Former Members

Former Doctoral Researchers

Jonas Ahmad was associate doctoral researcher until August 2024.

Potraitfoto von Patrick Graur

Education & Employment

  • 10/2022–present: Research Associate in the Research Training Group “Literature and the Public Sphere in Differentiated Contemporary Cultures” (GRK2806)
  • 2022–present: Editor for reviews of textbooks at the scientific online portal kinderundjugendmedien.de
  • 10/2024: Research stay at the Western University of Timisoara (Romania)
  • 03/2024: Research stay at the Institute for German Culture and History of Southeast Europe (IKGS)
  • 02–03/2024: Archive internship at the Institute for German Culture and History of Southeast Europe (IKGS)
  • 09/2022: Archive internship at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach (Referat Erschließung)
  • 07/2022: M.A. Ethics of Textual Cultures
  • 12/2021: 1st State examination in the subjects German and History (Teaching Degree Gymnasium)
  • 2016/17: Successful participation in the Lehr:werkstatt as part of the teacher training program at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg
  • Studies of the subjects German and History (Teaching Degree Gymnasium) as well as Ethics of Textual Cultures (Elitenetzwerk Bayern) at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

Research Interests

  • German-language literature (19th to 21st century)
  • Sociology of Literature
  • German language literature in Romania after 1945
  • Inter- and transcultural literary studies
  • Contemporary German-language literature
  • Taboo- and Gender-Discussions in child and youth media

Publications

Journal Articles

  • Avantgarde-Variationen. Die Aktionsgruppe Banat und die junge deutschsprachige Literatur Rumäniens in den 1970er Jahren, in: Germanica 74 (2024), S. 91-104.
  • Erste Auftritte. Die Ästhetik türkisch-deutscher Literaturdebüts am Beispiel von Emine Sevgi Özdamars Mutterzunge (1990) und Feridun Zaimoglus Kanak Sprak (1995), in: Dautel, Katrin/Hilmes, Carola/Pohl, Peter C. (Hg.): Debüts revisited. Die letzten 100 Jahre (= Publikationen zur Zeitschrift für Germanistik, Neue Folge, Bd. 35). Bern 2024.

Book Contributions

  • Otto Pick (1887–1940), in: Lubkoll, Christine/Neumeyer, Harald (Hg.): Franz Kafkas literarisches Umfeld in Prag. 14 Portraits von Oskar Baum bis Franz Werfel. Berlin/Heidelberg 2024.
  • (Er-)Schöpfungstendenzen um 1900. Ida Hofmann und der Monte Verità im feministischen Kontext, in:  Dumschat-Rehfeldt, Denise et al. (Hg.): Literatur am Ende. Putting *Schöpfung* in *Erschöpfung*. Marburg 2024.
  • Ambivalenzen der Moderne.  Die Ästhetik der Mehrdeutigkeit in Franz Kafkas Der Proceß (1915/25), in: Descher, Stefan et al. (Hg.): Mehrdeutigkeit als literarisches Thema. Strategien und Funktionen von der Romantik bis zur Gegenwart. Bielefeld 2023.
  • Tod und Sterben – Erinnern und Erzählen. Tendenzen aktueller Märchenfilme am Beispiel von Sieben Minuten nach Mitternacht und Kubo, in: Conrad, Maren (Hg.): Moderne Märchen. Populäre Variationen in jugendkulturellen Literatur- und Medienformaten der Gegenwart (= Focus: Gegenwart, Bd. 6. Schriftenreihe des interdisziplinären Zentrums Literatur und Kultur der Gegenwart der FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg), Würzburg 2020, S. 237-262.

Edited works

  • Kurt Wolff. “Mehr denn je sehnen nach Briefen vom anderen Continent, unserem Continent”. Briefe an seine Tochter Maria 1941-1946, in: Sinn und Form 76.4 (2024), S. 491-510.

