Research focus

• Children's and youth literature from the 18th to the 21st century
• drama theory
• narratology
• Theory of mediality
• Michael Ende

Conferences and workshops

• Recorded Heritage. Cultural Interference Spaces of Eastern Europe in Comics (international workshop, jointly organised with Dr Silke Pasewalck (BKGE) and Prof. Dr Gudrun Heidemann (University of Łódź), 7-8 November 2024)
• Media reflections and reflexive mediality. Children's and youth literature in the media competition (international workshop, in co-operation with Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, 22-23 February 2024)
• Authorship in children's and young adult literature. Historical and current practices and images (international conference, in co-operation with the Swiss Institute for Children's and Youth Media, 16-17 November 2023)
• Children's and young adult literature research: Methodological stocktaking (workshop, in co-operation with Prof. Dr Maren Conrad and Prof. Dr Tobias Kurwinkel, 26-27 January 2023)
• Michael Ende: Poetics and Positioning (international conference, in co-operation with the German Literature Archive Marbach, 24-26 March 2022).
• Philosophical questions in the mirror of children's and youth literature. Literary and philosophical didactic perspectives. Symposium of the Oldenburg Research Centre for Children's and Young Adult Literature (OlFoKi) (conference, together with Prof. Dr Jörn Brüggemann, Prof. Dr Christa Runtenberg, Dr Kerstin Gregor-Gehrmann, 22-24 November 2021).
• "Of mouth and craft. Oral and written narration in literary texts for children and young adults" (international conference, together with Dr Anna Stemmann, Oldenburg, 30 June - 2 July 2021).
• International conference "Mediale Poetologien" (together with Dr Simon Aeberhard, in co-operation with Forum eikones, University of Basel, 11.10.-13.10.2018)
• Summerschool "Return of the Real? New Realism and Contemporary Literature" (together with Dr Astrid Dröse and Dr Mario Gotterbarm, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 09.05.-11.05.2018)
• "From the tower to the classroom. Hölderlin in the school" (together with Dr Astrid Dröse and Dr Gabriele Wacker, Hölderlin Tower Tübingen, 8 July 2017)
• "Reading and/or looking: Ambiguity in bi-modal narrative texts" (together with Prof. Frauke Berndt and Dr Sebastian Meixner, German Studies Day Bayreuth, 25.09.2016-28.06.2016)
• German study day (co-operation with the Regierungspräsidium Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 03/12/2015, 22/01/2016 and 14/02/2017)
• Organisation of the lecture series: "Perspectives: Fachdidaktik German" (Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, WS 2014/15)
• Workshop with Terry Eagleton: "Nietzsche, Marx and Tragedy" (together with Prof. Frauke Berndt, Prof. Dorothee Kimmich, Prof. Jörg Robert, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 30 April - 7 May 2014)
• "New perspectives on Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. Places - Heroes - Bodies" (together with Ina Cappelmann and Uwe Schwagmeier, University of Oldenburg, 12.06.-14.06.2009)

Books
Monographs

1. Thomas Boyken: Mediality of Narrative. The Rediscovery of the Book in the Novel Göttingen: Wallstein 2020.
2. Thomas Boyken and Nikolas Immer: Post-war poetry. Poetry and Poetics between 1945 and 1960. Tübingen: utb [Narr Francke Attempto] 2020.
3. Thomas Boyken: "So I will give you a male example". Imaginations of masculinity in the dramatic works of Friedrich Schiller. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2014.
4. Thomas Boyken and Jan Traphan: When I come across a solution, the text is over. Workshop discussion with Antje Ràvic Strubel. Oldenburg: Frühwerk 2008.

Collected volumes

1. Thomas Boyken and Thomas Scholz (eds.): Michael Ende. Poetics and Positioning. Berlin: Metzler 2023.
2. Thomas Boyken, Jörn Brüggemann and Kerstin Gregor-Gehrmann (eds.): Philosophische Fragen im Spiegel der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Dresden and Munich: Thelem 2023.
3. Thomas Boyken and Anna Stemmann (eds.): Von Mund- und Handwerk. Oral and written narration in texts for children and young people. Berlin: Metzler 2022.
4. Thomas Boyken and Nikolas Immer (eds.): Textures of the Wound. Constellations of German-language post-war poetry. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2016.
5. Thomas Boyken, Ina Cappelmann and Uwe Schwagmeier (eds.): New Perspectives on Rolf Dieter Brinkmann: Places - Heroes - Bodies. Munich: Fink 2010.

Editions

1. Maria Lypp: Simplicity as a category of children's literature (1984). Taking into account the unpublished version from 1980. Edited by Thomas Boyken and Hans-Heino Ewers in collaboration with Lucas Lypp. Weinheim 2025.

Essays

1. A poetics of written narrative? Bookishness and work politics in Michael Ende. In: Ute Dettmar, Lena Hoffmann and Christine Lötscher (eds.): Schreibweisen. Authorship, writing practices and formats in the field of children's and youth media. In collaboration with Pauline Gaspard and Jesper Rusterholz. Berlin 2026, pp. 101-116.

