Dr Syamala Roberts

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Modern Languages at All Souls College, specialising in German and Comparative literature, audio/visual culture, and critical theory. My book Conceptions of Hearing in German Modernist Culture is forthcoming with Legenda in 2027. It explores the 'aural imaginary' of German modernist writers and artists including Rilke, Kafka, Benjamin, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Robert Walser and Thomas Mann.

I am now working on a second book, Leading to India, about the meeting of German-language modernism with the culture of the Indian subcontinent in literary writing, film and cultural spaces, c. 1890-1945.  

I was raised in Belfast (Northern Ireland) in a South Indian family and maintain an interest in Irish and Northern Irish writing, culture and politics, especially with regard to post-migrant culture.

Prior to my fellowship at All Souls, I held a fellowship at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, where I was Director of Studies for students of Modern and Medieval Languages. As someone who first encountered German at school, I am passionate about teaching and disseminating German literature, culture and language, and enjoy teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level for the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at Oxford.