Esther Schomacher currently holds the position of guest professor for Italian Literature at the Institute for Romance Literatures and Languages at Humboldt-University of Berlin. Previously she worked as an associate professor for Italian Literature at Ruhr-Universität Bochum University and for Cultural Studies and Cultural Analysis at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen. Her research focuses on relations between literature and sciences, especially economics, on media theory, political theory, and historical Gender Studies. Jan Söffner holds the chair for Cultural Theory and Cultural Analysis at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, where he also worked as Vice President for Teaching from 2018 to 2021. Jan earned his PhD in Italian Studies and his 'Habilitation' (second, post-doctoral dissertation) in Comparative Literature and Romance Studies. From 1999 to 2007, he was a research associate at the Department of Romance Studies at the University of Cologne; and from 2008 to 2010 he worked on the research project Emotion and Motion at the Centre for Literary and Cultural Research (Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung) in Berlin.