Team of the Institute of Rhetoric

Prof Dr Olaf Kramer
(Managing Director)

Olaf Kramer is Professor of Rhetoric and Knowledge Communication. His main fields of research include Science Communication, Communicative Competence and Rhetoric Training, Political Communication and Strategic Positioning as well as Digital Rhetoric and Virtuality.

Prof Dr Dietmar Till

Dietmar Till is Professor of General Rhetoric. His fields of work are Rhetoric in History, Theory and Practice, Propaganda Research, Theoretical History of Aesthetics and Poetics, Literary and Cultural History of the Early Modern Period, Narrative Research and Digital University Teaching.

Prof Dr Joachim Knape

(Senior Professor)

Joachim Knape is Senior Professor at the Institute of Rhetoric. His main fields of research include Rhetoric Theory, the History of German Rhetoric, the History of Early German Language and Literature, Renaissance Humanism and Aesthetic Theory.

Jr Prof Blake Scott

Blake Scott is the new Assistant Professor at the Institute of Rhetoric. His research interests lie at the intersection of philosophy and rhetoric, with a particular focus on the New Rhetoric project.

Dr Jutta Beck

Jutta Beck is a permanent postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Rhetoric. Her research lies at the intersection of General Rhetoric and Latin Philology. It focuses on Physicality and Rhetoric in Roman Antiquity as well as questions of Rhetoric and Gender in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Lukas Beck

Lukas Beck is a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Rhetoric, working at the chair of Prof Dr Olaf Kramer. His research interests lie in the areas of Topics, Political Rhetoric and Science Communication.

Selina Bernarding

Selina Bernarding is a doctoral researcher in Prof Dr Olaf Kramer's project "Conflict and Consensus in Science Communication". She is currently researching the relationship between Rhetoric and Diplomacy.

Dr Fabian Erhardt

Fabian Erhardt is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Rhetoric, working at the chair of Prof Dr Olaf Kramer. He researches the fault lines between Rhetoric, Philosophy, Psychology and Science Communication.

Dr Markus Gottschling

Markus Gottschling is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Rhetoric and coordinates the RHET AI Centre at the chair of Prof Dr Olaf Kramer. His current research interests are the interplay of Rhetoric and Generative AI as well as the potential of Fictionalisation in Science Communication.

PD Dr Nina Kalwa

Nina Kalwa is a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center for Science Communication in Project Ö of SFB 1718 “Common Ground.” She is also a private lecturer at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Dr Rebecca Kiderlen

Rebecca Kiderlen is a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Rhetoric, working at the chair of Prof Dr Dietmar Till. Her research focuses on Political Rhetoric, Argumentation Theory and Topics.

Dr Carmen Lipphardt

Carmen Lipphardt heads the team at the Presentation Skills Research Centre at the chair of Prof. Olaf Kramer. Her research is interdisciplinary and focuses on the format of Science Presentation and the associated competences.

Michael Pelzer

Michael Pelzer heads the Knowledge Design department at the Research Centre for Science Communication. He conducts research into Visual Rhetoric and rhetorical-communicative Competence Development, the rhetoric of multimedia knowledge transfer and the rhetoric of public memory communication.

Dr habil. Franz-Hubert Robling

Franz-Hubert Robling is a former editor of the Historical Dictionary of Rhetoric. He continues to research historical and systematic topics and is a lecturer at the Institute of Rhetoric.

Dr Frank Schuhmacher

Frank Schuhmacher is a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Rhetoric in the teaching department of Prof Dr Dietmar Till and a member of the SFB Other Aesthetics. His research areas are Fascism and Propaganda, Mannerism and Baroque Rhetoric as well as Ancient Rhetoric.

Dr Thomas Susanka

Thomas Susanka heads the Science Notes project at the Research Centre for Science Communication. He works on Visual and Multimodal Rhetoric, Science Communication and Science Journalism, Presentation and Moderation as well as Rhetoric and Psychology.

PD Dr Lily Tonger-Erk

Lily Tonger-Erk was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Rhetoric and coordinates the KoKoKom project at the chair of Prof Dr Olaf Kramer until September 2025. Her work centered on the topics of Rhetoric and Gender, German literature from the early modern period to the present, Critical Race Studies, Interculturality and Intertextuality as well as Science Communication.

Dr Thomas Zinsmaier

Thomas Zinsmaier was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Rhetoric until March 2025. His research focused on Ancient Rhetoric Theory and Eloquence, the Rhetoric of Humanism as well as Rhetoric and Figure Theory.