Minor work

  • Rez. Honold, Alexander: Poetik der Infektion. Zur Stilistik der Ansteckung bei Thomas Mann, in: Germanistik. Internationales Referatenorgan mit bibliographischen Hinweisen 64.3-4 (2024), S. 1035.
  • Tagungsbericht Workshop „Kohle als Energiequelle in der Literatur von der Romantik bis zur Gegenwart“ (zus. m. Noran Omran), in: Der Anschnitt. Zeitschrift für Montangeschichte 75, 3-4 (2023), S. 153-154.
  • Unseld heißt Huchel in der Freiheit willkommen. Siegfried Unseld an Peter Huchel, München, 26. April 1971, in: Herweg, Nikola (Hg.): „Dieser Brief ist ein S.O.S.“ Exilbriefe aus dem Deutschen Literaturarchiv (= marbacher magazin 177–179. Marbach a.N.: Deutsche Schillergesellschaft, 2022, S. 235-239.
  • Auf der Suche nach dem alternativen Leben. Hermann Hesse vor dem Hintergrund des Monte Verità, in: Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach Blog (05.12.2022), https://blog.dla-marbach.de/2022/12/05/hermann-hesse-vor-dem-hintergrund-des-monte-verita/.
  • Die Umkehrung der Umkehrung, in: schauinsblau. Magazin für Literatur, Kunst und Wissenschaft (2022), https://www.schauinsblau.de/die-umkehrung-der-umkehrung/.

Research Projects

Dissertation: The ‘Aktionsgruppe Banat’ in the Field of Tension between Literature and the Public (1965-1984)

This project aims to analyze the conditions under which a literary group emerged in socialist Romania (1), the production and reception of a specific form of Romanian-German literature in the 1960s to 1980s (2), as well as the cultural-historical relevance of the concepts of authorship, identity construction, and the relationship between literature and the public sphere (3) from a literary-sociological and intercultural perspective. Although the ‘Aktionsgruppe Banat’ only existed for a short period of time (1972–1975) before being disbanded by the Romanian Securitate, authors like Richard Wagner (1952–2023), Johann Lippet (*1951) and Anton Sterbling (*1953) played an important role in the public sphere negotiating Romanian-German subjects.

This work aims to produce a close reading of the literature produced—primarily in the form of poems and short prose—and establish a connection to its performative practices, intermedial experiments and publicity campaigns. In this way, the project broadens the view of this politically controversial phase in Romania’s German literature after 1945.

Workshops and Lectures

Lectures

  • 11/2024: Texte in Zeiten der Unterdrückung. Herta Müller und die deutschsprachige Literatur im sozialistischen Rumänien [10. Erlanger ECHO-Kontaktstudium für Deutschlehrinnen und Deutschlehrer, Thema: Demokratie und Propaganda: Sprache – Literatur – Kultur]
  • 02/2024: Die Aktionsgruppe Banat und die deutschsprachige Literatur Rumäniens (1965-1989) [Ruth-Klüger-Forum des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs 2806 „Literatur und Öffentlichkeit“]
  • 12/2023: Die Aktionsgruppe Banat und die deutschsprachige Literatur Rumäniens (1965-1989) [Forschungskolloquium Germanistik, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg]
  • 07/2023: Von Rundtischgesprächen und Versepen. Die Aktionsgruppe Banat und ihr Umfeld [Forschungskolloquium des Lehrstuhls für Neuere deutsche Literaturwissenschaft, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg]
  • 01/2023: Projektpräsentation „Die Aktionsgruppe Banat im Spannungsfeld von Literatur und Öffentlichkeit (1965–1984) [Ruth Klüger-Forum des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs 2806 „Literatur und Öffentlichkeit“]
  • 11/2022: Auf der Suche nach dem alternativen Leben. Hermann Hesses In den Felsen (1907) vor dem Hintergrund des Monte Verità [Tagung der Deutschen Schillergesellschaft e.V.: (Literarische) Einsamkeitsreflexionen]
  • 11/2022: (Er-)Schöpfungstendenzen um 1900. Die Siedlungsgemeinschaft auf dem Monte Verità als feministisches Projekt? [Tagung: Literatur am Ende – Putting *Schöpfung* in *Erschöpfung* (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg)]
  • 04/2022: Das Motiv der Langeweile in Thomas Manns Der Zauberberg (1924) [Tagung: Von Zeit zu Zeit – Polyperspektivische Konzepte von Temporalität (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)]

Workshops and Conference Organisation

  • 09/2025 (mit Antonia Villinger): Panel “Demokratie und Krise 1918-1933. Literarische Dialoge in Zeiten politischer (De-)Stabilisierungen” (28. Deutscher Germanistentag “Dialog”. TU Braunschweig)
  • 03/2024 (mit Antonia Villinger): Workshop: Zusammen/Schreiben. Literatursoziologische und kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf literarische Gruppen nach 1945 (Literaturarchiv Sulzbach-Rosenberg | Literaturhaus Oberpfalz)
  • 11/2023 (mit der Jungen Deutschen Schillergesellschaft): Krieg und Frieden. Verhandlungen in Literatur und anderen Medien (Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach)
  • 04/2022 (mit Katharina Muschiol und Stefan Otto Ruiz): Von Zeit zu Zeit – Polyperspektivische Konzepte von Temporalität (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Academic Roles

