Dr Syamala Roberts
MA MPhil PhD
Research Fellow; Adviser to BAME Students; Director of Studies in Modern and Medieval Languages
Affiliated Lecturer in German (MMLL Faculty)
Biography
I grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and studied for my BA, MPhil and PhD degrees in Modern and Medieval Languages (French and German) at Jesus College, Cambridge. As a doctoral student, I was a visiting scholar at the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. I joined Emmanuel College in 2022 as a Teaching and Research Fellow in German. I am also an Affiliated Lecturer in German in the Faculty, contributing to teaching and examining across the MML Tripos and at MPhil level.
Teaching Interests
I teach German literature and culture from the eighteenth century to the present, including philosophy, intellectual history, and Film (Papers Ge1, Ge5, Ge6, Ge12). I also teach translation at all levels of the undergraduate course. Undergraduates and MPhil students interested in research and translation projects (e.g. module essays, Year Abroad Projects, optional dissertations) in the following areas are welcome to contact me:
• Literature, film, visual culture (esp. 20th century)
• Modernist writing in German, esp. Kafka, Rilke, Benjamin, Walser, Mann
• Media studies (especially aural culture/sound); Performance
• Women writers and artists
• Postcolonial and Decolonial German Studies
I also sit on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee in the MMLL Faculty. Together with Dr Saite Lu, I am an Advisor on Ethnic, Racial and Minority Affairs at Emmanuel College. Dr Lu and I can be contacted by any student wishing to discuss matters pertaining to ethnicity, diversity and inclusion in the College.
Research
I am currently writing a book based on my doctoral research on hearing and listening in German modernist literature. It explores a wide range of material from modernist writers such as Rilke, Kafka, Walter Benjamin and Robert Walser, as well as modern critical theory on the philosophy of listening. The book considers how hearing and listening are conceptualised, represented and enacted in the medium of text, and also investigates the implications of aural cultural shifts in contemporary life and politics.
My publications include an article on contour, sculpture and atmosphere in Rilke and Mann, and (in German) on writer’s block and wasting time in Kafka’s writings. In 2024, which marked the 100th anniversary of Franz Kafka’s death, I’ve enjoyed preparing papers on Kafka’s life and work for presentation in Oxford, Berlin, Prague and Hong Kong. These explore: (mis)hearing and the law in The Trial; stage and screen performances of ‘A Report to an Academy’; Kafka’s colonies on stage and on trial; and on the ‘elastic’ forms of Kafka’s letters to Milena Jesenská.
My next research project develops my interests in modernism, media and the senses by studying the aesthetics and cultural politics of Indo–German modernism from 1890 until National Socialism. It considers the shifting uses and perceptions of Indian culture during a period of tumultuous transition in German history alongside the influence of German ideas and culture in pre–independent India, based on cultural sources (literary texts, film, audio and visual culture).
I review books within my areas of specialism/contribute to peer review for: New German Critique, Germanic Review, Oxford German Studies and Austrian Studies. Editors with enquiries of this kind are welcome to contact me by email.