Academic Interests
Brand-new publication (March 2026)
En plads i solen. Den tyske livsreformbevægelses kulturhistorie. With Adam Paulsen, in Danish (Aarhus: Turbine 2026). Link.
- [DE: "Ein Platz an der Sonne. Eine Kulturgeschichte der deutschen Lebensreformbewegung"/ ENG: "A Place in the Sun: The Cultural History of the German Life Reform Movement"]
- We are available for talks and public lectures across Germany and Scandinavia
Early modernist with an academic background in Comparative Literature. I have been a visiting researcher at the universities of York, Oxford, Heidelberg, Munich, and Barcelona. Specific areas of published research:
- Early modern Spanish literature (Calderón; Lope de Vega; Cervantes; desengaño; Salas Barbadillo)
- The history of the metaphor of the theatrum mundi
- The Trauerspiele of Lohenstein and Gryphius
- The transnationality and genre theory of early modern historical drama
- The theory and history of the picaresque
- Intellectual history and the novel in Germany and Denmark in the 20th century. (currently only published in Danish)
I available for public lectures and talks across Scandinavia. See possible topics and past talks here.
Research under preparation:
HISTORIES. Early Modern Historical Drama 1550-1650. Ed. Sofie Kluge og Rasmus Vangshardt. (Submitted to De Gruyter Brill. Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe Series).
"Efterskrift." I Henrik Pontoppidan, De Dødes Rige. Henrik Pontoppidans store romaner. København: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab, 2026.
Background
2026 – now. Professor, University of Oslo. Comparative Literature.
2025 – 2026. Associate Professor, University of Oslo. Comparative Literature
2025 – 2023. Junior Research Fellow, University of Oxford. Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages/Linacre College
2023 – 2021. Postdoc, University of Southern Denmark. Comparative Literature
2021 – 2018. PhD Fellow, University of Southern Denmark. Centre for Medieval Literature
2016. MA, Comparative Literature, University of Copenhagen. (Exchange: Universität Mannheim and Frei Universität Berlin)
2011. BA, Philosophy, University of Copenhagen
International Research Stays (Full Terms)
Universitat de Barcelona, Departament de Filologia Catalana y Lingüística. Fall of 2022.
LMU-München, Institut für deutsche Philologie. Fall of 2021
University of Oxford, Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages. Fall of 2020
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Romanisches Seminar. Fall of 2019
University of York, Department of English and Related Literatures. Fall of 2018
Publications
Monographs
En plads i solen. Den tyske livsreformbevægelses kulturhistorie. With Adam Paulsen, in Danish (Aarhus: Turbine 2026). Link.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the World Theatre in Early Modern Europe: The Theatrum Mundi of Celebration (Berlin/Kalamazoo: De Gruyter & MiP, 2024). Link.
Livets febrile hemmeligheder. Et litterært slægtskab mellem Henrik Pontoppidan og Thomas Mann (Hellerup: Spring, 2017). (2nd ed. 2019). Link.
Edited Volumes
HISTORIES. Early Modern Historical Drama 1500-1700. Ed. Sofie Kluge og Rasmus Vangshardt (Submitted to De Gruyter Brill).
Polyfemos. Festschrift in Honour of Christian Høgel. Red. Jonas Christensen, Lærke Andersen, Rasmus Vangshardt (Copenhagen: Atalante, 2024).
Det historiske blik. Ed. Ulla Kallenbach, Sofie Kluge & Rasmus Vangshardt (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2021).
Kontinuitet og radikalisme. Studenterkredsen og teologien i det 20. århundrede. Ed. Kristoffer Garne og Rasmus Vangshardt (Copenhagen: Vartov, 2013).
Journal Articles
“Bedre ikke at være blevet født? Den silenske visdom som transhistorisk litterært topos.” Norsk Litteraturvitenskapeligt Tidsskrift (2026) [In Press]
“Crisis y teatralidad picaresca en El subtil cordobés Pedro de Urdemalas de Salas Barbadillo.” Edad de Oro 45 (2026): 111-123. https://doi.org/10.15366/edadoro2026.45.005
“Fury and the Antitheatrical Prejudice: The Violent Power of Play-Acting in the Cervantine Picaresque.” Orbis Litterarum 81(1) (2026): 11-26. https://doi.org/10.1111/oli.12492
“Sacred Disillusions: The Challenge of Ambiguous desengaño in Early Modern Spain.” Neophilologus 109(3) (2025): 317–333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-025-09847-x
“Ruins of Empire or Tears of Joy? An Intersection of History and the Bible in Lope de Vega’s Religious Comedias.” Journal of the Bible and its Reception, vol. 11, no 2. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2023-0013
“Epilogue: Reflections on Historical Comparativism Prompted by the Case of Sophonisba” (with David Zirak-Schmidt, Anastasia Larn, Sofie Kluge), in Nordic Journal of Renaissance Studies, vol. 20 (2023).