2. Over his dead body. Depictions of suicide in German-language youth literature using the example of Anne Freytag's "Nicht weg und nicht da" (2018) and Tobias Elsäßer's "Für Niemand" (2011). In: Ella Margaretha Karnatz, Misa Fujiwara, Federica La Manna, Waltraud Maierhofer (eds.): Narrative psychischer Krisen. Depression, suicide and trauma in German-language literature since 2000. Bielefeld 2026, pp. 25-41l

3. The power and powerlessness of narration. Forms of self-reflexivity in Preußler's The Flight into Egypt. Royal-Bohemian part (1978). In: Julia Benner and Petra Josting (eds.): Between Nostalgia and Innovation. Otfried Preußler's literary work. Berlin 2025, pp. 35-68.

4. 'Prosa Nova' Medial and narrative representation processes of literary autopathographies using the example of David Wagner's life (2013). In: Till Huber and Sabine Kyora (eds.): Figuren der Diagnostik. Berlin and Boston 2025, pp. 267-186.

5. Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung [together with Gina Weinkauff]. In: Yearbook for International German Studies. In association with the International Association for German Studies. 56 (2024), issue 2, pp. 267-308.

6. Cornelia Funke's Reckless. Stone Flesh in a comparison of versions (2010, 2020). In: Tobias Kurwinkel, Philipp Schmerzheim and Anke Vogel (eds.): Cornelia Funke intermedial. Würzburg 2025, pp. 43-62.

7. Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung (together with Gina Weinkauff). In: Yearbook for International German Studies 56 (2024), no. 1, pp. 273-276.
8. Action system and symbol system. Reflections on the heuristic added value within children's and young adult literature research. In: Yearbook of the Society for Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature (2023), pp. 118-129.https://ojs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/gkjf/index.php/jahrbuch/issue/view/8/8]
9. Syncretic poetics. The play in Michael Ende. In: Michael Ende. Poetics and Positioning. Berlin 2023, pp. 43-59.
10. Michael Ende: Genesis of a Field of Research (together with Thomas Scholz). In: Michael Ende. Poetics and Positioning. Berlin 2023, pp. 1-12.
11. Eccentric narration. Nils Mohl's "Kasse 43". In: Karin Vach (ed.): Nils Mohl. Munich 2023, pp. 119-134.
12. "Came, came / Came a word". De- and re-contextualisation of Paul Celan's "Engführung" in Cornelia Funke's "Tintenherz". In: Bernd Auerochs, Frederike Felicitas Günther, Markus May, Anne Fleig and Susanne Zepp-Zwirner (eds.) Celan-Perspektiven 2022.Heidelberg 2023, pp. 11-19.
13. "Dedicated to Berlin". Berlin as a poetological cipher in Wolfdietrich Schnurre's "Als Vaters Bart noch rot war". In: Ute Dettmar, Andre Kagelmann and Ingrid Tomkowiak (eds.): Urban! Urban cultures in children's and youth media. Berlin 2023, pp. 17-31.
14. Language and writing in children's and youth literature. In: Literary grammar. How literary studies and linguistics can benefit from each other, ed. by Nanna Fuhrhop, Niklas Reinken and Niklas Schreiber. Heidelberg: Winter 2023, pp. 41-55.
15. History as family history. Realistic narration in Ursula Wölfel's "Ein Haus für alle" (1991). In: Ursula Wölfel (1922-2014). Commemorative volume on the 100th birthday of the author, ed. by Hans-Heino Ewers. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Hohengehren 2023, pp. 147-163.
16. "Hm, hm! - Tell me, what do you think?" The Socratic dialogue in children's and youth literature of the Enlightenment. In: Philosophie im Spiegel der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, edited by Thomas Boyken, Jörn Brüggemann and Kerstin Gregor-Gehrmann. Dresden and Munich: Thelem 2023, pp. 219-233.
17. On the relationship between philosophy and children's and young adult literature (with Jörn Brüggemann and Kerstin Gregor-Gehrmann). In: Philosophie im Spiegel der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, ed. by dens. Dresden and Munich: Thelem 2023, pp. 7-14.
18. As printed. Literary-theoretical considerations on written narration. In: Of mouth and craft. Oral and written narration in children's and young adult literary texts, ed. by Thomas Boyken and Anna Stemmann. Stuttgart: Metzler 2022, pp. 39-54.
19. Mouth and craft? Theoretical and conceptual considerations on the relationship between orality(ies) and literacy(ies) in texts for children and young people [together with Anna Stemmann]. In: Of mouth and craft. Oral and written narration in texts for children and young people, edited by Thomas Boyken and Anna Stemmann. Berlin: Metzler 2022, pp. 1-17.
20. Medial breaches of convention? Narratological and poetological considerations. In: Children's and youth literature today. Theoretical considerations and thematic approaches to current children's and youth literature texts, ed. by Carsten Gansel, Anna Kaufmann, Monika Hernik and Ewelina Kamińska-Ossowska. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2022, pp. 59-79.
21. Literary 'universal motif'? The book motif in German-language children's and youth literature using the example of Michael Ende's The Neverending Story (1979) and Cornelia Funke's Inkheart (2003). In: Narrato-aesthetics and didactics of motifs in children's and young adult media. Von literarischen Außenseitern, dem Vampir auf der Leinwand und dem Tod im Comicbuch, ed. by Tobias Kurwinkel and Stefanie Jakobi. Tübingen: Narr 2022, 123-140.
22. Poles in the field of post-war literature. Popularity and continuity using the example of Werner Bergengruen. In: Benn Forum. Contributions to Literary Modernism 7 (2021), pp. 63-80.
23. Cottas Karten-Almanach als Konversationsspiel. With a short 'Poetics of the Playing Card Almanac'. In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society 65 (2021), 91-113.
24. An 'Exercise in Practical Criticism'. Comedy and social criticism in the children's picture books by Marc-Uwe Kling and Astrid Henn. In: Literature in the classroom. Texts of contemporary literature for schools 22 (2021). Issue 1, pp. 21-37 [republished in: What else is there to laugh about? Comedy in texts and media of contemporary culture from a literary-didactic perspective, ed. by Nicola König and Jan Standke. Trier: WVT 2023, pp. 75-90].
25. Media simulations in Joachim Heinrich Campe and Michael Ende. Literary-theoretical and literary-historical reflections on the significance of bookishness in narrative children's and young adult literature. In: Spiegel der Letteren. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Literatuurgeschiedenis en voor Literatuurwetenschap 63 (2021), issue 1, pp. 39-62.
26. "The path went through the neighbour's garden". The garden in Storm's poetry. In: Papers of the Theodor Storm Society 69 (2020), pp. 26-40.
27. At the limits of representability? Tenses in the secondary text and possible drama-theoretical consequences. In: Drama & Theatre. Festschrift for Bernhard Greiner on the occasion of his 75th birthday, ed. by Eckart Goebel and Max Röhl. Tübingen: Stauffenburg 2020, pp. 43-58.
