Postdoc and Coordination / Administration

Dr. Antonia Villinger

antonia.villinger@fau.de

Antonia has worked as a research assistant at the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg (2020-2022) and as a research assistant at the International Kolleg Morphomata at the University of Cologne (2017-2020); in 2021 she joined the University of Mannheim with the study Dramen der Schwangerschaft. Friedrich Hebbels „Judith“, „Maria Magdalena“ und „Genoveva“, funded by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and the Landesgraduiertenförderung des Landes Baden-Württemberg, awarded the International Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler Prize of the Austrian Society for German Studies and the Young Talent Award of the Hebbel Society and the Hebbel City of Wesselburen.

The climate crisis and the demanded energy turnaround are significantly shaping the current socio-political discourse. In this context, questions about energy supply in particular are moving to the centre of attention, which is why the choice of different energy sources and the resulting effects on the environment, society and the economy are being discussed intensively. This change can be clearly observed in the public reception of coal as an energy source; after all, there is a controversial discussion about whether disused coal mines should be put back into operation.

Literature also plays a central role in these discussions, as it critically examines the relationship between man and the environment and reflects on socio-historical and cultural-political issues. The research project is dedicated to these social, economic and ecological transformation processes and the contemporary cultures that develop from them. Following research contributions from the Environmental and Energy Humanities, Material Studies and Ecocriticism, the aim is to comprehensively examine the representation of coal as an energy source in German-language literature after 1945.

Dr. Jochen Venus

jochen.venus@fau.de

Jochen holds a doctorate in media studies. After studying media studies, literary studies, sociology and philosophy at the University of Siegen, he worked 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 topic of the Research Training Group and the exciting individual projects, he is thrilled that his interest in aesthetic theory is given so much material support in the lively cultural life of Erlangen.

Anke Tänzler

anke.taenzler@fau.de