Research

My current research combines ever-expanding interests in Literary History and Criticism, Linguistics, the History of Art and Architecture, the History of the Book, Queer Studies, Translation Studies, Digital Humanities, Post-Colonial Theory, and Theology. I have written a book exploring a major figure in Anglo-German literary relations in the eighteenth century, Christian Felix Weiße, and am currently completing another monograph, which will examine the engagement of twentieth-century writers with the works of Jane Austen (a first taste of this book can be found in this recent article on Elizabeth Bowen and Austen). My next major projects will be a book on Jane Austen’s postcolonial reception and a series of articles on the image of Africa in literary and journalistic discourses in the German Democratic Republic. Together with François Genton and Sebastian Schmideler, I am co-editing a volume of essays on the international reception of Christian Felix Weiße’s writing for children. I am also pursuing a long-standing interest in English historical lexicography, which most recently has resulted in a short article on the history of the fascinating word ‘spoil-sport.’ Last but not least, Stephanie Wanga (Wellesley College) and I have recently embarked on a research project studying post-independence East African architecture.

My smaller research projects have resulted in a range of articles in scholarly journals and essays in collections, exploring things like the use of jokes in the novels of Ivy Compton-Burnett, the construction of Georgette Heyer’s famous ‘Regency Slang’, and an obscure study arguing that the word ‘metanoia’ was mistranslated in the English New Testament, among other topics.