Matt Erlin

Matt Erlin is a prominent academic serving as a Professor in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis. He has held this position since 2013, having previously served as an Associate Professor and Assistant Professor at the same institution since 2000. Erlin's educational background includes a Ph.D. in German from the University of California, Berkeley, awarded in 2000, along with an M.A. in German from the same university and a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University .12

Research Focus

Erlin's research primarily centers on the literary, cultural, and intellectual history of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Germany. His notable publications include:

• Berlin’s Forgotten Future: City, History, and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Germany (2004)
• Necessary Luxuries: Books, Literature, and the Culture of Consumption in Germany, 1770-1815 (2014)

He has also co-edited several essay anthologies, including Distant Readings: Topologies of German Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century (2014) .23

Digital Humanities and Teaching

In addition to his research, Erlin is actively involved in digital humanities projects at Washington University. He is a member of the steering committee for the Humanities Digital Workshop, where he collaborates on projects that utilize computational tools to explore traditional literary genres and periods .34 His teaching encompasses a wide range of topics related to German language and culture, including seminars on German poetry, consumer culture, and Marxist cultural theory .23

Contact Information

Erlin can be reached at his university email: merlin@wustl.edu or by phone at 314-935-5106 .1