Sascha Ebeling

Sascha Ebeling is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, specializing in Tamil language and literature across historical periods, South Indian cultural history, and Comparative Literature. His research bridges philology, postcolonial theory, and digital humanities.

He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne and previously taught at his alma mater while working as a Tamil manuscriptologist for the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. His seminal work Colonizing the Realm of Words (2010) redefined 19th-century Tamil literary transformation.

Key research interests include Tamil epigraphy, post-war Sri Lankan Tamil literature, Tamil cinema, and the global history of the novel. His publications span monographs, edited poetry anthologies, and contributions to encyclopedias like The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.

Scientific awards include the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft’s Forschungspreis (2007), the Whiting Award (2008), the Tamil Literary Garden’s Outstanding Achievement in Tamil Studies (2010), and the PEN Translates Award (2012). He actively participates in academic conferences on Tamil diaspora, comparative literature, and South Asian cultural studies.