Kluwick completed her teacher training for English studies and Russian literature at the University of Vienna, where she subsequently obtained her doctorate in English literature. She completed her habilitation in English literature and cultural studies in 2017. Subsequently, she took on a substitute professorship at the University of Freiburg and worked as a senior researcher on the project “The Beach in the Long Twentieth Century” at the University of Bern, which was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Ursula Kluwick's academic work primarily focuses on the field of environmental humanities. She examines the representation of nature and the environment in British and Anglophone literature and culture from both a diachronic and synchronic perspective, with a particular fascination for water. This multifaceted interest has already led her to a wide range of topics: climate change scenarios, tidal waves, the sewers of Victorian cities, the beach, contemporary literary explorations of flight across the Mediterranean, and questions of material agency and transformation. Another research area is the role of literary forms, especially realism and alternatives to realism.

At the University of Bremen, she is particularly looking forward to working with the Bremen Blue Humanities Research Group. The group examines oceans, rivers, coastal areas, and other bodies of water in relation to (colonial) history, migration and travel, sustainability and ecological issues, the circulation of people and ideas, marine and indigenous knowledge, literature and cultures, new geographies, extractivism, energy, and economic issues.