JProf. Dr. Judith Rauscher
American Literature and Culture
"The classroom with all its limitations remains a location of possibility." (bell hooks)
Teaching
- American Poetry
- Speculative Fiction, Film, and TV
- Literature, Culture, and the Environment
- Gender and Queer Studies, Theories of (Non-)Violence
- Intersectional Approaches to North American Culture
Research Interests
- Ecopoetry, Poetries of Mobility, American Women's Poetry
- American Popular Culture and the Environment
- Single-Sex Societies in North American Speculative Fiction
- Institutions, Technoscience, and Societal Change
- Gender, Violence, and the State
Upcoming Talks
- 2026/09: "Female Futurity and the Pitfalls of Ecofascist Post-Planetarity in the Work of Katherin V. Forrest," EAAS Annual Conference "Visions of Freedom," Bologna (Italy)
- 2026/05: "Eingeschlechtliche Gesellschaften und Gewalt in Spekulativer Literatur," Invited Talk, Kunstuniversität Linz (Austria)
Recent Talks (Selection)
- 2026/01: "Dystopien reproduktiver Arbeit in nordamerikanischer spekulativer Fiktion," Invited Talk, Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, Universität Bochum (Germany)
- 2025/11: "Spaceships, Space Stations, and Energy Failures in North American Science Fiction TV," Workshop of the DFG-funded Network Energy and Literature on "Energy Futures," Köln (Germany)
- 2025/07: "Trans Embodiment and Gendered Citizenship in Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt (2022)," SFRA Conference 2025 "Queer and Trans Futurity in Science Fiction," University of Rochester (USA, via Zoom)
- 2025/04: "Re-Imagining Scientific Inquiry: Affective Practices of Ecological Knowledge Production and Relations of Care in Becky Chambers's To Be Taught If Fortunate," Sixth Biennial Women's Network Symposium "The Gendered Anthropocene," University of Karlstad (Sweden, via Zoom)
- 2024/12: "Settler-Colonial Violence and Post-/Humanist Horror in the Comic Series Manifest Destiny," Workshop "The Convergence of Posthumanism and Ecocriticism in Anglophone Cultural Products since the Nineteenth Century," Université du Luxembourg (Luxemburg)
- 2024/11: "Sex, Gender, Reproduction: Single-Sex Societies in American Speculative Fiction," University of Düsseldorf (Germany)
- 2024/05: "Governing Gender Apocalypse: Institutional Change in Early Cold War American Speculative Fiction," Annual Conference of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) on "Transitions," University of Tartu (Estland)
Research Groups
- Energy and Literature: DFG-funded Research Network
- MESH: Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities (U of Cologne)
- MeMo: Center for the Study of Media and Modernity (U of Cologne)
- GeStiK: Gender Studies at the University of Cologne
Academic Career
| since 2020/11 | Assistant Professor (Juniorprofessorin) for American Literature and Culture Englisches Seminar I (University of Cologne) 2024/03: Positive Intermediate Evaluation |
2018/11 – 2020/10
| Research Assistant and Lecturer in American Studies Chair of American Studies (University of Bamberg) |
| 2019/10 – 2020/09 | Program Manager Women's Office of the University of Bamberg |
| 2019/10 – 2020/09 | Research Assistant and Lecturer in French Literature Chair of French Literature (University of Bamberg) |
| 2016/05 – 2018/10 | Research Assistant DFG-funded Project: "The Environmental Imagination of Mobility: Umwelt und Migration in der Amerikanischen Gegenwartslyrik," led by Prof. Dr. Christine Gerhardt, Chair of American Studies (University of Bamberg) |
| 2012/04 – 2016/04 | Research Assistant and Lecturer in American Studies Chair of American Studies (University of Bamberg) |
| 2011/04 – 2012/03 | Student Assistant Chair for American Studies (University of Bamberg) |
