Prof. Andreas Fischer (born 1947) studied English language and literature, German language and literature, and history of art at the University of Basel and the University of Durham, England. He was awarded his doctorate in 1975 and qualified as a professor at the University of Basel in 1981. In 1985 Andreas Fischer was appointed full professor of English philology at the University of Zurich. From 2004 to 2006 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and from 2006 until his appointment as President of the University of Zurich in 2008 he acted as Vice President for Arts and Social Sciences.

Andreas Fischer is a member of the advisory boards of the “Journal of Historical Pragmatics” and of the Institute for the Historical Study of Language (University of Glasgow, Department of English Language) as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Zurich James Joyce Foundation. He is one of the editors of “Schweizer Anglistische Arbeiten/Swiss Studies in English” and of the “Englisch-deutsche Studienausgabe der Dramen Shakespeares”. He was the general editor of “Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature” from 1995 to 2007.