Matt Erlin

Matt Erlin is a Professor of German and Comparative Literature and Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature & Thought at Washington University. He directs the Max Kade Center for Contemporary German Literature. Erlin holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on 18th- and 19th-century German literature and culture, aesthetic theory, and digital humanities.

Research interests include the intersection of economics and literature, philosophies of history, urban culture, and computational approaches to literary analysis. He leads digital humanities projects challenging traditional genre and period distinctions in German literature and co-investigates the multi-university 'Text Mining the Novel' grant.

Erlin teaches courses on German literature, consumer culture, Marxist theory, nationalism, and the sociology of literature. He collaborates with the Humanities Digital Workshop (HDW) and offers interdisciplinary courses in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities program.