| 2010/09 – 2012/03 | Lecturer for English as a Foreign Language for Erasmus Students Language Center (University of Bamberg) |
| 2009/09 – 2010/06 | Teaching Assistant/Writing Assistant Center for Writing, Rhetoric and Information Technology (Dartmouth College, USA) |
| 2008/03 – 2008/09 | Teaching Assistant (Tutor) for the Introduction to French Literature Chair of French Literature (University of Bamberg) |
| 2007/10 – 2008/09 | Teaching Assistant (Tutor) for the Introduction to English and American Literature Institute for English and American Studies (University of Bamberg) |
University Education
| 2018/09 | Ph.D.in American Studies (University of Bamberg) Dissertation: "Poetic Place-Making: Nature and Mobility in Contemporary American Poetry" (summa cum laude) |
| 2016/09 – 2016/10 | 6-week Research Stay at Dartmouth College (USA), funded by the DFG |
| 2013/09 – 2013/10 | 6-week Research Stay at Duke University (USA), funded by the BAA |
| 2013/04 – 2013/06 | 3-month Research Stay at Dartmouth College (USA), funded by the DAAD |
| 2012/03 | M.A. English and American Studies (University of Bamberg) |
| 2010/05 | M.A. Comparative Literature (Dartmouth College, USA) Focus Area: Anglophone and Francophone Postcolonial Literatures |
| 2008/09 – 2009/06 | Study Abroad (Dartmouth College, USA) Focus of Studies: English and French Literature, Comparative Literature |
| 2006/10 – 2008/09 | Undergraduate Studies in English, French, and Spanish Language, Literature, and Linguistics Teacher Training Program (University of Bamberg) |
| 2005/09 – 2006/08 | Gap Year Abroad as Au Pair (Tours, France) |
| 2005/06 | Abitur (Gymnasium Alexandrinum, Coburg) |
Publications
Monographs
Edited Volumes and Special Issues In preparation:
Forthcoming:
Published
Articles, Essays, and Book Chapters In Preparation
Forthcoming
Published
Miscellaneous Forthcoming
Published
Reviews Book Reviews
Article Reviews for
|
Grants, Scholarships, and Awards
| 2019/07 | Dissertation Award of the Bavarian American-Academy |
| 2019/03 | Travel Grant of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to attend the biannual conference of the American Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE), UC Davis (June 2019) |
| 2018/11 | Dissertation Award of the University of Bamberg for the Humanities (sponsored by the Rotary Clubs Bamberg Schloss Geyerswörth) |
| 2018/06 | Travel Grant of the Bavarian American-Academy (BAA) for the participation in the Summer Institute „The Futures of American Studies,“ Dartmouth College (USA) |
| 2016/06 | Travel Grant of the Bavarian American-Academy for the BAA Summer Academy 2016, Florida International University (USA) |
| 2015/10 - 2017/03 | Participation in the Mentoring-Program feRNet of the University of Bamberg; Mentor: Prof. Dr. Colleen Boggs, Dartmouth College |
| 2014/06 | BAA Travel Grant of the Bavarian American-Academy for the BAA Summer Academy 2014, Texas State University (USA) |
| 2013/09 - 2013/10 | Duke Post-Graduate Fellowship of the Bavarian American-Academy, Duke University (USA) |
| 2013/07 - 2013/09 | Step by Step Research Stipend of the Women’s Representatives of the University of Bamberg |
| 2013/04 - 2013/06 | DAAD Research Stipend of the German Academic Exchange Service, Dartmouth College (USA) |
| 2009/09 - 2012/06 | Full Stipend for the one-year M.A. Program in Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College (USA) |
| 2008/09 - 2009/06 | Fulbright Travel Grant to study abroad at Dartmouth College (USA) |
| 2008/09 - 2009/06 | Full Stipend of the Verband Deutsch-Amerikanischer Clubs (VDAC) to study abroad at Dartmouth College (USA) |
Academic Service and Positions
Current Positions at the University of Cologne
| since 2023/10 | Member of the Advisory Board of the M.A. Comparative Literature at the University of Cologne |
Former Positions in University Committees
