apl. Prof. Dr. Rainer Godel
Contact
apl. Prof. Dr. Rainer Godel
Scientific Director
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Excellenzcluster “Imaginamics. Practices and Dynamics of Social Imagining”
Fürstengraben 1
07743 Jena
Office:
Leutragraben 1 (JenTower, 8. OG), Room: 08N04
07743 Jena
Phone: +49 (0)3641 9416001
E-mail: rainer.godel(at)uni-jena.de
Personal details
-
Research Areas
• History of knowledge and science from the early modern period to the 20th century
• (Popular) philosophy, anthropology and literature in the cultural and intellectual history of the European Enlightenment
• Modernity and popularity in the 20th century
• Media history of controversy in the early modern period / theory of controversy
• Literary theory and methodology, in particular knowledge / ignorance and literature -
Curriculum Vitae
Academic and professional background
since 2026
Scientific Director at the Cluster of Excellence “Imaginamics: Practices and Dynamics of Social Imagination” at Friedrich Schiller University Jena
since 2012
Adjunct Professor of Modern German Literature at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Department of German Studies2024 – 2025
Secretary-General (Head of the Executive Office) at the German Academy for Language and Literature, Darmstadt2024 – 2025
Chair of the Foundation for German Language and Literature, Darmstadt, jointly with Johann von Keussler2013 – 2024
Director of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina – National Academy of Sciences, Centre for Research on Science
2012
Max Kade Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison (USA), Department of German2006 – 2013
Research Coordinator, and from 2010 also Deputy Spokesperson, at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, State Research Priority: “Aufklärung – Religion – Wissen. Transformationen des Religiösen in der Moderne” [“Enlightenment – Religion – Knowledge. Transformations of the Religious in the Modern Age”]
2005 – 2006
Honorary Fellow at the University of Wisconsin – Madison (USA), Institute for Research in the Humanities, funded as a Feodor Lynen Fellow by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, research project: “Herrschaft Stadt. Großstadtwahrnehmung unter ideologischen Prämissen” [“The City as Power. Perceptions of the Metropolis under Ideological Premises”] in collaboration with Marc Silberman2004 – 2005
Research Fellow in the DFG project “‘Vernünftige Ärzte‘. Psychomediziner und Ästhetiker in der Anthropologischen Wende der Aufklärung” [“‘Reasonable Doctors’. Psychiatrists and Aestheticians in the Anthropological Turn of the Enlightenment”] at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research on the European Enlightenment in Halle/S.1998 – 2003
Research assistant on the DFG project “Selbstaufklärung der Aufklärung. Individual-, Gesellschafts- und Menschheitsentwürfe in der anthropologischen Wende der Spätaufklärung” [“Self-Enlightenment of the Enlightenment: Concepts of the Individual, Society and Humanity in the Anthropological Turn of the Late Enlightenment”], sub-project “Vorurteile und Anthropologie in der Literatur der deutschen Aufklärung” [“Prejudice and Anthropology in the Literature of the German Enlightenment”] at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research on the European Enlightenment in Halle/S.
1998
Knowledge manager and assistant to the management at SIPA Business Consultancy in Saarbrücken and Hamburg1996 – 1998
Freelance lecturer and co-author of a concept for seminars on the new spelling rules for Schwäbisch Hall Training GmbH in collaboration with the DUDEN editorial team in Mannheim1996
Employee at ZF-Getriebe GmbH in Saarbrücken in the Quality Assurance department, working on the development and implementation of a concept for information protection and knowledge transferUndergraduate studies – PhD – Habilitation
2006
Defence of the habilitation thesis “Vorurteil – Anthropologie – Literatur. Der Vorurteilsdiskurs als Modus der Selbstaufklärung im 18. Jahrhundert” [“Prejudice – Anthropology – Literature. The Discourse on Prejudice as a Mode of Self-Enlightenment in the 18th Century”], Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg1993 – 1996
Doctoral studies in Modern German Literature at Saarland University in Saarbrücken and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. 1997: Defence of the thesis “Schiller’s ‘Wallenstein’ Trilogy. A Production-Theoretical Analysis” (Grade: magna cum laude)1987 – 1992
Studied Modern German Literature, Political Science, Old German Philology and Modern German Linguistics at Saarland University; additionally attended courses in History, Economics and Constitutional Law. 1992: Master of Arts (Grade: very good) -
Publications
Monographs
2007
Vorurteil – Anthropologie – Literatur. Der Vorurteilsdiskurs als Modus der Selbstaufklärung im 18. Jahrhundert, Tübingen (Niemeyer) 2007. ( = Hallesche Beiträge zur Europäischen Aufklärung. Bd. 33) (Habilitation thesis)1999
Schillers Wallenstein-Trilogie. Eine produktionstheoretische Analyse, St. Ingbert (Röhrig Universitätsverlag) 1999. ( = Saarbrücker Beiträge zur Literaturwissenschaft. Bd. 64) (Doctoral thesis)Edited volumes
Editorship of Journals/Yearbooks
2025
Herder Jahrbuch/Herder Yearbook 17 (2024), edited by Rainer Godel and Johannes Schmidt, Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck) 2025. Also available at: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/buch/herder-yearbook-herder-jahrbuch-9783161641534/2023
Herder Jahrbuch/ Herder Yearbook 16 (2022), edited by Rainer Godel and Johannes Schmidt, Heidelberg (Synchron) 2023.2020
Herder Jahrbuch/ Herder Yearbook 15 (2020), edited by Rainer Godel and Johannes Schmidt, Heidelberg (Synchron) 2020.2018
Herder Jahrbuch/ Herder Yearbook 14 (2018), edited by Rainer Godel and Johannes Schmidt, Heidelberg (Synchron) 2018.2016
Herder Jahrbuch/ Herder Yearbook 13 (2016), edited by Rainer Godel and Johannes Schmidt, Heidelberg (Synchron) 2016.2014
Herder Jahrbuch/ Herder Yearbook 12 (2014), edited by Rainer Godel, Karl R. Menges and Johannes Schmidt, Heidelberg (Synchron) 2014.2012
Herder Jahrbuch/ Herder Yearbook 11 (2012), edited by Rainer Godel and Karl R. Menges, Heidelberg (Synchron) 2012.In preparation:
Herder Jahrbuch/ Herder Yearbook 18 (2026), edited by Rainer Godel, Johannes Schmidt and Rachel Zuckert, Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck).Editorship of anthologies
2020
„Andersartigkeit“ und Identität in menschlichen Gesellschaften: die Verantwortung der Wissenschaften. Edited by Volker Roelcke and Heinz Schott in collaboration with Rainer Godel, Stuttgart (Wiss. Verlagsgesellschaft) (= Acta Historica Leopoldina. Vol. 73) 2020.2019
Vorträge und Abhandlungen zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 2015/ 2016. Edited by Rainer Godel, Dieter Hoffmann, Michael Kaasch and Joachim Kaasch, Stuttgart (Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft) (= Acta Historica Leopoldina. Vol. 74) 2019.2018
Ordnen – Vernetzen – Vermitteln. Kunst- und Naturalienkammern der Frühen Neuzeit als Lehr- und Lernorte. Edited by Eva Dolezel, Rainer Godel, Andreas Pečar and Holger Zaunstöck, Stuttgart (Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft) 2018 (= Acta Historica Leopoldina. Vol. 70).2016
Vorträge und Abhandlungen zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 2013/ 2014. Edited by Rainer Godel, Dieter Hoffmann, Michael Kaasch, Joachim Kaasch and Florian Steger, Stuttgart (Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft) 2016 (= Acta Historica Leopoldina. Vol. 65).„Krieg der Gelehrten“ und die Welt der Akademien 1914-1924. Edited by Wolfgang U. Eckart and Rainer Godel, Stuttgart (Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft) 2016 ( = Acta Historica Leopoldina. Vol. 68)
2015
Welt-Anschauungen. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf die Ordnung des Globalen, edited by Olaf Breidbach, Andreas Christoph and Rainer Godel, Stuttgart (Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft) 2015 ( = Acta Historica Leopoldina. Vol. 67)2014
Classer les mots, classer les choses. Synonymie, analogie et métaphore au XVIIIe siècle, edited by Michèle Vallenthini, Charles Vincent and Rainer Godel, Paris (Classiques Garnier) 2014 ( = Rencontres. Vol. 100).Zwischen Popularisierung und Ästhetisierung? Hanns Heinz Ewers und die Moderne, edited by Barry Murnane and Rainer Godel in collaboration with Erdmut Jost, Bielefeld (Aisthesis) 2014 ( = Moderne-Studien. Vol. 16).
