![Professor Tim Mehigan](/sites/default/files/profiles/2673.jpeg)
Overview
Background
Tim Mehigan is Professor of German in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland.
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities (elected 2003) and former President of the German Studies Association of Australia (2003-2007). He was Humboldt Fellow at the University of Munich for two years in 1994 and 1995. In 2013 he was awarded the Research Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. In 2017 he was awarded the Fulbright Senior Scholarship.
From 2013 to 2022 Tim has held a guest appointment as Humboldt Prize Winner at the University of Bonn, Germany. In 2017-2018 he was Fulbright Research Fellow in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, USA. Previous appointments include Honorary Professor in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland in 2011-2012.
Tim’s work is focused on two key periods in German and European literary and intellectual history: on the one hand, the literature and philosophy of the time of Goethe and Kant, which is to say, the late 18th and early 19th century; on the other hand, the literature and philosophy of Austrian modernism in the first three decades of the 20th century.
Beyond such a focus, Tim is vitally interested in the connections that flow between literature and philosophy and has explored these in relation to writers such as Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) and Robert Musil (1880-1942) and topic areas such as the deployment of space in literature.
Tim has also recently edited two collections devoted to assessing the work of J.M. Coetzee (Camden House, 2011; Camden House, 2018) and published, with B. Empson, the first English translation of K.L. Reinhold’s major work of philosophy Versuch einer neuen Theorie des menschlichen Vorstellungsvermögens (Walter de Gruyter, 2011). Most recently, with Antonino Falduto (Ferrara), he has edited The Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Friedrich Schiller (Palgrave/Macmillan 2022).
Availability
- Professor Tim Mehigan is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Arts, University of Sydney
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Sydney
- Australian Academy of the Humanities, Australian Academy of the Humanities
Research interests
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German literature and philosophy from 1780; J.M Coetzee; ethics and hermeneutics
Research impacts
Tim's research has contributed significant new insights to the field of international German Studies. He has also been a contributor to the development of knowledge in the area of intellectual history especially in relation to "turning-point" moments around 1800 and 1900 when modern society defined itself in relation to the Enlightenment on the one hand and the second Scientific Revolution on the other. In recent work, Tim's research has contributed to the refinement of our understanding of the ethical life of human beings, first, by considering how ethics is a whole-of-human endeavour (in relation to the work of J.M. Coetzee), and second, by considering Friedrich Schiller's contribution to defining the role played by the emotions in ethical life. Most recently, also proceeding from Schiller, he has established research partnerships with education philosophers in order to update understandings of the role played by the literary humanities in human social development in secondary and tertiary education.
Works
Search Professor Tim Mehigan’s works on UQ eSpace
2011
Book Chapter
Der Donnerkeil des Mirabeau: Kleists Entdeckungen nach der Kant-Krise im Gebiete des Bewusstseins
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Der Donnerkeil des Mirabeau: Kleists Entdeckungen nach der Kant-Krise im Gebiete des Bewusstseins. Kleist. Relekturen. (pp. 271-288) edited by Branka Schaller and Roger Fornoff. Germany: Thelem.
2011
Book
Heinrich von Kleist: Writing after Kant
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Heinrich von Kleist: Writing after Kant. Rochester, N.Y., United States: Camden House.
2011
Book Chapter
The process of inferential contexts: Franz Kafka reading Heinrich von Kleist
Mehigan, Tim (2011). The process of inferential contexts: Franz Kafka reading Heinrich von Kleist. Heinrich Von Kleist: Writing After Kant. (pp. 196-226) edited by Tim Mehigan. Rochester, NY, United States: Boydell & Brewer.
2011
Book Chapter
Some thoughts on autopoiesis in view of Kant's "Copernican Turn" and Two Essays by Heinrich von Kleist
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Some thoughts on autopoiesis in view of Kant's "Copernican Turn" and Two Essays by Heinrich von Kleist. Groteske Moderne, moderne Groteske : Festschrift für Philip Thomson = Festschrift for Philip Thomson. (pp. 263-284) edited by Franz-Josef Deiters, Axel Fliethmann and Christiane Weller. Germany: Rohrig Universitatsverlag.
2011
Book Chapter
Introduction
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Introduction. A companion to the works of J.M. Coetzee. (pp. 1-8) edited by Tim Mehigan. Rochester, New York, USA: Camden House.
2011
Other Outputs
Karl Leonhard Reinhold: Essay on a new theory of the human capacity for representation: translated by Tim Mehigan and Barry Empson
Reinhold, Karl Leonhard , Mehigan, Tim and Empson, Barry (2011). Karl Leonhard Reinhold: Essay on a new theory of the human capacity for representation: translated by Tim Mehigan and Barry Empson. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.
