Dr Richard Stinshoff passed away on 20 December 2025 at the age of 81.

Richard Stinshoff was a key member of the Institute of English and American Studies. He helped to shape the Institute, which he was a member of from 1982 to 2009, first as Academic Councillor and Senior Councillor and then as Academic Director, over a long period of time. He also played a major role in the national and international visibility of English and American Studies in Oldenburg.

After studying at the Universities of Münster and Vienna and completing his doctorate at the Ruhr University Bochum in 1974, he initially worked as a course planner for literature and linguistics at the University of Oldenburg, moved to the Institute of English and American Studies in 1982 and headed the university's Language Centre from its foundation in 1995 until 2009.

At the Institute of English and American Studies, Richard Stinshoff has primarily shaped the field of cultural studies. He has published numerous research articles on the cultural and social history of England and, to some extent, the USA, as well as on the always complex relationship between England and Great Britain and the European continent; he has followed current political and social developments and problems in Great Britain from the Thatcher years and the rise of "New Labour" to the many shifts in the relationship between the four nations that make up the United Kingdom. He has edited or co-edited nine books as well as numerous book chapters and journal articles on these topics. He has held several visiting professorships at the University of South Dakota in the USA, where he has also researched the history of relations between Native Americans and the westward expansion of the USA.

Stinshoff was an active member and contributor to theGerman Association for the Study of British History and Politics. He has been involved in the German Association for the Study of British Cultures ("BritCult" for short), the academic association for British Studies in Germany, since its foundation and was its Chair from 2004 to 2007. In 1994 and 2008, he co-organised the annual conference of BritCult in Oldenburg and contributed significantly to the resulting publications.

From the current interfaces of British politics and culture to the British canal network in its relationship to industrial landscapes and industrialisation to the "Casino Indians" - at the core of Stinshoff's cultural studies research was often a preoccupation with practical and material aspects, with the mechanisms and functional contexts of cultural processes, combined with the cultural dimensions of structures and infrastructures. Not least for this reason, The Workings of the Anglosphere is the title of a festschrift published by his Oldenburg colleagues in 2009 on the occasion of his 65th birthday and retirement, and which brings together contributions on this topic from 25 companions and cooperation partners from Oldenburg, German, British and American studies.

His interest in cultural forms of practice and functional contexts was not only evident in his research, but also in his commitment to teaching and academic self-administration at the Institute and the University. Richard Stinshoff tirelessly put his energy at the service of the Institute, which he also headed as director for a time. He was a member of the Faculty Council for many years, and at times also of the University Senate, and always put the cause and the overall good above his own interests in his committee work. Richard Stinshoff was always there when it mattered, his commitment was tireless. This enabled him to act as an integrative and constructive presence during the generational change that the Institute experienced in the last decade of his professional career, facilitating and accompanying the renewal of structures and in this way helping to lay the foundations for the Institute's successful work over the past decades.

When the University's foreign language courses were to be centrally organised and structured in 1995, Richard Stinshoff, an experienced planner in the School, was appointed Head of the Language Centre. He managed the Language Centre until his retirement in 2009 and led the German courses together with the foreign language courses through the introduction of the European Framework of Reference for Languages, modularised and standardised the courses in the course of the conversion to BA/MA as part of the Bologna Process, and took care of the continuous acquisition of teaching staff for foreign languages and for German as a foreign language. He has succeeded in continuously improving the quality of teaching at the Language Centre, transparently standardising examinations across languages and ensuring that all members of the university have access to a wide range of languages, which still enables them to travel all over the world today.

An approachable, fair and popular lecturer, Richard Stinshoff inspired generations of students in British Studies and American Cultural Studies. He obtained financial support to take students on excursions, for example on the North English canal system or across the Rocky Mountains in the footsteps of the famous Lewis & Clarke expedition - the scientific and artistic results of some of these trips ultimately led to smaller publications. Until his death, Richard Stinshoff was still actively involved in research and remained associated with the Institute as a lecturer until 2024, inspiring students with topics that were always topical.

In Richard Stinshoff, the university has lost one of the most important figures in shaping the university since its beginnings. He was dedicated to his university for 50 years, introduced countless students to the Anglophone world and, through his research, contributed to the development of cultural studies in its political-historical form not only in Oldenburg, but also in a German and international context. He was a role model, mentor and, above all, a friend to many colleagues, both at the Institute of English and American Studies and at the Language Centre. We will miss him.

For the Institute of English and American Studies and for the Language Centre,

Martin Butler, Maike Engelhardt, Anton Kirchhofer