Birgit Geipel, Ph.D.

Lecturer (Akademische Rätin)

MA Program Director

Office

University of Tübingen
Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies
Department of Korean Studies

Wilhelmstr. 133, Room 56

+49-7071-29 72705

birgit.geipelspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de

Office Hours - Semester Break

Tues., February 11, 14:00 - 15:30hr
Wed., April 9, 12:30 - 14:00hr

Office hours are held online during semester break.

Office Hours

Tues., 14-15:30h

Office hours are held in person.

Please book a time-slot via the link below.

[Time-slot applications]

Portrait

Birgit Geipel serves as a lecturer (Akademische Rätin) at the Department of Korean Studies at the University of Tübingen. She holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Riverside. Her dissertation examines literary and cinematic discourses of national division and unification in Korea and Germany, analyzing concepts of nation, border, and identity in works from North and South Korea, as well as East, West, and unified Germany. Currently, her research centers on women's literature, with a particular focus on contemporary young women writers in Korea and the themes of feminism and transnationalism in their works. Additionally, she explores the cultural and literary productions of the Korean diaspora, especially in Europe and the USA.

Academic Profile

Since 4/2022

Lecturer (Akademische Rätin)

Department of Korean Studies / University of Tübingen

04/2018 – 04/2022

Postdoctoral Researcher (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin)

Department of Korean Studies / University of Tübingen

10/2017-03/2018

Lecturer

Department of Comparative Literature and Languages / University of California, Riverside

04/2017 -08/2017

Visiting Scholar

East Asia Program / Cornell University

10/2016 – 03/2017

Erasmus Mundus Fellow

Institute for Korean Studies / Free University of Berlin

09/2011 – 09/2017

PhD in Comparative Literature

Department of Comparative Literature and Languages / University of California, Riverside

09/2010 – 08/2011

Visiting Researcher

Department for German Language and Literature / Seoul National University

09/2003 – 07/2009

Magister Artium in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature

Department of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature / Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Teaching

Courses Taught

Introduction to Korean Culture (Literature and Film History)
Topics in Korean Literature
Intersectionality in Korean Literature
Division Literature
Women's Literature
Literature and Culture of the Korean Diaspora
North Korean Literature and Film
Literary Translation Korean-German (Prose)
Recent Research on Modern Korea
History of Korea (Pre-modern to Present)

Research and Events

Research Focus

Discourses of National Division and Reunification in Literature and Film in Germany and Korea
Feminism and Women's Literature in South Korea
Literature and Film of the Korean Diaspora

Conference and Workshop Presentations

(Selection)

"Germany in Contemporary Korean Literature," CIVIS-KF Korean Studies E-School Consortium – Summer School, Aix-Marseille University, May 23, 2024.

"Memory and National Division in Literature," CIVIS-KF Korean Studies E-School Consortium – Summer School, University of Bucharest, June 2, 2023.

"North Meets South: New Imaginative Possibilities and Literary Perspectives in the Twenty-First Century," 29th Biannual Conference of the Association of Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE), Rome, April 11-14, 2019.

"The Death of Idealism: Individual and State in Early Works of Korean and German Division Literature," 8th Conference of the Association for Korean Studies in German-Speaking Countries (VfK) e.V., Goethe University Frankfurt, November 30 – December 1, 2018.

"Stories of Unification: Korean and German Perspectives on an Era of Change," Korean Literature Association Conference "Global Korean Literature at the Crossroads: Celebration of Continuity and Transformation," Duke University, Durham, NC, November 12-14, 2015.

"North Korea’s Unification with(out) the South: Ideological Survival Strategies in the Post-Socialist Era," Conference "Divided Nations and their Neighbors: Paths to Reconciliation," University of California, Berkeley, CA, November 6-7, 2015.

"Dis-Illusions of Unification: North Korean and East German Literature in the Post-Cold War Era," German Studies Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, October 1-4, 2015.

"Propaganda or Resistance: Some Questions on Reading North Korean Literature," American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, March 26-29, 2015.

"Parables of Unification in North Korean Literature," Viennese Korean Studies Days, Vienna, December 11-13, 2014.

