Teaching
Reading, discussing, and thinking about the role of literature and culture in our societies and lives with others is what makes teaching and supervising such a joy for me. It is a privilege and an immense enrichment to facilitate seminars, lectures, and workshops for people who want to explore issues like identity, power relations, and the role of literature and culture together.In my classes, I strive to enable every student to develop their own strengths and interests. To me, students are independent thinkers who fruitfully bring their individual and diverse backgrounds to the subject matter of literature and culture. It is therefore my goal to engage and immerse participants via an interactive, appreciative, and positively demanding learning environment, e.g. via creative writing, project-based learning, reading journals, or other tasks and assignments.
In terms of content, my courses focus on material from Britain, Ireland, and the New English literatures, e.g. Australia, India, Nigeria, or the Caribbean. As one of my goals is to foster independent, critical thinking beyond disciplinary lines, my courses not only include literary theory and methodology, but equally engage with cultural theories taken from various neighbouring disciplines, such as sociology, history, and philosophy, as well as various schools of thought such as post-colonial, feminist, or post-modernist.
Download Full Teaching Dossier
Thesis Supervision
Since 2008, I have been the supervisor of 66 Bachelor and Master Theses, and I was the second referee of an additional 33 theses. I am also the supervisor of one PhD candidate and was the mentor of the five PhD candidates of the Research Training Group "Formations of the Global." I have served on more than 15 viva committees as either an internal examiner or as the chairperson.Working with students on their theses is one of the most rewarding activities in my job for me. As a supervisor, it is my priority to enable candidates to follow their interests, apply their individual strengths, and further develop and present their abilities as independent research personalities. This includes their choice of material and methodology as well as the potential to work on an interdisciplinary thesis, e.g. if a Bachelor candidate who studies English and Economics writes her thesis on gender and marketing in Nivea advertisements, or if a Master candidate who studies literature and media works on British news coverage of the soccer world cup and its representations of Germany.
For a list of topics that I have supervised and my activities and goals in working with students during their theses preparation see my teaching dossier.
List of Courses
My teaching experience includes more than 50 courses taught on the undergraduate, graduate, as well as postgraduate level. The courses were smaller Master and PhD seminars with up to 20 participants, larger seminars with up to 40 undergraduate participants, and large lectures with up to 400 participants. Each seminar or lecture comprised twelve to fourteen weeks of teaching and a final examination, for example a written exam, an oral exam, or a term paper of about 20 pages.In the following, my courses are listed with their title, the students they addressed, and, if relevant, with a short comment on language, collaborating lecturers, and course specificities. Please note that most of the evaluations that you can download here are in German.
Courses at Humboldt-University, Berlin
As Guest Professor (2015-2016)
Seminar "Sherlock Holmes and Detective Fiction around 1900" (for Bachelor students)
Seminar "Race and Ethnicities in Contemporary Anglophone Literature" (for Master students)
Seminar "Tourists and Tourism in English Literature and Film from 1900 to the Present" (for Bachelor students)
Courses at the University of Mannheim
As Juniorprofessor (2009-2014)
Lecture "Home and Homeland: Interdisciplinary and Comparative Perspectives" (for Bachelor and LAG students [students working towards their teaching degree at German secondary school])
"Kolloquium für Abschlussarbeiten" [Practical course for students working on their theses] (for all courses of study) download evaluation
Seminar "Audiovisual Media, Literature and the construction of Normality" (interdisciplinary seminar for Bachelor students of English and Media and Communication Studies; with Prof. Dr. Jens Eder, MKW)Seminar "Race and Ethnicities in Contemporary Anglophone Literature" (for Bachelor, LAG and diploma students)
Interdisciplinary Lecture Series "English and American Studies" (for all Bachelor students of the English Department, with five colleagues from the English Department)
