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Ph.D. Dissertations

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We currently host approximately 40 Ph.D. students, who are writing their dissertations on a wide variety of topics in English linguistics and British, North American and postcolonial literature and cultural studies. As such, the University of Freiburg’s English Department has one of Germany’s largest and highest-quality Ph.D. programs for English studies.

In addition to excellent mentorship and advising, we provide financial support – more than half of our doctoral students are employed by the department or on affiliated research projects. Further, many of our Ph.D. students are supported by scholarships and/or grants.

The primary contact person for doctoral students is Dr. Gert Fehlner.

 

The following is an overview of all in-progress and completed Ph.D. dissertations, dating back to the 1990s.

(Updated: November 2020)

 

Table of Contents


 

ENGLISH LITERATURE

Prof. Dr. Monika Fludernik

In progress:

  • Chen, Hsiu-Yuan
    "Joyce Goes to the Movies: Reading UlyssesCinematically"
  • Finger, Sebastian
    "Realism in Late Medieval and Early Modern British Drama"
  • Henke, Daniela | GRK 1767
    "Zerborstene Texte und Wirklichkeiten in der Schwebe: Experimentelles Erzählen über den Nationalsozialismus"
    (Erstbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Sabina Becker, Universität Freiburg)
  • Herlyn, Anne
    "Dialogue and Narrative Structures in Middle English Verse Romances"
  • Keller, Nikola | GRK 1767
    "Von Sklaverei erzählen – Sklaverei abschaffen? Erzählende Passagen in deutsch- und französischsprachigen Abolitionsdramen des 18. Jahrhunderts (1725–1802)" 
    (Erstbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Judith Frömmer, Universität Freiburg)
  • Kleinschmidt, Sebastian | GRK 1767
    Narrating Salvation – Narrative Techniques in Middle English Afterlife Visions
  • Luo, Xi
    "Theatricality of the Third: Ritual on the Contemporary Stage"
  • Munz, Melina | SFB 1015
    "Otiose Leisure in Contemporary Indian Fiction in English"
  • Noor, Farha | SFB 1015
    "Reading Leisure in South Asia Through a Comparative Study of Bangla and Urdu Fiction with a Focus on Post-Independence Literature" 
    (Erstbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Hans Harder, Universität Heidelberg)
  • Siverio, Francesca
    "Negotiating Temporalities. Performing the Cultural Present in Selected Works by Salman Rushdie, Jeet Thayll and Rana Dasgupta"
  • Waßmer, René | SFB 1015
    "Muße in der Metropole. Flanerie in der deutschen Publizistik und Reiseliteratur um 1800"
    (Erstbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Peter Philipp Riedl, Universität Freiburg)


Completed:

  • SPOHN, Verena (2018, publ. forthcoming). "Die Du-Form als narrative Strategie im Grenzgebiet von Gebet und Erzählung in volkssprachlichen Texten des Spätmittelalters"
    (Erstbetreuung: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Henrike Manuwald, Universität Göttingen | GRK 1767)

 

PD Dr. Benjamin Kohlmann | Chair of Prof. Fludernik

    • HATTON, Nikolina (2019, publ. forthcoming). "Conspicious Objects: The Agency of Things in English Prose, 1789-1832"



Prof. Dr. Barbara Korte

In progress – primary supervision:

  • Bender, Stefanie
    "Future Fictions in the 21st Century: Ethics and Aesthetics"
  • Fortmeier, Lilli
    "Hellenic Universalism as Post-Imperial Practice"
  • Kapp, Tanja
    "New Psychogeography: Inter- and Transmediality in Contemporary Forms of Walking"
  • Sperlich, Kristina
    "The Heroic in Contemporary Children's and Young Adult Fiction"

 
In progress – secondary supervision:

  • Baumann, Uwe
    "Dunkle Moderne als Reiseziel. Touristifizierung und mediale Repräsentation von 'verlassenen' Architekturen europäischer Regime: Ein adriatischer Vergleich"
    (Primary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Markus Tauschek, Universität Freiburg)
  • Riggert, Mirja
    "Weiblichkeitskonstruktionen in autobiografischen Reiseerzählungen und deren mediale Repräsentationen in Geschichte und Gegenwart"
    (Primary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Michaela Holdenried, Universität Freiburg)
  • Neubrandt, Susanne
    „Die Rezeption Arthur Schnitzlers in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika"
    (Primary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Achim Aurnhammer, Universität Freiburg)
  • Winsky, Nora
    "Touristische Praktiken und deren mediale Repräsentationen im Kontext von Freiburg und der Schwarzwaldregion"
    (Primary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tim Freytag, Universität Freiburg)
  • Zimmermann, Gisela
    "Pilgern im Zeitalter der digitalen Kommunikation"
    (Primary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Markus Tauschek, Universität Freiburg)