Teaching

  • Wintersemester 24/25: Literarische Gruppen nach 1945
  • Summersemester 24: Grundlagen des wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens in der Literaturwissenschaft
  • Wintersemester 23/24: Deutschsprachige Literatur in Rumänien nach 1945 (von Paul Celan bis Herta Müller)

Academic self-administration

  • Since 10/2022: PhD Candidate Speaker of the Research Training Group “Literature and the Public Sphere in Differentiated Contemporary Cultures” (GRK 2806)
  • 2020-2022: Speaker for the Master’s Degree Ethik der Textkulturen
  • 03/2021: Student Representative for the Appointment Committee for a position as Research Associate

Awards and Scholarships

  • 2024: Erasmus+-Reisestipendium (Temeswar, Rumänien)
  • 2021: FAU-Prüfungsbester im Rahmen der Ersten Staatsprüfung für das Lehramt Gymnasium an öffentlichen Schulen – Staatsexamensdurchgang Herbst 2021
  • 2020-2022: Stipend from Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes

Foto von Arunima Kundu

Research Interests

American literary and cultural studies, critical posthumanist theory, Afrofuturism, intercultural studies, postcolonial studies, intellectual history

Research Projects

Current academic project

PhD Dissertation: “Mediating Otherness in Cultural Discourse: the Planetary Posthuman Subject in Afrofuturist Science Fiction”

Previous projects

MA Thesis (for MA Intercultural Anglophone Studies): “Thinking Relationally: the Planetary Posthuman in Contemporary Hollywood Science Fiction”

MA Thesis (for MA Global History): “England as a Transformative Experience: Indian students’ perception of the Self and the Other in late nineteenth century Britain (1878-1894)”

Education & Employment

  • Since 2022: Doctoral Research Fellow in the DFG research training group Literature and the Public Sphere in Differentiated Contemporary Cultures, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • April-June 2024: Internship at the cultural office of the City of Erlangen in the organization team of the 21st Erlangen International Comic Salon, 30 May to 2 June.
  • 2020 – 2022: Student Assistant in the DFG Project “Economy and Epistemology of Gossip in 19th- and Early 20th-Century US-American Literature and Culture” at the University of Bayreuth.
  • 2021: Member of the external commission for the internal re-accreditation of the BA English/American Studies and MA Intercultural Anglophone Studies courses for the Quality Assurance Office (Stabsstelle Qualitätssicherung), University of Bayreuth
  • 2019 – 2022: M.A. Intercultural Anglophone Studies at the University of Bayreuth.
  • 2016 – 2017: Editorial Board Member of the Global Histories: A Student Journal. Volume 3, Issue 1 & 2 (2017) ISSN: 2366-780X – at the Free University of Berlin
  • 2017: Member of the organizing committee for the 3rd International Global History Student Conference, May 20-21, 2017, at the Free University of Berlin
  • 2015 – 2018: M.A. Global History, joint degree program at Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University, Berlin.
  • 2012 – 2018: B.A. (Honours) in History at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.

Publications

Journal Articles

2025: Journal editorial: (with Chiona Hufnagel, Lisa Seuberth, and Ruxandra Teodorescu) “(Re-)Shaping the Public Sphere: Cultural Productions as/and Interventions: The 2024 Postgraduate Forum” Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol.26, no.1 • Oct 17, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.412

2024: Journal article: “Mediating otherness: The Afrofuturist planetary posthuman in Black Panther” European Journal of American Culture, Vol 43, No. 3 ·
Dec 9, 2024.  DOI:https://doi.org/10.1386/ejac_00126_

2016: Book Review of: Willey, Angela. Undoing Monogamy: The Politics of Science and Possibilities of Biology. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-822-36159-6.
Published in: Global Histories: A Student Journal. Volume 3, Issue 1 (2017) ISSN: 2366-780X