“Suns and Reversals on Lohenstein’s Early Modern Schauplatz.” Medievalia et Humanistica. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, vol. 48, no. 1 (2023). https://doi.org/10.5771/9781538177860-83
“The loa to El gran teatro del mundo Reconsidered.” Bulletin of the Comediantes, vol. 72, no. 2 (2020).
“Coherence and the Longing for Modernity in Literary Historiography, or: Why History and Historicism Are Two Things.” Res Cogitans, vol. 14, no. 2 (2020).
”Hård sentimentalisme og seksualiseret middelalder i Tom Kristensens ’En Kavaler i Spanien.’” European Journal of Scandinavian Studies, vol. 50, no. 1 (2020).
“Antonio’s Sadness in the Stoic theatrum mundi of the Early Modern City.” Orbis Litterarum, vol. 74. no. 4 (2019).
Translations and Editions
Stefan Zweig, Legender. Introduction by Rasmus Vangshardt. Translation Lone Østerlind (Aarhus: Turbine, 2022).
Stefan Zweig, Skaknovelle og andre fortællinger. Selection and introduction by Rasmus Vangshardt. Translation Lone Østerlind (Aarhus: Turbine, 2021).
Eduard Thurneysen: Dostojevskij. Translation and notes by Rasmus Vangshardt. Postscript by Bent Flemming Nielsen og Rasmus Vangshardt (Frederiksberg: Multivers, 2021)
Academic Reviews
Jacobo de Camps, Walter Benjamin’s Calderón: Literary Criticism and the Baroque, Legenda 2025 in Modern Language Review, vol. 121(3) (2026), pp. 453-455. http://doi.org/10.1353/mlr.00213
Karen-Margrethe Simonsen, Slavery and the Forensic Theatricality of Human Rights in the Spanish Empire, Palgrave Macmillan/Springer 2023 in Passage, vol. 92 (2024), pp. 150-154. https://doi.org/10.7146/pas.v39i92.152568
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, El gran teatro del mundo. Ed. Ignacio Arellano. Estudio preliminar de Enrique Rull y Ana Suárez (Kassel: Reichenberger, 2021) in Bulletin of the Comediantes, vol. 74. no. 1-2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1353/boc.2022.a927767
John A. Hall, Ove Korsgaard og Ove K. Pedersen (red.), Building the Nation. N.F.S. Grundtvig and Danish National Identity (Copenhagen: Djøf Forlag, 2015) in Danske studier (2015).
Book Chapters
”Fosseguder og åndelyde fra Island – træk af det naturhistorisk-poetiske” i Genklang Tanker til nutiden hos Martin A. Hansen (København: Fønix, 2025).
“Fromme udskejelser? Thomas Manns muntre middelalderismer” i Polyfemos. Festschrift in Honour of Christian Høgel (København: Atalante, 2024).
”Uro i Johannes Weltzers frokoststue. Om angst og ekspressionisme i mellemkrigstidens København” in Ehlers Dam og Floris Christensen (eds.), Angst i dansk litteratur (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2023).
”Det bølgende hav og den oceaniske ro. To bevægelser i europæisk litteraturhistorie” in Rathjen og Thøstesen (eds.) Havets mysterier (Esbjerg: Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseet, 2023).
“Kunstens frihed og historiens ophør. Tilfældene Strauss” i Paulsen & Møller-Gøttcke (eds.), Identitetspolitik, litteratur og kunstens autonomi (Sorø: U Press 2022).
”Sammenhæng og modernitetslængsel i litteraturhistorien, eller: Historie og historisme er to ting” in Kallenbach et al. (eds.), Det historiske blik (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2021).
”’Livets onde Strid. Silénsk visdom i Henrik Pontoppidans De Dødes Rige” in Erik Skyum-Nielsen (ed.), Liget der blev oppe på jorden. Nietzsche-receptionen i Norden (Hellerup: Spring, 2020).
