Manuel Braun

Prof. Dr. Manuel Braun serves as Head of the Institute of Literary Studies (ILW) at the University of Stuttgart's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Appointed W3-Professor for Older German Philology in 2009, he previously declined a call to Humboldt University Berlin (2010) and served as Managing Director of the Institute (2013-2016). His leadership extends to Vice Dean of Faculty 9 (2018-2021) and active participation in German Research Foundation initiatives.

His academic formation includes:

• Doctorate (1999, LMU Munich): 'Ehe, Liebe, Freundschaft. Semantik der Vergesellschaftung im frühneuhochdeutschen Prosaroman'
• Habilitation (2007, LMU Munich): 'Spiel – Kunst – Autonomie. Minnesang jenseits der Pragma-Paradigmen'
• Research Fellowships: DAAD Postdoc (USA, 2000) and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Feodor-Lynen Scholarship (Cambridge, 2004-2005)

Braun's research centers on medieval German literary traditions with particular expertise in Minnesang (courtly love poetry) and Sangspruchdichtung (political/didactic lyric). His theoretical framework integrates historical semantics, system theory, and historical anthropology to examine themes of marriage, love, friendship, violence, and literary aesthetics in medieval contexts. Recent work demonstrates sophisticated methodological evolution from traditional philology toward digital humanities approaches.

His publication trajectory reveals three distinct phases: early work on semantic networks in 16th-century prose romances (2001-2006), middle period exploring medieval violence and aesthetics (2005-2013), and current research combining quantitative linguistic analysis with digital editing (2016-present). Recent articles increasingly feature computational methods for analyzing Middle High German poetic structures while maintaining deep philological rigor.

Major scholarly recognition includes:

• Feodor-Lynen Scholarship from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
• DAAD Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Leadership of the 'Lyrik des deutschen Mittelalters' digital edition project

As institutional leader, Braun oversees research infrastructure including the 'Lyrik des deutschen Mittelalters' digital platform and has secured collaborative funding for quantitative analysis of medieval German poetry. His mentorship extends to doctoral candidates working at the intersection of traditional philology and digital methods, with particular emphasis on developing new analytical frameworks for medieval literary aesthetics. Current research focuses on the integration of social network analysis with traditional textual scholarship in Arthurian romance studies.