| 2021/06 - 2023/05 | Member of the Advisory Board of the Studiobühne and Filmwerkstatt of the University of Cologne |
| 2020/04 - 2020/07 | Deputy Chairperson of the Election Committee of the Faculty o of Humanities at the University of Cologne, coordination of the nomination and election process |
| 2029/10 - 2020/10 | Representative of Mid-Level Faculty at the Faculty of Humanities (GuK); Membership in the GuK general council and in the general council of mid-level faculty at the University of Bamberg |
| 2017/10 - 2019/09 | Women's Representative of the Faculty of Humanities Membership in the GuK general council, participation in accreditation procedures and hiring committees, programing for women’s advancement, counseling (in cases of harassment) |
| 2015/10 - 2017/09 | Deputy Women's Representative at the Faculty of Humanities |
| 2015/10 - 2017/09 | Voting Member for the faculty of Humanities in the general council of mid-level faculty at the University of Bamberg |
| 2015/10 - 2017/09 | Deputy Representative of Mid-Level Faculty in the Standing Committee for Teaching and Student Affairs (LuSt) and the Committee for the Assurance of the Quality of Study Programs and Teaching (AQSL) |
Former Positions in Professional Organizations
| 2018/06 - 2022/05 | Postgraduate Representative in the Advisory Board of the German Association for American Studies (DGfA) |
| 2017/11 - 2022/05 | Speaker of the Postgraduate Forum (PGF) of the German Association for American Studies (DGfA) and PGF Liason to the Diversity Caucus of the DGfA |
| 2017/06 - 2020/10 | Social Media Coordinator of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture, and Environment (EASLCE) |
| 2015/06 - 2016/06 | Organizational Team of the Postgraduate Forum (PGF) of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA) |
Conference Presentations and Invited Talks
| 2023/10 | "Feminist Publishing: Shifts & Intersections," mit Prof. Dr. Susanne Gruß und Dr. Johanna Pitetti-Heil, Networking DAAD-Workshop "Mobile Feminisms: Frameworks in Publishing, Organizing, Working in (and around) the Academy," Universität Würzburg |
| 2023/09 | "Speculative History, Human Exceptionalism, and Graphic Violence in the Comic Series Manifest Destiny," Panel on "Green Popular Culture Studies: (In)Visibility, Affordances, Affects," organized with JProf. Dr. Maria Sulimma (U of Freiburg) at the 8th Annual Conference of the Kulturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft (KWG) on Popular Cultures, U of the Saarland |
| 2023/08 | "Single-Sex Societies in Pulp Era American Science Fiction and the Im/Possibility of Disruption," Joint Annual Conference of the SFRA and GfF on "Disruptive Imaginatoins," TU Dresden |
| 2023/06 | "History, Violence, and Progress: Single-Sex Societies in Pulp Era American Science Fiction," invited talk at the American Studies Section, Universität Augsburg |
| 2022/11 | "Ecopoetries of Migration," 13th German-Israeli Frontiers of Humanities Symposium (GISFOH): "Agency and Global Crises: Environment, Inequality, Borders" (Jerusalem, Israel); Humboldt-Stiftung und Israelische Academy of Sciences and Humanities |
| 2022/10 | "Gemeinwohl und Staatsgewalt in amerikanischer Spekulativer Fiktion," Tagung "Umkämpftes Gemeinwohl: Deutungen im Streit um das gemeinsame Wohl," DFG-Graduiertenkolleg "Deutungsmacht," University of Rostock |
| 2022/06 | "Imagining Future Pedagogies: Representations of Formal Education in American Speculative Fiction," Workshop "Critical Future Studies: SF as Pedagogy between Imagination and Activism," at the Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies (DGfA), University of Tübingen |
| 2022/07 | "Collective Agency, Individual Responsibility, and the Poetics of Dis/Entanglement in Contemporary Ecopoetry about Hawai’i," Conference "Corporations/Communities/Crowds," Volkswagenstiftung, Hannover |
