jana
marlene
mader
I am a writer, editor, translator, and professor working at the intersection of literature, art, and the environment. My publications bridge curation and storytelling—from books and anthologies to podcasts. I serve as Director of Academic Programs at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, where I oversee publications, editorial projects, and programming. I am also Professor of Environmental Humanities at Bard, teaching courses on literature, the arts, and nature. Prior to joining Bard, I taught at the University of North Carolina and The Juilliard School.
I have authored, co-authored, and edited five books—including a novel (published in German, 2018), my doctoral thesis that came out in 2023 with Königshausen&Neumann, and Walk Her Way. A Walking Guide to Women’s History (Hardie Grant, 2025). My writing and translations have appeared in Die Süddeutsche Zeitung, DIE ZEIT, and brand eins, and I have collaborated with cultural institutions including Lenbachhaus München and Galerie EIGEN + ART. Alongside these projects, I write Fieldnote Fridays, a Substack rooted in walking, landscape, and history.
In addition, I serve on the board of Mohonk Consultations, a nonprofit organization based at Mohonk Mountain House in New York. Occasionally, I paint, and my work has been exhibited in galleries in New York and Germany. I live in the Hudson Valley in New York and in Munich, Germany.
Walk Her Way New York City
A Walking Guide to Women's History
Hardie Grant, 2025
available everywhere books are sold
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through Hardie Grant
Every Friday, I send a quiet dispatch—a picture and a short reflection—part diary, part field note. These are small stories from the edge of the week; they come from a walk, or from a thought that won’t let go. Over time, three threads have grown: What to Read, a series on books about walking, poems on walking, and A Walk With, where I invite creatives to share what walking means for their practice. subscribe here
WRITING
My first novel was published in 2018. Walk Her Way New York City, an illustrated walking guide to women’s history in New York was published by Hardie Grant in February 2025.
TEACHING
Before coming to Bard, I taught at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and at The Juilliard School. I received my doctorate in Comparative Literature from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.
TRANSLATIONS
As a translator, I specialize in texts from English into German. Since 2012, I have translated both shorter texts and entire books in the fields of politics, history, the environment, art and literature.
PAINTING
My art is abstract, created with acrylics, oil, watercolor, and oil pastels on paper or wood. My paintings have been exhibited in galleries in New York and featured in magazines in Germany and the United States.
WALKS
For Walk Her Way, we curated walks through New York City, each of them along women's history (Hardie Grant, 2025). I guide nature walks in Upstate New York and my weekly Substack Fieldnote Fridays is rooted in walking.
portrait photo: AnneRaft Photography