Dennis Schäfer




      I am a writer, educator, curator, and book collector, and recently defended my dissertation in the Department of German at Princeton University. In July and August 2026, I will be a fellow at the Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf.

      My work lies at the intersection of  media studies, literary study, and book history; especially pre-digital media practices and cultures fascinate me. Specifically,   my scholarship and curatorial work explores the literature of German Romanticism and its enduring legacy. 

      I am currently an independent curator and working on my first book, which is based on my dissertation and entitled Obsolete Medium: The Amanuensis of German Romanticism. 

      Publications / Curation

      My work has appeared in the E.T.A. Hoffmann-Jahrbuch, the Goethe Yearbook, and the Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, and I have curated or contributed to exhibitions at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, the Goethe Museum Düsseldorf, and The Grolier Club. For a list of my publications and exhibitions, see here. 

      Recent/Upcoming Talks & Events

      (Breiter) Kanon im Kulturwerk: Ein Gespräch über die Ausstellung romantischer Autor:innen, roundtable with Martina Wernli and Esther Köring, moderated by Petra Lutz, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, March 4, 2026.

      Absent Objects: E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Lost Novel Cornarno (1795), paper at the annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, Philadelphia, PA, April 9, 2026.

      Mignon, Gretchen, Bettine: Bettina von Arnims Musikalische Welten, lecture at the Goethe Museum Düsseldorf, July 8, and at the Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf, July 12, 2026  introducing Gabrielle Ferrari (soprano) and Gerhardt Müller-Goldbloom (piano).

      Contact

      HerrScha3fer[at]gmail.com

      @mrschaefer.bsky.social