2012
Klopffechtereien – Missverständnisse – Widersprüche? Methodische und methodologische Perspektiven auf die Kant-Forster-Kontroverse, edited by Rainer Godel and Gideon Stiening, Munich (Wilhelm Fink) 2012 ( = Laboratorium Aufklärung. Vol. 10).2010
Shaftesbury, edited by Rainer Godel and Insa Kringler. Aufklärung. Interdisciplinary Yearbook for Research into the 18th Century and its Historical Impact 22 (2010).Erzählen im Umbruch. Narration 1770-1810. Texte, Formen, Kontexte, edited by Rainer Godel and Matthias Löwe. Wezel Yearbook 12/13 (2009/2010).
Formen des Nicht-Wissens der Aufklärung, edited by Hans Adler and Rainer Godel, Munich (Wilhelm Fink) 2010 ( = Laboratorium Aufklärung. Vol. 4).
Editorship of Source Editions
2007
August Heinrich Julius Lafontaine: Die Stärke des Vorurtheils. Das Räthselspiel. Zwei Erzählungen. Edited and with an afterword by R.G., Hanover (Wehrhahn) 2007. ( = fundstücke. Vol. 16)In preparation:
Johann Georg Sulzer: Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften. Edited by Baptiste Baumann, Gunhild Berg, Rainer Godel and Simon Rebohm; in: Johann Georg Sulzer. Collected Writings. Annotated edition. Edited by Hans Adler and Elisabeth Décultot, Basel (Schwabe).Articles
Essays and articles in peer-reviewed journals and yearbooks
2024
Ingenieurssolipsismen in literarischen Stadtkonstruktionen der 1920er Jahre; in: International Archive for the Social History of German Literature 49.2 (2024), pp. 371–396. https://doi.org/10.1515/iasl-2024-00192019
Why Samuel Richardson’s “Clarissa” became a role model. On Zimmermann’s biography of Albrecht von Haller; in: Almagest. International Journal for the History of Scientific Ideas 10.1 (2019), pp. 38–51.2017
Metapher (als Metapher) des Nicht-Wissens: Zu Johann Gottfried Herders Theorie und Praxis der Metapher; in: Metaphorologien der Exploration und Dynamik. 1800/1900. Edited by Gunhild Berg, Martina King and Reto Rössler (= Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte 59 (2017)), pp. 23–40.Zur Geschichte einer Metapher. Die Begriffe „Verwandtschaft“ und „Wahlverwandtschaft“ in der Chemie (zusammen mit Gunnar Berg); in: Metaphorologien der Exploration und Dynamik. 1800/1900. Edited by Gunhild Berg, Martina King and Reto Rössler (= Archive for the History of Concepts 59 (2017)), pp. 197–204.
L’esprit de controverse: comment Goethe et Schiller ont inventé la « Weimarer Klassik » ; in : Lumières et classicisme. Edited by Jean-Christophe Abramovici and Daniel Fulda (2017) (= Revue internationale d’étude du dix-huitième siècle (RIEDS) 3 (2017)), pp. 169–183.
https://oraprdnt.uqtr.uquebec.ca/pls/public/docs/GSC304/O0000287990_IRECS.RIEDS.vol.3.Godel.pdfExternal link2013
Die Form der Auseinandersetzung. Forster, die Berliner Mittwochsgesellschaft und die Berlinische Monatsschrift; in: Georg-Forster-Studien 18 (2013). Georg Forster und die Berliner Aufklärung. Edited by Stefan Greif and Michael Ewert, pp. 1–16.2012
Das Fremde ist das Eigene ist das Fremde. Epistemologische Modelle in Georg Forsters Reise um die Welt und Ansichten vom Niederrhein; in: Colloquium Helveticum 42 (2011). Jenseits der empirischen Wissenschaften. Literatur und Reisebericht im 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert. Edited by Maximilian Bergengruen, François Rosset and Markus Winkler, Fribourg (Academic Press) 2012, pp. 115–136.Der Vorurteilsdiskurs der Aufklärung in den Moralischen Wochenschriften. Popularphilosophische Bestimmungsgründe und narrative Auflösungen; in: Periodische Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts. Moralische Wochenschriften im deutschsprachigen Raum. Edited by Misia Sophia Doms and Bernhard Walcher. Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik. Series A. Congress Reports. Vol. 110, Bern, Berlin, Brussels et al. (Peter Lang) 2012, pp. 359–379.
2011
Carl Grosse’s Der Genius, or: Contingency and the Uncanny in Cultural Transfer; in: Colloquia Germanica. Internationale Zeitschrift für Germanistik 42.1 (2009) [2011], pp. 27–47.Georg Forster und die Schauspielkunst. Zum Zusammenhang von Anthropologie und Ästhetik; in: Georg Forster-Studien 16 (2011), pp. 177–201.
Anti-bourgeois Novels with Bourgeois Readers: “Justifying” Violence in German Volunteer Corps Novels; in: German Studies Review 34.2 (2011), pp. 325–344.