| 2022/02 | "Fictions of a (Non-)Violent State: Technoscience, Origin Myths, and Single-Sex Societies in American Culture," invited talk at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, Freie Universität, Berlin |
| 2021/12 | "Of Birds, Bulldozers, and Boeings: Nature and Mobility in the Poetry of Juliana Spahr," invited talk at the Chair of North American Literature and Culture (University of Bielefeld) |
| 2021/10 | "Precarious Indigenous Knowledges and Participatory Reading: Teaching Pacific Islander Poetry about Environmental Displacement," Workshop "Narrating Environmental Displacements," University of Augsburg |
| 2021/06 | "Creating Space(s) for Complexity: Teaching American Popular Culture and the Environment," Panel "Participation in/through Language, Literature and Culture (Education)," DGfA Conference 2021 |
| 2021/05 | "She who laughs last: Satirical Dystopias by Women and the Ends of Parody," Symposium "Funny Women" (Bavarian-American Academy, Munich) |
| 2021/05 | "(Un)Radical Feminism: Witchcraft, Militarism, and the Limits of Female Empowerment in Motherland: Fort Salem (2020-)," invited talk, Institute for the Study of Film, Theater, Media and Culture, Johannes Gutenberg University Main |
| 2021/04 | "Sentimental Ecologies: Negotiating Landownership, Citizenship, and Affect in Maria Ruíz de Burton’s The Squatter and the Don (1885) and S. Alice Callahan’s Wynema (1891)," with Linda Hess; virtual EAAS Conference 2021 |
| 2020/12 | "Social(ist) Darwinism and the Pandemic Imagination: Jack London‘s The Scarlet Plague (1912)," Vorlesung "Pandemic Literatures," Universität zu Köln |
| 2019/06 | "Post-Mobility and Queer Ecological Empathy in the Poetry of Etel Adnan," ASLE Konferenz 2019, UC Davis (USA) |
| 2019/02 | "Teaching Comparative Cultural Studies Courses on Race in Germany," KLLB Konferenz "Herausforderung Kulturelle Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung," Universität Bamberg |
| 2018/11 | "'In a Mirror Darkly': Border-crossing and Imperial Feminism in Star Trek: Discovery," AAAS Jahrestagung, Universität Wien (Österreich) |
| 2018/09 | "Groundwork, Fieldwork, Topopoetics: Reading Lorna Goodison's 'The Garden of St. Michael in the Seven-Hilled City of Bamberg'," EASLCE Konferenz, Universität Würzburg |
| 2018/01 | "'Entfernung gilt nichts': Walt Whitmans Dichtung und poetisches Erbe," Gastvortrag in der Vortragsreihe "Amerika," VHS Coburg |
| 2017/06 | "Mobility and/as Recovery in the Materialist Ecofeminist Poetry of Sharon Doubiago," ASLE Konferenz, Wayne State University (USA) |
| 2017/03 | "Teaching Intersectional Feminism in Transatlantic Contexts," EAAS Women's Network Symposium "Transnational Feminism and/in American Studies," Université de Lausanne (Schweiz) |
| 2016/11 | "Conflicted Territorialities and Archipelagic Environments in the Poetry of Craig Santos Perez," Konferenz "The Environment and Human Migration: Rethinking the Politics of Poetry," Universität Bamberg |
| 2016/11: | "The Poetics of Postmodern Witness and the Ethics of Genre," Symposium "Comparative Literature 20th Anniversary Celebration," Dartmouth College (USA) |
| 2016/06 | "Paying the Price for an Impossible Love: Etel Adnan's Defiant Ecopoetics of Hope," Konferenz "Dwellings of Enchantment," Université de Perpignan (Frankreich) |
| 2016/06 | "Bodily Perspectives without Lyric Subjects: Materiality and Mobility in the Poetry of Juliana Spahr," BAA Summer School "Material Culture," Florida International University, Miami (USA) |
| 2016/02 | "Of Spaceships and Ocean Planets: The Ethics of Mobility in Joan Slonczewski's Pragmatic Utopias," Konferenz "Maritime Mobilities: Critical Perspectives from the Humanities," Universität Wien (Österreich) |
