• Animals in literature and philosophy
• Theories and representations of emotions
• Shipwrecks in literature, art, and philosophy

I have been teaching as Adjunct Professor of Modern Literatures in English and Comparative Literature at the University of Zurich since 1998. My work has developed from 18^th- and 19^th-century literary studies with a PhD dissertation on Fragmentation by Decree: Coleridge and the Text of Romanticism (1990) and Habilitation thesis on Joint Ventures: Authorship, Translation, Plagiarism (2003) to cultural studies, in which the relationship between science and the humanities have become my primary focus. From 2004 to 2009 I was Associate Fellow at the Collegium Helveticum, an institute for advanced study supported by ETH Zurich and the University.

Prior to my position at UZH, I was Visiting Scholar at Cornell University (1988/89) and Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University (1989 to 1994), where I also served on the editorial board of MLN. Outside of academia I served as Rektor and CEO of an international boarding school, Hochalpines Institut / Institut otalpin Ftan in the Engadin (1992 to 1996), followed by a professional career in the financial services sector until my retirement in 2023.