28. "That was a shot! People will still be talking about it in later times". Some reflections on the secondary text in the apple shot scene of Schiller's William Tell. In: Schiller's theatre practice, ed. by Peter-André Alt and Marcel Lepper. Berlin and New York 2019, pp. 214-230.
29. The secondary text of a reading drama. Speaker designation and comedy in Kleist's Der zerbrochne Krug. In: Journal for Literary Studies and Linguistics. Special issue 48 (2018), issue 3, pp. 463-480.
30. Kooooonzentrieren - Ruuuuuuu-u-huig sein". Gedruckte Mündlichkeit im deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsroman(Die 13½ Leben des Käpt`n Blaubär, Der Fuchs, Die Trunkene Fahrt). In: Textual talk. Interferences of Orality and Writing in German-language Literature at the Turn of the Millennium, ed. by David-Christopher Assmann and Nicola Menzel. Munich: Fink 2018, pp. 61-76.
31. Experiments in form? On the function of typography in contemporary German-language novels using the example of Jan Brandt's Gegen die Welt (2011). In: On the printing history and intermediality of early modern drama prints, ed. by Dirk Niefanger and Alexander Weber. Münster: LIT 2018, pp. 11-34.
32. On the "Heroes of Antiquity" in Schiller's early dramas: Experiences of discrepancy and models for action. In: Schiller's concepts of time, ed. by Dirk Oschmann and Helmut Hühn. Hanover: Wehrhahn 2018, pp. 35-55.
33. On scientific relationships. An attempt to categorise current developments in German didactics from a literary studies perspective. In: Foreign sisters in dialogue. Interdisciplinary research in German didactics, edited by Iris Winkler and Frederike Schmidt. Frankfurt a.M. et al: Peter Lang 2016, pp. 23-42.
34. Between commentary and affect. Schiller's concept of the chorus and its realisation. In: Choral Figures. Interdisziplinäre Beiträge, ed. by Julia Bodenburg, Katharina Grabbe and Nicole Haitzinger. Freiburg i.B.: Rombach 2016, pp. 51-66.
35. Intrigue as the dramaturgical centre of Laube's dramas. In: Heinrich Laube. Contributions on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of his death. A German-Polish colloquium, ed. by Marek Halub. Heidelberg: Winter 2016, pp. 139-155.
36. The poem as revenant. Linguisation and aestheticisation of trauma in the early poems of Karl Krolow. In: Textures of the wound. Konstellationen deutschsprachiger Nachkriegslyrik, ed. by Thomas Boyken and Nikolas Immer. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2016, pp. 145-163.
37. Poetry and trauma. Traces of pain in German-language post-war poetry (together with Nikolas Immer). In: Textures of the wound. Konstellationen deutschsprachiger Nachkriegslyrik, ed. by Thomas Boyken and Nikolas Immer. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2016, pp. 7-29.
38. Twilights, drunkenness and dreams. Vision and its function in E.T.A. Hoffmann's tales. In: "The stupidity of the eyes". Deceptive perceptions and visual epistemology in the 18th century, ed. by Evelyn Dueck and Nathalie Vuillemin. Heidelberg: Winter 2016, pp. 187-200.
39. Functional potentials of complex narrative situations in recent television series. In: Quality TV. Die narrative Spielwiese des 21. Jahrhunderts?!, ed. by Jonas Nesselhauf and Markus Schleich. Münster: LIT 2014, pp. 51-64.
40. Performative and narrative dimensions of masculinity in ancient film using the example of 300 (2007). In: The Gender of Antiquity, edited by Friederike Krippner and Anna Heinze. Munich: Fink 2014, pp. 327-347.
41. The report on "the rapturous That". On the function of the narratives in Schiller's Don Karlos. In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society 57 (2013), pp. 105-121.
42. "Oh, what a hero's heart you have broken!" Knowledge about Kleist's fragile heroic figures. In: Wissensfiguren bei Heinrich von Kleist, ed. by Yixu Lu, Anthony Stephens, Alison Lewis and Wilhelm Voßkamp. Freiburg i.B.: Rombach 2012, pp. 289-302.
43. "The male heart beats against the ribs". Imaginations of the masculine in Schiller's poetry. In: Schiller's poetry. Beiträge des Weimarer Schillervereins, edited by Nikolas Immer and Silke Henke. Weimar 2012, pp. 57-80.
44. The night of love and the deed of murder. Transpositions in Kleist's Der Zweikampf. In: Kleist. Relektüren, edited by Branka Schaller-Fornoff and Roger Fornoff. Dresden: Thelem 2010, pp. 184-212.
45. "Of course, I have a good excuse, I'm part gay" - On the construction of masculinity in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In: This is an Adventure. The director Wes Anderson, ed. by Christian Vittrup. Kiel: Ludwig 2010, pp. 25-43.
46. "The outlines are lost in it, the bodies as if softened". Representations of the body in Rolf Dieter Brinkmann's early prose. In: New Perspectives on Rolf Dieter Brinkmann: Places - Heroes - Bodies, ed. by Thomas Boyken, Ina Cappelmann and Uwe Schwagmeier. Munich: Fink 2010, pp. 109-123.
47. Introduction (together with Ina Cappelmann and Uwe Schwagmeier). In: New Perspectives on Rolf Dieter Brinkmann: Places - Heroes - Bodies, ed. by Thomas Boyken, Ina Cappelmann and Uwe Schwagmeier. Munich: Fink 2010, pp. 9-18.
48. "And especially Carlo Moor / I took as my model". Schiller's dramas in the mirror of Heine's poetry. In: Heine-Jahrbuch 48 (2009), pp. 72-89.
49. About "that heroes are lonely / when the light goes on". On imaginations of masculinity in the lyrical work of Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. In: Pop and masculinity. Two phenomena in precarious interaction?, ed. by Katja Kauer. Berlin: Frank & Timme 2008, pp. 51-70.

