Peter W. Marx

Peter W. Marx (2017)

Peter W. Marx (born June 7, 1973 in Limburg an der Lahn ) is a German theater scholar and director of the theater studies collection at the University of Cologne and professor of theater and media studies at the Institute for Media Culture and Theater at the University of Cologne. Marx is best known for his cultural-historical research on the history of theater on metropolitan culture at the beginning of the 20th century and on Max Reinhardt, as well as for his research on Shakespeare in performance, above all on Hamlet as a figure of cultural mobility.

resume

Marx studied German philology, journalism and theater studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz , where he completed his master's thesis in 1997 with an attempt to approximate Heiner Müller's 'description of images' from the point of view of structural semantics . Between 1997 and 2000 he was a member of the Mainz DFG graduate college "Theater as a paradigm of modernity". In 2000 he completed his doctorate with a thesis on theater and cultural memory. Cultural semiotic studies on George Tabori, Tadeusz Kantor and Rina Yerushalmi (awarded the Research Promotion Prize of the Friends of Mainz University e.V. for the year 2002).

In 2003, Marx was appointed junior professor for theater studies with a cultural studies focus at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. With a Feodor Lynen Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to carry out a research project, he was a short-term fellow between 2004 and 2006 for two longer stays at Columbia University in the City of New York . Between 2007 and 2009, he was visiting professor and visiting professor at the University of Hildesheim , the University of Vienna and the Free University of Berlin . From 2009 to 2012 Marx was associate professor for theater studies at the University of Bern , before he was appointed professor for theater and media studies at the University of Cologne and director of the theater studies collection in February 2012. From 2012-2016 and 2017-2018 he was Managing Director of the Institute for Media Culture and Theater.

Marx is particularly committed to international academic exchange: in 2013, together with Tracy C. Davis, he founded the Summer Institute Cologne [sic!], An international summer school in cooperation with Northwestern University , which takes place in August / September at the Theater Studies Collection takes place. Since 2016 he has been traveling annually to Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, India) for workshops and research seminars.

Marx is u. a. Member of the following working groups and societies: International Federation for Theater Research, working group “Theaterhistoriographie” of the Society for Theater Studies , member of the scientific advisory board for Forum Modernes Theater. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation for Theater Research (IFTR) and the Editorial Board of Theater Research International .

Focus of work

Theater history (especially 19th and 20th centuries)
Critical Media History
Cultural studies
Popular culture and media studies (staging of foreignness in films and TV series)
Interculturality
Jewish studies
Shakespeare and his theater, Shakespeare reception in Germany
Theater historiography

Research projects (selection)

Re-Collecting Theater History (joint project with Freie Universität Berlin; funded by the BMBF; funding area "Alliance for University Collections", 2017–2020)
Female Voices (research project for a new focus of the theater studies collection of the University of Cologne, since 2016)
Hamlet's trip to Germany. A cultural history of the collective imaginary (monograph; expected completion in 2017)
Subproject "The Stage as Scena Mundi: Narration, Performance and Imagination" as part of the Sinergeia research network The Interior: Art, Space, and Performance (Early Modern to Postmodern) , overall management Prof. Dr. Christine Göttler [reference Göttler?], Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation [reference SNF] (University of Bern and University of Cologne, 2012–2016)
Research project Hamlets Odyssey - A study on the phenomenon of cultural mobility , funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (University of Bern, ongoing since 2011)
Approval of a Marie Curie Fellowship for Dr. Katharina Wessely with the project The Theatrical Landscape of Bohemia and Moraivia as a Space of Negotiating Cultural Identities (TheatLandIdent) , funded by the Research Executive Agency of the EU (University of Bern, ongoing since 2011)
Organization of the doctoral workshop "Cultural Mobility", funded by the Mittelbauvereinigung der Universität Bern (University of Bern, 2011)
Granting of a printing subsidy for the band Berlin on the way to becoming a theater capital. Policies on the theater between 1869 and 1914 (edited with Stefanie Watzka) by the Prussian Sea Trade Foundation (2008)
Mainstreaming the minorities? The representation of ethnicity and its function in popular cultural media in a German-US-American comparison (together with Prof. Dr. Mita Banerjee), funded by the Center for Intercultural Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (2003-2004)

Publications (selection)

Heiner Müller: picture description. An analysis from the perspective of Greimas' semiotics , Frankfurt am Main u. a .: Peter Lang, 1998.
Theater and cultural memory. Cultural semiotic studies on George Tabori, Tadeusz Kantor and Rina Yerushalmi , Tübingen: Francke, 2003.
Max Reinhardt. From bourgeois theater to metropolitan culture , Tübingen: Francke, 2006.
A theatrical age. Bourgeois self-portrayals around 1900 , Tübingen: Francke, 2008.
with Stefanie Watzka (ed.): Berlin on the way to becoming a theater capital. Theater pamphlets between 1869 and 1914 , Tübingen: Francke, 2009.
(Ed.): Handbook Drama. Theory, analysis, history , Stuttgart / Weimar: JB Metzler, 2012.
together with Petra Hesse (ed.): Space-Machine Theater. Scene and architecture , Cologne: Wienand 2012.
(Ed.): Dülberg meets Wagner , Cologne: Wienand, 2013.
(Ed.): Hamlet Handbook. Substances, appropriations, interpretations, Stuttgart / Weimar: JB Metzler, 2014.
together with Petra Hesse (ed.): A Party for Will! A Journey into the Shakespeare Universe / A Journey through Shakespeare's Universe , Berlin: Theater der Zeit, 2014.
(Ed.): Texts by Michael Hampe : Michael Hampe. About theater. Speeches and writings , Cologne: Wienand 2015, ISBN 978-3-86832-259-0 .
together with Harald Müller (ed.): Theater! Job! Heyme! The actor, director and general manager Hansgünther Heyme , Berlin: Theater der Zeit, 2015, ISBN 978-3-95749-043-8 .
(Ed.): A Cultural History of Theater in the Age of Empire (1800-1920) , London: Bloomsbury, 2017, ISBN 978-1472585844
Hamlet's Journey to Germany: A Cultural History , Berlin: Alexander Verlag, 2018, ISBN 978-3895814907
(Ed.): 100 Years of Cologne Theater Studies Collection: Documents, Plans, Remnants of Dreams , Berlin: Alexander Verlag 2020 (published November 2019), ISBN 978-3895815157
Power | Games: Political Theater since 1919 , Berlin: Alexander Verlag, 2020 (published November 2019), ISBN 978-3895815164

Exhibitions (as curator)

IN THE GAME RUSH: Of queens, pixel monsters and dragon slayers ( Museum for Applied Arts Cologne , August 2017 to February 2018)
A Party for Will! A journey into the Shakespeare universe (Museum of Applied Arts Cologne, March 2014 to July 2014; Heslington Hall York, May 2015 (as part of the York International Shakespeare Festival))
Space machine theater. Scene and architecture (Museum for Applied Arts Cologne, December 2012 to April 2013)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Marx, Peter W.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German theater scholar
DATE OF BIRTH	June 7th 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH	Limburg on the Lahn