Karolin Machtans is Associate Professor and Chair of German Studies at Connecticut College. She is the author of Zwischen Wissenschaft und autobiographischem Projekt: Saul Friedländer und Ruth Klüger (2009); co-editor, with Martin Ruehl, of Hitler – Films from Germany: History, Cinema, and Politics since 1945 (2012); co-editor, with Helga Druxes and Alexandar Mihailovic, of the first volume of criticism in English dedicated to Iranian-German author and scholar of Islam Navid Kermani (2016); and co-editor, together with David Coury, of the first volume in English about Iraqi-German author Abbas Khider (2021).

She has published numerous articles in the fields of Holocaust studies as well as refugee and migration studies and is currently working on a new research project focusing on the representation of asylum interviews in contemporary German literature of refuge. Before joining Connecticut College in 2012, she was a Visiting Lecturer of German at the University of Cambridge (2006-2010) and Assistant Professor of German at California Polytechnic State University (2010-2012).

Karolin Machtans’ research focuses on refugee and forced migration studies, language and accent discrimination, minorities in Germany, Holocaust studies, German colonialism, 20th- and 21st-century German literature and film and post-1945 German history and culture.

To prove that their fear of persecution is real, asylum applicants must attend an interview during which they are “obliged to tell the truth at all times”. Yet what exactly is considered a “true” story? And how do factors such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, language, and accent impact the outcome of the asylum process? These are the questions that are at the core of contemporary German refugee literature. Through the use of innovative narrative techniques, this award-winning literature highlights the extent to which the outcome of the asylum process depends on the applicant’s ability to tell a credible and convincing story, tailored to the narrative rules of the receiving country. Analyzing contemporary German refugee literature through the lens of refugee law, Machtans reads the selected texts not only as a literary representation of the asylum process, but also – and more importantly – as a commentary on the narrative authority of international, European, and German refugee law.

Machtans’ tandem partner is Doerte Bischoff, Professor of Modern German Literature at Universität Hamburg.

Karolin Machtans’ HIAS fellowship is provided by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the federal and state funds acquired by Universität Hamburg in the framework of its Excellence Strategy.