Rate My Professor Stefan Hulfeld

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Hulfeld serves as Professor of Theatre and Cultural Studies in the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies within the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna. Born on March 22, 1967, in Switzerland, he is a distinguished theatre scholar who completed his foundational studies in German studies, philosophy, and Latin at the University of Bern, followed by advanced studies in theatre studies at the same institution. Hulfeld gained practical experience in theatre production in Berlin, Graz, and Avignon. He received his doctorate summa cum laude in 1999 and achieved his habilitation in 2006 with the thesis titled Theatergeschichtsschreibung als kulturelle Praxis: Wie Wissen über Theater entsteht. Appointed to his current professorship in October 2006, he has held significant administrative roles, including Head of the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies from October 2012 to September 2014 and Vice-Dean for Research in the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies from October 2012 to September 2016.

Hulfeld's academic interests center on theatre historiography, theatre theory and aesthetics, comedy and humour, acting and gesticulation, commedia dell'arte, grotesqueness in the arts, narrative structures in theatre, film, and media, professional acting companies, and cultural phenomena in European theatre history, such as performances during the 1848 Vienna revolution and spa town theatre seasons. He has directed funded research projects, including "Herausbildung eines deutschen Theaters" from 2015 to 2018 and "Staatsaktionen" from 2010 to 2013. Among his major publications are the monograph Theatergeschichtsschreibung als kulturelle Praxis (Chronos, Zürich, 2007), Zähmung der Masken, Wahrung der Gesichter: Theater und Theatralität in Solothurn 1700-1798 (Chronos, Zürich, 2000), and co-authored Bertolt Brecht und die Schweiz (Chronos, Zürich, 2003). He edited the bilingual edition Scenari più scelti d’istrioni (Vienna University Press, 2014) and co-edited Theaterhistoriographie: Kontinuitäten und Brüche in Diskurs und Praxis (Francke, Tübingen, 2007). Notable contributions include "Modernist Theatre" in The Cambridge Companion to Theatre History (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and recent chapters such as "Theaterhistoriografie" in Theater und Tanz: Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Studium (Nomos, 2023) and "Angenehme Abwechslung in dem Kranze verschiedenartiger Genüsse": Die Kurtheatersaison des Sommers 1855 in Ischl und Pyrmont" in Die Kurstadt als urbanes Phänomen (Böhlau, 2023).