Niklas Bender

Dr. Niklas Bender is an Associate Professor at Saarland University, specializing in French and Italian Literature. His academic journey includes a doctorate in General and Comparative Literature (2007) and Venia legendi in Romance Philology (2013). He has held visiting professorships at institutions like Hamburg, Tübingen, and Freiburg, and currently serves as Deputy Professor at Saarland University.

• Research Areas: Literature and Religion, Aesthetic Model-Likeness, The Funny, Literature and Science in the 19th Century
• Key Publications: King Saul: The Failed Beginning and Europe's Religious Heritage (2025), Missed and Seized Opportunities: Reading as an Art of Living (2018), and The Laughing Art: The Contribution of the Comic to Classical Modernism (2017, Habilitation thesis).
• Teaching: Courses on French and Italian literature, including seminars on French Classicism in Visual Media, Victor Hugo's Temporal Themes, and Post-Charlie Hebdo Trauma in Comics. Supervises BA, MA, and State Exam theses.
• Academic Leadership: Co-edited volumes on interdisciplinary topics such as Biological Time, Historical Time (2019) and Grenzritte zwischen Vers und Prosa (2024).

His articles focus on 19th-21st century Franco-Italian literary intersections, blending religion, economics, and technology. He actively engages in public intellectual work, moderating author readings and lectures.