Profile
Abstract
I am Professor of British Cultural Studies at Leipzig University. My research interests in the field of English literature and culture include Economic Criticism, migration culture and literature (especially Polish migration to the UK and Ireland), women's contributions to the history of (economic) thought, the cultural analysis of Brexit and its aftermath as well as the representation of psychotherapy in culture, literature and other media. I am currently co-leading a research network on "Methodologies of Economic Criticism", funded by the German Research Foundation.
I hold a PhD from Passau University and a 'Habilitation' from the University of Düsseldorf. From 2016 to 2025, I was Junior Professor of Anglophone Literary, Cultural, and Media Studies at the University of Giessen. I acted as interim and guest professor at the LMU Munich and the University of Vienna and was guest lecturer at institutions in Scotland, Poland and the US.
Professional career
- since 10/2025
Professor of British Cultural Studies, Leipzig University, Germany - since 03/2009
Guest lecturer and visiting scholar at international institutions: University of Stirling, Université de Strasbourg, University of Puget Sound (USA), University of Lodz (Poland), Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University - 04/2025 - 09/2025
Supernumerary Professor at the Department of English, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany - 04/2024 - 03/2025
Interim Professor of British Cultural Studies, Leipzig University, Germany - 03/2023 - 07/2023
Käthe-Leichter Guest Professor, Department of English and American Studies, University of Vienna, Austria - 04/2021 - 09/2022
Interim Professor of Modern English Literature, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany - 04/2016 - 03/2025
Junior Professor of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media Studies, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany - 04/2006 - 03/2016
Lecturer at the Department of English Literature and Culture, Universität Passau, Germany
Education
- 11/2020
Habilitation in English Literary and Cultural Studies, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany - 12/2010
PhD in English Literature, Universität Passau, Germany - 11/1999 - 12/2005
International Cultural and Business Studies with a focus on English literature and culture, University of Passau, Germany - 01/2005 - 06/2005
Study abroad at the University of Leeds, England - 09/2001 - 05/2022
Study Abroad at the Université Laval, Québec, Canada
My general research fields are British and Anglophone cultures, media and literatures from the 18th to the 21st centuries as well as cultural and literary theory. My specific research fields include:
- Economic Criticism, i.e. the diverse and historically variable interrelations between culture, literature, and the economy. I currently co-lead a DFG-funded Research Network on "Methodologies of Economic Criticism": www.economic-criticism.de.
- Women's and Gender Studies, especially women's 'forgotten' contributions to knowledge, culture, and literature. This was the focus of my second, transdisciplinary monograph, titled Women's Economic Thought in the Romantic Age (Routledge, 2021, open access) where I argued that once a gender-sensitive definition of economics is adopted, the Romantic Age proves a treasure trove of economic thought by English women. I am also interested in the works of Cicely Hamilton.
- Migration Studies, especially Polish migrant culture in the UK and Ireland
- (Post)Brexit Britain and Affective Polarization in culture, literature, and the media
- Psychotherapy and/in culture, literature, and the media
- Contemporary Anglophone fiction, which was the focus of my first monograph, Seaing through the Past (Rodopi, 2011), where I argued that in contemporary fiction, maritime imagery gives expression to postmodernism's troubled relationship with historical knowledge.
- show detailsMethodologies of Economic CriticismRostek, JoannaDuration: 03/2021 – ongoingFunded by: DFG Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftInvolved organisational units of Leipzig University: Kulturstudien Großbritanniens
- show detailsRostek, J.The Good Pole in an Ailing Britain: An Imagological Approach to Polish Migration in British LiteratureIn: Bowers, M. A.; Dew, B. (Eds.)Polish Culture in Britain: Literature and History, 1772 to the Present. London: Palgrave/Springer. 2023. pp. 237–258.
- show detailsFéaux de la Croix, J.; Norum, R.; Rostek, J.The Value of Co-Authorship Must Be Recognised outside the SciencesTimes Higher Education. 2025.
- show detailsRostek, J.Women’s Economic Thought in the Romantic Age: Towards a Transdisciplinary Herstory of Economic ThoughtLondon: Routledge. 2021.
- show detailsRostek, J.The Aesthetics and Politics of Psychotherapy: Literary, Cultural, and Media Perspectives on "Healing the Soul"Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik. 2024. 72 (2). pp. 113–126.
- show detailsRostek, J.; Sedlmayr, G.Grayson Perry’s Brexit Vases as National Psychotherapy: Feelings (and) MatterIn: Jacobi, J.; Pankratz, A. (Eds.)Mentalities and Materialities. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. 2021. pp. 129–148.ISBN: 978-3-8260-7464-6
- Publikationspreis: Agarwal Book Prizeshow detailsRostek, Joanna (Kulturstudien Großbritanniens)awarded in 2023 by International Association for Feminist Economics.
- Publikationspreis: Habilitationspreis des Deutschen Anglistikverbandesshow detailsRostek, Joanna (Kulturstudien Großbritanniens)awarded in 2022 by Deutscher Anglistikverband.
- Publikationspreis: Dissertationspreis des Deutschen Anglistikverbandesshow detailsRostek, Joanna (Kulturstudien Großbritanniens)awarded in 2012 by Deutscher Anglistikverband.
My teaching - which covers a broad area of topics - has three basic aims. Firstly, I wish to convey knowledge about the culture and history of the UK and the Anglophone world, including transnational and postcolonial aspects. The second focus in on theories and methods: in class, we train how to analyse phenomena in 'high', 'popular' and everyday culture and how to investigate collective processes as well as their representations. Lastly - and this what British Cultural Studies shares with other fields in the humanities - my seminars convey and train crucial cognitive and interpersonal skills, such as critical and creative thinking, a deep understanding of communicative and semiotic processes, intercultural competencies and the ability to approach a matter from various, even conflicting, points of view.