Professor Susanne Hartwig

Professor Susanne Hartwig has held the Chair of Romance Literatures and Cultures at the University of Passau since 2006. She studied classical philology and romance studies at the University of Münster. Today, she heads the DFG project "Narration, expectation, experience. Disability in contemporary European theater and film". Hartwig also acts as a scout for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the Henriette Herz Scouting Programme (2020-2023). In 2010, she was included in the database academia.net – The Portal to Excellent Women Academics. Since 2014, she has been a member of the academic advisory board of the Specialised Information Service for Romance Studies.

"In my research, I am interested in shedding light on the role aesthetic texts play in our understanding of how cultures are organised. I had actually started asking about the paradigms that guided different societies in different ages while still a student. Let me give you a little mental exercise from my research to help you get the idea: What do you think is the 'right' reaction to finding out that someone has a serious disability? What are the contextual factors that determine your response? Novels and films tell us how people think, feel and act in situations – and, in so doing, provide us with clues to cultural patterns. Encountering a culture other than your own heightens your awareness for your own compartmentalised ways of thinking."

More on her research

You can find further information about Professor Hartwig's research and her publications on her chair website. She also publishes weekly articles on her research on her blog "Images of Disability".

Current Projects

DFG Conference: Relatives of People with Disabilities. Interdisciplinary Perspectives

DFG-Conference: Representaciones cómicas de la diversidad funcional: entre inclusión y exclusión

DFG project EEEM: Playful reflection on the perception of disability in film and theatre

DFG Network "Inclusive Philology"

Nuevos enfoques en los Disability Studies

Communities of laughter? Comedy and disability at the intersection of aesthetics and sociology

DFG-Conference: Contingencia y moral. El extranjero visto a través de la ficción

Narrative, expectation, experience: disability in contemporary European theatre and film

Cuba Excursion - Diversity and Inclusion in Cuba

DFG-Conference: Disability from the perspective of cultural studies

DFG Conference: Inclúsion, integración, diferenciación

DFG-Congress: Diversidad cultural – ficcional – ¿moral?

International DFG-Conference on ethics and literature: Ser y deber ser

Conference: Culto del mal, cultura del mal. Realidad, virtualidad, representación

Reality - Virtuality - Representation

Competition "Heads and Tails": Maths and Literature in the same boat

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How is disability portrayed in contemporary culture? Professor Susanne Hartwig explains research findings on the representation of disability in art.

Research Stories

Humboldt Fellow Dr Malena Pastoriza and DAAD Fellow Dr Federico Cortés have been working at the Chair of Passau Romance Studies Professor Susanne Hartwig since the beginning of April.

Around 20 academics from Germany, Spain, the UK and Latin America met at the University of Passau to discuss the potential of comedy and humour as a means of inclusion.

Chile, Spain, Argentina, Columbia, Germany – the chair held by Professor Susanne Hartwig at the University of Passau brings together people from around the world. This has also been made possible by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.