![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
2000
Book Chapter
Amphitryon und das experimentum crucis des Gefuehls
Mehigan, Tim (2000). Amphitryon und das experimentum crucis des Gefuehls. Heinrich von Kleist und die Aufklärung. (pp. 113-126) edited by Tim Mehigan. Rochester, NY, United States: Boydell & Brewer.
1999
Book Chapter
Robert Musil 1880-1942: Vereinigungen. Zwei Erzählungen; Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften. Roman.; Nachlass zu Lezeiten
Mehigan, Tim (1999). Robert Musil 1880-1942: Vereinigungen. Zwei Erzählungen; Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften. Roman.; Nachlass zu Lezeiten. 20.Jahrhundert I. (pp. 323-332) edited by Frank R. Max and Christine Ruhrberg. Stuttgart, Germany: Phillip Reclam Jun.
1997
Book Chapter
Violent orders in Robert Musil's "Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften" and Thomas Bernhard's "Kalkwerk"
Mehigan, Tim (1997). Violent orders in Robert Musil's "Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften" and Thomas Bernhard's "Kalkwerk". War, Violence and the Modern Condition. (pp. 300-316) edited by Bernd Hüppauf. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110817256.300
1995
Journal Article
Moral und Verbrechen. Einige Gedanken uber Robert Musils intellektuelle Position
Mehigan, Tim (1995). Moral und Verbrechen. Einige Gedanken uber Robert Musils intellektuelle Position. Wirkendes Wort, 45 (2), 227-240.
1993
Journal Article
Whither Gernany? Or, nothing divides people more than unification
Mehigan, Tim (1993). Whither Gernany? Or, nothing divides people more than unification. Quadrant, 37 (11), 45-49.
1993
Journal Article
Eichendorff's Taugenichts; or, The social education of a private man
Mehigan, Tim (1993). Eichendorff's Taugenichts; or, The social education of a private man. The German Quarterly, 66 (1), 60-70. doi: 10.2307/408510
1990
Book
Literatur und Geschichte 1788-1988
Gerhard Schulz, Tim Mehigan and Marion Adams eds. (1990). Literatur und Geschichte 1788-1988. Australian and New Zealand studies in German language and literature, Bern, Germany: Peter Lang.
1989
Journal Article
Literature and language learning
Mehigan, Tim (1989). Literature and language learning. Vox (3), 54-56.
1988
Book
Text as contract: the nature and function of narrative discourse in the Erzahlungen of Heinrich von Kleist
Mehigan, Timothy J. (1988). Text as contract: the nature and function of narrative discourse in the Erzahlungen of Heinrich von Kleist. Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.
1988
Book Chapter
Straw persons and devil's advocacy
Mehigan, Tim (1988). Straw persons and devil's advocacy. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Goethe-Institut.
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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