Handbook and encyclopaedia articles

1. Exemplary analyses: Political speeches by Schiller. In: Handbook of Political Rhetoric, ed. by Armin Burkhardt. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter 2019, pp. 929-954.
2. Simple thoughts about my death. In: Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. His Poems in Individual Interpretations, ed. by Jan Röhnert and Gunter Geduldig. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter 2012, pp. 46-53.
3. Without a pension. In: Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. His Poems in Individual Interpretations, ed. by Jan Röhnert and Gunter Geduldig. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter 2012, pp. 187-198.
4. The white sheet is outside the window. In: Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. His Poems in Individual Interpretations, ed. by Jan Röhnert and Gunter Geduldig. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter 2012, pp. 332-340.

Reviews

1. Kristin Börjesson and Jörg Meibauer (eds.): Pragmatic Acquisition and Children's Literature. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto 2021. in: Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung (2022) [online: ojs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/gkjf/index.php/jahrbuch/issue/ view/7/7]
2. Nicola Gess and Mireille Schnyder (eds.): The Astonished Child. Cultural Imaginations of Childhood. Paderborn: Brill/Wilhelm Fink 2021. in: Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung (2022) [online: https://ojs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/gkjf/index.php/jahrbuch/issue/view/7/7]
3. Hans-Heino Ewers (ed.): Michael Ende. On the topicality of a classic of international standing. Berlin et al. 2020. In: Yearbook of the Society for Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature (2021) [online: ojs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/gkjf/index.php/jahrbuch/issue/view/ 6/5].
4. Tobias Kurwinkel and Philipp Schmerheim (eds.): Handbuch Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Stuttgart and Weimar 2020. In: Yearbook of the Society for Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature (2021) [online: https://ojs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/gkjf/index.php/jahrbuch/issue/view/6/5].
5. Julia Freytag, Inge Stephan and Hans-Gerd Winter (eds.): Lenz-Handbuch. Berlin 2017. in: Information Resources for Libraries (IFB). Digital review organ for libraries and science http://www.informationsmittel-fuer-bibliotheken.de/showfile.php?id=8775
6. Wassiliou, Nikoletta: Schiller's philosophical justification of the poetics of drama. A contribution to the critical relationship between literature and philosophy. In: German Studies 58 (2017). Issue 3-4 (No. 5063).
7. Baumgartner, Stephan: World conqueror. The 'great man' in drama 1820-1850. In: Germanistik 57 (2016), Issue 1 (No. 783).
8. Literature, 1800-1830. in: The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies, ed. by Stephan Parkinson, Graeme Dunphy, David Gillespie, Olivia Santovetti, Paul Scott, Owen Thomas. Vol. 75 Cambridge: MHRA 2015, pp. 445-454 (together with Regina Schmid).
9. Literature, 1800-1830. in: The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies, ed. by Stephan Parkinson, Graeme Dunphy, David Gillespie, Olivia Santovetti, Paul Scott, Owen Thomas. Vol. 74, Cambridge: MHRA 2014, pp. 331-339.
10. The relationship between war discourse and romanticism. Martina Lüke writes about representations of war in Romantic texts (Martina Lüke: Worte wie Waffen. War and Romanticism. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2013).[https://literaturkritik.de/id/18206]
11. Every drama has a beginning. Claude Haas and Andrea Polaschegg have published an anthology on the "Deployment of Drama" (Claude Haas and Andrea Polaschegg (eds.): Der Einsatz des Dramas. The beginnings of drama, academic poetics and genre politics. Freiburg i.B.: Rombach 2012).[https://literaturkritik.de/id/17119]
12. A "reflector figure of modern ambivalence"? Renate Stauf's plea for Heinrich Heine's modernity (Renate Stauf: Heinrich Heine. Poems and Prose. Berlin: Erich Schmidt 2010).[https://literaturkritik.de/id/14769]

Essays

1. Of monkeys and humans. In: Beautiful are words that are simple. Poems by Paul Maar, edited by Claudia Pecher, Nils Mohl and Maximilian Mihatsch. Munich 2023, pp. 18-21.
2. "Ach - Ach". Artificial people in literature. In: Bunsen Magazine. Journal of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry 4 (2022), pp. 157-159.
3. Are there werewolves? In: Asked! Questions for science. Oldenburg 2020, p. 31.
4. The reality of literature. Why the criticism of Robert Menasse and Takis Würger is justified after all (together with Mario Gotterbarm)[https://literaturkritik.de/die-realitaet-der-literatur-warum-die-kritik-an-robert-menasse-und-takis-wuerger-doch-berechtigt-ist,25514.html]

Series / Magazines

• since 2024: Co-editor of the Yearbook of the Society for Children's and Youth Literature
• since 2021: Editor of the publication series of the Research Centre for Children's and Young Adult Literature (open access) at the University of Oldenburg Press (UOLP)

11 June 2026
Project presentation: Online commentary on Michael Ende's "The Neverending Story"" [Workshop: Tübinger Forum Text- und Editionswissenschaft (EdiKo) from 11-12 June 2026 at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen]

6 May 2026
Mittelalter in der Nachkriegs- und Jugendliteratur [Lecture as part of the series of lectures "Mittelalter und Kinderliteratur" at the Universities of Halle/Wittenberg and Goethe University Frankfurt am Main]

13.3.2026
Project presentation: "Online commentary on Michael Ende's "The Neverending Story"" [Workshop: Digital Humanities and Children's and Youth Literature Research at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main from 12-13 March 2026]

24.10.2025
Am Rande. Conceptions of youth in the series "Die Discounter" [Conference: Living like in a film. (Current) tendencies in children's and youth film at the University of Hamburg from 22-25 October 2025]

9 October 2025
"I write for the child in all of us". Das Motiv des fremden Kindes bei Michael Ende [Interdisciplinary conference: Das fremde Kind at the International Youth Library Munich and the LMU Munich from 8-10 October 2025]

25 Sept. 2025
"Whether there is anything new in these letters?" Youth in Lavater's "Brüderliche Schreiben an verschiedene Jünglinge" (1782) [Conference: Kraftkerle, Schwärmer und Rädchenexistenzen at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena from 24-26 September 2025]

26.6.2025
Play: Fiction, Poetics, Children's and Youth Literature. On the heuristic added value of a figure of thought [37th Annual Conference of the Society for Children's and Young Adult Literature from 26-28 June 2025 in Königswinter]

20 March 2025
"For the common man and the youth". Form and function of subtitles in children's and young adult literature (1800-1900) [International conference Titelpraktiken. Actors - Formats - Stories at the University of Bergamo from 19-21 March 2025]