2010
„Der Heimat getreu, ihrem Werk leidenschaftlich ergeben.“ Elemente der Welt¬anschauungsliteratur in Hans Francks Romanbiographie Annette (1937); in: Droste-Jahrbuch 8 (2009/2010), pp. 249–269.Hyperbel der Aufklärung. Nichtwissen in Brentanos Godwi; in: Erzählen im Umbruch. Narration 1770–1810. Texte, Formen, Kontexte, edited jointly with Matthias Löwe. Wezel-Jahrbuch 12/13 (2009/2010), pp. 265–291.
Erzählen im Umbruch: Narration 1770-1810. Zur Einleitung (together with Matthias Löwe); in: Erzählen im Umbruch. Narration 1770-1810. Texte, Formen, Kontexte, ed. together with Matthias Löwe. Wezel Yearbook 12/13 (2009/2010), pp. 9–18.
Die Figur des moral sense bei Shaftesbury (together with Insa Kringler); in: Shaftesbury, edited together with Insa Kringler. Aufklärung. Interdisziplinäres Jahrbuch zur Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts und seiner Wirkungsgeschichte 22 (2010), pp. 5–16.
2009
Mythos und Erinnerung. Christoph Ransmayr: Die letzte Welt; in: Germanica. Études germaniques 45 (2009): La référence à l’antique dans la pensée, la littérature et les arts en pays germanophones, néerlandais et scandinaves au XX siècle. Texts compiled by Anne Lagny, pp. 87–106.2008
Skepsis und aufklärerisches Urteil. Georg Christoph Lichtenbergs Modell praktischer Erkenntnis; in: Wezel-Jahrbuch 10 / 11 (2007/2008), pp. 77–112.Uchronische Erinnerung und erinnerte Uchronie. Zur Poetik Christoph Ransmayrs; in: Gegenwartsliteratur. Ein germanistisches Jahrbuch. A German Studies Yearbook 7 (2008), pp. 182–203.
Immanente Gnoseologie und literarische Rezeptionssteuerung. Aufklärung als Selberdenken in Herders Eine Metakritik zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft; in: Herder Jahrbuch / Herder Yearbook 9 (2008), pp. 51–72.
2007
Georg Friedrich Meiers formaler Vorurteilsbegriff zwischen Universitätsphilosophie und Moralischen Wochenschriften; in: Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte 49 (2007), pp. 99–129.Phasenweise Zuwendung. Stadtideale in Brigitte Reimanns Franziska Linkerhand; in: Monatshefte für deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur 99 (2007). No. 4, pp. 485–500.
2005
Der Mensch – „ein lächerliches Thier“? Eine psychophysische Theorie des Lachens bei Ernst Anton Nicolai und Georg Friedrich Meier und ihre Folgen; in: Aufklärung. Interdisziplinäres Jahrbuch zur Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts und seiner Wirkungsgeschichte 17 (2005), pp. 187–214.2002
‚Eine unendliche Menge dunkeler Vorstellungen’. Zur Widerständigkeit von Empfindungen und Vorurteilen in der deutschen Spätaufklärung; in: Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 76 (2002). No. 4, pp. 542–576.Der Wilde als Aufklärer? Joseph von Sonnenfels’ Moralische Wochenschrift Der Mann ohne Vorurtheil; in: Aufklärung. Interdisziplinäres Jahrbuch zur Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts und seiner Wirkungsgeschichte 14 (2002), pp. 205–232.
In preparation
Hans Franck, oder: Zur Kontinuität der Rezeption nationalistischer Theoreme in BRD und DDR. Intended for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Articles in anthologies, editions and encyclopaedias2026
Instrumentelle Aufklärung? Die Preisfrage nach dem Volksbetrug im Zusammenhang der Vorurteilsdebatte; erscheint in: „Nützt es dem Volk, betrogen zu werden?“ Eine Debatte zur Politik der Aufklärung. Edited by Elisabeth Décultot and Daniel Weidner, Basel (Schwabe) 2026, pp. 93–118.2024
Fragmentarische Denkmale. Herders Nekrolog auf Thomas Abbt; in: Johann Gottfried Herder und Bückeburg. ‚Was habe ich hier ausgerichtet? Wessen kann ich mich rühmen?‘. Edited by Martin Keßler, Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck) 2024, pp. 41–61.Sulzer im naturforschenden Kontext seiner Zeit; in: Gelebte Aufklärung. Studien zu Johann Georg Sulzers Werk und Wirkung. Edited by Elisabeth Décultot and Jana Kittelmann, Basel (Schwabe) 2024, pp. 13–37.
2023
Die Verspätung der „Weltliteratur“. Goethes Konzept im naturforschenden Kontext; in: Die Rezension als Medium der Weltliteratur. Edited by Anita Traninger and Federica La Manna, Berlin, Boston (De Gruyter) 2023, pp. 47–66. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111180403-003External link2019
„Schilderungen bitte ich mir ersparen zu wollen“. Gewalt und Krieg bei Felix Hartlaub; in: Das Werk von Felix Hartlaub. Einflüsse, Kontexte, Rezeption. Edited by Nikola Herweg and Harald Tausch, Göttingen (Wallstein) 2019 (= marbacher schriften. Neue Folge. Bd. 17), pp. 72-88.Literaturbewertung im Spannungsfeld anthropologischer, ästhetischer und moralischer Diskurse: Die Moralische Wochenschrift „Der Mensch“ (1751-1756). In: Essen, töten, heilen. Praktiken literaturkritischen Schreibens nach 1700. Edited by Barry Murnane, Ritchie Robertson, Christoph Schmitt-Maaß and Stefanie Stockhorst, Göttingen (Wallstein) 2019 (= Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert. Supplementa. Bd. 24), pp. 178-197.
2018
Ordnen – Vernetzen – Vermitteln. Kunst –und Naturalienkammern der Frühen Neuzeit als Lehr- und Lernorte (with Eva Dolezel, Andreas Pečar und Holger Zaunstöck); in: Ordnen – Vernetzen – Vermitteln. Kunst- und Naturalienkammern der Frühen Neuzeit als Lehr- und Lernorte. Edited by Eva Dolezel, Rainer Godel, Andreas Pečar und Holger Zaunstöck, Stuttgart (Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft) 2018 (= Acta Historica Leopoldina. Bd. 70), pp. 7-18.2016
„Prae omnibus veritas colenda, urgenda, intime amanda.“ Herder’s Concept of Truth; in: Herder and Religion. Contributions from the 2010 Conference of the International Herder Society at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Edited by Staffan Bengtsson, Heinrich Clairmont, Robert E. Norton, Johannes Schmidt and Ulrike Wagner, Heidelberg (Synchron) 2016, pp. 25-40.2015
Gewissen und Gewissheit in Friedrich Schillers Dramatik; in: Gewissen. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf das 18. Jahrhundert. Edited by Simon Bunke and Katerina Mihaylova, Würzburg (Königshausen & Neumann) 2015, pp. 223-236.Zur Funktion der Öffentlichkeit in Thomasius‘ Monatsgesprächen und Händeln; in: Denken fürs Volk? Popularphilosophie vor und nach Kant. Edited by Christoph Binkelmann and Nele Schneidereit, Würzburg (Königshausen & Neumann) 2015, pp. 3-16.
