Research

• Anglophone literature(s) and spirituality
• Interdisciplinarity (interdisciplinary approaches to mystical texts through the psychology of consciousness and theology)
• The late medieval English mystics (Julian of Norwich, The Cloud-author, Walter Hilton, Margery Kempe)
• The Metaphysical Poets (Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan, Marvell, Traherne)
• Contemporary Irish literature (women writers)
• Australian Aboriginal literature and culture

Teaching

• English Literature from the Late Middle Ages to the Restoration
• Shakespeare, Marlowe 
• The Metaphysical Poets
• Witchcraft and Witchcraft Plays in Early Modern and Jacobean England
• Coping with Death and Bereavement as a Theme in English Literature from the Middle Ages to the Present
• Contemporary Irish fiction
• Features of "Irishness" in 20th c. and 21st. c. Irish literature and film
• Environmental literature from various periods and cultural contexts
• Interdisciplinary approaches to Australian Aboriginal Literature and Culture
• Cross-Cultural encounters as a theme in Anglophone Literatures
• English literature for teachers and teaching (in the ESL classroom)
• Teachers and teaching methods featuring in contemporary English narrative literature

Publications (Selection)      

• "A Multidisciplinary Approach to Spiritual Literature: Some Theoretical Considerations and Practical Examples". In: Kaenel, A. et. al., eds. Questioning Interdisciplinarity in English Studies. Nancy: Nancy UP, 2010. pp. 131-147.
• Psychologie Mystischer Erfahrung in der Religiösen Lyrik Englands im 17. Jh. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2003. (pp. 498)
• Thomas Traherne: The Growth of a Mystic's Mind. Salzburg: Salzburg Studies in English Literature, 1982.
• "Zur Phänomenologie des Geistlichen Schlafs in der Englischen Mystik des Spätmittelalters." In: Haug, Walter und Schneider-Lastin, Wolfram, eds. Deutsche Mystik im Abendländischen Zusammenhang. Tübingen, Niemayer, 2000. Pp. 725-748.
• "The Cloud of Unknowing: A Late Medieval Example of Apophatic Spiritual Guidance." Studies in Spirituality (Louvain, Belgium), 7 (1997), 113-44.
• "Face to Face with the Indescribable, Inexplicable, the Isness: Intimate Relationships with the Divine in William Golding's The Paper Men." In: Fingering Netsukes. Selected Papers from the First International William Golding Conference, 10-12 Sept.  1993, St. Etienne, France. Ed.  Frédéric Regard. St. Etienne: Faber & Faber, 1995. 151-181.
• "John Wyclif." In: Die Ketzer. Holl, Adolf, ed. Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe, 1994. 80-92.
• "Aspekte der Englischen Frauenmystik im späten 14. und frühen 15. Jahrhundert." In: Dinzelbacher, Peter; Dieter Bauer, eds. Frauenmystik im Mittelalter. Ostfildern: Schwabenverlag, 1985. 314-40. (2nd ed. 1990).
• "An Approach to the Mystographical Treatises of the Cloud-Author Through Carl Albrecht's Psychology of Mystical Consciousness." In: Marion Glasscoe, Ed. The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1984. 116-35.
• "The Doctrine of Original Sin and the Idea of Man's Perinatal Intimations of the Divine in the Work of Thomas Traherne." Wiener Beiträge zur Englischen Philologie, 79 (1984), 89-106.

Work in Progress

• "Recent Behaviourist Approaches to Mystical Experience and the Heuristic Function of the Humanities in the Future Study of Spirituality". (Paper presented at the University of Nice, 10 June, 2011; to be published in 2012)
• Edition of selected papers read at the Conference "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Spirituality in the Literatures of the English Speaking World, Vienna July 6-9, 2009"; will be published by Vienna UP early in 2012 (Joint-Editor John S. Bak, University of Nancy 2, France).

Convener of Conference

• "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Spirituality in the Literatures of the Engish Speaking World" - International Conference, Vienna July 6-9, 2009 (English Department, Universitätscampus) - convened in cooperation with the English Department of the University of Nancy (France) http://anglistik.univie.ac.at/conferences

CV

• 1977 Mag. phil. (English, Psychology, Philosophy, Pedagogy)
• 1977-78 Lecturer, German Department University of Lancaster, England
• 1978-2000 Assistant and Lecturer at the Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, University of Vienna
• 1982 Ph.D. (English Literature) Vienna
• 1999 Assistant Professor, permanent tenure
• 2001 Habilitation, venia docendi; areas: English Literature and Cultural Studies 
• from 2002 to date: associate professor (ao. Univ. Prof.), Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, University of Vienna