Julia Hell is a Professor in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. She holds affiliations with the Center for European Studies and the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia. Her research focuses on German culture, particularly post-fascist and post-communist literature and visual arts, imperial studies, and the aesthetics of ruins. She has authored influential works such as Post-Fascist Fantasies (1997) and The Conquest of Ruins (2019), and co-edited Ruins of Modernity (2010). Hell has organized international conferences on topics like 'Ruins of Modernity' and has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton). Education : Ph.D., German Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1989) Her research interests span ruin studies, imperium studies, and political theory, with a focus on the intersections of art, politics, and history. Recent projects include analyses of Las Vegas as a 'ruinopolis' and the ethics of scenes of execution in Peter Weiss’s works. Hell has received awards including the MLA’s Scaglione Prize and ACLS Fellowship. Her articles explore themes like imperial decline, post-Communist subjectivity, and the Holocaust’s cultural legacy. She teaches courses on German literature, philosophy, and colonialism.