5 November 2024
Children's and Youth Literature Research at the University of Oldenburg. The invention of the Oldenburg Children's and Young Adult Book Fair from the spirit of the university [Ceremonial opening of the exhibition "50 years of KIBUM. History - Present - Future" on 25 November 2024]

5.6.2024
Vanishing point book. Michael Ende's Poetics of Written Narrative [Literary Studies Colloquium at Leipzig University on 5 June 2024]

15.5.2024
Literature between 'art' and 'education'? Challenges of Children's and Youth Literature Research [Inaugural Lecture at the University of Oldenburg]

30.4.2024
Post-War and Middle Ages. Children's and Youth Literature (1945-1970) [Literary Studies Colloquium at Bielefeld University on 30 April 2024]

24 February 2024
Michael Ende: Eine Poetik schriftlicher Erzählens) [Workshop: Die Materialität der Texte at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen from 23-24 February 2024]

22.2.2024
Markedness and convention. Reflections on the significance of materiality in the formation of 'fiction consciousness' [International Workshop Medienreflexion und reflexive Medailität. Children's and youth literature in the media competition at the Hansewissenschaftskolleg Delmenhorst from 22-23 February 2024]

7 February 2024
"We will tell each other a story that does not yet exist and that nobody knows." Practices of authorship in "Otfried Preußler invites you" (1970) [Series of lectures "Otfried Preußler - New perspectives on a successful author, organised by Dr Andrea Weinmann at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main]

17.11.2023
"We will tell each other a story that does not yet exist and that nobody knows." Practices of authorship in "Otfried Preußler lädt ein" (1970) [Authorship in children's and young adult literature from 16-17 November 2023 at the University of Oldenburg]

26/10/2023
Exquisite masculinity. Education and Reading in Hölderlin's "Hyperion" [Literature as "an organon of history". Colloquium on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Prof. Dr Heinrich Kaulen from 26-27 October 2023 at Phillips University Marburg]

6 October 2023
No postmodern game! Forms of self-reflection in Preußler's "The Flight into Egypt. Königlich böhmischer Teil" (1978) ["I am a storyteller." International academic conference to mark the 100th birthday of Otfried Preußler from 4-6 October 2023 at Humboldt University Berlin]

10 June 2023
A Poetics of Written Narrative. Buchhaftigkeit und Werkpolitik bei Michael Ende [Annual conference of the Society for Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature from 8-10 June 2023 in Königswinter]

6 June 2023
Postwar and the Middle Ages. Children's and youth literature (1945-1970) [Literature didactics colloquium at the University of Cologne on 6 June 2023]

24.5.2023
Breaches of convention? Michael Ende's Poetics of Written Narrative [Literary Studies Colloquium at the University of Duisburg-Essen]

21.3.2023
Written narration in children's and young adult literature. Conceptual considerations using the example of Michael Ende's Neverending Story [Research colloquium by Prof Dr Nina Janich at TU Darmstadt]

7.2.2023
Post-war and the Middle Ages. Children's and youth literature (1945-1970) [Research colloquium by Prof. Dr Jörg Robert at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen on 7 February 2023]

27.9.2022
Ambiguities praxeologically. On a central concept of children's and young adult literature research [27th Germanist Conference from 25-27 September 2022 at the University of Paderborn]

12.9.2022
Are dinosaurs a childhood disease? What dinosaurs tell us in literature [11th Science Soirée of the Oldenburg University Society]

7.7.2022
Provenance in children's and young adult literature. Intertextual networks and 'parasitic appropriation' using the example of Cornelia Funke's "Tintenherz" [Workshop "Literatur(wissenschaft) und Provenienz" of the Provenance Research Group in the Marbach Weimar Wolfenbüttel Research Network from 7-8 July 2022 at the German Literature Archive Marbach]

28.4.2022
Sea adventure? The deep sea in children's and young adult literature and pop culture ["Alles im Fluss. Water worlds in children's and youth literature from a historical, literary and artistic perspective" at the Schlefenhaus (Volkach), at the invitation of the German Academy for Children's and Youth Literature]

26.3.2022
Michael Ende's syncretic poetics [International conference "Michael Ende: Poetics and Positioning" at the German Literature Archive Marbach]

24/11/2021
"Hm, Hm! - Tell me, what do you think?" The Socratic Conversation in Children's and Young Adult Literature of the Enlightenment [Symposium "Philosophical Questions in the Mirror of Children's and Young Adult Literature: Didactic Perspectives on Literature and Philosophy" at the University of Oldenburg from 22-24 November 2021]

1.10.2021
Proximity and distance. Schiller's "On the Use of the Chorus in Tragedy". [Invitation by Prof. Michael Multhammer, workshop of the CRC 1472 Transformations of the Popular: "Grenzen des Ästhetischen bei Schiller: Das Populäre und das Vulgäre" from 30 September to 1 October 2021]

08.09.2021
'Prosa Nova'. Autopathographies and the Possibilities of Narrating Illness [Figures of Diagnostics. International conference at the University of Oldenburg from 8 - 9 September 2021]

