University of Cologne to recruit two new Alexander von Humboldt Professors

Professor Kate Rigby and Professor Jan Karlseder have been selected by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for the 'Alexander von Humboldt Professorship - International Award'. The University of Cologne, which nominated them, is currently engaged in appointment negotiations with the literary scholar and the biologist. If the negotiations are successful, Rigby will become professor of 'Environmental Humanities' at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and Karlseder will become professor of 'Telomere Metabolism in Aging and Cancer Initiation' at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. With Rigby and Karlseder, the number of AvH professorships at the University of Cologne would increase from six to eight. Professor Kate Rigby from Bath Spa University (UK) and the University of Monash (AUS) will be awarded the 3.5-million-euro prize in 2022 if the appointment negotiations are successful. Kate Rigby is one of the leading international scholars in the field of interdisciplinary environmental research in the humanities, and currently heads the Research Centre for Environmental Humanities at Bath Spa University. Her interdisciplinary research combines literary and cultural studies, ethnographic approaches to ecology, religion and resilience, and historically and scientifically informed work on environment and climate.