About

I'm glad you're here!

Have you ever been so captivated by something that you couldn't turn away from it?

Driven by inexhaustible curiosity and something my grandmother liked to fondly call “tenacity,” I devote myself academically above all to the fields of language, culture, and emotion, as well as their multifaceted interplay in the constitution of meaning. I see my professional responsibility above all in opening up spaces where we can unfold, grow, and learn from one another, both together and individually.

My academic journey began with Japanology, through which I became familiar with Japanese culture, language, and literature and developed a fascination for their mutual intertwining, which I later expanded to include the dimension of cognition (M.A.) and eventually emotion (PhD).

My linguistic research fields include, on the Japanese side, bunpō (Japanese grammar), bungo (classical Japanese), semantics, and Japanese writing systems and their development. Further research areas encompass cognitive linguistics and philosophy of language. I am currently investigating, within my dissertation, the extent to which emotions are interwoven with language and culture and what relevance they hold for the construction of meaning.

In my free time, which has admittedly become rather rare, I read and write — either for my dissertation or quite privately, just for myself, to let my mind unwind.

Two experiences that continue to shape my life in Japan to this day arose from encounters with extraordinary women:

1During my studies, in 2019 I had the opportunity to meet one of the last survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and to speak with her in the course of an interview. Her testimony was translated here.

2One winter, a Japanese palliative care patient also lent me her personal haiku collection, which became for me an emblem of beauty in the fleetingness of existence, and whose transcript I still keep to this day. One of her poems can be found further down on this page.

Would you tell me about your interests? Feel free to write to me about what moves you, what questions you bring, or simply who you are!