Ursy Reynolds

I research German-Jewish literature, history, and intellectual thought from early modernity through the aftermath of the Holocaust. My work focuses particularly on Martin Buber, Martin Heidegger, and Paul Celan, and explores intersections of philosophy, poetry, and 'poetic thinking' in their approaches. I am especially interested in how modern Jewish intellectual traditions present a sustained engagement with questions of ethical responsibility, the sacred, and the magnetic pull of the poetic, or literary, voice; to my mind, these concerns speak not only to the historical and philosophical stakes of German-Jewish thought, but also to the urgent debates within the contemporary Humanities about the meaning and purpose of literary study. I am pursuing my Ph.D., which includes a minor in Jewish History, under the supervision of Prof. Amir Eshel.

During my previous studies at Oxford, I specialized in modern German literature, writing my master's thesis on manifestations of performance and identity in Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks (1901). Afterwards, a cataloguing fellowship at the Warburg Institute in London deepened my interest in postwar material culture, particularly the fragile, fragmentary archives through which German-Jewish histories are reconstructed. I recently published my first article with the Warburg Institute on refugee scholars in wartime England and spent summer 2026 studying Yiddish language, literature, and cultural history at the YIVO Institute in New York. From 2025–2026, I also served as Research Assistant to Prof. Adrian Daub for his forthcoming book Project 1933: Fascism Then and Now (Astra, 2026).