Research Interests
My research explores intersections of literature, film, and memory, with a particular focus on German-Jewish contemporary literature, memory culture and politics, transnational literature, documentary forms of literature and film, and German-language drama and theater. I am especially interested in literary texts that engage with and reinterpret other media—such as photography, sculpture, and film—to generate multidirectional memories.
Post-Soviet Jewish Memory
I am currently working on post-Soviet Jewish authors writing in German, including Katja Petrowskaja, Dmitrij Kapitelman, Olga Gorelik, and Olga Martynova. Through close readings of their literary works, I examine questions of migration, multilingualism, Jewish identity, memory, and belonging in contemporary German-language literature. I have presented this research at academic conferences and workshops, with particular attention to the ways these authors negotiate post-Soviet experiences and Jewish histories across linguistic, cultural, and national boundaries.
Representations of the Holocaust
One of my current research projects examines questions of representation of Holocaust memory in documentary films. For example, Matti Geschonneck’s Die Wannseekonferenz (2022), a documentary drama commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, highlights the role of film in shaping collective memory of the Holocaust. Similarly, Polish Holocaust survivor Maryan S. Maryan's experimental film Ecce Homo (1975) offers a provocative artistic lens on survival, trauma, and the Holocaust's enduring impact. These works inform my broader interest in how documentary forms of literature and film challenge conventional narratives of memory and history.
Barbara Honigmann
Another focus of my research is the work of German-Jewish author Barbara Honigmann. My Master’s thesis at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, explored discourses of memory and German-Jewish identity in her literary award speeches, particularly examining how she integrates autobiographical elements and cultural memory into her reflections. Building on this research, I contributed an article to the forthcoming edited volume Transnational Families, Transnational Novels (edited by Annette Bühler-Dietrich and Amelie Daigle), which analyzes "Dimensions of Transnationality in Barbara Honigmann's Novel Georg (2019)." These studies emphasize Honigmann's unique position within German-Jewish contemporary literature and her engagement with questions of identity, mobility, and memory.
Women's Drama and Theater
I have also been involved for several years in the research project Women’s Drama and Theatre in German-Speaking Europe, 1600–2025, which examines the contributions of female playwrights to German-language theater. My work in this area has focused on 20th-century Austrian author Lotte Ingrisch and included presentations on German actress Therese Giehse at the German Studies Association Conference in 2023 and Hedda Zinner's drama Ravensbrücker Ballade (1961) at the Gesellschaft für Theaterwissenschaft's conference in 2024. I am currently preparing an article on rewriting the history of female theater authors and playwrights in the German Democratic Republic, which will appear in a forthcoming conference publication. Additionally, I am organizing a seminar on this topic for the 2025 German Studies Association Conference. Through this work, I aim to highlight the rich yet underexplored contributions of women to German-language drama and theater history.