Matthias Warstat is Professor of Theatre Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. After graduating in Theatre Studies and Modern History at Freie Universität Berlin (1999), he worked in a DFG-research network on “Theatricality as a Paradigm for Cultural Studies“ and finished his Ph.D. on theatrical aspects of early 20th century working class celebrations in 2002. In his habilitation thesis (2008) he analysed the dialectics of crisis and healing in avant-garde theatre and aesthetics. During the years 2006 to 2009, he also ran a project on “International Theatre Festivals in Europe“ funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Between 2008 and 2012, he was chair of Theatre and Media studies at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. In 2012, he was awarded an ERC advanced grant for “The Aesthetics of Applied Theatre”. His main research topics are contemporary theatre and society, theatricality of politics, and the historiography of modern European theatre.