Dr Karolina Watroba

Lecturer in German Studies

Biography

Background

I joined the University of Edinburgh in 2025. Previously I was a Fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford (2019-2024) and a Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala (2024-2025).

Qualifications

I went to school in Krakow, Poland. I then moved to the UK and studied at the University of Oxford, where I completed a BA in German (2011-2015), with a Year Abroad studying Swedish and Spanish at the Humboldt-Universität and European Studies at the Studienkolleg zu Berlin (2013-2014, funded by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes); MSt in German and Comparative Literature (2015-2016, funded by an Ertegun Scholarship); DPhil (PhD) in Modern Languages (2016-2019, funded by a Clarendon Scholarship); and a PGCert in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2021-2022, leading to accreditation as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy/Advance HE).

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Research summary

I research modern literature, film, and culture, specialising in European modernism and its global reception and continuing relevance today. I work across several languages, including German, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Korean.

My first book, "Mann's Magic Mountain: World Literature and Closer Reading" (Oxford: OUP, 2022), is the first study of Thomas Mann's landmark German modernist novel "Der Zauberberg" ("The Magic Mountain", 1924) that takes as its starting point the interest in Mann's book shown by non-academic readers, moving from interwar Germany and Soviet Russia to present-day Hollywood and Japan, and beyond.

My second book, "Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka" (London: Profile, 2024), aims to introduce this reader-oriented approach to a wider audience. It is an unconventional biography which tells Kafka's story through the stories of his readers around the world, focusing on Oxford, Berlin, Prague, Jerusalem, and Seoul.

I have also written on a range of other topics, including the afterlife of the Weimar-era German mountain film in contemporary Canadian cinema, Latin American responses to Alexander von Humboldt's journey around 1800, Navid Kermani's writings on Eastern Europe, uses of culture in times of crisis, and the new global novel.  

  • British Academy Talent Development Award, for project 'Kafka in Korea: Case Study for Diversifying Modern Languages' (2023-24)
  • Waterloo Centre for German Studies Book Prize Finalist, for first-time authors whose scholarly work provides a substantial contribution to our understanding of any aspect of German-speaking society (2023)
  • Durham University Ann Moss Early Career Keynote Lecture Competition Winner, for 'early achievements [which] have already made significant impact on the field' and 'innovative questions and new pathways of thinking about the future of Modern Languages' (2023)
  • Polish Studies Association Aquila Polonica Prize Honourable Mention, for the best English-language articles published during the previous two years on any aspect of Polish Studies (2023)
  • American Comparative Literature Association Horst Frenz Prize, for the best paper presented by a graduate student at its annual meeting (2018)
  • American Comparative Literature Association Presidential Master's Prize, for the best master's paper (2017)
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