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Dr Peter Damrau

  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Before working for Birkbeck, I was employed as Head of German at Collingham College in Kensington and taught and assessed PGCE candidates at Bromley College in Kent. I then completed my PhD at Birkbeck and my dissertation was published for the MHRA Bithell Series. It questions the previously-accepted origins of the reception of English literature in Germany. Since then, I have been lecturing for our department on a wide variety of topics, including German language, business German, literature, history, philosophy, translation, film studies, and literary theory at undergraduate and post-graduate levels.

    Office hours

    To arrange an appointment, please contact me via email (p.damrau@bbk.ac.uk)

    Qualifications

    • MA German and Sociology, Universität Oldenburg , 1998
    • PhD Philosophy, University of London, 2003

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Chair of the Languages Committee
    • Language Coordinator for all German language modules
    • Program Director for BA Language and/with Management
    • Study Abroad Coordinator for Spain, Germany, and Italy
    • Departmental representative for student experience

    Honours and awards

    • Max Kade Award for best article of the year in German Quarterly, American Association of Teachers of German, February 2009
  • Research

    Research

    Research overview

    My interests are in multidisciplinary research and analysis of the literary development of German language and literature. Some of the main areas include women’s writing of the 18th century, devotional literature, and Anglo-German cultural relations, and I have published related articles in international journals including German Life and Letters, German Quarterly, German Studies Review, Euphorion, and Oxford German Studies. I was awarded the Max Kade Award for best article of the year in German Quarterly and have presented papers at universities in Germany and the UK, for example, on religious melancholy (Kings College London) and cultural transfer in the early modern period (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg). 

    Current research projects include: 

    • ‘Johann Martin Miller: Sigevart, a Tale’, in The Cambridge Guide to the English Novel, 1660-1820, ed. by April London, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (accepted for publication) 
    • ‘Religiöse Anti-Nazi Propaganda bei Dorothy L. Sayers and Thomas Mann’ (accepted for publication in Oxford German Studies)
  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    I have been supervising BA, MA, and PhD students and welcome enquiries from prospective students who are interested in conducting research in similar areas to my own. In addition, I have also been recruiting, supervising, and assessing language teachers in the department.

    Teaching

    Teaching modules

    • Interrogating the Self (ARCL066S7)
    • German 5 (AREL079S6)
    • The German Novelle (AREL104H5)
    • Doing Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics (ARLL004S4)
    • Culture and Image (ARLL009S4)
    • Culture and Text (ARLL010S4)
    • Comparative Themes in the Novel (ARLL012S5)
    • German and Italian Fascism: History, Culture and Memory (Level 5) (ARLL031S5)
    • Representations of Gender, Love and Sexuality (Level 5) (LNLN024S5)
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    Book

    Book Section

  • Business and community

    Business and community

    Services

    • Other

      As Knowledge Transfer Coordinator, I have facilitated and/or taught Birkbeck’s tailor-made language courses for cultural organizations including the Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall and international companies such as Ricoh Europe and Chapman Black.

      I also participated as a speaker in public events for Keynote Educational.