Bio

Prior to coming to the US from Germany, I studied at the University in Mainz and Leiden to receive my M.A. in German Philology, Political Science and Book Studies. I have earned my Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University in German Studies with a specialization in twenty-first century German literature and culture. Over the last years, I have published on issues relating to identity, migration, privacy & surveillance in the works of Juli Zeh, Angela Richter, Hasan M. Elahi, Tomer Gardi, Idrissou Mora-Kpai, Birgit Kempker, and Aléa Torik in journals such as Seminar, Gegenwartsliteratur, Variations, and Surveillance & Society. Besides working on artistic evaluations of contemporary mass surveillance, I am pursuing research at the intersection of German and migration studies.

Currently, I am working on my book project Participatory Privacy in Contemporary German Culture that investigates the challenges posed to traditional notions of privacy in the face of mass surveillance, predictive analytics, and a digital sharing culture in the twenty-first century. The book argues that notions of privacy have not disappeared or atrophied as a result, but rather adapted to the new cultural, legal, and political contexts of the digital age. It explores how the notion of privacy as an individual right is reconfigured, in contemporary German literature and culture, as a collective concept to protect the most vulnerable members of society against discriminatory processes of mass surveillance. Through the lens of selected literary, filmic, and theatrical works by Ulrich Peltzer, Juli Zeh, Sybille Berg, Angela Richter, Hasan M. Elahi, and Hito Steyerl, the volume examines contemporary discourses on collaborative decision-making processes, the embracing of counter-surveillance techniques, and the creation of digital movements. Ultimately, it argues for an understanding of privacy as having a “participatory” dimension in the digital age. It proposes we view privacy as both a tool of collective self-protection and a means of resistance against everyday mass surveillance.

In the classroom, courses such as “All Eyes on You: Surveillance, Community, and Control” explore aesthetic, legal, and political questions relating to the greater impact of different surveillance cultures on converging communities. Other than on surveillance, my teaching focuses on German and Austrian literature and culture, ranging from the twentieth to the twenty-first century, the cultural industry with a particular focus on the German book market, as well as on questions relating to cultural (post)memory and remembrance.

Education

Vanderbilt University, Ph.D.
Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany
Magister Artium (M.A.)