"Walled Minds: Yi Ch’ŏng-jun’s Wall of Rumor and Peter Schneider’s The Wall Jumper," 26th Biannual Conference of the Association of Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE), Vienna, July 6-9, 2013.

Guest Lectures

(Selection)

“Recent Developments in Korean German/Austrian Literature: Global Issues in the Works of Anna Kim,” 2024 Diaspora Literature & Culture Event “Diaspora: Looking Back & Forward,” Literature Translation Institute of Korea, Seoul, September 29-October 1, 2024.

"The Politics of Memory in Hwang Sokyong's Novel The Old Garden," EPEL Lecture Series, Italian Institute of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, November 30, 2023.

"‘Squid Game’: Spielarten des Neoliberalismus in Südkorea," Studium Generale Vorlesungsreihe: "Ethik in TV-Serien," University of Tübingen, June 26, 2023.

“Literatur im geteilten Korea,” Studium Generale: Korea, Volkshochschule Aalen, April 25, 2022.

"Shifting Spaces in Division Literature," EPEL Lecture Series, Department of Korean Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt, May 28, 2020.

"Literatur im geteilten Korea und die Politik der Repräsentation des Anderen," Lecture "Positionen der Literaturwissenschaft," Department of Languages and Literatures – Comparative Literature, University of Innsbruck, January 14, 2020.

Project Grants

LTI Korea Grant: Translation Workshop 2024 with author BAIK Sou-Linne, University of Tübingen, April - July 2024.

LTI Korea Grant: Translation Workshop 2022 with author PARK Min-jung, University of Tübingen, April - July 2022.

LTI Korea Grant: Translation Workshop 2021 with author KANG Hwagil, University of Tübingen, April - July 2021.

LTI Korea Grant: Translation Workshop 2020 with author CHOI Eunyoung, University of Tübingen, April – July 2020.

Exzellenzinitiative Universität Tübingen: International Winter School 2019 “Readings of the Border: Discourses of Division and Unification in Contemporary Literatures”, joint project Korean Studies and German Studies, University of Tübingen, November 6-9, 2019.

LTI Korea Grant: Translation Workshop 2019 with author SON Bomi, University of Tübingen, April – July 2019.

Author Readings

Reading and Discussion with BAIK Sou-Linne “Sommervilla,” University of Tübingen/ Museum Hölderlinturm, July 10, 2024.

Reading and Discussion with CHO Kwanghee “Human Court,” University of Tübingen, April 20, 2023.

Reading and Discussion with PARK Min-jung “Cecil, Juhee”, University of Tübingen, July 15, 2022.

Reading and Discussion with KANG Hwagil “Kawon, schöner Garten,” University of Tübingen, July 16, 2021.

Reading and Discussion with CHOI Eunyoung “Xin chao, xin chao,” University of Tübingen, November 20, 2020.

Reading and Discussion with Anna Kim „Die Große Heimkehr,” University of Tübingen/ Café Haag, November 7, 2019.

Reading and Discussion with SON Bomi “Wolkenbruch,” University of Tübingen/ Café Haag, June 25, 2019/ Stuttgart, Forum der Kulturen, June 26, 2019.

Publications

Geipel, Birgit. "Recent Developments in Korean German/Austrian Literature: Global Issues in the Works of Anna Kim." nŏmŏ (no. 9). Dec 1, 2024. https://www.diasporabook.or.kr/M000459/S001/fw/bbs/board/00006/view.do?cate1=1&idx=348

Geipel, Birgit Susanne. “Illusions of Unity: Life Narratives in Eastern German and North Korean Unification Literature.” Transnational Encounters between Germany and Korea. Affinity in Culture and Politics since the 1880s, edited by Joanne Miyang Cho and Lee M. Roberts. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2018, 215-234.

Geipel, Birgit Susanne. Divided: Four States, One Imagination. Literary and Cinematic Discourses of National Division and Unification in Germany and Korea (doctoral dissertation). ProQuest Dissertations, 2017.

Geipel, Birgit Susanne. “Writing at the Ideological Frontline of the Cold War: The Individual and the Divided Nation in Choi In-Hoon’s ‘The Square’ and Uwe Johnson’s ‘Speculations about Jakob,’” SAI 11 (2011): 193-229.