Lars Eckstein studied English, German and physical education at the University of Tübingen and Indiana. He received his PhD in 2004 on Caribbean and African-American literature on the slave trade. After receiving his doctorate, he spent time abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He habilitated in 2008. He was assistant professor of English at the University of Tübingen and has been professor of anglophone literatures and cultures outside Britain and the USA at the University of Potsdam since 2009.