Research interests

The Interrelation of Literature, Religion, and the New Sciences (esp. in the early 18th Century); Physicotheology; Questions and Concepts of Identity; Queer Literature and Theory; Psychotherapy

 

CV

• Since 2019: member of academic staff/wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
  
• Currently: PhD project “Divine Punishment and Logical Occurence: Catastrophes in Late Seventeenth-Century and Early Eighteenth-Century English Texts” (WT)
• 2018-2019: Mentee in the ARIADNEphil mentoring program for young female academics (Office for Gender and Diversity, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
• 2017-2019: Lecturer at the Chair for English Literature at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
• M.A. English Studies, Anglo-Irish Literature and Early Modern History at FAU Erlangen and University College Dublin (2017)

 

Conference Presentations

• “With an Air of Suspicion”: The Role of Emotions in Keith Heller’s Man’s Illegal Life (1984). Conference. HFRN Annual Conference: Feelings and Emotions. FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 19-20 Feb 2026.

• Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jessica Albrecht: “Queer in Sri Lanka? From colonial imaginaries to postcolonial representations.” Ringvorlesung: Queer Research Worlds (organised by PD Dr. Viola Thimm). FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 15 Dec 2025.

• Conference Chair: The Literary and Political Value of Genre (2). Conference. GER 2025: Negotiations of Value in the Romantic Age. FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 25-28 September 2025.

• “The fury of the place beat at him worse than any wind”: Place-Based Identity in Keith Heller’s Man’s Storm. Conference. HFRN Annual Conference: Place and Space. Manchester University, 13-14 Feb 2025.

• “The key to all knowledge”: Mathematics as Embodiment of the Advancement of the New Sciences in John Arbuthnot’s An Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning (1701). Conference. BSECS Annual Conference: Bodies and Embodiment, Pembroke College, University of Oxford, 08-10 Jan 2025.

• “Moses has written of similar matters”: The Interconnection of Biblical Learning and New Scientific Knowledge in English Cosmogonies at the Turn of the 18th Century. Conference. BSECS PGR ECR Conference: Communication and Exchange, Uppsala University/Schweden, 22-23 August 2024.

• “‘Those Heavenly Lamps’: Ethical Considerations and Restrictions in the Development of Comets from Harbingers of Divine Wrath to Objects of Scientific Study.” Conference: The Ethics and Narratives of Non-Knowledge: Literary and Cultural Perspectives on the Limits of Research, Schloss Herrenhausen/Hannover, 02-04 Nov 2022.

Publications

• Waffler, Marleen. “‘The blazing Stars’: Constellations of (Non-)Knowledge in the Changing Perception of Comets at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century.” JLS 18.2 (2025): 17-34. DOI: 10.12929/jls.18.2.02.

 

Miscellaneous

• (Editor of) Schippling, Kristina. My Anger Is White and Pure! Ed. Marleen Waffler. Berlin; Exaiphnes, 2023. [A collection of poetry and prose, translated from the German by the author and the editor].

 

Grants

• Jonathan Swift Travel Grant (2019, 2020, 2021, 2023), granted by the Friends of the Ehrenpreis Centre for Swift Studies (WWU Münster)

• BSECS Conference Bursary for Postgraduate and Early-Career-Researchers (BSECS PGR ECR Conference in Uppsala, Sweden 2024)

 

Administrative Function

• 2019-2023: Webmaster for the Chair of English Literature

 

Teaching

• Grundseminar Literature: Introduction to English and American Literary Studies (multiple times)
• Lektüreseminar Literature: Introduction into English and American Literary Periods (multiple times)
• Aufbauseminar Literature: Introduction to Literary Theory
• The Fable (PS)

• PS/MS Literary and other Discourses on Catastrophe: the Turn of the 18th Century

 

Memberships

• Member of the Friends of the Ehrenpreis Centre for Swift Studies
• Member of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
• Member of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
• Member of the German Anglicist Association
• Member of the Interdisciplinary Centre Gender Difference Diversity (IZGDD)
• Member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Contemporary Literature and Culture (IZG)
• German Association for the Study of British Cultures
• Historical Fictions Research Network (HFRN)