Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Cultura

Gabriele Brandstetter is seen as one of the most innovative research figures in German cultural studies. Trained as a philologist and German studies specialist, she is known and internationally recognized as a pioneer in dance studies and was decisively involved in establishing this field as a university discipline. Her interdisciplinary orientation is evident in the 100 and more articles which she has written and which bring together and compare the worlds of theatre, music, art and literature; and it can also be seen in her research projects and in the exhibitions, conferences and dance festivals which she has organized.

Professor Brandstetter is one of the leading figures to advocate an approach to cultural studies which transcends disciplinary borders. She is also a recognized authority in international gender research. Visiting professorships have taken her to Princeton, New York, Lisbon, Tokyo, São Paulo and Melbourne.

Gabriele Brandstetter read German, history, politics and theatre studies at Erlangen, Regensburg, Vienna and Munich and completed her studies at the University of Munich in 1983 with a thesis on the lyric poetry of Clemens Brentano. She subsequently taught and researched at the University of Bayreuth until 1993. Following her habilitation in the same year, she took a position at the University of Giessen before accepting a professorship at the University of Basel four years later. She then moved from there to the Institute for Theatre Studies at the Free University Berlin.