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Katharina-Maria Schön

About

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I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg. I work in the field of classical and Neo-Latin literature and have a particular interest in reception studies, politics and philosophy, humour and satire. In my research, I draw on the methods of textual criticism, literary analysis (close-readings), discourse analytics as well as literary theoretical approaches.

I hold two M.A. degrees (Latin and English Studies: 2017, Ancient Greek: 2023) and a PhD in Classics (2022) from the University of Vienna. Prior to my current position in Hamburg, I have worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the project Anchoring Innovation at the University of Groningen (2022-2025) and as a fellow at the Norwegian Institute in Rome (2025). My research has been generously funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and the Alexander-von-Humboldt-Foundation.

I am a member of several international associations, including Artes Renascentes, the Mommsen-Gesellschaft, Die Neulateinische Gesellschaft (DNG), the Onderzoeksinstituut Klassieke Oudheidstudiën (OIKOS) and the International Association of Neo-Latin Studies (IANLS).

Research

In my doctoral thesis on Thomas More’s Utopia (2022), I proposed a novel reading of this influential work that concentrates on the aspects of polyphony, paradoxes and the philosophical state construction, based on its ancient predecessors. My monograph has been published in the series NeoLatina (see more).

Two major collaborations have resulted from my doctoral research:

  1. a project on ironic encomia and paradoxical humour in the Renaissance, which I conduct together with Robert Seidel (Frankfurt am Main) and Sari Kivistö (Tampere).
  2. a project on comparing real and imagined communities in the Early Modern period, in which I work together with Lukas Reddemann (Bremen).

The results of these collaborations will be published in two collected volumes in the series Brill: Intersections (Boston/Leiden).

In addition, I am currently writing my second monograph in which I examine the functions and the symbolic affordances of the Latin language during Italian Fascism and National Socialism. Complementary to this book project, I am co-editing a volume entitled Texts of Tyranny. A Selection of Latin Works from Italian Fascism and German National Socialism together with Han Lamers (Oslo/Rome) and Bettina Reitz-Joosse (Groningen). I also function as an assistant editor for the open-access database Fascist Latin Texts (short FLT, see more).

Teaching

I have taught the following courses in classical Latin linguistics and literature to undergraduate students (BA level):

  • Latin Grammar I: 2019-2023, University of Vienna (contents: reverse translations from German to Latin with a focus on lexicon and syntax)
  • Latin Grammar II: 2021, University of Vienna (contents: reverse translations from German to Latin with a focus on case functions and morphology)
  • Latin Literature: Cicero’s Philosophical Writings, 2023, University of Vienna
  • Latin Literature: Ovid’s Exile Letters, 2024, University of Vienna

In 2022, I received the UNIVIE teaching award for excellence in pedagogy and didactics.

Outreach

To my mind, scholarship should have societal relevance and an impact beyond the confines of the discipline, so I am dedicated to science communication and to third-mission-projects.

I have spoken about the contemporary significance of Latin on the radio (see more) and participated in a theatre project, led by Andreas Heil, in which we staged Seneca’s Trojan Women as a timeless tragedy about war, loss and bereavement (see more).

Moreover, I have recently published an article on the relevance of Latin instruction in the age of artificial intelligence (see more).

I try to make my research accessible to high school students, teachers and a wider audience. I have been invited to speak at teacher training seminars and events of cultural and historical associations, where I have talked about the following topics (in German):

  • Politische Idealvorstellung, philosophischer Traktat oder satirische Zeitkritik? – Die Utopia des Thomas Morus im perspektivischen Wechselspiel.“ (Prein an der Rax, Teacher Training College of Lower Austria, August 2022)
  • „Serio ludere im paradoxen Enkomion: ein literarischer Streifzug von der Antike bis in die Renaissance.“ (Puchberg, Teacher Training College of Upper Austria, November 2022)
  • Presentations for the historical society Schwäbisch-Gmünd and the cultural association Ellwangen (June 2024): „Latein als Medium des Widerstands? – Hermann Weller und die politischen Ideologien des 20. Jahrhunderts.“ (Newspaper report by Gerhard Königer: „Hermann Weller: Einst gefeiert, heute vergessen.“ In: Schwäbische Post, 09.07.2024, see more)
  • „Manchmal nur in dunklen Zeiten? – Die lateinische Literatur im Faschismus und im Nationalsozialismus.“ (together with Andreas Knabl, Teacher Training Colleges of Vienna and Lower Austria, February and April 2025)

Publications

Monograph

Eutopia nusquama. Polyphonie, Paradoxie und philosophische Staatskonstruktion in der Utopia des Thomas Morus. Tübingen: Narr-Francke-Attempto, 2025.

