Dr. Anke Pinkert

Biography

Anke Pinkert is a scholar of modern German literature, film, and culture, with a focus on memory studies and social activism. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has held teaching positions in the United States and Germany, including at the University of Chicago, Macalester College, and the University of Leipzig. Pinkert is a Professor in the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures and holds positions in the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center and the Program in Jewish Culture & Society, as well as in the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. She is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary Initiative on Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Illinois, established in 2009, and currently serves as a Director's Fellow at the Humanities Research Institute. Her research and teaching focus on major themes such as memory studies, particularly in post-Holocaust and post-communist Germany, analyzing aesthetic and political responses to collective trauma and loss. Her notable works include 'Memory and Film in East Germany' (Indiana University Press, 2008) and her forthcoming book, 'Remembering 1989: Future Archives of Public Protest' (University of Chicago Press, 2024). Pinkert’s current research project, 'Memory Ecologies', investigates the implications of forced migration.

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