Seminar "Critical Whiteness Studies: A Theoretical Review" (for Master, LAG and diploma students)
PhD Seminar "Zeit- und Raumkonzepte" [Theories and Concepts of Time and Space] (for PhD students of the School of Humanities, with Prof. Dr. Claudia Gronemann, Department for Romance Languages, in German)
Two-Day Workshop "Irish Culture and Critical Whiteness Studies" (with Prof. Dr. John Brannigan, University College Dublin, for advanced Master and PhD students)
Seminar "Post/Colonial Intimacies in Contemporary British and Irish Literature" (for Master, LAG and diploma students) download evaluation PhD Seminar "Formations of the Global: The Human Factor" (for PhD students from the School of Humanities, with Prof. Dr. Annette Kehnel, Department of History, in German)
Lecture Series "Theoretische Grundlagen der Interdisziplinären Kulturwissenschaft" [Basic Theories of the Cultural Studies] (Lecture for all Bachelors of the School of Humanities, with three colleagues from the School of Humanities, in German) download evaluation Seminar "Irishness, Authenticity and the Rural Question in Contemporary Irish Fiction" (for Master, LAG, and diploma students) download evaluation
Two-Day "White Spaces" Workshop for Master and PhD Candidates with Dr. Shona Hunter (Leeds University, UK)
Seminar "The Tourist" (for Bachelor and LAG students) download evaluation
Seminar "White Trash: American and European Perspectives" (for Master, LAG, and diploma students) download evaluation
Seminar "Fachdidaktik II" [Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Secondary School] (for LAG students, with Dr. Stella Butter and Dr. Marije Michel, English Department)
Seminar "Film and the Celtic Tiger" (for Master and diploma students) download evaluation
Seminar "Not White-Not Quite: New Irish Writing on Intercultural Encounters" (for Master and LAG students) download evaluation Seminar "Sherlock Holmes: Genres, Interpretations, Adaptations" (for Bachelor and LAG students) download evaluation
Seminar "The Irish in Australia" (for Master and LAG students) download evaluation Lecture "Shakespearean Language, Literature and Culture" (for all courses of study, with Prof. Dr. Carola Trips, Diachronic Linguistics, English Department) download evaluation
Seminar "Multiculturalism: The Contemporary English Novel and Drama" (for Bachelor and LAG students) download evaluation Seminar "What ish my nation? The Question of National Identity in Ireland and England" (for Master and LAG students) download evaluation
Seminar "Shakespeare's Others: Alterity, Racism and Tolerance in the Tragedies" (for Bachelor and LAG students) download evaluation
Seminar "A Survey of Postcolonial Theory" (for Master and LAG students) download evaluation
Seminar "Forms of Intertextuality" (for Bachelor and LAG students) download evaluation Seminar "Whiteness Studies and the Question of the Skin" (for Master and LAG students) download evaluation
As Instructor (2006-2008)
Seminar "Contemporary British Drama 1997–2007" (for Bachelor and LAG students) download evaluationSeminar "Multicultural Ireland" (for Bachelor and LAG students) download evaluation
Seminar "Introduction to Narrative Literature" (for Bachelor and LAG students,in German)
Seminar "Introduction to Irish Literature" (for Bachelor and LAG students) download evaluation
Seminar "Shakespeare on Film: Richard III and Titus Andronicus" (for Bachelor and LAG students) download evaluation
Seminar "A Different Look at the Classics: Intertextuality and Rewriting in the Postcolonial Context" (for Master and LAG students) download evaluation
Seminar "Introduction to Genre Theory and Narrative Literature" (for Bachelor and LAG students, in German)
Seminar "A.S. Byatt" (for Bachelor and LAG students)
Seminar "Introduction to Autobiography: Non-Fiction and Fiction" (for Bachelor and LAG students)
Seminar "Introduction to Biography: Theory, Non-Fiction, and Fiction" (for Bachelor and LAG students)
As Undergraduate Research Assistant (2001-2002)
Four tutorials accompanying the lecture "Introduction to the Study of English and American Literature" (in German)Courses at the University of Passau
As Juniorprofessor (2008-2009)
Seminar "Whiteness Studies and the Question of the Skin" (for Master and LAG students)Seminar "A.S. Byatt" (for Bachelor and LAG students)
Seminar "Introduction to Autobiography: Non-Fiction and Fiction" (for Bachelor and LAG students)
Seminar "Contemporary British Drama 1997–2007" (for Bachelor and LAG students)
Seminar "Shakespeare on Film: From Stage to Screen" (for Master and LAG students)