Deutsche Aufklärung; in: Handbuch Europäische Aufklärung. Edited by Heinz Thoma, Stuttgart, Weimar (Metzler) 2015, pp. 86-90.
Vorurteil (frz. préjugé; engl. prejudice); in: Handbuch Europäische Aufklärung. Edited by Heinz Thoma, Stuttgart, Weimar (Metzler) 2015, pp. 548-557.
2014
Ovid’s ‘biography’: Novels of Ovid’s Exile; in: A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid. Ed. by John F. Miller and Carole Newlands, Chichester, Malden (Wiley Blackwell) 2014, pp. 454-468.Langue et vérité. Johann Gottfried Herder: Traité sur l’origine de la langue; in: Classer les mots, classer les choses. Synonymie, analogie et métaphore au XVIIIe siècle. Edited by Michèle Vallenthini, Charles Vincent und Rainer Godel, Paris (Classiques Garnier) 2014, pp. 155-173.
Die Novelle – eine autarke Gattung? Zur Relevanz medienhistorischer, anthropologischer und epistemologischer Kontexte für die Gattungskonstitution im 19. Jahrhundert; in: Wissenstexturen. Literarische Gattungen als Organisationsformen von Wissen. Edited by Gunhild Berg, Frankfurt/ Main, Bern, Brüssel u.a. (Peter Lang) 2014, pp. 125-143.
Zur Theorie sprachlicher Phänomene der „Unausdrücklichkeit“ in Herders Sprachphilosophie; in: Herders Rhetoriken im Kontext des 18. Jahrhunderts. Beiträge zur Konferenz der Internationalen Herder-Gesellschaft. Schloss Beuggen nahe Basel 2012. Edited by Ralf Simon, Heidelberg (Synchron) 2014, pp. 187-202.
The Rise of Controversies and the Function of Impartiality in the Early Eighteenth Century; in: The Emergence of Impartiality. Ed. by Kathryn Murphy and Anita Traninger, Leiden, Boston (Brill) 2014, pp. 247-264.
Zuverlässiges Erzählen. Zum Verhältnis populärer und moderner Elemente in Ewers’ Geisterseher; in: Zwischen Popularisierung und Ästhetisierung? Hanns Heinz Ewers und die Moderne. Edited by Barry Murnane and Rainer Godel in collaboration with Erdmut Jost, Bielefeld (Aisthesis) 2014, pp. 187-209.
Hanns Heinz Ewers zwischen Ästhetisierung und Popularisierung. Zur Einleitung (mit Barry Murnane); in: Zwischen Popularisierung und Ästhetisierung? Hanns Heinz Ewers und die Moderne. Edited by Barry Murnane and Rainer Godel in collaboration with Erdmut Jost, Bielefeld (Aisthesis) 2014, pp. 7-28.
2013
Nescire aude? Das Wagnis des Nichtwissens in Thomas Pynchons Inherent Vice; in: Literatur als Wagnis / Literature as Risk. DFG-Symposion 2011. Edited by Monika Schmitz-Emans. In collaboration with Georg Braungart, Achim Geisenhanslüke and Christine Lubkoll, Berlin, Boston (de Gruyter) 2013, pp. 47-70.Controversy as the Impetus for Enlightened Practice of Knowledge; in: Scholars in Action. The Practice of Knowledge and the Figure of the Savant in the 18th Century. Vol. 1. Ed. by André Holenstein, Hubert Steinke, and Martin Stuber. In collaboration with Philippe Rogger, Leiden, Boston (Brill) 2013, pp. 413-431.
Zwischen Fakt und Fiktion. Johann Georg Zimmermanns Biographie Albrecht von Hallers (1755); in: Die Vita als Vermittlerin von Wissenschaft und Werk. Form- und Funktionsanalytische Untersuchungen zu frühneuzeitlichen Biographien von Gelehrten, Wissenschaftlern, Schriftstellern und Künstlern. Edited by Karl Enenkel and Claus Zittel, Berlin (LIT) 2013, pp. 185-206.
[Rambergs Illustration zu:] Brentano: Godwi (1803); in: Literatur – Bilder. Johann Heinrich Ramberg als Buchillustrator der Goethezeit. Edited by Alexander Košenina, Hannover (Wehrhahn) 2013, pp. 126-127.
Vom Zwang des besseren Arguments. Friedrich Schiller und die dramaturgischen Preisfragen des Mannheimer Nationaltheaterausschusses (1782-1784); in: Die Wittelsbacher und die Kurpfalz in der Neuzeit. Zwischen Reformation und Revolution. Edited by Wilhelm Kreutz, Wilhelm Kühlmann und Hermann Wiegand, Regensburg (Schnell & Steiner) 2013, pp. 617-637.
How to Create a Literary Trend, or How to Establish a Winner: An Analysis of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize 2000-2010 (mit Gunhild Berg), in: Readings in Twenty-First-Century European Literatures. Ed. by Michael Gratzke, Margaret-Anne Hutton and Claire Whitehead, Oxford, Bern, Brüssel u.a. (Peter Lang) 2013, pp. 385-403.
„Ob übrigens das, was ich aus diesen Blättern destilliret habe, ächtes Gold sey, wird sich zeigen“. Wielands Replik auf Ernst Anton von Göchhausens Kampf gegen die Aufklärung; in: Deutsche Geheimgesellschaften. Von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart. Edited by Jost Hermand und Sabine Mödersheim, Weimar (Böhlau) 2013, pp. 31-57.
2012
Literatur und Nichtwissen im Umbruch. 1730-1810; in: Literatur und Nichtwissen. Historische Konstellationen 1730-1930. Edited by Michael Bies und Michael Gamper, Zürich (diaphanes) 2012, pp. 39-57.„Teufel und Tendenz“. Ästhetische Kriterien als implizite Poetik des Ingeborg-Bachmann-Wettbewerbs 2000-2010 (zusammen mit Gunhild Berg); in: Das erste Jahrzehnt. Narrative und Poetiken des 21. Jahrhunderts. Edited by Julia Schöll und Johanna Bohley, Würzburg (Königshausen & Neumann) 2012, pp. 213-225.
Mediale Strategien. Zu Möglichkeiten und Grenzen literaturwissenschaftlicher Kontextualisierung am Beispiel der Kant-Forster-Kontroverse; in: Klopffechtereien – Missverständnisse – Widersprüche? Methodische und methodologische Perspektiven auf die Kant-Forster-Kontroverse. Edited by Godel and Gideon Stiening, München (Wilhelm Fink) 2012, pp. 293-323.
