Markus Messling

Markus Messling is a Full Professor of Romance Literatures and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland University (since 2019) and Director of the Käte Hamburger Research Center for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) since April 2024. His academic roles include Vice Director of the Franco-German Centre Marc Bloch (2015–2019) and Professor at Humboldt University of Berlin (2018–2019). Holding a Dr. phil from Freie Universität Berlin (2007) and habilitation from Universität Potsdam (2015), his career includes visiting positions at University of Cambridge, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), and Kobe University.

His research focuses on comparative literature, cultural philosophy, and the epistemology of humanities. Key areas include Mediterranean studies, post-universalism, and cultural practices of reparation. He investigates the intersections of philology, racism, and colonial history through works like Gebeugter Geist (2016) and Champollions Hieroglyphen (2012), exploring how textual practices shaped colonial knowledge systems.

• Recent work emphasizes rethinking universalism through Minor Universality (2018 ERC project), analyzing global cultural narratives beyond Western frameworks.
• Current CURE research addresses material and symbolic reparations through case studies like the Axoum Stele and literary reparation discourses.

Awardees of the ERC Consolidator Grant (2018), Emmy Noether Excellence Grant (2009), and Tiburtius Prize (2008), Messling’s honors reflect recognition for advancing interdisciplinary humanities research. He has directed major research initiatives including the Emmy Noether project on 19th-century philology and racism (2009–2014).

His academic networks span Europe and Asia, with collaborative projects at the Centre Marc Bloch and international visiting professorships. Messling’s work bridges historical analysis with contemporary cultural debates, positioning him as a leading scholar in postcolonial humanities and global comparative literature studies.