Document Actions

Dr. Isabella Maria Engberg

Isabella Maria Engberg.jpg
Isabella Maria Engberg.jpg
About me

I am a researcher in Comparative Literature with a background in German and English literature. My research interests lie at the intersection of Literature and the History of Science, with a particular focus on ecocritical perspectives in travel writing, speculative fiction (especially early science fiction), and the imaginative aspects of scientific texts from the nineteenth century. My PhD dissertation explored how nineteenth-century travel writing influenced ecological thought, analysing the intertextual connections between the travelogues of Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Darwin, and Ernst Haeckel, and how these authors balanced their sensual and scientific understandings of ecological relationships within the genre of travel writing. My postdoctoral research here in Gießen will focus on scientific creation stories in the long nineteenth century and the imagining of new modes of 'coming into being' that followed biological findings during this time. 

Originally from Denmark, I completed my MA (Hons) in German and English at the University of Aberdeen in 2020 before beginning my PhD in Comparative Literature at the same institution. I studied abroad at the University of Bonn from 2017 to 2018, and for my PhD research, I spent four months at the University of Jena conducting archival research at the Ernst-Haeckel-House under the Professorship of History and Philosophy of Life Sciences. In the summer of 2025, I was an affiliate and colloquium leader at the Institute for World Literature, Harvard University. 

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8044-5178

Contact

International PhD Programme (IPP) "Literary and Cultural Studies"

Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
Otto-Behaghel-Str. 12
35394 Giessen
Germany

Room 121

  • For IPP-related matters, particularly administrative, please contact the IPP-Team: ipp.
  • For queries related to my research or for IPP members seeking academic help or pastoral care, please contact:
    isabella.m.engberg or reach me on +49 (0) 641 99 300 55 (office telephone number).

NOTE: I am on maternity leave starting 05 November 2025 and will likely be back around September 2026. Please contact the IPP-Team or my replacement, Carolin Jesussek (carolin.jesussek), during this time. If related to my own research, please feel free to contact me via isabella.m.engberg; I will check my inbox once in a while and try to get back to you as soon as possible. 

Publications

Monograph 

  • (forthcoming, in press) Isabella Maria Engberg, Travelling Ecology: How Travel Writing Shaped Ecological Thought in Humboldt, Darwin, and Haeckel. Bloomsbury Academic.

Journal Articles

  • Isabella Maria Engberg, On the Scandalous Appeal of Ernst Haeckel's Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte (History of Creation, 1868), in: Frontiers of Narrative Studies (January 2026/11.2), 207–234.
  • Isabella Maria Engberg, The Discrepancies of the 'Anthropozoic Age' in Ernst Haeckel's Indische Reisebriefe, in: German Life and Letters (October 2023/74.4), 465-587.
  • Isabella Maria Engberg, Vegetarianism as a Mirror of Human Morality in the Speculative Worlds of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (1895) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman Herland (1915), in: Status Quaestionis (June 2023/24), 77-98.
  • Isabella Maria Engberg, Seeing the Monsters Beyond the Abyss: A Discussion of the Use of Voyage Narratives in Imaginary Representations of Geology, in: Elphinstone Review (UG Journal) (June 2020/6), 23-32.

Reviews

  • Isabella Maria Engberg, Review: Willmann, Rainer: Ernst Haeckel. Biologe, Künstler, Philosoph und Freidenker, Stuttgart 2023, in: H-Soz-Kult (20. September 2024).
  • Isabella Maria Engberg, Review: Wissenschaftler, Weltumsegler, Weltensammler: Rezension zum Buch: Weltensammeln. Johann Reinhold Forster und Georg Forster, in: Der Westpreuße (February 2021).

 

Presentations (selection)

  • Invitation. Seminar on Ernst Haeckel's Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte, Faculty of German, University Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France, 15.01.2026.
  • Invitation. 'Die Literarische Zirkulation von ökologischem Wissen in den Reiseberichten von Humboldt, Darwin und Haeckel'. Wissenschaftshistorischen Seminar der Leopoldina - Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften, Halle, Germany, 07.10.2025.
  • Invitation. 'The Narrative Interrelations of 'Early Ecology' in the Travel Writings of Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Darwin, and Ernst Haeckel', Environmental Humanities Workshop and Lecture Series, Würzburg University, Germany. 31.07.2025.
  • Conference/summer school. ‘On the Scandalous Appeal of Ernst Haeckel’s Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschiche [History of Creation]’, Institute for World Literature, Harvard University, 18.07.2025.
  • Conference. 'From Watercolour Sketches to Scenes of Environmental Concern: Ernst Haeckel's Portrayal of Ecological Relations in Indische Reisebriefe', Biennual Conference, International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPPSB), Toronto, Canada,  9.-15. July 2023
  • Invitation. 'Romantik - Empirie - Ökologie: Präsentation und Lesung aus Alexander von Humboldts Reisebericht'. 07. May 2023, Frühlingsfest, Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf, Germany.
  • Conference. 'The Discrepancies of the Anthropozoic Age in Ernst Haeckel's Indische Reisebriefe'. 6.-8. September 2023. Epochs, Ages, and Cycles: Time and the Environment, ASLE-UKI/University of Newcastle, England.
  • Seminar series. 'Travelling Ecology: The Environmental Imagionation in Naturalist Voyages from the Nineteenth Century'. 21. April 2022, Research Colloquium in the Ernst-Haeckel-Haus, Jena, Germany.
  • Conference. 'Tracing 'Global' Environmental Concerns in Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing: A Comparison of Alexander von Humboldts and Charles Darwin's Travel Accounts'. 18.-19. February 2022, Planetary Precairty and Future Habilability Conference, Challenging Precarity: A Global Network/ Bennett University, India.
  • Conference. 'Abort Mission: Alexander von Humboldt's Attempt to Climb Chimborazo in the Environmental Imagination'. 24.-26. June 2021, Crossing Thresholds - Women in German Studies 22nd Annual Conference, Women in German Studies/University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Research Interests

  • Comparative Literature (English, Scottish, German, and Scandinavian Literatures)
  • History of Science and Technology (particularly Geology and Biology/Ecology)
  • Environmental Humanities
  • The Long Nineteenth Century
  • Travel Writing
  • Speculative Fiction
Teaching

At JLU Gießen, I am currently not teaching any MA or BA courses. However, as a coordinator for the International PhD Programme (IPP) "Literary and Cultural Studies", I lead workshops in the IPP's research skills series (focusing on digitalisation in humanities research), organise and supervise at the IPP's research seminars (Kolloquien), and provide pastoral care for PhD students. Previously, at the University of Aberdeen, I have taught courses in English Literature (Fin de Siècle and Speculative Fiction), Modern German Language, and Modern German Culture (particularly on the nineteenth century). 

Memberships

  • EASCLE (European Association of the Study of Literature, Cuture, and the Environment)
  • DGAVL (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaften)
Other