An editor of journals (literatur-express, 1988-1989; TRANS-LIT, the Journal of the Society for Contemporary American Literature in German, 1998-2002), he is a regular contributor to the sequel journal, TRANS-LIT2. As Professor of German Language, Literature and Film at University of Maryland, College Park, in the U.S. he has published widely on Walter Benjamin, Ingeborg Bachmann, Franz Kafka, Anna Seghers and Film Studies. Since 2010, Beicken has served as consultant for Time Shadows, Time Shadows, A Goethe Institut Poetry Collaboration.