Sebastian Faber

Sebastian Faber joined the department in fall 2026. Previously, he earned a BA in German Literature/Philosophy and an MA in German Literature from Humboldt-Universität Berlin as well as an MSt in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford. Between 2021 and 2026, he was a member of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

Sebastian focuses on 18th- to early 20th-century German writing and its intellectual and social contexts. He also takes a broad interest in theory. Recently, he has worked on aspects of Wahrscheinlichkeit in G.E. Lessing, surprise in later 18th-century literature (Lessing, Beaumarchais, F. Burney), Goethe’s conception of taste, psychoanalytical accounts of the voice (Lacan, Dolar), Foucault’s late writings on the self, and anti-pedagogy in Rancière. At Princeton, he hopes to broaden his knowledge of early modern philosophy, learn more about the German-French intellectual exchange, and explore the question of what ethics is and how it relates to poetics.

Apart from the academic sphere, Sebastian has written and continues to write literary texts himself.