I joined the ES I in spring 2023 to teach courses in English literary and cultural studies with a focus on queer and feminist topics. Also, I am a PhD student at the University of Freiburg, where I completed a teaching degree in English and Spanish Philology, and have spent semesters abroad at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and University College Dublin.
My PhD project “Affect, Audiences and Engagement in 21st Century Theatre in Ireland” combines literary and cultural studies with performance, affect and audience studies as I investigate how the affective experience shape spectators' reception of contemporary Irish theatre and performance. With my research I want to prioritize diverse voices from the audience over the often elitist opinions of contemporary criticism.
In addition, many years of experience as an actor, director and PR councilor for the English department drama group at the University of Freiburg have given me the practical know-how to lead workshops about improvisation, body work, and theatre in the classroom.
I am also one of the investigators in the EUniWell project “LIT-LAB: Literature and Social Change” in which we organise reading laboratories with students to investigate how contemporary literature can counteract transphobia and xenophobia. I represent the University of Cologne among five European partner universities in Spain, the UK and Germany.
current classes
past classes
talks and workshops
10/24 “Building Trust and Confidence Through Physical and Verbal Improvisation”, for “Queering the Classroom: Theatre Workshop for Queer People, People of Colour and Diabled Poeple and Allies” Universität zu Köln
09/24 “Audience Affects of Dis/comfort in Contemporary Irish Performance”,
Working Group “Audience, Experience & Popular Practices” at the Conference of the Theatre and Performance Research Association, Northumbria University, Newcastle
09/23 “Negotiating Irishness at the Abbey Theatre – Audience Engagement in Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon” Panel “Irish Communities in a Glocal Context: Literary and Cultural Narratives” Conference of The German Association for the Study of English, Universität Siegen
02/23 “Negotiating Irishness at the Abbey Theatre – Audience Engagement in Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon” Panel “Irish Communities in a Glocal Context: Literary and Cultural Narratives” Conference of The German Association for the Study of English, Universität Siegen
06/21, 22, 23 Presentation of doctoral thesis at the PhD Forum Conference of The German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English in Augsburg (2021), Paris (2022), Erfurt (2023)
08/22 ““Because It's Live You Kind of Have to Put in the Effort.” – Sarah Kane’s Crave as Livestreamed Theatre and Its Reception from Home” Conference of the European Society for the Study of English, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz
07/22 2nd place at Science Slam Freiburg: “Mit-fühlen ist Alles: Affekt als Form der Partizipation bei der Rezeption von Zeitgenössischem Theater”
06/22 ““They Think We’re Foul-Mouthed Sluts.” – Three Outcast Women and Their Relationship to the Audience in SHIT” Conference „Citizenship, Conflict and Performance“, Irish Society for Theatre Research, University of Ulster, Derry/Londonderry
02/22 Paper “The Feeling Collective: Reception of Online Theatre in Times of COVID”
Online Symposium “EPICAMP: Collective Identities, European Identities”, EPICUR European University
05 – 07/21 Workshops “Acting, Body Work and Writing for the Stage”
maniACTs English Department Drama Group, Universität Freiburg
05/21 Workshop “Writing for the Stage” Seminar “Water, Environment and Poetry”, Michaela Frey, Universität Basel
02/21 “Queer Visibility In- and Outside the Classroom: LGBTQIA+ Inclusivity and Equality”, round table with Drama Matters, UK
academic career
| 2023-04 to present | research and teaching fellow, Universität zu Köln |
| 2020-10 to present | PhD student, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg |
| 2021-02 to 2021-07 | research and teaching fellow, Universität Basel |
| 2013-10 to 2020-06 | Staatsexamen in English and Spanish Philology, Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg |
research interests
- contemporary queer-feminist writing and performance
- audience- and reception studies
- postdramatic and Irish theatre
- queer literature and culture
teaching
- contemporary British and Irish theatre and performance
- queer- and feminist studies
- graphic novels
- literary theory
- academic reading and writing
publications
with Heidi Lucja Liedke: “Therapy-as-Theatre: Porosity and Circulations of Feeling in Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’s An Octoroon (2014) and Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing (2013).” Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, vol. 72, no. 2, Jun. 2024, pp. 113-126.
““They Think We’re Foul-Mouthed Sluts”: Discomfort, Bourgeois Spectatorship, and Fellow Feelings of Feminism in Patricia Cornelius’s SHIT.” Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, vol. 11, no. 2, Nov. 2023, pp. 1–21.
Conference report “Post-COVID-19 Art Worlds: Viral Theatre, Precarity and Medical Humanities” International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, vol. 18 no. 3, 15 Nov. 2022, pp. 419-420.
Auto-ethnographic experiment “Touching-Feeling.” Feeling Digital and Reimagining Fieldwork during COVID Times, Aug. 2021, www.feelingdigital.org.
