Thomas Rommel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Professor Dr. Thomas Rommel is the former Rector and Provost of Bard College Berlin, A Liberal Arts University, and served as Director of Programs at the American Academy in Berlin.

He received his doctorate and Habilitation in Literary Studies at the University of Tübingen and was Professor of Literature and coordinator of undergraduate and graduate programs in the Humanities at Jacobs University Bremen. He held visiting positions at Northern Arizona University, Columbia University in New York, Joensuu University, Finland, and Freie Universität Berlin. For ten years he was on the board of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, ALLC.

His research interests include 18th-century thought, Romanticism, and Liberal Arts education. He has written books on Lord Byron, on 18th-century literature and the history of ideas, and an introduction to the philosopher and economist Adam Smith. His other books deal with plagiarism, canonical literature, and the complexity of text-reader interaction. He is the author of numerous book chapters and articles and serves as co-editor of the series “Literatur – Kultur – Ökonomie / Literature – Culture – Economy” with Lang publishers.

In 2002 Rommel was the first-ever recipient of the Krupp College Teaching Award, and in 2003 he was awarded the “Bremer Kooperationspreis” with Bremen University. He was “Vertrauensdozent der Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes” and in this function mentored academically gifted students.