Markus Hardtmann completed an M.A. in German Literature, Philosophy, and Psychology at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and studied at University College London and the Johns Hopkins University before coming to Northwestern. His research interests include critical theory, aesthetics, the philosophy of mathematics, and German and Comparative Literature from the 18 th century to the present with a special emphasis on the history of novel. The Studienstiftung Cusanuswerk supported his studies in Germany, Great Britain, and the US, and Northwestern University awarded him a Dissertation Year Fellowship and a fellowship with the Paris Program in Critical Theory. He is currently completing a dissertation on logic, language, and literary form in Robert Musil's Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften and related writings.

Markus Hardtmann has published a critical examination of the logical foundations of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory ("Beobachtung Gottes: Systemtheorie - Theologie - Autologie", Parapluie 11 (2001); reviews of books on Walter Benjamin (MLN 2006) and on Rousseau and Goethe (Modern Philology 2004); as well as translations of essays by Peter Fenves on Walter Benjamin (Benjamin-Handbuch, Metzler 2006) and by Terry Pinkard on Heine, Hegel, and Gans (Hegelianismus und Saint-Simonismus, mentis 2006).