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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 .

 

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

(Updated: September 2023)

 

Table of Contents

 

ENGLISH LITERATURE

Prof. Dr. Eva von Contzen

In progress:

  • Anderson, Nathan
    "Critical Practices, Critical Theory: Literary Criticism Now and Then"
  • García de Alba Lobeira, Sonia
    "Narratological Approaches to the Study of Interiority in Middle English Romance"
  • Haufe, Dunja
    "Medieval Shapeshifters"

  • Huber, Mareike
    "The Functions and Effects of Invented Languages across Different Types of Media"

  • Janeva, Kalina
    "Representations of Female Hunger in Women's Prose in English from the Early Modern Period to Modernism"

  • Müller, Mariam
    "Female Embodied Experiences in Body Horror"

  • Straßburg, Sebastian
    "Representation of Consciousness in the Early Modern English Pastoral Romance"

  • Wolf, Sophia Elisabeth Philomena
    "Retellings of Premodern Texts"

Prof. Dr. Monika Fludernik

In progress:

  • 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
    "Ritual on the Contemporary Stage: Narrative and Performance"
  • Straßburg, Sebastian
    "Representation of Consciousness in the Early Modern English Pastoral Romance"


Completed:

 

PD Dr. Benjamin Kohlmann | Chair of Prof. Fludernik

 

Prof. Dr. Barbara Korte

In progress – primary supervision:

  • Bantle, Sophie
    "The Neo-Victorian Detective Series in Popular Anglophone Fiction and Television"
  • Beckers, Cornelius
    "Through Pen and Paper: Ordering Knowledge and the Consolidation of Imperial Power in Early British India, c. 1750-1830"
  • Bender, Stefanie
    "Future Fictions in the 21st Century: Ethics and Aesthetics"
  • Eckert, Celina
    "A Winding Path to Taking Roots: Concepts of Gardens and Gardening in British Travel Texts, 19th Century to Present"
  • Fortmeier, Lilli
    "Hellenic Universalism as Post-Imperial Practice"
  • Kapp, Tanja
    "New Psychogeography: Inter- and Transmediality in Contemporary Forms of Walking"
  • Machata, Klara
    "Space, Place and the Anthropocene in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction"
  • Sarica, Özlem
    " From Victim to Hero? Reconfigurations of the Female Detective on British Television"
  • 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"
    (Erstbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Markus Tauschek, Universität Freiburg)
  • Riggert, Mirja
    "Weiblichkeitskonstruktionen in autobiografischen Reiseerzählungen und deren mediale Repräsentationen in Geschichte und Gegenwart"
    (Erstbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Michaela Holdenried, Universität Freiburg)
  • Neubrandt, Susanne
    „Die Rezeption Arthur Schnitzlers in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika"
    (Erstbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Achim Aurnhammer, Universität Freiburg)
  • Winsky, Nora
    "Touristische Praktiken und deren mediale Repräsentationen im Kontext von Freiburg und der Schwarzwaldregion"
    (Erstbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Tim Freytag, Universität Freiburg)
  • Zimmermann, Gisela
    "Pilgern im Zeitalter der digitalen Kommunikation"
    (Erstbetreuung: 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'"

 

NORTH AMERICAN STUDIES

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck

In progress:

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


Completed:

 

Prof. Dr. Sieglinde Lemke

In progress:

  • Bambey, Morgan
    "The Witch: Its Representation and Function in Contemporary American Culture"
  • Conrady, Claudia
    "Closet Narratives"
  • Domonell, Janek
    "Trauma and Cross-Cultural Solidarity: A Post-Colonial Reading of Teju Cole’s Oeuvre"
  • Gezici, Özde
    "The (Im)possibility of Doing Nothing: Sleep, Mourning and Mindfulness in the Neoliberal Era"
  • Howard, Jennifer
    "Cultural Change in Post-Covid America"
  • Huang, Minghsa
    "The Arts of Subversion: On Alice Walker's Novels in the Light of Feminist Theories"
  • Marx. Theresa
    "Representations of a Sustainable Future"
  • Sands, Sarah
    " African American Crime Fiction of the 20th Century"


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:

  • Raphael, Sarah Sofie
    "English as a Lingua Franca in the Humanities? Language Policy in Structured Doctoral Programs in Germany"
  • Serditova, Dana
    "Salience in New Orleans English"

Completed:

 

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

  • Nedic, Vinko Fabian
    "Influence of Voice Pitch and Accent on Perception"

Completed:

 

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

 

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

In progress:

  • Bailey, Kebrina
    "Creole and English in a British Overseas Territory. Language Variations and Language Attitudes in 21st Century Anguilla"
  • Bonnet, Isolde
    "Multilingualism and identity construction among Cameroonian immigrants in Europe"
  • Cuthbertson, Laura
    "Beyond Tense and Aspect: Temporal Conceptualisation in Present-day Spoken English"
  • Mahler, Hanna
    "English-German Contrastive Linguistics: A Quantitative Perspective"
  • Müller, Julia
    "Gender Systems as a Cause of Interference in Second-Language Processing"
  • Neuhausen, Miriam
    "Language and Identity in Mennonite Communities in Southern Ontario, Canada"
  • Song Shuang
    "Linguistic Expression of Emotions in English and Chinese Computer-mediated"


Completed:

 

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

Completed: