Esther Kilchmann

PD Dr. Esther Kilchmann is an Acting Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Hamburg's Faculty of Humanities, Department of Language, Literature, Media I / Institute of German Studies. She specializes in literary multilingualism, exile literature, trauma representation, and experiments in art and literature from the 19th to 21st centuries. Her current research includes the COST Action Literary Multilingualism and Social Transformations in Superdiverse Societies (2025-2029) and projects on multilingual writing practices, native speaker concepts, Sigmund Freud as translator, plant-human relationships in Romanticism, and interconnected exile narratives.

• PhD in German Literature, University of Zurich (2007)
• Habilitation in Modern German Literature, University of Hamburg (2022), appointed Privatdozentin
• Junior Professor for Modern German Literature, University of Hamburg (2010-2021)
• Research Assistant at Center for Literary and Cultural Research in Berlin (2007-2010)

Dr. Kilchmann's research focuses on the intersections of multilingualism, trauma, and literary experimentation. Her work examines how language functions in contexts of exile, migration, and cultural transformation, with particular attention to authors such as Paul Celan, Herta Müller, and contemporary post-migrant writers. She explores how multilingualism operates not just as a linguistic phenomenon but as a cultural and political strategy that challenges monolingual norms and creates new forms of expression.

Her recent publications (2017-2024) reveal a sustained engagement with literary multilingualism across historical periods and genres. The articles demonstrate how multilingual practices in literature serve as responses to historical trauma, political displacement, and cultural transformation. Her scholarship spans theoretical explorations of multilingual poetics, analyses of specific authors (Celan, Müller, Bodrožić), and examinations of multilingualism in historical contexts from Dadaism to contemporary literature. A significant thread throughout her work is the relationship between language, memory, and trauma, particularly in post-Holocaust and post-migrant literature.

Dr. Kilchmann actively mentors doctoral students and has secured substantial research funding for collaborative projects. She has organized numerous international conferences and workshops on multilingualism, exile literature, and translation studies, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue between literary scholars, linguists, and cultural theorists. Her research has been supported by prestigious institutions including the International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna where she was a Research Fellow (2021-2022).

She leads and participates in several research teams focusing on literary multilingualism, exile narratives, and trauma representation. Her current COST Action brings together scholars from across Europe to examine how literary multilingualism responds to social transformations in superdiverse societies. She also collaborates with Prof. Dr. Doerte Bischoff and Prof. Dr. Steffan Davies on the project Interconnecting Exile: Practices of Recollection, Intertextuality and Memory, creating an international network of researchers working on exile literature and memory studies.