Die Kunst des akademischen Streitens. Zur Einführung in eine Kontroverse über eine Kontroverse (zusammen mit Gideon Stiening); in: Klopffechtereien – Missverständnisse – Widersprüche? Methodische und methodologische Perspektiven auf die Kant-Forster-Kontroverse. Edited by Rainer Godel and Gideon Stiening, München (Wilhelm Fink) 2012, pp. 7-15.
2011
Anthropologiebasierte Kontingenz. Neue Erklärungsversuche für das Unheimliche am Beispiel von Carl Grosses Der Genius; in: Populäre Erscheinungen: Der deutsche Schauerroman um 1800. Edited by Barry Murnane and Andrew Cusack, München (Wilhelm Fink) 2011, pp. 81-98.2010
Unzuverlässige Leser – unzuverlässige Erzähler; oder: Literarische Wege aus dem Nicht-Wissen; in: Formen des Nichtwissens der Aufklärung. Edited by Hans Adler and R.G., München (Wilhelm Fink) 2010, pp. 347-367.
Balanced Imagination. Enlightenment and/or Imagination in Friedrich Nicolai; in: Language and the Scientific Imagination: Proceedings of the 11th Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI), 28 July – 2 August 2008, University of Helsinki, Finland (2010). Edited by Giacomo Bottà and Marja Härmänmaa. https://blogs.helsinki.fi/issei2008External link [1.3.2010]2009
Anatomische Evidenz. Die Debatte zwischen Albrecht Haller und Georg Daniel Coschwitz; in: „Allerhand nützliche Versuche“. Empirische Wissenskultur in Halle und Göttingen (1720–1750). Edited by Tanja van Hoorn and Yvonne Wübben, Hannover (Wehrhahn) 2009, pp. 41-63.Schillers Wallenstein: Das Drama der Entscheidungsfindung; in: Aufklärung und Weimarer Klassik im Dialog. Edited by Andre Rudolph and Ernst Stöckmann, Tübingen (Niemeyer) 2009, pp. 105-134.
2008
Epistemologie der Aufklärung? Gartentheorie des späten 18. Jahrhunderts in der zeitgenössischen Publizistik; in: Kulturen des Wissens im 18. Jahrhundert. Edited by Ulrich Johannes Schneider, Berlin, New York (de Gruyter) 2008, pp. 553-561.2007
Erkenntnis und Vorurteil. August Lafontaines Moralische Erzählungen im Kontext der Aufklärung; in: August Heinrich Julius Lafontaine: Die Stärke des Vorurtheils. Das Räthselspiel. Zwei Erzählungen. Edited by and with an afterword by R.G., Hannover (Wehrhahn) 2007, pp. 63-89.Entdeckte Vorurteile auf der Weltreise. Zu Georg Forsters empirischer Anthropologie und Anerkennung des Fremden (together with Manfred Beetz); in: Aufklärung. Stationen – Konflikte – Prozesse. Festgabe für Jörn Garber zum 65. Geburtstag. Edited by Ulrich Kronauer, Wilhelm Kühlmann, Eutin (Lumpeter & Lasel) 2007, pp. 9-37.
2005
Von den Aporien der Literaturwissenschaft in der Postmoderne. Ein Plädoyer für literaturwissenschaftliche Sachlichkeit; in: Psyche und Epochennorm. Festschrift für Heinz Thoma zum 60. Geburtstag. Edited by Henning Krauß u.a., Heidelberg (Winter) 2005, pp. 557-572.Anthropologie und Fiktion. Zur diskursiven Formation der Moralischen Wochenschrift Der Mensch (1751-56); in: Anakreontische Aufklärung. Edited by Hans-Joachim Kertscher, Manfred Beetz, Tübingen (Niemeyer) 2005, pp. 123-143.
Engels Modell aufklärerischer Selbstbefragung. Selbstreflexivität und Urteilsbildung in Der Philosoph für die Welt (zusammen mit Gunhild Berg); in: Johann Jakob Engel (1741-1802). Philosoph für die Welt, Ästhetiker und Dichter. Edited by Alexander Košenina, Hannover (Wehrhahn) 2005, pp. 47-76.
In Preparation:
Perspektive und Bewegung in Herders Geographie; will appear in: Herder’s Geography. Ed. by John Noyes [2026].Other publications
Publications on science policy, science management and the popularisation of science
In print:
On the Prehistory of the European Academies Research Initiative: The Role of Academies before, during, and after World War I in a Comparative Perspective; erscheint in: The History of European Academies in the 20th Century: State of the Art and Institutional Issues. Proceedings. Ed. by Giovanni Paoloni [2025]
2020
Förderung wissenschaftlicher Buchpublikationen im Open Access: Standards und Richtlinien für die Gestaltung infrastruktureller Rahmenbedingungen und die Vergabe von Fördermitteln durch wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen. Handreichung der AG Wissenschaftliches Publikationssystem im Rahmen der Schwerpunktinitiative „Digitale Information“ der Allianz der deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen, Edited by Rainer Godel, Ulrich Herb, Kristine Hillenkötter, Angela Holzer, Sebastian Nordhoff, Hildegard Schäffler and Olaf Siegert on behalf of the ‘Scientific Publication System’ working group of the ‘Digital Information’ priority initiative of the Alliance of German Science Organisations, Göttingen (Niedersächsische Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen) 2020: https://doi.org/10.3249/allianzoa.014External link [letzter Zugriff: 12.12.2022]2017
Bunny Eggs; http://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2017/04/12/bunny-eggs/External link [letzter Zugriff 24.04.2017]2015
„Wir brauchen kreative Veränderungen“. Nachwuchswissenschaftler zu klassischen und neuen Karrierewegen an deutschen Universitäten (together with Philipp Maume, Rebecca Waldecker, Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, Benedikt Wirth, Christine Lohmeier); in: Forschung und Lehre 22.5 (2015), pp. 360-366.Von Weltformeln und Nussschalen. Das Streben nach Wissen und seine Ursprünge im 18. Jahrhundert; in: Tageblatt [Luxembourg], 14. April 2015, Nr. 6, pp. 87.
2014
Brückenbauer. Das Leopoldina-Studienzentrum für Wissenschafts- und Akademiengeschichte. Programm – Profil – Projekte, Edited by Jörg Hacker in collaboration with Rainer Godel and Alfons Labisch, Stuttgart (Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft) 2014. ( = Acta Historica Leopoldina. Bd. 66).2009ff.
