is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Bern. Previously he was Junior Professor of Rhetoric at Freie Universität Berlin and visiting professor at the University of Chicago, California State University, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, and Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. His books include Shakespeare’s Self-Deconstruction (2001) and Post-Colonial Poetics (2004). He has edited several books of texts by Alexander von Humboldt and is currently directing the complete edition of Humboldt’s essays. His second research project documents international testimonies from Nazi Germany. He works collaboratively with neuroscientists to study experimental rhetoric, and with primatologists and ethnologists on a project called The Researcher’s Affects.