Completed
 – primary supervision:


Completed – secondary supervision:

 

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Lethbridge | Chair of Prof. Korte

  • Busch, Sarah
    "Emotional Audiences – An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Role of Affect in the Reception of Postdramatic Theatre"
  • Donelly, Orla
    "The Political Activism of Twenty-first-century Irish Stand-up Comedians"

  • Kübler, Lukas
    "Fremde Räume und soziokulturelle Propriozeption – Eine Raumästhetik;
    Selbstverortung in und durch Alternativwelten und deren Veränderung durch digitale Räume"

  • Sereni, Eleonora
    "Female Superheroes in Films and TV Series of the Comic-Book 'Modern Age'"

 

PD Dr. Nicole Falkenhayner | Chair of Prof. Korte

  • Sarica, Özlem
    "From Victim to Hero? Reconfigurations of the Female Detective on British Television"
  • Hardt, Maria-Xenia
    "Heroes Through Time: The Process of Heroization and Heroic Moments in Doctor Who"

 

NORTH AMERICAN STUDIES

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck

In progress:

  • Ergin, Ece
    "The Indigenous Experience and Trauma: Narrativizing Survival in the midst of Uncovering Canada’s Residential School Memory"
  • Reineke-Kurz, Anja
    "American Crime Fiction in Transition (AT)"
  • Ruschen, Alina Zoe
    "Helden, Vorbilder, Autoritäten. Adaptionen von Klassikern in der zeitgenössischen englischsprachigen Jugendliteratur"
  • Sautter, Christopher
    "History of Muralism"
  • Tomlinson, Donna
    "Staged! Representations of Adult Offspring Identities in Selected Twentieth-Century Drama Texts"
  • Aksay, Kübra
    "Narrativity and Performativity in Modern Video Games"
  • King, Kathi
    "African American Woman Writers and the WPA"
  • Remy-Kovach, Léna
    "Gothic and Reconciliation in North American Indigenous Literature"
  • Rüskamp, Eva
    "Caught Between Conservation and Transformation: Locating Rural Spaces and their Communities in the Sustainable Transition (Case Study: Central and Southern Appalachia)"
  • Seefeldt, Kristina
    "Heroism and the U.S. Military Complex" (working title)
  • Sultany, Aiyal
    "Persuasion Strategies Used in Political Texts"
  • Tuzcu, Ali Yaşar
    "Women at War: The Changing Role of Women in Contemporary American War Film"


Completed:

 

Prof. Dr. Sieglinde Lemke

In progress:

  • Gezici, Özde
    "The (Im)possibility of Doing Nothing: Sleep, Mourning and Mindfulness in the Neoliberal Era"
  • Conrady, Claudia
    "Closet Narratives"
  • Domonell, Janek
    "Trauma and Cross-Cultural Solidarity: A Post-Colonial Reading of Teju Cole’s Oeuvre"
  • Howard, Jennifer
    "Higher Ground in a Divided Nation: Civil religion in America" (working title)


Completed:

  • FRANKIEWICZ, Shane (2018). "The Western: A Diachronic Analysis of the All-American Genre"

 

ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Bernd Kortmann

In progress:

  • Bai, Yinchun. 
    "Towards Discourse Markers: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Grammatical Constructionalization"
  • Bradley, Luke. 
    "Priming, Token Frequencies and Memory in Different Morphological Language Types"

Completed:

 

Prof. Dr. Brigitte Halford | Chair of Prof. Kortmann

  • Scharf, Susanne
    "Representation of Words in the Bilingual Mental Lexicon"

Completed:

 

Prof. Dr. Benedikt Szmrecsanyi | Chair of Prof. Kortmann

 

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christian Mair

In progress:


Completed:

 

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hildegard L.C. Tristram (†)

Completed: