Stockholm university

Monika GänssbauerProfessor

About me

I am Professor of Chinese languange and culture and as of August 2020 head of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.

Biographical Details and Education

I studied Chinese literature and political science in Erlangen, Bochum and Beijing. From 1990-1992 I was given a scholarship by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) to pursue my studies at Renmin University, Beijing. From 1994-1996 I did my PhD in Chinese Studies at Bochum University with a focus on language and literature. From 1996-2009 I was head of the China Study Project in Hamburg and lecturer at the Universities of Hamburg and Freiburg i.Br. In the academic year 2008-2009 I was invited as a visiting professor to the Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Freiburg i.Br. In 2008 I earned my post-doctoral degree (Habilitation) in Chinese Studies at the University of Erlangen. From 2009-2015 I served as Deputy Chair of Chinese Studies at the University of Erlangen. From 2015-2016 I had a scholarship at the International Consortium on Research in the Humanities (IKGF), University of Erlangen. In 2016 I was appointed Associate Professor (apl. Professor) for Chinese Studies at the University of Erlangen. During the years 2014-2017 I was Honorary Professor of Translation Studies at the Open University of Hong Kong. From 2015 on I have been serving as a member of the "LaboraTorio sulla Traduzione delle Lingue Orientali", a research group on translation at the Universita Ca'Foscari, Venice. I am co-editor of the scholarly book series "edition cathay", project publishing house, Bochum-Freiburg. 

Research

One of my research areas is translation in theory and practice. As a researcher and literary translator I have been mainly concerned with modern Sinophone literature but I have also translated a collection of poems by a scholar from the Song dynasty. Together with my students I translated and edited two anthologies of essays written by contemporary Sinophone authors in 2012 and 2013 and two collections of short stories from Hong Kong together with colleagues from Britain and Hong Kong in 2017 resp. 2020.

I also take particular interest in the cultural and political relations between China and Europe.

Chinese religious traditions make up another field of interest of my academic activities. I have worked on the topics of Confucianism and popular belief in China. In 2015 I published a monograph titled “Popular Belief in Contemporary China. A Discourse Analysis”.

Research projects

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Digital Humanities in the German-Speaking World

    2019. Monika Gänssbauer. Digital Humanities and New Ways of Teaching, 3-16

    Chapter

    The topic of digital humanities provokes widely varying views in the German-speaking world. In Germany digitalization efforts are often limited to a regional scale. This paper presents several examples of digitalization in the humanities: the use of audio sources, weblogs, big data, and simulations. The paper also examines the dissemination of practices of digitalization in the German-speaking world. Some experts note structural problems for digital innovation in Germany. Others make a plea for the realization of achievable tasks. The third part of the paper focuses on the general discussion of digitalization in Germany. Several authors see Germany in a “digital hibernation.” Prominent intellectuals such as Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Frank Schirrmacher, and Harald Welzer have on the other hand become harsh critics of digitalization.

    Read more about Digital Humanities in the German-Speaking World
  • Fate and Prognostication in the Chinese Literary Imagination

    2020. Michael Lackner (et al.).

    Book (ed)

    The essays collected in Fate and Prognostication in the Chinese Literary Imagination deal with the philosophical, psychological, gender and cultural issues in the Chinese conception of fate as represented in literary texts and films, with a focus placed on human efforts to solve the riddles of fate prediction. Viewed in this light, the collected essays unfold a meandering landscape of the popular imaginary in Chinese beliefs and customs. The chapters in this book represent concerted efforts in research originated from a project conducted at the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.

    Read more about Fate and Prognostication in the Chinese Literary Imagination
  • China und Hongkong: Begegnungen und Bilder

    2023. Monika Gänssbauer.

    Book

    Dieser Band handelt von China und Hongkong und von Begegnungen mit Menschen, Lebensgeschichten und literarischen Texten. Die dichten Beschreibungen sind von Zeichnungen begleitet.

    Read more about China und Hongkong

Show all publications by Monika Gänssbauer at Stockholm University