2009) explore the specific aesthetics of digital literature and arts. Together with two colleagues from Germany Simanowski is currently editing a book about methods of researching and teaching digital literature in different academic environment in various countries (Reading Moving Letters: Digital Literature in Research and Teaching. A Handbook forthcoming with Transcript in 2009). Simanowski's next book project about cultural identity combines an investigation of the idea of nationalism and cosmopolitanism in Germany around 1800 (focusing on Herder, Jean Paul and Fichte) with the debate on identity and multiculturalism in Germany after reunification and in the age of globalization in the late 20th and early 21st century. He also writes on a paper on the discussion of the GRD and the German reunification in recent German literature and film.
Degrees
Ph.D., University of Jena
Awards
-Feodor Lynen Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Harvard University, 1998-2000, 2001/2002
-Pre-Doctoral Grant, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, 1994-95
Affiliations
International Association for Germanic Studies
Modern Language Association
German Studies Association
Teaching
- GRMN 0900: Great Works from Germany
- GRMN 0600: Was ist Deutsch?
- GRMN 1340: Contemporary German Literature
- GRMN 1440: Digital Aesthetics
- GRMN 0220: Individualized Readings in German
- GRMN 1440: Dada-Performance and Digital-Interactivity
- GRMN 0500: Germans' self-identification before and after the unification
- GRMN 1440: Written Images and Digital Performance
- GRMN 1320: 'Coming of Age' Thematic in German Literature Within the 20th Century
- GRMN 1440: Digital literature: prehistory, typology, technology, and aesthetics
- GRMN 2660: Aesthetics of the Spectacle
- GRMN 2660: Nationalism in Germany
Funded Research
2006: Schweizer Nationalfonds, $ 11 000
2006: Humanities Research Group Grant (Brown), $ 5 000
2005: STG Faculty Grant (Brown)
2005: Humanities Research Group Grant (Brown), $ 5 000
2005: Wayland Faculty Seminar Grant (Brown), $ 15 000
2005: Creative Arts Council Grant (Brown), $ 5 000
2004: Lectureship Grant (Brown), $ 5 000
Web Links
Curriculum Vitae
Download Roberto Simanowski's Curriculum Vitae in PDF Format
