Urs Urban

PD Dr. Urs Urban is a Privatdozent at the Institute of Romance Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin. He has held substitute professorships at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (2024) and Freie Universität Berlin (2023/2024), and previously served as a DAAD language instructor, DFG-funded researcher, and academic assistant.

His research focuses on cultural studies, spatial theory, Jean Genet, Afro-European/Afro-American narrative literature, literary anthropology, and the intersection of economics with literature in both the early modern period and contemporary contexts. He explores the materiality of texts, transnational narratives, and neoliberal political discourses through literary and cultural analysis.

Key publications include Die Ökonomie der Literatur (2018), Konflikt und Vermittlung (2024), and co-edited works such as Things – Goods – Gifts (2022). Recent articles address topics like the political critique in Négritude, television narratives of crisis, and the economics of early modern novels.

Teaching roles include courses on the Latin American novel, Afro-European cultural history, and material culture in transnational literature at Freiburg, FU Berlin, and Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.