Welcome to my academic website. I'm a joint PhD Candidate in Germanic Studies and Cinema & Media Studies at the University of Chicago. I currently hold a Residential Dissertation Completion Fellowship at the Franke Institute for the Humanities, and am co-organizer of the Mass Culture Workshop.

My academic writing on film, literature, and culture is forthcoming in Germanic Review, Monatshefte, New Review of Film & Television Studies, and elsewhere. My translations and criticism can be found in TRANSIT, Chicago Review, and Monatshefte.

In 2026, I won the Dean's Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence at the University of Chicago. My research and teaching have also been supported by grants from the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights, Fulbright Austria, and the Division of the Arts and Humanities.

On this website, you can find more information about my research, teaching, translations, and other projects.

To contact me, please email ncmodlin[at]uchicago.edu

Above is a photo I took of the sky above the Wendland in northern Germany in 2025.