Das Exzellenznetzwerk/ Der Landesforschungsschwerpunkt Aufklärung – Religion – Wissen. Transformationen des Religiösen und des Rationalen in der Moderne; in: Jahresprogramm der Franckeschen Stiftungen 2009ff. Edited by Penelope Willard, Halle (Franckesche Stiftungen) 2009ff. -
Further Activities
Committees and roles
Since October 2010
Co-editor of the Herder Yearbook of the International Herder Society and member of the IHS Extended Executive Committee, together with Karl R. Menges (University of California – Davis) (-2012) and Johannes Schmidt (Clemson University) (2012–).March 2025 – December 2025
Member of the Education Committee of the German Literature Conference within the framework of the German Cultural CouncilJune 2024 – December 2025
Deputy member of the Broadcasting Council of Deutsche Welle for the German Academy for Language and LiteratureJune 2024 – December 2025
Representative of the German Academy for Language and Literature on the Literature FundJanuary 2023 – December 2024
Member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for the History of Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, StockholmJuly 2019 – August 2025
Deputy Regional Chair for Saxony-Anhalt in the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers; active participation in and shaping of academic policy debatesJune 2019 – June 2024
Scientific and administrative coordination of the informal research network European Academies Research Initiative, a research collaboration between the national academies of Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Austria, Sweden and the Czech Republic; spokesperson for the Steering CommitteeFebruary 2018 – December 2024
Member of the Editorial Board of "Notes and Records". Royal Society Journal on the History of Science. Edited by Anna Marie Roos (Lincoln)September 2019
Visiting scholar for research and teaching as a Distinguished Visitor at Clemson University, South Carolina (USA), at the invitation of the Clemson University Humanities HUB, the German Advancement Fund, the Department of Languages and the Honors College
January 2019 – December 2021
Member of the Library Committee of the Royal Society, London
Promotion of international research cooperation, exchange on research projects and joint initiatives between the Leopoldina and the Royal SocietyAugust 2013 – June 2024
Advisory member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre for Research on Science at the LeopoldinaDecember 2012 – August 2025
Member of the Saxony-Anhalt Regional Executive Committee of the German University AssociationPresentations
Conference papers
2025
Perspective and Movement in Herder’s Geography, as part of the conference ‘Herder’s Geography’, University of Toronto, 4 September 2025.2024
Development – Research – Networks. Digitisation and Digital Humanities at the German National Academy Leopoldina, as part of the workshop “Digital History of Academies of Sciences”, Stockholm, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 11 January 2024.
2023
Fragmentary Monuments. Herder’s obituary for Thomas Abbt, presented at the annual conference of the International Herder Society: ‘250 Years of Johann Gottfried Herder in Bückeburg. “What have I achieved here? Of what can I boast?”, Bückeburg, 31 August 2023.Academic journals in the early modern period. A publication report, presented at the conference ‘Journals as Networks: Concepts, Models, Questions’, Halle (Saale), 27 April 2023.
Instrumental Enlightenment? The key question of the deception of the people in the context of the prejudice debate; as part of the conference ‘Is it beneficial for the people to be deceived? A debate on the politics of the Enlightenment’, Halle (Saale), 22 March 2023.
2022
Engineering Solipsism in Literary Urban Constructions of the 1920s, as part of the conference “The Engineer and His Progress: Epistemological and Historical Perspectives on a Central Theme around 1900”, Halle (Saale), 21 October 2022Sulzer in the natural scientific context of his time, as part of the conference “The Enlightenment in Practice. Johann Georg Sulzer (1720–1779) in Context”, Halle (Saale), 18 May 2022.
2021
On the Function of Ethics in Public Discourse. An Introduction; lecture as part of the workshop “Ethical Reflections and Debates in Science, Politics and the Public Sphere”, Leopoldina, Halle (Saale), 18 November 2021Impulses for a Comparative History of European Academies; lecture as part of the online workshop “The History of European Academies in the 20th Century: State of the Art and Institutional Issues”, organised by Giovanni Paoloni on behalf of the Accademia dei Lincei, Rome, 27 May 2021.
The Figure of the ‘Expert’. Opening up a historical perspective; lecture delivered as part of the online spring conference of the Leopoldina Centre for Science Studies, ‘The Figure of the ‘Expert’ between Science and Politics. Role Models – Epistemologies – Strategies for Action’, Halle (Saale), 29 March 2021
2020
Science communication as a field of research; Lecture as part of the Young ZiF conference on ‘Science Communication’, Bielefeld, 10 July 20202019
Digital Humanities: Definitions, Data Modelling and Analyses (with Torsten Roeder); Lecture as part of the workshop ‘Collecting and Collections: Lives and Digital Afterlives’, London, 14 November 2019On the possibilities and limits of the Enlightenment and the self-enlightenment of the public; lecture as part of the conference “Philosophy, Science and their ‘Public Appeal’” (organised by Michael Hagner), Zurich, 17 May 2019
Internationalism in the early history of the Leopoldina; lecture as part of the Global Young Academy International Conference of Young Scientists: Re-enlightenment? Truth, Reason & Science in a Global World, Halle (Saale), 3 May 2019
2018
The Delay of ‘World Literature’. Concepts of the ‘World’ in Scientific Journals and Moral Weekly Publications of the Enlightenment; Lecture as part of the conference on “World Literature in Reviews”, Villa Vigoni, 22 October 2018.2016
Leopoldina’s “Miscellanea” – natural science and medicine in the 17th and 18th centuries; lecture as part of the workshop “Early modern publications”, Cambridge, 18 June 2016.Response to Benjamin Specht; as part of the workshop “Metaphors of Exploration and Dynamics 1800/1900. Historical scientific metaphors and the possibilities of their historiography”, Innsbruck, 7 April 2016.
Literary criticism at the intersection of anthropological, aesthetic and moral discourses: The moral weekly “Der Mensch”; lecture as part of the workshop ‘Literary Criticism after 1700. Practices of Literary-Critical Writing’, Oxford, St John’s College, 29 January 2016.
2015
Violence and War in Felix Hartlaub; lecture as part of the conference ‘Felix Hartlaub – Influences, Contexts, Reception’, Marbach, 3 December 2015.2014
L’esprit de la controverse: how Goethe and Schiller invented ‘Weimar Classicism’; lecture delivered at the conference ‘Comment devient-on classique? – Rencontres Paris – Halle’, Paris, 31 October 2014.Why Samuel Richardson’s “Clarissa” became a role model. On Zimmermann’s biography of Albrecht von Haller; Lecture at the International Conference “Science and Literature”, Athens, 9 July 2014.
2013
Thomasius’ “Händel”: A contribution to the history of early Enlightenment polemical culture; conference of the DFG network “Scholarly Polemics”, Mainz, 26 March 2013.The Novella – a Self-Sufficient Genre? On the Relevance of Media-Historical, Anthropological and Epistemological Contexts for Genre Formation in the Early 19th Century; Workshop “Textures of Knowledge. Literary Genres as Forms of Knowledge Organisation”, University of Konstanz, 22 March 2013.
Schiller’s Tragic Endings: Why Language Does Not Suffice; 128th Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association, Boston (MA), 3 January 2013.
2012
Conscience and Certainty in Friedrich Schiller’s Drama; conference of the Emmy Noether Research Group “Sincerity in the Goethe Era” on the topic “Conscience between Reason and Emotion in the 18th Century”, Paderborn, 4 October 2012.On the theory of linguistic phenomena of “inexpressibility” in Herder’s theory of language; Conference of the International Herder Society 2012: Herder’s Rhetorics in the Context of the 18th Century, Beuggen Castle, 11 September 2012.
