Dr Christine Ott was born in 1986 in Ochsenfurt in Lower Franconia. She studied to teach German and history at grammar school and at the same time completed a master’s degree in modern German literary history, German linguistics, and evangelical theology and religious education.

A glance at Christine Ott’s CV reveals her love of literature and her endeavours to convey this interest and the joy of (modern) literature and writing to others. She works part-time as the director of the Stellwerck Verlag, which focusses on publishing works by students, she organises poetry slams, initiates and directs numerous cultural projects aimed at introducing literature to a wider audience, and often sits on the panels of literary competitions. Her dissertation was awarded the Bavarian Culture Prize in 2017.

Her efforts to make German language and literature accessible to others are reflected in the fact that she has chosen the didactics of the German language as one of her professional specialities. This has led to her being appointed as a temporary academic advisor at the Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg and as lecturer in the faculty for German teaching/German as a second language at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Christine Ott is also interested in questions related to gender equality. She conceived a series of events titled ‘Frauen in der Wissenschaft’ [Women in academia] for the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and compiled expert reports for the GFMK and KMK national working group titled ‘Mehr Chancengleichheit durch geschlechtersensible Erziehung, Bildung und Ausbildung’ [Increased equal opportunities through gender-sensitive education and training]. Her doctoral thesis, with which she graduated summa cum laude, was also based in this field and investigated linguistically conveyed gender concepts in textbooks. The theme of her dissertation was influenced by her desire to document the manner in which language affects the construction of gender preconceptions. Her decision to use textbooks to explore this topic owes much to a fellow student who, ten years ago, boldly predicted that in ten years’ time (today) textbooks would be consistently gender-sensitive in their design.