My name is Peter McIsaac and I am a researcher in German Studies and Museum Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA). One of my oldest research interests, going back beyond my first monograph to my dissertation, is the relationship between literature and museums, between storytelling and collecting and exhibiting.

This relationship can be traced back to the beginnings of Western culture – such as Noah’s Arc as an early example of a narrated collection of all animals in the world – with the early modern Wunderkammer (cabinet of wonder) proving to be one of the most illuminating phenomena for the questions at the center of my research. When I found out that researchers including Prof. Dr. Jutta Eming of the Freie Universität regarded the Wunderkammer in the same terms as I did, a collaboration seemed promising, almost irresistible.

With the support of the Research Alumni Program of Freie Universität, I spent three weeks of August 2020 developing a large-scale research project with Prof. Dr. Eming’s team. With very productive exchanges on campus (always observing the current Covid-19 restrictions), at the center of which stood a virtual workshop with researchers from all over Germany, we paved the way for further international collaboration.