Prof. Dr. Thomas Elsaesser

Thomas Elsaesser studied English literature and comparative literature at Heidelberg University and the University of Sussex. He went on to work as a film critic in London and publish the international film magazine Monogram, after which he taught European Romanticism and Literary Modernism in Comparative Literature starting in 1972 at the University of East Anglia. In 1976, he created the ­institution’s film studies programme and served as its ­director until 1986 while also leading its masters’ and doctoral programmes in ‘Cinema’ from 1980 to 1991.

Elsaesser was then called to the University of Amsterdam, where he built the first film and television studies programme in the Netherlands (currently the ­media and culture department), serving as its director from 1991 to 2001. From 2001 to 2008, he worked as a research professor at the University of Amsterdam. Since being conferred the status of Professor Emeritus in 2008, he has held guest professorships at Yale University (2006-2012) and Columbia University (since 2013).