Niels Penke

Niels Penke is a researcher in the Department of German Studies at the University of Siegen, Faculty I. He completed his habilitation in Modern German Literature and General and Comparative Literature at the same institution, earning the Venia Legendi. He has held acting professorships at TU Dresden and FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg and is currently a Research Associate on the Volkswagen Foundation-funded project Eco-Folk. He is also a member of the Young Academy of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz.

His research spans literary studies, popular culture, Scandinavian literature and film, ecocriticism, fantasy, and digital literature. Key interests include the transformations of the popular, literary media, Nordic myths, and the cultural poetics of nature. He has co-edited volumes on moor literature, generative literature, and depopularization, and authored a book on Danish film and Formations of the Popular.

His recent publications reflect interdisciplinary trends in cultural and literary studies, with a focus on digital culture, ecological themes, and the evolution of popular forms. He has contributed to journals such as LiLi and Textpraxis, and engages with contemporary phenomena like Instapoetry and AI-generated literature.

Scientific Awards:

• Dirlmeier Foundation Prize (2023) for habilitation thesis
• Future Prize of Research College Siegen (2018)
• Member, Young Academy of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz (2020)

Penke has advised and collaborated on multiple research projects and publications, including editorial and grant-funded work such as the Volkswagen Foundation project Eco-Folk and the Collaborative Research Center 1472 'Transformations of the Popular'. He has supervised academic teaching and research across Germany and abroad, including at Göttingen, Dresden, Erlangen, and Tartu.

He is involved in the Cuts film podcast, contributes to public scholarship through media appearances, and organizes the Moor Literature Prize in collaboration with the Andrea von Braun Foundation. His academic network includes collaborations with Niels Werber, Matthias Schaffrick, and Joana van de Löcht.