PD Dr. Philipp Löffler
Senior Lecturer American Literature and Culture
Graduate Advisor
Contact
Heidelberg Center for American Studies
Hauptstraße 120
69117 Heidelberg
Tel.: +49 6221 543713
and
English Department
Kettengasse 12
69117 Heidelberg
E-Mail: philipp.loeffler@as.uni-heidelberg.de
Office Hours
Tuesdays, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
HCA, room 206
Thursdays, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
English Department, room 321
(By appointment during the semester break.)
About
Philipp Löffler teaches American literary and cultural history (revolution to present). His work focuses on the history and sociology of reading, literary patronage, the professionalization of authorship, and the history of US higher education. He has (co)-edited a number of books, most recently The Handbook of American Romanticism (2021) and How to Read the Literary Market (2021). His first monograph is Pluralist Desires: Contemporary Historical Fiction and the End of the Cold War (2015). His first monograph is Pluralist Desires: Contemporary Historical Fiction and the End of the Cold War (2015). His next book will be a cultural history of US literary professionalism in the nineteenth century, tentatively titled Publishing Scoundrels: American Literature and the Professionalization of Authorship, 1790-1915. Philipp Löffler also serves as the graduate advisor of the HCA’s MA program.
Areas of Specialization
- American Literary and Cultural History: Revolution to Contemporary
- Transatlantic Romanticism
- History and Practices of Reading
- Theories of American Studies
- Pragmatism and Literary Studies
Education and Employment
Since 2021: Heidelberg Center for American Studies
2021: Free University Berlin
2019 - 2021: University of Frankfurt
2019: Habilitation in American Studies, University of Heidelberg
2009-2019: University of Heidelberg, English Department
2012: University of Washington, Seattle, Visiting Assistant Professor
2011: PhD in American Studies, University of Heidelberg
2009: Visiting Scholar, Columbia University, New York (DAAD)
2007 - 2009: University of Mainz
2006: MA in American Studies, Modern German Literature, Rhetoric, University of Tübingen
2005: MA in German and Comparative Literature, Washington University, St. Louis
Selected Publications
Bücher / Books, Edited Collections, Special Issues
Practice More! American Literature and the Invention of Professional Authorship, 1790-1915 (in preparation).
Formats and Institutions of American Literary Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century. Ed. Philipp Löffler and Alexander Starre. Berlin: de Gruyter (in preparation).
After the Contemporary. Special Issue American Literature 99:1 (forthcoming 2027). Ed. Laura Bieger and Philipp Löffler.
Participation in American Culture and Society. Ed. Philipp Löffler, Margit Peterfy, Natalie Rauscher, Welf Werner. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2024.
Handbook of American Romanticism. Ed. Philipp Löffler, Clemens Spahr, and Jan Stievermann. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
Pluralist Desires: Contemporary Historical Fiction and the End of the Cold War. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015.
Aufsätze in Zeitschriften / Journal Articles
“Unsettled Literary Institutions in the Nineteenth Century” (with Alexander Starre). Anglia: Journal of English Philology 143.4 (2025): 706-731.
“Scholars vs. Critics: Henry James, The Aspern Papers, and Professional Vocation”. Modern Fiction Studies 71.3 (2025): 500-520.
“A School of its Own: US Naturalism and the Demands of Professional Labor”. College Literature 51.4. (2024): 476-501.
“Expressivism, Pluralism, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘A Suggestion on the Negro Problem’”. American Literary Realism 55.1 (2023): 42-58.
“German Universities, American Literature: George Bancroft and the Liberal Arts Idea.” CLIO: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History 47.2 (2020): 167-191.
Positions and Projects
- Principal Investigator DFG Research Project „From Patronage to the Mass Market: Institutionalizing Literary Knowledge Cultures in the 19th-Century United States“ (DFG Project Number 522842143)
- Coordinator of the HCA MA Program
- Member of the scientific advisory board of the Heidelberg School of Education (HSE)
- Committee Member North American Exchange Programs/Fellowships, University of Heidelberg