I am a Research Associate at the Trimberg Research Academy, University of Bamberg. Previously, I was an Assistant Professor in Literature and Media at the University of Bamberg and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney. In 2009 I obtained a PhD in American Studies, with a thesis on US American and British literature (minors: Comparative Literature and Media Studies) at the University of Konstanz, and spent a year as a Doctoral Fellow at the English Department of Yale University. My studies began at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași, Romania, where I read English and German Philology for two years before moving to Konstanz as an exchange student.
My work has been supported by grants from the Volkswagen Foundation, German Research Foundation, Fritz Thyssen Foundation, and the DAAD, among many others. Currently my interests cluster around two themes:
(1) the intersections of race, immigration and law enforcement in the United States and Europe, with a focus on racial profiling, police brutality, and biased pre-crime algorithms;
(2) Energy Humanities, especially the transition from fossil fuels to renewables.
News
“What You Gonna Do When The World’s On Fire? Is A Timely Take On Race And Policing In Trump’s America,” review of documentary by Roberto Minervini (Berlin Film Journal, 06.08.2020).
Cassandra Rising, Radio play about Predictive Policing, WDR 1LIVE (science communication and knowledge transfer project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation).
“Rassismus wird in Deutschland tendenziell anderen Nationen zugeschrieben,” Interview on racism and the protests against police brutality (MIGAZIN, 24.06.2020).
Foreseeing Race: The Technology and Culture of Risk Prediction after the Datalogical Turn, CFP, special issue of the Journal of American Studies (Cambridge University Press), co-edited with Joshua Scannell.
“‘Ask Him Where His Shame Is’: War and Sexual Violence in The Kite Runner,” Critical Insights: The Kite Runner, edited by Nicolas Tredell (Ipswich, Mass.: Salem Press, 2020), 69-83.
“Bedrängte Bilder: Fremdeinstellung und Asylpolitik im filmischen Rückführungsnarrativ,” Non-Person: Grenzen des Humanen in Literatur, Kultur und Medien, edited by Stephanie Catani and Stephanie Waldow (Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 2020), 69-92.