05.06.2021
"Dedicated to Berlin". The City of Berlin as a Poetological Cipher in the Texts of Wolfdietrich Schnurre [Urban! Urban Cultures in Children's and Youth Media. 33rd Annual Conference of the Society for Children's and Youth Literature Research 2021 from 3-5 June 2021]

29.01.2020
The child in the garden. On Storm's poetry [Invitation from the Oldenburg Library Society]

15.01.2020
Narrated mediality. Buchhaftigkeit im deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsroman [Invitation from the Institute for German Studies at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, lecture as part of the Institute Colloquium]

24 October 2019
Artificial sea. Imaginations of the sea and the marine explorer Jaques-Yves Cousteau in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizou (2004) and L'Odyssée (2016) [Screening the Sea. Audiovisual Media and the Sea, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel from 23-25 October 2019]

07.09.2019
"The path went through a neighbour's garden". The garden in Storm's poems. [Storm's poetry. Annual conference of the Theodor Storm Society Husum 06-08 September 2019]

07.12.2018
At the limit of representability? Conspicuous secondary texts in Schiller's dramas [Tübingen Colloquium in honour of Bernhard Greiner, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 6-7 December 2018]

05.10.2018
Constellations of German-language poems after 1945 (Krolow, Kaléko, Bergengruen) [International Literature Road Symposium 2018. World Minute and Constellation - Literary Epoch Construction in Intercultural Comparison, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 3-6 October 2018]

11.10.2018
Introduction: Mediale Poetologien der Literatur [International conference "Mediale Poetologien der Literatur" at the University of Basel in co-operation with the Forum eikones from 11 to 13 October 2018]

12.06.2018
'Erfundener Erfahrungsbericht'. Narrative and medial possibilities of storytelling in contemporary novels (David Wagner: Leben) [Literary text and medical-scientific context. Workshop of the Institute for the History of Medicine and Science Studies and the Buddenbrookhaus Lübeck from 12-13 June 2018]

23 February 2018
On the materiality of the Morgenblatt [Cottas Journalpoetik. Research and indexing between global history and the digital turn at the German Literature Archive Marbach from 22-23 February 2018]

08.07.2017
Hölderlin's Hyperion in the German classroom [Vom Turm ins Klassenzimmer. Hölderlin in the school. Workshop in the Hölderlin Tower on 8 July 2017]

30/06/2017
"That was a shot! People will still be talking about it in later times." On the secondary text in the apple shot scene of Schiller's William Tell [Schiller's theatre practice. Conference of the German Schiller Society at the German Literature Archive Marbach from 29-30 June 2017]

09.06.2017
Writing, graphics and typography in the novel. On current developments in the contemporary German-language novel [Schrift und Graphisches im Vergleich. Annual Conference of the German Society for General and Comparative Literature from 6-9 June 2017 at the Ruhr University Bochum]

30.03.2017
Specialised literature in teacher training. Do literary studies seminars need to be organised differently? [Perspectives and convictions of teachers and students on specialised teacher training. Conference at the TU Dresden from 30-31 March 2017]

10.03.2017
"Kooooooozentrieren - Ruuuuuuu-u-huig sein". Typographical orality in contemporary German-language novels using the example of Nis-Momme Stockmann's Der Fuchs (2016) [Textgerede. Interferences between orality and writing in German-language literature at the turn of the millennium. Conference at the Goethe University Frankfurt a.M. from 9-11 March 2017]

26 November 2016
"Er schenkt ein" - "Er trinkt". On the secondary text in Kleist's comedies using the example of Der zerbrochne Krug [Hauptsache Nebentext! Director's notes in the drama. International workshop at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen from 25-26 November 2016]

7 November 2016
Reading about 'great people'. Ancient heroes in Schiller's early dramas [Classical Romanticism. Schiller's image of Italy. Conference at the Villa Vigoni from 7-10 November 2016]

25.09-28.09.2016
Panel: Reading and/or looking: Ambiguity in bimodal narrative texts (together with Prof Dr Frauke Berndt (Zurich) and Sebastian Meixner (Zurich)) [25th German Conference 2016 in Bayreuth]

18/06/2016
Mediality and materiality of the contemporary German-language novel using the example of Clemens J. Setz's Indigo (2012) [Literatur in der Medienkonkurrenz: Medientranspositionen 1800 - 1900 - 2000. Conference at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf from 16-18 June 2016].