Edited Volumes

Co-Editor with Francesco Furlan and Hartmut Wulfram: HVMANISTICA: An International Journal of Early Renaissance Studies. Dossier: La Tradizione della Dedica nel Mondo Neolatino IV: 1-2 (2020).

Co-Editor with Bernhard Söllradl: In Honorem Georgii Danek Rude Donati. Librum Gratulatorium Conscripserunt Discipuli, Sodales, Amici (Special Issue of Wiener Humanistische Blätter, 2022).

Co-Editor with Bettina Reitz-Joosse and Han Lamers: Texts of Tyranny. A Selection of Latin Works from Italian Fascism and German National Socialism, from Italian Fascism and German National Socialism, Brill (Boston/Leiden): Euhormos Series [forthcoming].

Co-Editor with Robert Seidel and Sari Kivistö: Ironic Encomia and Paradoxical Humour in the Early Modern Period, Brill (Boston/Leiden): Intersections Series [planned publication: autumn 2026].

Co-Editor with Lukas Reddemann: Comparing Real and Imagined Communities in the Early Modern Period, Brill (Boston/Leiden): Intersections Series [planned publication: spring 2027].

Journal Articles

Augustus purpureo bibet ore nectar. – Horace’s Praise Poetry: A Careful Navigation between Deflected Laudatio and Encomiastic Eulogy. In: Eisodos. Zeitschrift für Antike Literatur und Theorie 2 (2017): 37–56.

Toto surget gens aurea mundo (Vergil, Ecl. 4,9). – Das Goldene Zeitalter als proto-utopischer Spiegel zwischen epikureischer Philosophie und metapoetischer Selbst-reflexion. In: Wiener Humanistische Blätter 59 (2018): 61–110.

Non temere sed iudicio. – Prozesse der Urteilsfindung in und um Thomas Morus’ Utopia. In: Humanistica Lovaniensia 68/1 (2019): 67–104.

Dionysische Feste als tragische Palimpseste und politische Manifeste. – Der Mythos der Bakchen im Spiegel der Zeit. In: Cursor. Zeitschrift für Freunde der lateinischen Sprache und europäischen Kultur 17 (2021): 5–11.

Tamquam alter Lucianus. – The Lucianic Legacy in Thomas More’s Utopia. In: Moreana 59/2 (2022): 165–192.

Politische Idealvorstellung, philosophischer Traktat oder satirische Zeitkritik? Die Utopia des Thomas Morus im perspektivischen Wechselspiel. In: Cursor. Zeitschrift für Freunde der lateinischen Sprache und europäischen Kultur 18 (2022): 74–81.

Poetischer Widerstand in Zeiten des Nationalsozialismus. Hermann Weller, Y. In: Circulare: Unabhängiges Organ der klassischen Philologen und Altertumswissenschafter 1 (2023): 18–19.

Early Modern Declamatory Practices and the Aesthetics of Dramatic Retelling – A Case Study of Lucian’s Tyrannicida and Thomas More’s Declamatio Lucianicae Respondens. In: The Yearbook of English Studies 54 (2024): 7–22 [Reprinted in: The Yearbook of English Studies 55 (2025): 98–114].

Krieg der Buchstaben. Hermann Wellers Elegie Y im Spiegel rechtspopulistischer Rhetorik. (mit Andreas Knabl) In: Der Altsprachliche Unterricht 5 (2025): 28–34.

Between Propaganda and Political Oppression: A Study of the Societas Latina during National Socialism (1932–1945). In: Humanistica Lovaniensia 74 (2025): 147-182.

Fascist Nostalgias and National Socialist Sympathies in Neo-Latin Poetry after 1945. In: Fascism. Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies 15 (2026) [forthcoming].

Book Chapters

Prosecuturus eram longius hoc dulcissimum somnium – Lucianic Esprit and Menippean Satire in Thomas Morus’ Utopian Dreams. In: Serio ludere: D’Alberti à Pontano et d’Érasme à Thomas More, ed. Hélène Casanova-Robin, Francesco Furlan and Hartmut Wulfram, Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2020: 263–285.

Thomas Morus, ein christlich-humanistischer Märtyrer? – Eine Fallstudie zur Vitenfabrikation und literarischen Erinnerungskultur in Paolo Giovios Elogia virorum literis illustrium und in Johannes Secundus’ Funerum Liber. In: Von Paolo Giovio bis Johannes Latomus. Intermedialität und Intertextualität in den Elogia virorum literis illustrium, ed. Matthias Baltas and Hartmut Wulfram, Tübingen: Narr-Francke-Attempto, 2025: 309–347.

