I was first trained in English and Germanic Studies at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena (East Germany). In 1989, I embarked on a second career in Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, and Chinese Art and Archaeology at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. After my doctorate in 1998, I taught at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel (where I habilitated in 2004) and Albert Ludwigs University, Freiburg. In 2007, I joined the faculty of ALC at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

I am the author of a monograph on the notion of sleep in early Chinese literature (2001, in German) and of a number of articles on various aspects of Chinese literature, medicine and art. I have also co-edited three conference volumes. My current research focuses on early and early medieval Chinese literature. My interests include personal letter writing, literary thought (especially in Wenxin diaolong), reflections on nature and wilderness in the poetry of Xie Lingyun (385–433) and others, as well as literary representations and medical ideas of sleeping and dreaming.

After enjoying a semester on leave in fall 2011, which I spent at the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge (UK), I am back in Boulder for the spring semester.

 

Last update: January 2012