”Vikingenaturens svaghed. Kvinders vitalistiske frelsestilbud hos Harald Kidde og Henrik Pontoppidan” in Bugge og Herman (eds.), Moder, søster, elskte. Frelsende kvindeskikkelser i dansk litteratur (København: Eksistensen, 2019).
”Der må ikke gå lyrik i mennesket. Om Henrik Pontoppidans Mands Himmerig” in Pontoppidaniana. III. Række, II. Bind (Pontoppidan-selskabet, 2019).
”’Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta.’ Profan opstandelse i Lykkelige Kristoffer” in Jørgen Jørgensen (ed.), For folkets frihed. Martin A. Hansen og besættelsen (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2018).
”Verdensteatret og vi, de moderne” in Hjortkjær & Nørkjær (eds.), SLØK. Perspektivforskydninger (Aarhus: Klim, 2016).
”Livet er en flytfodstilværelse. Om Jørgen Bukdahls eksistenstænkning” in Else Marie Bukdahl (ed.), Jørgen Bukdahls skrifter og tanker. Essays og bibliografi (Copenhagen: Billedkunstskolernes Forlag, 2015).
”Askov-kritikken. Jens Kruuse og Jørgen Bukdahl” in Garne & Nord (eds.), Efter Georg. Virkningshistoriske livtag med brandesianismen (Aarhus: Munch & Lorenzen, 2015)
Recent and Selected Papers
“Theatrum europaeum: Barokkens verdensteater mellem pessimisme og dagenes pris.” Tilværelsen mellem menneskelig tragedie og guddommelig komedie. Aarhus Universitet. 15. nov. 2025
“He was my friend: Shakespearean Friendship between Love, Stoicism, and Pessimism.” The Seminar The Relevance of Friendship. Literary and Philosophical Approaches to Friendship. CUNP – Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris. 13 June 2025
“Fury and the Antitheatrical Prejudice: The Violent Power of Play-Acting in the Cervantine Picaresque.” Spanish Research Seminar, University of Oxford. 4 Dec 2024.
“The Limits of Crisis: New Paradigms for the Literary Study of 17th Century Europe.” The Linacre Lecture Series, University of Oxford. 29 Oct 2024.
“Experiencias de crisis, metáforas teatrales y la tradición picaresca en El subtil cordobés Pedro de Urdemalas.” The conference Entre Alonsos anda el zueco El teatro de Salas Barbadillo y Castillo Solórzano, University of Oxford/Exeter College, 24-25 September 2024
“The Theatrum Mundi of Celebration. Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the World Theatre in Early Modern Europe.” The Early Modern Exchanges Centre, UCL (London). 13 March 2024.
“The Theatrum Historiae of the Dark Ages? A Comparative Approach to the Deaths of Medieval Rulers in Early Modern History Plays.” Historical Drama in Early Modern Europe. University of Oxford, Jesus College. 9 Sep 2023.
“Medieval Material and Desengaño in Early Modern Dramatizations of the Life of Bruno of Cologne.” Renaissance Society of America 2023-San Juan. 11 March 2023.
“Medievalisms and the Ecstasies of Time in Early Modern Drama.” Medialatinitas 2022-Prague. 23 Sep 2022.
“Beauty and the Bible in Two Old Testament Plays by Lope de Vega.” Biblical Drama in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present. University of Oxford, Jesus College. 10 June 2022.
“Disillusion or Objectivity? Historical Desengaño in Spanish Golden Age Historical Plays on the Middle Ages.” Renaissance Society of America-Dublin 2022. 2 April 2022.
“Roundtable: Intersections between Epic and Drama.” Renaissance Society of America-Dublin 2022. 1 April 2022.
“The Meaning of History on Lohenstein’s Early Modern Schauplatz.” Transnational Aspects of Early Modern Drama. Ruhr University Bochum-Virtual. 25 June 2021.
“Apologetics and Religion in Early Modern Corpus Christi Drama.” ReForc 2021 Budapest-Virtual. 6 May 2021.
“Calderón's World Theatre of Celebration: ’Aesthetical Theodicy’ as a Perspective on the Baroque Theatrum Mundi.” Renaissance Society of America. RSA 2021-Virtual. 21 April 2021.
