About
Cornelia Wild is a Professor for Romance Literature and Cultural Studies, especially Theory and Aesthetics at the University of Siegen since March 2020. She serves as Spokesperson of the Romance Department since 2022 and heads subproject B07 'Pasolini: popular' within the SFB 1472 'Transformations of the Popular.' Previously, she held a Heisenberg Position at the Free University of Berlin and was Acting Professor for Romance Literature at the University of Erfurt.
Her educational background includes studies in Konstanz, Lyon and Berlin in French Literature and Modern German Literature (1993-2000), followed by a Doctorate in Philosophy from LMU Munich in 2006 and venia legendi in Romance Philology and General Literature in 2014. She has held research positions at the University of Hamburg, European University Viadrina, Leibniz Center for Literature and Cultural Research Berlin, and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Wild's research focuses on poetics and aesthetics, materialities and economies of literature, writing scenes, gender discourse, and popular culture. She examines literary traditions from medieval to contemporary periods including Dolce stil novo, French classicism, realism and neorealism. Her work particularly explores crowd theory, representation of the people, and the intersections of literature with philosophy and cultural history.
Her recent publications demonstrate consistent engagement with Pasolini studies, crowd theory, and the materiality of writing. Wild's scholarship connects historical literary analysis with contemporary theoretical frameworks, particularly examining how literature represents collective phenomena and social structures across different historical periods.
- Heisenberg Professorship from the German Research Foundation (DFG)
- Research funding from the Volkswagen Foundation
- Young Research Fellow of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
- Habilitation scholarship from the Bavarian Equal Opportunities Fund
Wild supervises doctoral candidates including Salomon Kpodo on Roland Barthes and Francesco Mancuso on Pasolini. She leads the DFG network 'Dispositiv der Menge' and has received significant research funding including from the Volkswagen Foundation for her project 'Passersby: Theory of Passing from Dante to Joyce.' Her current research projects include 'Pasolini: popular' and 'Poverty, misery, misery: Pascal to Pasolini.'
She heads the subproject B07 within the SFB 1472 'Transformations of the Popular' and previously led the DFG network 'Dispositiv der Menge' (2020-2022) which included the subproject 'Plebs urbana. Voices in/of the Crowd.' Her research network has produced significant publications including the edited volume 'In the Crowd. Figures of the Crowd' (2020) and 'Poverty and Crowd' (2024).