“Whether, incidentally, what I have distilled from these pages is genuine gold remains to be seen” . Wieland’s response to Ernst Anton von Goechhausen’s struggle against the Illuminati; Humboldtkolleg “Secret Societies – Hermeticism, Reform, Resistance”, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 31 March 2012.
Encore une philosophie de l’histoire de la métaphore. Johann Gottfried Herder: “Treatise on the Origin of Language”; Conference “Synonymy, Analogy, Metaphor: Relationships and Classifications in 18th-Century Thought and Literature”; International, interdisciplinary conference of the State Research Centre “Enlightenment – Religion – Knowledge” in collaboration with the University of Paris IV – Sorbonne, Halle, 24 March 2012.
2011
The City as Power. Urban discourse, social perception and literary form in the modern era; conference “Home – Region – Urban Culture”, held as part of the German Studies Partnership between Halle and Arkhangelsk, 21 October 2011.Nescire aude. The risk of not knowing in Thomas Pynchon’s “Inherent Vice” (2009). DFG Symposium “Literature as a Risk”, Villa Vigoni (Loveno di Menaggio), 6 October 2011.
The discourse on prejudice in the Enlightenment in the Moral Weekly Journals. Popular philosophical determinants and narrative resolutions; German Studies conference “Periodic Education of the Human Race. Case studies on German-language Moral Weekly Journals in the context of the Enlightenment”, Heidelberg, 24 September 2011.
The rise of controversies and the function of impartiality in the early 18th century: Christian Thomasius’s “Händel”, conference “The Emergence of Impartiality: Towards a Prehistory of Objectivity”, Berlin, 15 July 2011.
The Form of Debate. Forster and the Berlin Wednesday Society, Georg Forster Colloquium “Forster and the Berlin Enlightenment”, Kassel, 18 June 2011.
The Foreign is the Own is the Foreign. Epistemological Models in Georg Forster’s “Reise um die Welt” and “Ansichten vom Niederrhein”. Conference “Beyond Empirical Science. Literature and the Travelogue in the 18th Century and around 1800”, Lausanne, 27 May 2011.
Form and Scepticism in Romanticism. Conference: ‘“We are not sceptics, for we know.” Sceptical and anti-sceptical discourses of the revolutionary era’, Düsseldorf, 11 March 2011.
2010
Possibilities and Limits of Enlightenment Autonomy sub specie anthropologiae. The Field of Anthropology and its Consequences in the 18th Century; Workshop “Laboratorium Mensch”, Jena, 22 October 2010.“Prae omnibus veritas colenda, urgenda, intime amanda.” Herder’s Concept of Truth; International Herder Society. Conference at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, 1 October 2010.
How to Create a Literary Trend or: How to Establish a Winner. An Analysis of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize 2000–2009 (with Gunhild Berg); International Conference “21st-Century European Literature: Mapping New Trends”, University of St Andrews (UK), 16 September 2010.
“One small favourite prejudice”? Modern Self-Enlightenment and the Problem of Prejudice; Historiography Working Group, World Congress of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), “Cultures of Modernity”, Munich, 26 July 2010.
Literature in Transition. Literary Responses to Ignorance 1770–1810; Workshop “Literature and Ignorance”, ETH Zurich, 5 February 2010.
2009
Between Fact and Fiction? Johann Georg Zimmermann’s Biography of Albrecht von Haller (1755) and Lessing’s Review; Panel “Writing Biographies”, 2009 Convention of the Modern Language Association, Philadelphia/PA, 30 December 2009.Anti-bourgeois Novels with Bourgeois Readers: “Justifying” Violence in German Volunteer Corps Novels; Panel “’Sweet Terror’ – The Idea of Violence in Modern Germany, c. 1780–1980”, 33rd Annual Conference of the German Studies Association, Washington, DC, 9 October 2009.
Media Strategies. On the Possibilities and Limits of Research into the ‘Media Revolution’ of the 18th Century, using the example of the Forster–Kant Controversy, Conference ‘Text – Context / Analysis – Interpretation. Fundamental Methodological and Methodological Questions in the Humanities and Cultural Studies, using the example of the Kant–Forster Controversy’, Halle, 25 September 2009.
Enlightened Controversies or Controversies in the Enlightenment? Albrecht von Haller versus Coschwitz and La Mettrie; XXIII International Congress of History of Science and Technology: Ideas and Instruments in Social Context, Panel: “La guerre en lettres. La controverse scientifique dans les correspondances des Lumières“,Budapest, 28 July 2009.
Georg Forster and the Art of Acting. Some remarks on epistemological perspectives, Georg Forster Colloquium 2009: ‘Georg Forster and the Arts’, Kassel, 20 June 2009.
Anthropology-based contingency. New attempts to explain the uncanny; conference ‘Popular Visions. The German Schauerroman and Its International Contexts’, Halle, 30 January 2009.
2008
Controversy as a driving force behind Enlightenment knowledge practices; International Congress marking the 300th anniversary of Albrecht von Haller’s birth: “Practices of Knowledge and the Figure of the Scholar in the 18th Century”, Bern, 16 October 2008.Unreliable Readers – Unreliable Narrators; or: Literary Paths out of Not-Knowing; Conference “Forms of Not-Knowing in the Enlightenment / Forms of Ignorance in the Enlightenment / Formes du non-savoir au siècle des Lumières”, Halle, 22 August 2008.
Friedrich Nicolai, Enlightenment, and Imagination: From Sebaldus Nothanker to his Description of a Journey; conference “Language and the Scientific Imagination”, 11th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Helsinki, 29 July 2008.
From Theory to Drama: Schiller, Aristotle, and Wallenstein; 39th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS), Section ‘Aristotelism in the Eighteenth Century: Forms and Functions’, Portland, OR, 29 March 2008.
2007
Scepticism and Enlightenment judgement. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s model of practical knowledge; Interdisciplinary Colloquium marking the 260th anniversary of Johann Karl Wezel’s birth, ‘Scepticism and Literature in the Enlightenment’, Sondershausen, 1 November 2007.“At the same time, I treat the bones as a text, ...” (Goethe). On the hermeneutics of cultural studies methods using the example of 18th-century literary anthropology; German Germanists’ Conference, Marburg, 25 September 2007.
“He does not really have a concept of what is happening in Europe in anatomicis.” Albrecht von Haller’s encounter with Georg Daniel Coschwitz in Halle; 12th Conference of the International Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ISECS), Montpellier, 12 July 2007.
Herder’s Concept of Truth; 38th American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS) Annual Meeting, section “Time and Reason in Johann Gottfried Herder’s Thinking”, Atlanta, GA, 25 March 2007.
