Constance Debré

52.

Samuel Fischer Guest Professorship

We look forward to welcoming Constance Debré, who is taking over the Samuel Fischer Guest Professorship this summer semester.

Literatures of the World

The Samuel Fischer Visiting Professorship for Literature was established on the initiative of Prof. Dr. Gerd Mattenklott at the beginning of the summer term 1998. It is funded by S. Fischer publishers, Freie Universität Berlin, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Holtzbrinck Berlin – Inspire Together. Each semester an author is invited to teach at the Peter Szondi Institute of Comparative Literature. In addition to a seminar at the Freie Universität Berlin public readings and events with the guest professors are organized in Berlin and other German cities.

Newsletter

News

Summer Semester 2025

Constance Debré

In the summer semester of 2025, Constance Debré will teach at the Freie Universität Berlin as Samuel Fischer Guest Professor. Constance Debré gained international attention through her radical break with her previous life as a lawyer in the Parisian bourgeoisie and her uncompromising exploration of identity, freedom and social norms. She achieved her literary breakthrough in 2018 with Play Boy, an astute and provocative reflection on her departure from social expectations, which also marks the beginning of her new stage of life.

 

Information about the course at the FU and the public events can be found here (soon).

Winter Semester 2024/25

Mark Haber

Mark will be teaching as Samuel Fischer Guest Professor at the Peter Szondi Institute starting November 2024. Students will soon be able to enrol in the course “The Imagination of Place”, which focuses on the importance of places and environments in fictional literature and analyses how geography influences the imagination.
Mark will have two Events, one in November and one in December! Here you will find more Information.
© Nina Subin
Guest of Honour 2024/25

Igiaba Scego

After Felwine Sarr last year, we are pleased to present another guest of honour at the S.Fischer Professorship: Igiaba Scego! The Italian-Somali writer describes literature and reading itself as her lifeline:
“In books, I found my story, myself and, above all, Africa.”
Scego studied literature and education, and is today the author of several novels and stories. She also writes for newspapers and magazines such as “L’Unità” and “Internazionale” and is the editor of several anthologies.
With Italy as this year’s guest country at the book fair in Frankfurt, Igiaba is now travelling a lot outside Rome. In Berlin we are fortunate to be able to welcome her twice. Once with a public event on 8 October this year and on 21 January 2025 at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Winter Semester 2023/24

Powerpaola

As part of the opening lecture on November 22, Powerpaola will talk about her writing practice in Virus Tropical and Todas las bicicletas que tuve as well as discuss other book publications, including QP and Todo va a estar bien. These texts will serve as the basis for Powerpaola’s presentation and discussion of topics she will explore with students in her winter semester seminar “I’m not talking about me (but also)”: the intimate and complex connection between creative work and life, oneself and other people.

Here you can find more information about Powerpaola

Procrastinator’s Paradise

On December 2 Mark Haber, Guest Prof of winter term 2024/25, and Ilona Hartmann chatted about the Art of Avoidance and the true meaning of Procrastination.

© Phil Dera

Virus Tropical

Screening of “Virus Tropical”, the film produced by Powerpaola after her identical Graphic Novel at Acud Kino Berlin, December 7th 2023!

© Phil Dera

read-write-design-read-write-design

Nancy Campbell and Salvador Plascencia in conversation with Svenja Gräfen at the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst

© Andreas Lamm

Notes On Love: A Conversation with Xiaolu Guo.

Xiaolu Guo 郭小櫓 in conversation with Divya Ghelani at daadgalerie Berlin

© Phil-Dera

Five Men And A Caravaggio – Screening & Talk

Xiaolu Guo 郭小櫓 in conversation with Giuliana Kiersz

© Phil-Dera