Fictio ambigua – Francis Bacons Nova Atlantis als konservativ-progressive Barockutopie. In: Lateinische Literatur des Barock – Inhalte, Literarische Formen und Funktionen, ed. Beate Hintzen, Boston/Leiden: Brill, 2025: 231–257.

Ovidium mihi proponebam quasi ducem atque magistrum. – Hermann Wellers lateinische Preisgedichte im Spiegel der ovidischen Dichtung. In: Vive diu! Hermann Wellers lateinische Dichtung, ed. Wolfgang Polleichtner, Tübingen: Didaskalika, 2025: 33–68.

Luigi Taberini – Septimii Severi Somnium. In: Classical Receptions and Settler Colonialism: An Anthology, ed. Susanna de Beer and Dinah Wouters, Rome: Proceedings of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, 2026 [forthcoming].

Intertextuality and Humour in Thomas More’s Epigrammata and Utopia. In: Brill’s Companion to Humour in Early Modern Europe (1400–1700), ed. Karl A.E. Enenkel, Marc Laureys and Bernd Renner, Boston/Leiden: Brill, 2026 [forthcoming].

Et Luciani quoque facetiis ac lepore capiuntur – Lukianischer Humor im Frühwerk von Erasmus von Rotterdam und Thomas Morus. In: Erasmus Interdisziplinär. Forschungen zur neulateinischen Literatur und Sprache, ed. Thorsten Burkard, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2026 [forthcoming].

Selbst- und Fremdinszenierung in der res publica litteraria: Eine Untersuchung von Zitationspraktiken der erasmischen Adagia im 16. Jahrhundert. In: Die Magie der Mündlichkeit: Die Spruchsammlungen des Erasmus von Rotterdam und ihre Rezeption (Noctes Neolatinae), ed. Karl A.E. Enenkel and Lukas Reddemann, Turnhout: Brepols, 2026 [forthcoming].

Reviews

George McClure, Doubting the Divine in Early Modern Europe: The Revival of Momus, the Agnostic God, Cambridge [et al.]: Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. xiv–264.

  • Italian version: La Rassegna della Letteratura Italiana 2019, 123 (2): 410–414.
  • German version: Albertiana 2020, 23 (1): 135–148.

Oliver Victor, Laura Weiß (ed.), Europäische Utopien – Utopien Europas. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf geistesgeschichtliche Ideale, Projektionen und Visionen, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021, pp. vi–245. In: Wiener Studien 135: 46–54.

