She received her M.A. from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, and her Ph.D. from Hamburg University. She lives in Oberlin, OH and has been teaching at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, since 1992. Her publications include exile studies ("Augenzeuge der Wahrheit" [Eye Witness of the Truth], a comprehensive intellectual biography of the Jewish writer/physician Martin Gumpert, 1998), contemporary literature, women’s literature, and comparative studies of the representation of animals in contemporary literature. Her translations from German into English of contemporary women writers focus in particular on the acclaimed Hamburg author Brigitte Kronauer and include two books ("Constructs of Desire," selections from Kronauer's short stories, novels, and critical essays with introductions, 2009; and "Women and Clothes," a collection of her short stories, 2011).