Simone Broders

PD Dr. Simone Broders is an Associate Professor-level academic (Privatdozentin) at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), affiliated with the Department of English Studies. She holds visiting positions at the University of Magdeburg and previously served as Acting Professor at the University of Cologne. Her academic foundations include a Magister Artium in English Studies and Computational Linguistics from FAU and the University of Kent, followed by a Dr. phil. (2007) and habilitation (2018).

Her research explores interdisciplinary intersections across:

• 18th-century English literature, particularly discourses of curiosity
• Contemporary British fiction and popular culture
• Gothic/vampire tropes as sociocultural critique
• Digital humanities applications in literary studies
• Theories of alterity, non-knowledge, and parallel societies

Her publications demonstrate a consistent focus on epistemological boundaries, with recent work examining agnotology and ignorance as productive forces in literature. Gothic heroism, dystopian societies, and feminist reinterpretations of horror genres are recurring themes, often analyzed through frameworks like historiographic metafiction and cultural memory.

Awards and grants include:

• DAAD grants for projects on Shakespeare in science fiction (2014) and 18th-century curiosity (2019)
• Alfred-Vinzl-Stiftung research funding (2012)
• PhD scholarship from Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (2004-2006)

She collaborates extensively through the DFG-funded network 'Para-Societies' and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Contemporary Literature and Culture. Current projects investigate the ethics of non-knowledge and medical humanities, with future work planned on Enlightenment-era periodicals.