Presentations

  • Non temere, sed iudicio. – Prozesse der Urteilsfindung in und um Thomas Morus’ Utopia. (Interdisciplinary Conference: The Exercise of Judgment in the Early Modern Period, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Nov. 17th 2018)
  • Prosecuturus eram longius hoc dulcissimum somnium. – Lucianic Esprit and Menippean Satire in Thomas Morus’ Utopian Dreams. (Colloque International: Serio ludere: D’Alberti à Pontano et d’Érasme à Thomas More, Sorbonne Université & Institut de France, Paris, April 13th 2019)
  • Gewalt und Raum in Euripides’ Die Bakchen. (Interdisciplinary Workshop: Gewalt und Rauminszenierung im antiken und modernen Theater, Karl-Franzens-University of Graz, Oct. 4th 2019)
  • Symmetrie – Harmonie – Utopie: Die Alterität des Idealen bei Thomas Morus und Tommaso Campanella. (Austrian-Hungarian Symposium of Classical Philology: Schönheit und Symmetrie, Department of Classics, University of Vienna, Oct. 19th 2019)
  • Seneca, Die Trojanerinnen oder zeitloses Kriegsleid: Ein Bericht über eine Inszenierung in Wien. (Presentation with Andreas Heil and Florian Hainfellner, Didactica Classica III: Antikes Theater im Mediendialog: Tradition ‒ Rezeption ‒ Didaktik, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Dec. 7th 2019)
  • Eutopia nusquama – Polyphonie, Paradoxie und philosophische Staatskonstruktion in Thomas Morus’ Utopia. (Presentation of the dissertation project as part of the research seminar: Verjüngte Antike in Moderne und Gegenwartskultur und Histor-Mythos: diachron, intermedial, interkulturell, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Nov. 12th 2021)
  • Grausame Ekphrasis und Gewaltinszenierung in den Troerinnen. – Eine Analyse des Mythos bei Euripides, Seneca und Ovid im Spiegel einer Inszenierung der Troerinnen im Wiener Burgtheater. (Interdisciplinary Workshop: Handlungsräume und Visualisierung von Gewalt und Tod im antiken und modernen Theater, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, July 1st 2022)
  • Fictio ambigua. – Francis Bacons Nova Atlantis als konservativ-progressive Barockutopie. (Interdisciplinary Conference: Die lateinische Literatur des Barock, University of Bonn in collaboration with Die Neulateinische Gesellschaft, July 8th 2022)
  • Thomas Morus, ein christlich-humanistischer Märtyrer? – Eine Fallstudie zur Vitenfabrikation und literarischen Erinnerungskultur in Paolo Giovios Elogia virorum literis illustrium und in Johannes Secundus’ Funerum Liber. (Interdisciplinary Conference: Von Paolo Giovio bis Johannes Latomus. Intermedialität und Intertextualität in den Elogia virorum literis illustrium, University of Vienna, March 24th 2023)
  • The paradoxical encomium in the Renaissance: Reflecting on the genre through Caspar Dornavius’ Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Socraticae Ioco-Seriae (1619) (1st International IJsewijn Laboratorium, KU Leuven, May 26th 2023)
  • Mens neohumanistica ambigua: German authors’ ambivalent sentiments towards Fascism and National Socialism. (Presentation in the course of the Latin Research Seminar of Lisa Cordes, Humboldt-University Berlin, June 13th 2023)
  • Anchoring the Classical Languages in National-Socialism – an Analysis of Compliance Patterns and Resistance Movements. (Presentation at the 17th OIKOS / Anchoring Innovation Expert Meeting, Arnhem, Nov. 17th 2023)
  • News from the Archive: Exploring the Life of Hermann Weller with Recently Discovered Materials. (Presentation at the international workshop The Roles of the Latin Language during Fascism and National Socialism, University of Vienna, March 22nd 2024)
  • Et Luciani quoque facetiis ac lepore capiuntur – Lukianischer Humor im Frühwerk von Erasmus von Rotterdam und Thomas Morus. (Evening lecture in the series Erasmus interdisziplinär by Thorsten Burkard and Christina Schaefer, University of Kiel, May 5th 2024)
  • Ovidium mihi proponebam quasi ducem atque magistrum. – Hermann Wellers lateinische Preisgedichte im Spiegel ovidischer Dichtung. (Conference: Das parallele Schicksal von Sanskrit und Latein. Hermann Weller (1878–1956). Tübinger Indologe und neulateinischer Dichter, organised by Heike Oberlin and Wolfgang Polleichtner, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, June 21st 2024)
  • Neo-Latin Literature during Italian Fascism and German National Socialism. (Online-Workshop: Teaching Neo-Latin: Texts, Materials, Didactic Challenges, organised by the Warburg Institute, the IANLS, the Society for Neo-Latin Studies, the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institut für neulateinische Studien, and the Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae, Oct. 10th 2024)
  • Voces tacitae clamare videntur – Latin as a Literary Refuge in the 20th Century? (Evening lecture in the CRASIS Ancient World Seminar, University of Groningen, Nov. 11th 2024)
  • The Uses of Latin in the 20th Century: Between Totalitarian Propaganda and Political Oppression. (Presentation at KU Leuven, Dec. 12th 2024)
  • Selbst- und Fremdinszenierung in der res publica litteraria: Eine Untersuchung von Zitationspraktiken der erasmischen Sprichwörtersammlungen im 16. Jahrhundert. (Conference of Die Neulateinische Gesellschaft: Die neulateinische Literatur im Zeitalter des Erasmus, University of Münster, Feb. 2nd 2025)
  • Texts of Tyranny – Untersuchungen zu den Funktionen der lateinischen Sprache im italienischen Faschismus und im deutschen Nationalsozialismus. (Presentation at the Conference Dux femina facti (Vergil, Aen. 1.364): Frauen*Netzwerk in der klassischen Philologie, Phillips-University of Marburg, March 21st 2025)
  • O pulcherrima voluptatum domina ebrietas – Humour, Wit and Social Satire in Early Modern Paradoxical Encomia on Drunkenness. (Presentation at the conference of the International Association of Neo-Latin Studies, Aix-en-Provence, July 16th 2025, and at the conference Ironic Encomia and Paradoxical Humour in the Early Modern Period, Frankfurt am Main, Sept. 4th 2025)
  • Idealizing Constructions of Greekness in Selected Writings of Daniel Heinsius. (Presentation at the conference Greek Heritage in European Culture and Identity, University of Cyprus in Nicosia, Oct. 24th 2025)

Contact

Postal Address

Dr. Katharina-Maria Schön
Institut für Griechische und Lateinische Philologie
Von-Melle-Park 6
20146 Hamburg

E-Mail

katharina-maria.schoen@uni-hamburg.de
katharina-maria.schoen@univie.ac.at

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