Englisches Seminar

Prof. Dr. Astrid Franke

Contact

astrid.frankespam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de
Phone: (+49) (0)7071-29-74536

Office Hours:
Wednesday, 13-14 or by e-mail appointment
December 3, 12:00-12:45
Room 508, Wilhelmstr. 50, 72074 Tübingen

Astrid Franke studied English, Biology and Philosophy in Berlin and Edinburgh. She did her PhD on the function of stereotypes in literature at the John F. Kennedy Institute, with some research stays at UCLA. Since 2008, she is professor of American Studies in Tuebingen where she lives with two children. 

She is the author of two monographs: Keys to Controversies: Stereotypes in Modern American Novels. New York: St Martins, 1999, awarded American Studies Network First Book Award; and Pursue the Illusion: Problems of Public Poetry in America. Heidelberg: Winter, 2010. The work on her second book, a study of American public poetry from the 18th to the 21th century, was conducted in Frankfurt/M. and, for a year, at UC Berkeley. 

Astrid Franke has been a member of the Collaborative Research Center "Threatened Orders" with a project on the resilience of the racial order in the US. Other research interests include Popular Culture, Cultural History and Theory, Modern and Contemporary Novel, and, as an underlying thread, intersections of literature and sociology.

Chair Prof. Dr. Astrid Franke

Full CV in German

Academic Career

since 2008
Professor of American Studies

Eberhard Karls University Tübingen

2006
Habilitation at Frankfurt University

"Pursue the Illusion: Problems of Public Poetry in America", advised by Christa Buschendorf

2004-2006
Assistant Professor of American Studies

Frankfurt University

2003-2004
Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley

Scholarship from the German Research Foundation (GRF)

2000-2003
Assistant Professor of American Studies

Frankfurt University

1998
PhD at Freie Universität Berlin

"Keys to Controversies: Stereotypes in Modern American novels", advised by Heinz Ickstadt and Winfried Fluck

1997-2000
Research Assistant

Frankfurt University

1995
Research Fellow

University of California
Scholarship by the German Research Foundation (GRF)

1994
State Exam in English, Biology, and Philosophy

Freie Universität Berlin

Research Interests

  • American Poetry
  • American Cultural History
  • Relational Sociology (Pierre Bourdieu, Norbert Elias) in relation to American Studies
  • African American Studies

Teaching

Winter Semester 2025/2026

Summer Semester 2025

Winter Semester 2024/25

Publications

  • “Poetry, Politics, and the Politics of Poetry: How Poems Interfere.”  Ed. Sabine Sielke Handbook of American Poetry. DeGruyter 2025, 29 – 52.
  • Political Education and American Studies. With Uwe Küchler and Katharina Luther. Heidelberg: Winter Verlag 2025.
  • “Against Proximity Denial: Thinking Relationally Across Difference.” Proximity as Method: Concepts for Coexistence in the Global Past and Present. Eds. Ricarda Flemmer, Bani Gill, and Jacky Kosgai. Routledge, 2024. 174-185.
  • “Desensationalizing Madness.” Robert Lowell in Context. Eds. Thomas Austenfeld and Grzegorz Kość. Cambridge UP, 2024. 195-205.

Complete List of Publications

Recent Conference Presentations & Talks

  • "It Can't Happen Here – Doch Es Kann!" (Haus der Begegnung, Leonberg, 13. November 2024);
  • "Who is heard and who is hurt? Current Student Protests in the US" (Podiumsdiskussion mit Prof. Melissa Frazier (Sarah Lawrence College), moderiert von Katharina Luther (d.a.i) am 24. Juni 2024).

Projects

  • “Democratizing Medicine” with Dr. Courtney Rivard (UNC) and Prof. Dr. Karin Giel (Tübingen)
  • Astrid Franke has been a member of the Collaborative Research Center "Threatened Orders" with a project on the resilience of the racial order in the US. She was responsible for Project G06 (Vergangene Zukunft Bedrohter Ordnungen. Fiktionale und gelebte Visionen alternativer Rasseordnungen in den USA).
  • Astrid Franke is a member of the network “Literary Cultures of the Global South” funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Academic Exchange Service.