Dr Niklas Fischer [press n]
I am interested in how we use language to make ourselves understood, and I approach this question from different angles:I completed my BA and MA in English and German at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and hold a PhD in English from the University of Sydney. I was the recipient of a Swiss National Science Foundation post-doctoral research grant from 2020 to 2021 and have been teaching English literature at the University of Fribourg since 2019. My interests span modernism, contemporary literature, sound studies, and literary stylistics. I currently am working on a monograph on E.M. Forster that brings together these interests in an investigation of the historical and contemporary appeal of Forster’s particular style.
I have been working as a translator and editor since 2018 with an emphasis on literature as well as academic and journalistic texts relating to the arts and contemporary technology. My translation philosophy is based on a paradox every multilingual speaker experiences sooner or later: to reproduce the meaning of something in another language often means to say it (almost) completely differently. This provides opportunities for creatively exploring the gap between languages.
I have been teaching tutorials and courses in English language and literature at all levels (high school, higher education, continuing education) in Australia and Switzerland since 2012. I am particularly interested in making complicated ways of writing and speaking accessible to students. I pursue a discussion-centred approach in a welcoming and respectful atmosphere. Group work and hands-on exercises constitute core elements of my teaching philosophy.
I discuss my thoughts on teaching in more detail in an interview with Unimix, the University of Fribourg's radio station, conducted in November 2022.