Education

2017. Habilitation & venia legendi, German Studies, University of Bielefeld

2006. Doctor of Philosophy, German Studies, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

2003. Certificate in German as a Second Language in Theory & Praxis, University of Kassel and Goethe-Institute

2000. Magister Artium, German Studies, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Employment

2022 – present. Director & CEO Profesolutions . Institute for Language, Communication, Rhetoric and Aesthetics

2022. Visiting Scholar, Literature of the German Romanticism and Realism, ERASMUS Program, the University of Bielefeld, Germany and    the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

2017-present. Privatdozent, German Studies, Department of German Studies, University of Bielefeld

2015 – 2017. Research Assistant, German Studies, Department of German Studies, University of Bielefeld

2013 – 2015. Senior Researcher, German Literature, Institute of German Language, Literature & for Intercultural Studies, University of  Luxembourg

2012 – 2013. Research Assistant, German Studies, Department of German Studies, University of Bielefeld

2011 – 2012. Visiting Research Assistant, German Studies, Department of German Studies, University of Bielefeld

2009 – 2011. Visiting Assistant Professor, German Studies, Department of German Studies, University of Washington (Seattle, WA)

2006 – 2008. Instructor, German Literature of 18th and 19th century, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

2000 – 2008. Instructor of German as a Second Language, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Fellowships & Awards

2015. Marie Curie Fellowship Award of the European Commission

2013 – 2015. Fonds de la Recherché Luxembourg

2012. Faculty Grant, University of Bielefeld

2009 - 2012. Feodor Lynen Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship University of Washington, Seattle, WA & University of Bielefeld

2007. Award of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2006 of the Sybille-Hahne-Foundation of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

2001 – 2003. Scholarship of the Goethe-Institute for professional qualification in teaching German as a Second Language

Departmental & University Activities

2022 - 2023. Guest Editor of the peer-reviewed journal arts for the special issue Representations of Islam in Germanophone Literature: Cultural Perspectives from the Enlightenment to the Present

2022. Visiting Scholar of Literature of the German Romanticism and Realism, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

2019 – Present. Board Member of European Networks of Orientalism

2016. Co-Organizer and board member of the graduate colloquium on German Studies, University of Bielefeld

2014. Board Member of the PhD Colloquium, University of Strasbourg

2012 – 2014. Co-Organizer and board member of the international conference on Der interkulturelle Diskurs des deutschsprachigen Raumes und Persiens vom 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert: Literarische Rezeption. Wissenstransfer - Spiritualität, University of Strasbourg

2014. Co-Organizer of the panel The Scholarship of Culture at the 3rd conference of Transatlantic Dialogue Connection Trough Culture, University of Luxembourg

2012. Chair of the panel Getting Back to Goethe. Literary Translation and Cultural Transfer in West-East Encounters, German Studies Association, Milwaukee, WI

2011. Chair of the roundtable Persia in German Literature, German Studies Association, Louisville, KY

2011 – Present. Representative Adviser of Humboldt Foundation on Campus

2011 – Present. Undergraduate & Graduate Advising, University of Bielefeld

2010. Chair and board member member of the panel Literature as Space, German Studies Association, Oakland, CA

2009 – 2010. Graduate Advising, Department of German Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

2009. Chair and Bord member of the Humboldt-Symposium Außenraum-Mitraum-Innenraum. Heterotopien in Kultur und Gesellschaft, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

2007 – 2008. Collaboration on the interdisciplinary book project on Islamfeindlichkeit vs. Islamverherrlichung, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

2006 – 2008. Board Member of Examination Committee for BA, MA, Lehramt, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

2006 – 2008. Undergraduate Advising, Department of German Studies, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

2002 – 2008. Member of the project ProDaF, Institute of German as a Second Language, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

2001 – Present. Collaboration with the Encyclopaedia Iranica on studies of the Influence of Persia on the German Literature and Culture, Columbia University, NY

Press & Interviews

February 23, 2018. Heimat - Braucht Deutschland ein Heimatministerium?, Interview: Zweiter Deutscher Fernseher (ZDF)

October 25, 2017. Themenwoche: Der Heimat-Begriff in der Wissenschaft, Interview: Neue Westfälische

October 27, 2017. Cyrus The Great and the Memory of Cultur in Iran, Interview: Iran International (London)

June 17, 2014. Persia and its imagination in German Literature, Interview: Deutsche Welle

March 22, 2014. Isfahan – Oder die acht Pforten zum Paradies, Feature: WDR3

December 12, 2013. Isfahan – Oder die acht Pforten zum Paradies, Feature: Radio Berlin Brandenburg Kulturradio

February 16, 2013. Salam Persepolis, Feature: Deutschlandfunk

March 22, 2009. Heterotopia, Interview: University of Washington, Germanics

February 3, 2007. Report on my distinguishing for the Sibylle-Hahne Award for Humanities and Social Science 2006 of the University of Münster in the Westfälische Nachrichten, the Münstersche Zeitung, the University Press Münster and the Westdeutsche Rundfunk