Dr. Keppler-Tasaki has been an Associate Professor of Modern German Literature at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Faculty of Letters since 2012. Before joining the University of Tokyo, he was an Assistant Professor and a Junior Professor for Modern German Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB). He is an affiliated researcher at FUB’s cluster of excellence “Temporal Communities: Doing Global Literature” and at the “Migration and Aesthetics” project of the University of California, Davis.   

His work examines designs of individual and collective identity in literature as well as cultural connections between Germany, Japan and the United States. Focusing on the writings of Goethe and on German exile literature, he is guided particularly by intellectual history and is strongly committed to the Humboldtian ideal of a unity in teaching and research (Einheit von Forschung und Lehre).

He authored four books, edited and co-edited ten other books and is a co-founder of the book series “Weltliteraturen / World Literatures” at De Gruyter, “Rezeptionskulturen” at Königshausen & Neumann and “Asia, Europe, and Global Connections” at Routledge. Recent distinctions include an Einstein Visiting Fellowship of the Einstein Foundation Berlin and a Thomas Mann Fellowship of the German federal government.

Research Interests: Goethe, Rainer Maria Rilke, Thomas Mann, Alfred Döblin, Bertolt Brecht, German literature in California, Goethe in Japan, intellectual history, discourses of identity