Helmut Muller-Sievers (MA in German and Latin Literature, FU Berlin 1985, Ph.D. in German and the Humanities, Stanford 1990) is Director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts and Professor of German. His work is concerned with the interrelations of literature, science, philosophy, and with the history of philology and interpretation. He is the author of a number of books and articles and is currently working on two large-scale projects: on a history of 19th century kinematics and its relation to narrative prose, and on an edited volume (with John Hamilton and Sean Gurd) entitled “Radical Philology.”
At Northwestern University, where he taught from 1990–2009, Professor Muller-Sievers has been the Lane Professor in the Humanities 1997–1998, the Director of the Kaplan Center for the Humanities 1998–2002, and the Director of the Program in Comparative Literary Studies 2003–2006. He has held fellowships from the National Humanities Center (1994–1995), from the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science (1997, 1998, 2002–2003), from the Institut für Kulturforschung in Vienna (2006), and from the Getty Research Institute (2007–2008).