Philipp Schweighauser is the principal investigator of “Anglo Genres for Atlantic Futures.” He has been Professor of North American and General Literature at the University of Basel since 2009. After his Lizenziat (MA) in English and German from Basel and his Dr. phil. in Anglophone Literary Studies from the same university (2003), he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Berne (2003-2007) and the Christian-Gottlob-Heyne Junior Professor of American Studies at the University of Göttingen (2007-2009). He has authored over 50 publications, several in areas relevant to two popular genres studied in the current project. Among them, he has written essays on science fiction, utopia/dystopia, and literature and the environment. He has also taught a graduate seminar on “Climate Fictions.” So far, he has published three monographs: The Noises of American Literature, 1890-1985: Toward a History of Literary Acoustics (UP Florida, 2006), Beautiful Deceptions: European Aesthetics, the Early American Novel, and Illusionist Art (U of Virginia P, 2016), and Boasian Verse: The Poetic and Ethnographic Work of Edward Sapir, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead (Routledge, 2022). He is currently working on a fourth book on contemporary Native American literature, which partly revolves around Indigenous representations of nature and thus relates to the eco-fictions subproject. Schweighauser has directed two larger research projects: “Beckett's Media System: A Comparative Study in Multimediality” (SNF, 2015–2019) and “Of Cultural, Poetic, and Medial Alterity” (SNF, 2014–2017). From 2012 to 2020, he served as the President of the Swiss Association for North American Studies.

Michael O’Krent, a scholar of global science fiction, is a postdoctoral researcher for “Anglo Genres for Atlantic Futures.” He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, and has most recently served as Vertretungsprofessur (Visiting Professor) of Sinology at Goethe University Frankfurt. His research focuses on how fictional worlds serve as a medium for political and philosophical thought, positioning science fiction as not only a literary genre but also an analytical method. His doctoral dissertation, The Parascientific Method: Thresholds of History in and Beyond Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction, describes science fictional reasoning about future worlds as a motivating factor for modern Chinese political thought, and positions science fiction as a countervailing discourse that recognizes the fictionality of fictional worlds. He is currently revising his dissertation into his first book, which will outline the history of “parascience” as a mode of cultural and intellectual history in twentieth century China. In addition, his research on worldbuilding in science fiction (both Chinese and otherwise), as well as in videogames, has appeared in venues including Science Fiction Studies, the Journal of World Literature, and Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature. He is currently co-editing a special issue of Taiwan Lit and the Global Sinosphere on science fiction in Taiwan. In the “Anglo Genres” project, he will write a second monograph on the relationship between science fictional thinking and political imaginaries of the future in the contemporary United States, informed by comparative engagements with China.

Isabel Jimenez is one of the two doctoral investigators of “Anglo Genres for Atlantic Futures”. She leads subproject II on the contemporary campus novel and the role of the university. She holds a BA in English with honors from the University of California, Berkeley (2020). She received her MA in “Literary Studies” (English, Spanish) with insigni cum laude from the University of Basel (2024). Jimenez was awarded one of the competitive start-up grants of Basel’s Doctoral Program “Literary Studies” (2024) and was invited to present in EUCOR Conference in 2022, 2023, 2024. In 2024 she started her PhD in Literary Studies at the University of Basel with Prof. Dr. Philipp Schweighauser as supervisor. Her dissertation “Race, Class, Power, and Academia 101: Contemporary Campus Novels” presents a brief overview of the campus novel since the early 20^th century and the transformation of the genre in the 21^st century. With the critical lenses of race, class, and power, Jimenez observes how the portrayal of academics and the university campus is reshaped in knowledge societies.

Letizia Ambrosetti is one of the two doctoral investigators of “Anglo Genres for Atlantic Futures” and works on the subproject on eco-fiction. Ambrosetti completed her summa cum laude BA in English and Philosophy at University of Basel in autumn 2023, followed by her MA in Philosophy and Contemporary Critical Theory at the Center for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) at Kingston University London, graduating with distinction in the autumn of 2024. Since April 2025 she started her PhD at University of Basel, receiving one of the competitive start-up grants of the Basel’s Doctoral Program “Literary Studies”. In the same year she was invited to present her project at the EUCOR conference in Strasbourg and London Conference in Critical Thought at Birbeck University. Her project focuses on the connection between literature, politics, and philosophy in a dissertation called “The Subject of Climate Change: Political, Poetic, and Psychological Dimensions in Contemporary Eco-Fiction”. Motivated by a strong interest in civic engagement and political discourse, her research reflects a broader commitment to understanding how literature shapes and is shaped by the social and ecological crises of our time.

Almir Hodo is a student pursuing his MA in English and German Philology at the University of Basel and Professor Philipp Schweighauser's student assistant. As the website's co-administrator and as an assistant he is responsible for the maintenance of the website and providing general logistical support for the project's administration.

Kathrin Eckerth is the Administrative Coordinator of “Anglo Genres for Atlantic Futures” and works as Secretary to Professor Philipp Schweighauser at the English Department of the University of Basel. She studied Literature and Languages at the University of  Basel and Fribourg, where she earned her MA. As Administrative Coordinator, she is responsible for the project’s finances, reimbursements and budget management and supports the project’s overall administration.