2011
Book
A companion to the works of J. M. Coetzee
Tim Mehigan ed. (2011). A companion to the works of J. M. Coetzee. Studies in English and American literature, Linguistics, and Culture, Rochester, NY, United States: Camden House.
2011
Book Chapter
Introduction
Mehigan, Tim and Empson, Barry (2011). Introduction. Essay on a new theory of the human capacity for representation by Karl Leonhard Reinhold. (pp. ix-xxv) Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter.
2011
Book Chapter
Slow Man (2005)
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Slow Man (2005). A companion to the works of J.M. Coetzee. (pp. 192-207) edited by Tim Mehigan. Rochester, New York, USA: Camden House.
2010
Journal Article
Art, science and the idea of Europe
Mehigan, Tim (2010). Art, science and the idea of Europe. Arena Magazine (104), 42-47.
2010
Book Chapter
Robert Musil (1880-1942)
Mehigan, Tim (2010). Robert Musil (1880-1942). Praktizierte intermedialitat. (pp. 87-103) edited by Fernand Hörner, Harald Neumeyer and Bernd Stiegler. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag.
2010
Book Chapter
Legality as a "Fact of Reason": Heinrich von Kleist's concept of law, with special reference to Michael Kohlhaas
Mehigan, Tim (2010). Legality as a "Fact of Reason": Heinrich von Kleist's concept of law, with special reference to Michael Kohlhaas. Recht und Literatur. (pp. 153-169) edited by Bernhard Greiner, Barbara Thums and Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum. Heidelberg, Germany: Universitatsverlag Winter.
2008
Journal Article
'Aufklarung', freemasonry, the public sphere and the question of Enlightenment
Mehigan, Tim and De Burgh, Helene (2008). 'Aufklarung', freemasonry, the public sphere and the question of Enlightenment. Journal of European Studies, 38 (1), 5-25. doi: 10.1177/0047244107086798
2008
Book Chapter
Kleist und die Tiere. Zur Frage des ausgeschlossenen Dritten in dem Trauerspiel Penthesilea
Mehigan, Tim (2008). Kleist und die Tiere. Zur Frage des ausgeschlossenen Dritten in dem Trauerspiel Penthesilea. Penthesileas Versprechen: Exemplarische Studien über die literarische Referenz. (pp. 291-311) edited by Rüdiger Campe. Freiburg, Germany: Rombach Verlag.
2008
Book
Frameworks, artworks, place : the space of perception in the modern world
Tim Mehigan ed. (2008). Frameworks, artworks, place : the space of perception in the modern world. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi.
2008
Book Chapter
The space of perception
Mehigan, Tim (2008). The space of perception. Frameworks, artworks, place : the space of perception in the modern world. (pp. 7-26) edited by Tim Mehigan. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Rodopi.
2007
Edited Outputs
Seminar: a journal of Germanic studies. Special issue: image, body, text
Seminar: a journal of Germanic studies. Special issue: image, body, text. (2007). 43 (4)
2007
Journal Article
Image, body, text: Situating the new German studies
Mehigan, Timothy (2007). Image, body, text: Situating the new German studies. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, 43 (4), 379-384. doi: 10.3138/seminar.43.4.379
2007
Book Chapter
Literature and the theory of games: Kleist's Verlobung in St Domingo as an example
Mehigan, Tim (2007). Literature and the theory of games: Kleist's Verlobung in St Domingo as an example. In(ter)discipline: new languages for criticism. (pp. 188-198) edited by Gillian Beer, Malcolm Bowie and Beate Perrey. Hanover Walk, Leeds, United Kingdom: Legenda.
2007
Journal Article
Shaping space: Notes on the problem of space in art and philosophy
Empson, Barry and Mehigan, Tim (2007). Shaping space: Notes on the problem of space in art and philosophy. Double Dialogues (7).
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Tim Mehigan is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
J.G. Hamann's "Word": A Hermeneutist of the Cross
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Stephan Atzert
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Doctor Philosophy
Nihilism and Modernity: A Study of Nietzsche and St Velimirovic
Principal Advisor
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Doctor Philosophy
Feminist Affect - Reading for Love, Knowledge and Transcendence
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Lisa O'Connell
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Doctor Philosophy
The Ethical Search in the Works of JM Coetzee
Principal Advisor
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Doctor Philosophy
Investigating World-Centred Education: Subjectification, Teacher Remoralisation and the Role of Humanities
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Stephen Heimans
Completed supervision
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2020
Master Philosophy
Redemption in the Age of Secularity: Cormac McCarthy's Novel Suttree
Principal Advisor
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
Fluid boundaries: Hypnotism as science in late nineteenth-century France
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Peter Cryle
Media
Enquiries
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