Workshops, Lectures, and Papers

  • Organization of the 34th Annual Conference of the Postgraduate Forum (PGF) of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA) “(Re-)Shaping the Public Sphere: Cultural Productions as/and Interventions” with Chiona Hufnagel, Lisa Seuberth, and Ruxandra Teodorescu, Nov 21-23, 2024
  • Conference talk on November 9, 2023: “Affective Worldmaking and Counterpublic(s). Afrofuturism and Planetary Posthuman critique in NK Jemisin’s The City We Became” at the 33rd Annual Conference of the Postgraduate Forum (PGF) of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA), PGF 2023 – “Spaces of Affect in the Americas”, Leibniz University Hannover, November 9-11, 2023
  • Conference talk on May 20, 2023 (part of interdisciplinary panel “Literature and the Public Sphere”): “Mediating Blackness. The Afrofuturist Planetary Posthuman in Black Panther” at the SLSAeu Conference 2023, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), May 18-21, 2023
  • Conference talk on May 16, 2023: “Mediating Otherness: The Afrofuturist Planetary Posthuman in Black Panther” at the 18th International Conference on Contemporary Narratives in English, University of Zaragoza, May 15-17, 2023
  • As student assistant in organizing team: Speculative Endeavors. Cultures of Knowledge and Capital in the Long Nineteenth Century, digital conference, October 21-23, 2021
  • As organizer and co-moderator: 3rd International Global History Student Conference, May 20-21, 2017

Teaching

Proseminar: Afrofuturism in Contemporary American Comics in Winter Semester 2024-25 (Department of English and American Studies)

Miscellaneous

  • Member of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA)
  • Academia.edu

Portraitfoto_Silhouette

Research Project

Dissertation: The Media of German-Language Underground Literature

Research Interests

  • Underground- and (Social) Beat Literature
  • Pop Literature
  • Materiality and Mediality of Literatures
  • Journal and Magazine Research

Publications

Graur, Patrick / Omran, Noran: Workshop “Kohle als Energiequelle in der Literatur von der Romantik bis zur Gegenwart”. Paderborn: Bonifatius GmbH Druck – Buch – Verlag, 2023.

Omran, Noran: Elisabeth K. Paefgen: Film und Literatur der 1970er Jahre: Eine Studie zur Annährung und Wandel zweier Künste. MEDIENwissenschaft: Rezensionen, Reviews, MEDIENwissenschaft: Rezensionen | Reviews, Jg. 35 (2018)(Sonderpublikation), 12-14.

Lectures

April 2026: Underground-Journale als Anti-Archive. Zur Gegenwartsfixierung und Gegenwartsgenerierung im Ulcus Molle Info (1969-1990)

Tagung: Gegenwart, Literatur, Zeitschriften. 23./24. April 2026, Literaturarchiv Sulzbach-Rosenberg. Organisation: Daniel Ehrmann (München / Göttingen) / Frieder von Ammon (München).

März 2025: Lumpensammler:innen und ihre Schnipselwelten

Workshop: “Unser Leben ist der Inhalt” Deutschsprachige Fanzines”. 13./14. März 2025, Berlin. Organisation: Noran Omran (Erlangen) / Erika Thomalla (München).

Juni 2024: Podiumsdiskussion: “I Can Heal You”

Filmaufführung: “I Can Heal You”. Eine Produktion von Lost Film. 26. Juni 2026, Erlangen. Organisation: Imane El Guennouni (Erlangen).

Mai 2024: New Alman Écriture: Popliterature and Postmigrant Perspectives

Diversity Day der FAU. 14. Mai 2024. In Kollaboration mit Laura Sturtz.  

April 2024: Die Medien der deutschsprachigen Underground-Literatur

Buchwissenschaftliches Kolloquium Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

März 2024: Permutative Kollaborationen – Gemeinschaftliche Textproduktionen

Workshop: Zusammen/Schreiben. Literatursoziologische und kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf literarische Gruppen nach 1945. 14./15. März 2024, Sulzbach-Rosenberg. Organisation: Patrick Graur (Erlangen) / Antonia Villinger (Erlangen).

Feb. 2024: Hybride in Interzonen: Zur Inszenierung von Räumlichkeit & Identität in Cut-Ups

Forschungskolloquium Philipps-Universität Marburg. 01./02. Feb. 2024.  

Juli 2023: Klacto/23 International

Workshop: Zeitschriftenforschung und Humandifferenzierung. 25. Juli 2023, Mainz. Organisation: Dr. Sabina Fazli (Mainz) / Prof. Dr. Oliver Scheiding (Mainz).

Juni 2023: Über ein Paradox: Wenn Öffentlichkeit nicht öffentlich sein will

Workshop: Medienvielfalt der bundesdeutschen Literatur. Eine methodologische Erprobung. 20./30. Juni 2023, Erlangen. Organisation: Marlene Kirsten (Bonn) / Noran Omran (Erlangen).

