Gesthimani Giantsidou

Gesthimani Giantsidou is a Lecturer for Special Tasks at the Chair of General Literary Studies/Older German Literature in a European Context under Prof. Dr. Ursula Kocher at Bergische Universität Wuppertal. Her academic journey includes completing her First State Examination for teaching at Gymnasium/Gesamtschule in 2018 with a thesis on Boccaccio's novella reception, and she has been affiliated with the university since 2007 through various roles including student assistant, research assistant, and administrative staff before assuming her current teaching position in October 2023.

Her research focuses on European literary reception studies, particularly the migration and transformation of Boccaccio's novellas across Germany, England, and Italy during the Renaissance period. She investigates narrative adaptations, gender boundary explorations in medieval/early modern texts, and cross-cultural literary transmissions.

Giantsidou teaches foundational and specialized courses in Older German language and literature, including seminars on Hartmann von Aue's Iwein, Sebastian Brant's Das Narrenschiff, gender transformations in pre-modern literature, and Boccaccio reception. She also coordinates introductory courses to Older German philology.

Currently, she is developing her doctoral dissertation titled Reception of Boccaccio's Novellas in Europe (Germany, England, Italy), supervised by Prof. Kocher. Her scholarly presentations include analyses of Boccaccio's 16th-century German reception at international research workshops.