Joseph Twist

Dr Joseph Twist is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the Department of German at the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, University College Dublin (UCD). He has held academic positions at UCD since 2017, including a fixed-term lectureship and current permanent role, and previously taught at institutions such as the University of Manchester, NUI Galway, and the University of Limerick. He completed his AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Manchester and holds a BA, MA, and PhD from the same institution.

His research lies at the intersection of philosophy and the arts in contemporary German literature, with a focus on subjectivity, community, and relationality. Key areas include minority Turkish-German culture, religion and literature, cosmopolitanism, and the political dimensions of art, especially in response to far-right ideologies. He has published a critically acclaimed monograph, Mystical Islam and Cosmopolitanism in Contemporary German Literature: Openness to Alterity (Camden House, 2018), and numerous articles on authors like Feridun Zaimoglu, Navid Kermani, and Zafer Şenocak.

His recent publications demonstrate a consistent engagement with themes of alterity, spirituality, and literary resistance. The works span journal articles, book chapters, and edited volumes, analyzing topics from Sufism and postmigrant poetics to the NSU complex and anti-racist literature. His scholarship is deeply interdisciplinary, drawing on thinkers such as Jean-Luc Nancy and Judith Butler to explore how literature reconfigures identity and community.

Dr Twist has received multiple research grants, including from UCD Humanities Institute and the College of Arts and Humanities. He supervises PhD research, currently co-supervising Caylum O'Neill. He is also actively involved in academic service, having served as Vice Principal for EDI in the College of Arts and Humanities and currently as Head of German at UCD. His teaching includes modules such as Transcultural Encounters, German History on Screen, and Dissertation supervision.

Dr Twist is engaged in public scholarship, participating in events like the Dublin History Festival and online readings with authors such as Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Özlem Özgül Dündar. He serves on various committees related to equality, diversity, inclusion, and academic governance, reflecting his commitment to institutional development and social justice.