Research assistant and doctoral candidate at the Department of Chinese Studies at the University of Tübingen

Academic background

• Since 2025 Research assistant and doctoral candidate, University of Tübingen
• 2021-2025 Double-Master's degree (Master of Arts and two Master of Education degrees), University of Tübingen
• 2017-2021 Bachelor of Education in History, German, and Chinese, University of Tübingen

Research focus
A travel to the edges of the known world on the turn of the 17th century is starting point of Elisabeth Biebl’s PhD thesis. On the base of various historical literary works, including Chinese literature side by side with German, Latin and English travelogues she targets researching the fluctuation and embedding of global knowledge about foreign cultures in literary works. Knowledge transfer in the time of late Ming- and early Qing-dynasty, i.e. in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as the impact of economic, religious, political, and social influences on knowledge about foreign lands and cultures is due to examination in regards of their ways into literature. In this sense, other research interests include environmental studies, with special focus on human-animal-studies, as well as the history of alterity, global- and literary history.

Research interests

• Travel history
• Trade and colonial history (especially 15th to 18th centuries)
• Literary history
• German fiction and adventure literature of the early modern period (approx. 1500-1850) with a focus on China, Japan, and Southeast Asia
• Representation of space and foreign cultures in literature