10/06/2016
On the "Heroes of Antiquity" in Schiller's dramas. Role models, experiences of discrepancy, 'correct' behaviour. [Schillers Zeitbegriffe. University of Leipzig from 09-11 June 2016]

03.12.2015
Newer narratological approaches. Potentials of Genette's narrative theory for teaching German? [Study day for German teacher training on 3 December 2015 in Tübingen]

26.11.2015
Functional potentials of typography in the novel using the example of Jan Brandt's Gegen die Welt (2011) [On the history of printing and intermediality of early modern drama prints. Working discussion on the DFG project Lesedrama der Frühen Neuzeit (1500-1730) at the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel from 26-27 November 2015]

24.11.2015
The poem as a "flying suitcase". Karl Krolow's early poetry between autonomy aesthetics and anchoring in reality [Aesthetics and Ideology 1945. Conference at the Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans of Eastern Europe (Oldenburg) from 23-25 November 2015]

07.11.2015
Quality-Slapstick? Recent developments in German-language television series (together with Michael Vauth)[Quality TV 3.0: In search of the Third Golden Age of Television. Conference at the University of Saarbrücken from 06-07 November 2015]

08.10.2015
Introduction to Danton's Death and subsequent workshop on Georg Büchner [Störck-Gymnasium Bad Saulgau]

07.10.2015
Experiments in form? On the function of typography in contemporary German-language novels using the example of Jan Brandt's Gegen die Welt (2011). [Literary form. History and culture of aesthetic modelling. International conference at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster from 05-07 October 2015]

20 November 2014
Between Effect and Reflection. Schiller's choral concept and its realisation [Choral Figures: Voice, Affect, Collective. New perspectives on an intermedial figure. Conference at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster from 20-22 November 2014]

07.11.2014
Twilights, Drunkenness and Dreams. Vision and its function in E.T.A. Hoffmann's stories ["Der Augen Blödigkeit". Deceptive perceptions and visual epistemology in the 18th century. Conference at the Université de Neuchâtel from 06-08 November 2014]

22.09.2014
Die Intrige als dramaturgisches Zentrum der Dramen Heinrich Laubes [Heinrich Laube (1806-1884): Epoche - Werk - Wirkung. International academic conference on the 130th anniversary of Heinrich Laube's death. University of Wroclaw from 21-24 September 2014]

18.10.2013
About puppets and people. The idea of man in the work of Georg Büchner [Büchner Weekend of the State Theatre Oldenburg]

30.09.2013
Functional potentials of complex narrative situations in recent US television series [Quality-Television: The narrative playground of the 21st century?! Conference at Saarbrücken University from 30 Sept - 1 Oct 2013]

18.06.2013
"Why am I so afraid of this drilling point?" On the dramatic demise of Schiller's stage characters [Invitation from the Goethe Society Oldenburg]

23.04.2013
"Bezwinget Euch, ertragen es wie ein Mann!" On masculinity(s) in Schiller's William Tell [Invitation from the Association of Friends and Supporters of the Oldenburg State Library / Regional Association of the Library Society of Lower Saxony; Oldenburg State Library]

18.10.2012
'The Call of the Enthusiastic Deed'. Erzählungen und ihre Funktionen in Schillers Don Karlos [International Graduate Conference at the Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń from 17-19 October 2012]

15/06/2012
"So will I give thee a manly example". Männlichkeitsimaginationen im Dramatischen Werk Friedrich Schillers [Interdisciplinary Colloquium for Female Doctoral Researchers from 14-15 June 2012 at the Centre for Postcolonial and Gender Studies, University of Trier]

05 November 2011
"An die Rippen pocht das Männerherz". Imaginations of the masculine in Schiller's poetry [Schiller Days in Weimar 2011. Academic lectures on the topic: Schiller's poetry; at the invitation of the Weimar Schiller Association]

25.06.2011
Imaginations of Antiquity. Geschlecht und Körper im zeitgenössischen Film [The Gender of Antiquity. Junior Researcher Conference of the Research Training Group in the Collaborative Research Centre 644 "Transformations of Antiquity" at the Humboldt University Berlin from 23-25 June 2011]

27.05.2011
Männlichkeitsimaginationen im dramatischen Werk Friedrich Schillers [International Doctoral Conference at the University of Oldenburg in co-operation with the University of Toruń from 27-28 May 2011]

20/02/2011
"Oh, what a hero's heart you have bent!" Hero construction and recipient knowledge in Kleist's stories and dramas [Wissensfiguren bei Heinrich von Kleist. University of Sydney (in co-operation with the Heinrich von Kleist Society). 16-20 February 2011]

13 June 2009
Körperkonstruktionen in der frühen Prosa Rolf Dieter Brinkmanns [New Perspectives on Rolf Dieter Brinkmann: Places - Heroes - Bodies. University of Oldenburg. 12-14 June 2009]

06 Dec. 2008
"And especially Carlo Moor / I took as my model." Schiller's dramas in the mirror of Heine's poetry [11th Forum Junge-Heine-Forschung in Düsseldorf, organised by the Heinrich Heine-Gesellschaft]

03.07.2008
Männlichkeitskonstruktion im Werk Rolf Dieter Brinkmanns [Pop und Männlichkeit. Two cultural phenomena in precarious interaction? Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. 2-4 July 2008]

Dr Sarah Gaber

Dr Ella Margaretha Karnatz

Sandra Eilts

Sofie Dobbener

Antonia Marie Schepers

student assistants: Lea Sofie Jacobi, Max Koßmann