Prof. Dr. Susanne Zepp-Zwirner

Professor, Faculty of Humanities, University of Duisburg-Essen

Associated Professorship

Spanish and Hispano-American Literary Studies

Vita

Prof. Dr. Susanne Zepp-Zwirner completed her studies in Romance Studies, Comparative Literature, and Modern German Literary History at the University of Wuppertal. She began her academic career as a research assistant at the same university's Institute for Romance Studies in 1997/98, later moving to Freie Universität Berlin in 2000, where she worked at the Institute for Comparative Literature and the Institute for Romance Philology. In January 2002, she earned her doctorate in Romance Philology. She then served as Senior Research Associate and Deputy Director at the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at the University of Leipzig from July 2003 to July 2015. In 2009, she completed her habilitation at the University of Cologne, earning the Venia legendi in Romance Studies/Literary and Cultural Studies. In 2011, she accepted a professorship in Romance Philology at Freie Universität Berlin, where she remained until March 2023. In April 2023, she assumed the position of University Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literatures at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Prof. Zepp-Zwirner has been recognized with several awards: In 2015, she was awarded the Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which enabled her to undertake a research stay at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This fellowship was extended in March 2017 as part of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Alumni Program for a further research stay at Tel Aviv University. In 2017, she was appointed Senior Research Fellow of the Martin Buber Society for Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences, an initiative of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). She was also invited as a visiting professor at L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris in March 2018, where she worked at the Centre de recherches sur les arts et le langage (CRAL). In 2018, Prof. Zepp-Zwirner was honored by the Real Academia Española and the Casa Real de España with the "Homenaje del Hispanismo Internacional" for her services to teaching and research in this field. In March 2019, she was elected First President of the German Hispanist Association, a position to which she was re-elected in 2021. She was also invited as a visiting scholar at the Casa del Hispanista of the Fundación Duques de Soria in February 2020. Since 2023, Prof. Zepp-Zwirner has been serving as a member of the selection committee for research awards of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In the same year, she was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica, one of Spain's highest honors, in recognition of her significant contributions to the promotion of Hispanic culture and scholarship.

Focus of Work

Her research focuses on Spanish literature (Middle Ages, Early Modern Period, 20th century), Latin American, Portuguese and French literature (Middle Ages, Early Modern Period, 19th and 20th century), literary and cultural theory as well as Jewish literatures and law and literature.

Publications (selection)

• Untold Stories of the Spanish Civil War (hg. zus. mit Raanan Rein), London: Routledge (Canada Blanch Studies on Contemporary Spain), 2023.
• Jewish Literatures in Spanish and Portuguese. A Comprehensive Handbook (hg. zus. mit Ruth Fine), Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022.
• Migration und Avantgarde. (hg. zus. mit Stephanie Bung), Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.
• Nobelpreisträgerinnen. 14 Schriftstellerinnen im Porträt (hg. zus. mit Claudia Olk), Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019.
• An Early Self. Jewish Belonging in Romance Literature, 1499-1627, Redwood: Stanford University Press, 2014.
• Portugiesisch-brasilianische Literaturwissenschaft. Eine Einführung, Paderborn: Fink Verlag, 2014 (= UTB 2498).
• Herkunft und Textkultur. Über jüdische Erfahrungswelten in romanischen Literaturen 1499–1627, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2010. (ausgezeichnet mit dem Förderpreis »Geisteswissenschaften International – Preis zur Förderung der Übersetzung geisteswissenschaftlicher Literatur« im Jahr 2011).
• Hispanistik (zus. mit Natascha Pomino) (= UTB 2498), Paderborn: Fink Verlag, 2004 (2. Auflage 2008).
• Jorge Luis Borges und die Skepsis, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2003.

Websitelink to my Publications

Keywords

Spanish literature (Middle Ages, Early Modern Period, 20th century), Latin American, Portuguese and French literature (Middle Ages, Early Modern Period, 19th and 20th century), literary and cultural theory as well as Jewish literatures and law and literature.

Casegroup

Languages and Cultural Studies, Art and Design