Okt. 2022: In der BRD wucherts: Verästelungen der Zines Ulcus Molle Info, Gasolin 23 u.v.m. im Journal-Rhizom

Workshop: Literatur der frühen Bundesrepublik: Materielle Kulturen und mediale Öffentlichkeiten. 6./7. Okt. 2023, Marburg. Organisation: David Brehm (Marburg) / Noran Omran (Erlangen).

Aug. 2022: Die Medien der deutschsprachigen Undergorund-Literatur

Early Career Researcher Tagung der Zeitschriften- und Journalforschung. 23. Aug. 2023, Marburg. Organisation: Vincent Fröhlich (Marburg) / Sven Schöpf (Bochum).

Activities

Conference Organization
FAU-Commitee Memberships
  • Since April 2024, co-initiation in cooperation with the Office for Gender and Diversity: FAU Network: Mosaic – Community of PoC 
  • From October 2022 to October 2024 doctoral student spokesperson at DFG Research Training Group 2806.
External Memberships

Courses and Lectures

  • Summer semester 24: Diversity (in) Literature (FAU, Erlangen/Nuremberg)
  • Winter semester 23/24: German Underground Literatures (1969-1990) (FAU, Erlangen/Nuremberg)
  • SoSe 22: Specialized tutorial: Entertainment literature in the 19th century, English (Philipps University, Marburg)
  • Summer semester 21 – Summer semester 22: Written Rhetoric and Stylistics (Philipps University, Marburg)
  • Winter semester 22/23: Christian Kracht’s novels – authorship, aesthetic procedures, impact (Philipps University, Marburg)

Vita

  • Since October 2022 research assistant, doctoral candidate in the DFG Research Training Group 2806 Literature and the Public Sphere in Different Contemporary Cultures with a doctoral project on the German-language alternative press in the Federal Republic from 1968 onwards.
  • Since Oct. 2023, concept / organization: Editing of the GRK Newsletter
  • July-Sep. 2024, scientific internship: German Art Archive of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg
  • From October 2022 to October 2024 doctoral student spokesperson at DFG Research Training Group 2806.
  • Until September 2022 PhD student and lecturer at the Philipps University Marburg at the Institute for Contemporary German Literature.
  • Until April 2021 tutor of the introduction to scientific working methods and text analysis at the Philipps University Marburg
  • Until March 2021 Studies of German Language and Literature, Political Science and Philosophy at the Philipps University Marburg.

Daniel Wellinghausen left the Research Training Group in 2023 to take up an editorial position at Beck-Verlag, Munich.

Former Staff

We were very saddened to be informed on April 9th 2024 of the sudden death of our coordinator Dr. Jochen Venus. The thoughts of the members of the Kolleg are with Jochen’s wife and family.

Jochen Venus was an important contact person for all the members of our Kolleg. As a media scholar who researched and taught at the University of Siegen for many years, he was the academic coordinator of the RTG “Literature and the Public Sphere in Different Contemporary Cultures” at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg from October 2022. In this role, he supported the development of the research group. His death leaves an abrupt gap.

Jochen holds a doctorate in media studies. After pushing degrees in media studies, literary studies, sociology and philosophy at the University of Siegen, he continued to work there for many years as a lecturer and as a project staff member and scientific coordinator in two DFG collaborative research centers on popular media genres and helped shape interdisciplinary research on popularity. Beyond the research training group’s research topic and the exciting individual projects, he is thrilled that his interest in aesthetic theory is given so much material support in Erlangen’s vibrant cultural life.

Jochen was coordinator from November 2022 to April 2024.

Former Student Assistants

Student Assistant

Student Assistant
  • 2017 – 2021 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg: Bachelor of Arts Book Studies/German Studies
  • 2021 – 2024 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg: Literary Studies – intermedial and intercultural

Mandy Eisenkolb was responsible for the RTG newsletter, proofreading and other tasks such as website maintenance and workshop support.

Student Assistant

Johanna Neumeier

johanna.neumeier@fau.de

Since her A-Levels in 2019, Johanna Neumeier has studied at FAU. In 2023, she graduated in Italian and German Studies (B.A.) and currently pursues a Master’s degree in Literature Studies – intermedial and intercultural. In the course of her studies, she worked several times as a tutor for Italian linguistics and literature. In addition to her work at the RTG, she was a student assistant for Italian at the FAU Language Center until August 2025.

Student Assistant

Studentische Hilfskraft

Nina Weiß supported the RTG public relations (mainly website and graphic design)