2006
Epistemology of the Enlightenment? The Garden of the Late 18th Century in Contemporary Journalism; DGEJ Annual Conference “Cultures of Knowledge”, Wolfenbüttel, 17 October 2006.Immanent Gnoseology and the Control of Fictional Reception. The Enlightenment as Independent Thinking in Herder; Annual Conference of the International J. G. Herder Society, Madison, WI, 21 September 2006.
Mastering Metropolis? Perception and representation of the city under ideological premises in the literature of National Socialism; Conference ‘The European Mind: Narrative and Identity’, 10th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Malta, 25 July 2006.
Who’s talking? On the relevance of analytical precision; Keynote Speech at the GDGSA conference “Voices Throughout the Ages: Expression, Development, and Authenticity in the German Language”, Madison, WI, 3 March 2006.
2004
Enlightenment Forms of the Rehabilitation of Prejudice. Arguments and Traditions of the German Debate on Prejudices in the 1750s and 1760s, lecture at the 37th Wisconsin Workshop on ‘Enlightenment and Prejudice’ at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, 18 September 2004. Organisers: Hans Adler, Madison; Simone Zurbuchen, Lausanne.2003
Critique of Prejudices against the Political Claim for Power. August von Hennings’s Warning of the Instrumentalisation of Discourse, at the 11th Conference of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS), Los Angeles, CA, 6 August 2003.2002
Engel’s Model of Enlightenment Self-Questioning. Self-reflexivity and the Formation of Judgement in Philosoph für die Welt, together with Gunhild Berg, as part of the conference “Johann Jakob Engel (1741–1801). An Architect of the Berlin Enlightenment Society”, organised by the “Berlin Classics” working group at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 5 July 2002.2001
Anthropology and Fiction. On the (moral) weekly journal Der Mensch (1751–56), as part of the colloquium ‘Anacreontic Enlightenment’ at the Gleimhaus in Halberstadt, 24 November 2001.The Savage as an Enlightenment Thinker? Joseph von Sonnenfels’ moral weekly Der Mann ohne Vorurtheil; presented at the workshop ‘Anthropology and the Enlightenment’ (editors’ meeting for the interdisciplinary journal Aufklärung), Halle, 4 September 2001.
On the Resistance of Feelings and Prejudices. Meier, Sulzer, Mendelssohn, as part of the interdisciplinary workshop ‘Anthropologisation’ of the DFG project ‘Self-Enlightenment of the Enlightenment’ (Halle) and the SFB ‘The Weimar-Jena Event’ (Jena), 4 May 2001.
2000
On the history of usage of the term ‘prejudice’ in the second half of the 18th century (co-presentation with Manfred Beetz), as part of the conference ‘Between Empiricisation and Constructive Achievement’, Halle, 19 September 2000.The Physiognomy Controversy as an example of forms of transformation in the debate on prejudice, as part of the joint workshop ‘On the Understanding of “Anthropology” between 1750 and around 1800’ organised by the DFG project ‘Self-Enlightenment of the Enlightenment’ (Halle) and the SFB ‘The Weimar-Jena Event’ (Jena), 16 August 2000.
1997
The Reception of Antiquity as a Source of Inspiration in the Modern Era – Schiller’s Wallenstein Adaptations, as part of the conference “Literary Modernity around 1800: Consensus and Dissent between Classicism and Romanticism”, Weimar Classicism Foundation in Weimar, 11 July 1997.Individual lectures
2019
“Pale Vampires, Mysterious Monks, Scary Specters, and Monstrous Ghouls—The Uncanny and Horror in the Gothic Novel”, lecture at the Honorary College of Clemson University, 4 September 2019.2018
Haller – Coschwitz – La Mettrie. Controversies in the History of Science, Seminar on the History of Science at the Leopoldina, 2 October 20182014
Herder’s Controversy(ies) with Kant; lecture as part of the initiative “Herder im Gespräch” at the Goethe National Museum in Weimar, 2 July 2014.2013
“The beautiful victims of general illumination.” Knowledge and Ignorance in the Literature of German Romanticism; University of St Andrews, lecture series “Foreign bodies”, 2 May 2013.2012
“The beautiful victims of general illumination”. Literary communication between knowledge and ignorance in the long 18th century, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Department of German, 17 April 2012.The Uncanny in German Novels around 1800; Purdue University (Indiana), 5 April 2012.
2011
Knowledge and Ignorance as the Task of Literature. 1770–1810; Leipzig Literary Studies Colloquium, University of Leipzig, 14 December 2011.2010
Family, on the other hand, very much so. The Rise and Fall of a Social Form in the 18th Century (together with Viktoria Franke and Christian Soboth), Halle, 2 July 2010.2009
Enlightenment and Prejudice. A Literary Analysis, lecture at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 14 October 2009.Imagination and its Limits. Georg Forster’s Views on the Art of Acting, lecture at the University of Augsburg, 14 July 2009.
2008
“Fools, simpletons, victims of vice.” Guiding the reader in Johann Karl Wezel’s Tobias Knaut; commemorative lecture at the Johann Karl Wezel Days in Sondershausen, 31 October 2008.On the Superficial and the Light-hearted. August Lafontaine and the Consequences (together with Christian Soboth); Halle, 4 July 2008.
Decisions. Schiller’s Wallenstein; Goethe Society Halle, 15 May 2008.
2007
“A Dream of Truth”. On the Reception of Herder’s A Metacritique of the Critique of Pure Reason; Research Colloquium of the Network of Excellence Enlightenment – Religion – Knowledge, Halle, 21 May 20072006
On the Perception of the Metropolis in the Literature of National Socialism; Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2 May 2006.Rule of the City? Perceptions of the Metropolis under Ideological Premises in the Literature of National Socialism and in the Literature of the GDR; public academic habilitation lecture at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 1 February 2006.
2005
Ideology and the Perception of the Metropolis in 20th-Century German Literature; inaugural lecture for the Feodor Lynen Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, 11 October 2005.“Let us not be swayed by prejudice when confronting prejudice!” A Halle tradition of prejudice theory; in connection with the Fritz Thyssen Fellowship, Halle, 22 June 2005.
2004
On the Method of 18th-Century Anthropology, or: On the Difficulties of Empiricism, Ruhr University Bochum, 28 January 2004.2002
On the relationship between anthropology and the discourse on prejudice. Structures, arguments, strategies, as part of the research colloquium ‘Self-Enlightenment of the Enlightenment’ at the IZEA in Halle, 11 November 2002.1999
Prejudice and Anthropology. On the Clarification of the Research Project, as part of the research colloquium “Self-Enlightenment of the Enlightenment” at the IZEA, 31 August 1999.Prejudices encountered on a round-the-world journey. On Georg Forster’s empirical anthropology and recognition of the Other, co-authored with Manfred Beetz, as part of the research colloquium ‘Self-Enlightenment of the Enlightenment’ at the IZEA in Halle/Saale, 12 April 1999.