| 2015/10 | "From Identity Politics to a Poetry of Postmodern Witness in Contemporary American Poetry of Migration," Konferenz "Poetry and Genre," Universität Augsburg |
| 2014/06 | "Dwelling in Diaspora: The Environmental Politics of Displacement in Arthur Sze's The Gingko Light," Jahrestagung der DGfA, Universität Würzburg |
| 2014/06 | "Translocal Attachments and Transethnic Affiliations in the Poetry of Agha Shahid Ali and Arthur Sze," BAA Summer School, Texas State University, San Marcos (USA) |
| 2013/05 | "From Ecocriticism to Geocriticism and Back: Place in Contemporary Transnational American Poetry," ASLE Konferenz, University of Kansas, Lawrence (USA) |
| 2013/04 | "Place and Displacement in the Poetry of Derek Walcott and Agha Shahid Ali," ACLA Konferenz, University of Toronto (Canada) |
| 2012/11 | "Planetary Perspectives: Technological Visions of the Natural World in the Poetry of Ed Roberson," (Poster) Konferenz "Risk - Effects and Affect: Technology and Narrative in the 21st Century," Universität Bayreuth |
| 2012/11 | "The Place-Conscious Nomadic Poetics of Agha Shahid Ali," Postgraduate Konferenz der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien (DGfA), Universität Marburg |
| 2011/11 | "Junot Díaz's Oscar Wao: Hero, Anti-Hero or Alternative to the 'American Hero'?" SCIAS Student Conference in American Studies, LMU München |
| 2010/04 | "The Ritual of Nation-Building in Léonora Miano's L'intérieur de la nuit," GAFIS Graduate Student Conference, University of Madison-Wisconsin (USA) |
Conferences and Workshop Organization
Conferences
| 2021/09 | "Speculative Fiction and Ethics," Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung (GfF), with Lorena Bickert (U of Bamberg), Mareike Spychala (U of Bamberg), and Sara Twelde-Negassi (U of Cologne) |
| 2016/11 | "The Environment and Human Migration: Rethinking the Politics of Poetry," International Conference, with Christine Gerhardt |
| 2015/11 | Conference of the Postgraduate Forum (PGF) of the German Association for American Studies (DGfA); with Laura Oehme (U of Bayreuth), Theresa Roth (U of Bamberg), Mareike Spychala (U of Bamberg) |
Symposia
| 2021/03 | "Critical Environmental Education and Popular Culture: Local Practices and Transatlantic Conversations," with Betsy Wheeler (U of Oregon) |
| 2014/07 | "Whitman Across Genres," Annual Symposium of the Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association (TWWA), with Christine Gerhardt (U of Bamberg) |
| 2014/01 | "Nature – Mobility – Literature: The Environmental Imagination of Migration," Symposium, with Christine Gerhardt (U of Bamberg) |
Summer School
| 2014/07 | "7th International Walt Whitman Week," Summer School der Transatlantic Walt Whitman Association (TWWA), with Christine Gerhardt (U of Bamberg) |
Conference Workshops
| 2023/09 | "Green Popular Culture Studies: (In)Visibility, Affordances, Affects," organized with JProf. Dr. Maria Sulimma (U of Freiburg) at the 8th Annual Conference of the Kulturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft (KWG) on Popular Cultures, U of the Saarland |
| 2017/06 | "Queer Modernities – Queer Mobilities," Workshop at the Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies (DGfA), Hannover; with Linda Hess (U of Augsburg) |
Academic Affiliations
- DGfA/GAAS: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien/ German Association for American Studies
- EAAS: European Association for American Studies
- EASLCE: European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture, and Environment
- BAA: Bavarian American Academy (affliate status)
- GfF: Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung e.V.
- SFRA: Science Fiction Research Association
| Contact |
|---|
ORCID: 0000-0002-9123-451X Address: Office: Philosophikum | Room 1.110 Office Hours: via Zoom |