Werner Wolf

Werner Wolf was born in Munich in 1955. He studied English and French at the Universities of Munich, Canterbury (England) and Toulouse (France) and received his PhD in 1984 with a dissertation on French 18th-century sentimental drama (Ursprünge und Formen der Empfindsamkeit im französischen Drama). During his studies he was a member of the German National Study Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes). After having passed the first and second state examinations for grammar school teachers in 1981 and 1985 he was, from 1985 to 1994, assistant professor at the Department of English at the University of Munich. In 1991 he received his Habilitation (post-doctoral degree) with an award-winning monograph on the theory and history of aesthetic illusion and the breaking of illusion in fiction (Ästhetische Illusion und Illusionsdurchbrechung in der Erzählkunst. Theory and history).

Werner Wolf was offered professorships and chairs at the Humboldt Universität/Berlin as well as at the Universities of Tübingen and Heidelberg and was chair of English and General Literature at the University of Graz/Austria from 1994 until 2023. He is member of several associations, including the International Association for Word and Music Studies (WMA), of which he is a founding member, and a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Werner Wolf was deputy director of the Centre for Intermediality Studies in Graz from 2008 to 2023 and is now Professor emeritus of English Studies.

Juliann Knaus

Juliann Knaus was a PhD student at the University of Graz from June 2019 until April 2025. Her research interests have been rooted in the fields of Intermediality, African American Studies, and Mixed Race Studies. More specifically, her work has examined intersectionality and the representation of mixed-race peoples in literature, particularly poetry, from the 1800s until today, with specific focus on the antebellum period, the Harlem Renaissance, and the 1990s to present. Her master’s thesis was entitled: “Mixed-Race and Boundaryless: Ekphrastic Representation in Natasha Trethewey’s Thrall”. It looked at Natasha Trethewey’s Thrall and the importance of ekphrasis, etymology, and colonialism with regard to the representation of mixed-race people in art and poetry.