Alexander Starre

Dr. Alexander Starre serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Culture at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, where he has been employed since April 2013. Since April 2024, he has also held the position of Principal Investigator for the DFG-funded project 'From Patronage to the Mass Market: Institutionalizing Literary Knowledge Cultures in the 19th-Century United States' at Heidelberg University. His academic trajectory includes visiting professorships at Universität Duisburg-Essen (2023), WWU Münster (2022-2023), and Brown University (2016-2017), demonstrating his recognition in the field of American literary studies.

Dr. Starre's scholarly profile centers on the intersections of literary institutions, media forms, and knowledge production in American cultural history. His research examines how literary institutions, media forms, and knowledge production intersect, with particular focus on the professionalization of literary knowledge around 1900, the material dimensions of print culture, and the evolving relationship between books and digital media. His work frequently engages with W.E.B. Du Bois as a key figure who bridges scholarly and literary domains.

His publication record reveals a consistent thematic trajectory across contemporary American literature, historical print culture, and institutional frameworks of knowledge. Recent publications demonstrate increasing focus on literary institutions of the long nineteenth century, with particular attention to W.E.B. Du Bois's epistemic style and the professionalization of literary knowledge. His scholarship consistently bridges historical and contemporary concerns, connecting early professionalization processes with current developments in book culture.

Dr. Starre has secured significant research funding including a DFG Individual Research Grant (2023), Fritz Thyssen Stiftung grant (2022), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation travel grant (2022), and a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship (2016-2017). He has organized numerous academic conferences and workshops, including the DFG-Workshop 'Archives, Literary Knowledge, and Modes of Publication in the Long Nineteenth Century' (2025) and the symposium 'Competing American Literary Institutions around 1900' (2021).

Within the John F. Kennedy Institute, Dr. Starre serves as an elected member of the Institute Board (Institutsrat) since 2015 and as Website Administrator. He has taught courses on American literature, culture, and print history at multiple institutions, covering topics from 'Material Text Studies and American Print Cultures' to 'Campus Novels and Campus Films.' His scholarly contributions include the monograph 'Metamedia: American Book Fictions and Literary Print Culture after Digitization' (2015) and co-edited volumes such as 'American Literary Institutions around 1900' (2024) and 'Culture²: Theorizing Theory for the Twenty-First Century' (2022).