Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Gesa Stedman is Professor of British Culture and Literature at the Centre. After studying English, French and Theatre/Film Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Warwick, she worked as a junior lecturer at the Centre for British Studies, which she helped set up in the late 1990s. She returned to the Centre in 2008, after having spent a few semesters as a professor at Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen. She completed her doctorate and “Habilitation” at Humboldt-Universität (2000 and 2005) and developed her main areas of research at the Centre for British Studies. These include the discourses of emotions, early modern cultural exchange, in particular between England and France, British film and film history, the contemporary literary field in the UK, and British women writers in Berlin. Cultural Studies, gender/feminist and cultural history as well as contextual approaches interest her most.

Gesa Stedman co-edited the Journal for the Study of British Cultures from 2007 to 2013, and the Anglo-German magazine Hard Times from 2005 to 2013. For many years, she was a member of the advisory board of the Journal for the Study of British Cultures. Together with Dr Stefano Evangelista (Trinity College, University of Oxford) and Prof Philip Bullock (Wadham College, University of Oxford) she runs the interdisciplinary and international research network Writing 1900.

Gesa Stedman founded the interdisciplinary Berlin-Britain Research Network in 2014. She is a member of the Committee for a Family-Friendly University at HU Berlin, is responsible for internationalisation at the GBZ and in this role also advises the university on its internationalisation activities, and acts as Liaison Professor for the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. Currently, Gesa Stedman is responsible for the Oxford-Berlin Partnership at the Centre and Spokesperson of the Berlin Graduate School of British Studies.

She teaches courses on contemporary and historical topics, ranging from British film, crime novels, the literary field in the UK, to interdisciplinary project seminars on the role of nostalgia in contemporary British culture, class and British literature, or British writers in Berlin.

The Literary Field Kaleidoscope is run by Gesa Stedman and Dr Sandra van Lente. Sandra van Lente works as a freelancer (texts, translations, graphic and web design) and is a member of the Women in Publishing (BücherFrauen e.V.). The Literary Field Kaleidoscope, in conjunction with the Centre for British Studies, organises public readings and events with a literary-field focus.