Simanowski, Roberto

Dr. Simanowski’s research bridges literary, cultural and media studies. Trained as a scholar of literature and history with a doctoral thesis on popculture around 1800 (1998), he researched and edited two books on nationalism in German literature and the literary salon in Europe (1999). Since then his interest has moved to the field of aesthetics, culture, and politics of digital media. In his Interfictions (2002) he outlines the criteria of a digital hermeneutics for multilinear, multimedial and interactive text, a concept which he expands in Digital Art and Meaning (2010) as he discusses the status of interpretation in a „culture of presence.” In his monograph on digital media in the event society (Erlebnisgesellschaft) (2008) he addresses the aesthetic and cultural ramifications of digital technology. Dr. Simanowski’s methodology combines discourse analysis and case studies with the aim of assessing meta-theoretical discussions and thematic readings. His most recent research focuses on the Digital Humanities with special regard to media literacy as a challenge to and responsibility of the Humanities. His is currently conducting a series of interviews on digital culture and Digital Humanities and edits two special issues on media literacy and digital media studies for the peer reviewed online journal of art and culture in digital media dichtung-digital.org, which he founded in 1999.
(Source of the biographie)