Dr Ian Roberts
Lecturer in German, Director of German Studies
BA (Hons), PhD (Wales)
Contact Details
- Email: igr2@le.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0)116 252 3879
- Office: 1107
- Subject: German
Biography
Ian Roberts joined Leicester in September 2007 having previously taught at the University of Exeter, Britannia Royal Naval College (Dartmouth), and the University of Mainz. He gained his PhD in 1995 from the University of Wales Swansea, with a thesis on the post-war West German author Wolfdietrich Schnurre.
Ian’s interest in post-war fiction has continued, particularly examining accounts of the war and portrayals of the German soldier in literature. In recent years he has also focused on the field of German cinema, particularly Weimar film, and has published articles on the classic Expressionist film Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (Wiene, 1920), and F. W. Murnau, who directed such classics as Nosferatu (1922). He is currently conducting research on Murnau's early career as preparation for a monograph, and is preparing an article on contemporary German cinematic responses to the Afghanistan conflict.
Ian is married, with two children. He is a member of a local church and helps run a Boys’ Brigade company there. He is a keen hillwalker, and confesses to an almost anorak-like obsession with model railways!
Research Student Supervision
Current areas of research include:
- Weimar cinema and the career of influential director F. W. Murnau.
- Cultural responses (particularly cinematic) to Germany's involvement in the "War on Terror".
Dr Roberts can offer supervision in any area of German cinema, the period of the Weimar Republic, or in the fiction of the post-war West German ‘Stunde Null’.
Teaching and Administration
Administration:
- Webmaster for the School of Modern Languages website.
Teaching:
- Translation 5 & 6
- Thematic Approaches to Contemporary German Cinema
- The Weimar Republic: Experiment in Democracy
Recent Publications
'Alraune', 'Frau im Mond', 'Metropolis' in Peter Wright (ed.) The Critical Companion to Science Fiction Film Adaptations (Liverpool University Press, forthcoming 2011).
'Tinker, Tailor, Nazi, Sailor: Stereotypes of German Combatants in Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot' in B. Haines & S. Parker (eds) Aesthetics and Politics in Modern German Culture (Lang, 2010).
