Research

Research Interests

• 19th- and 20th-century American literature

• Material Culture, Food Studies
  BMBF-project: "Esskulturen"

• travel writing & the body
  research network "Traveling Bodies"

• dystopia, disaster, and apocalypse
  Dystopia & the Body (in narrative and film)

• Gender Studies; Postcolonial Studies, Intersectionality

• Cultural Studies (esp. concepts of culture, space, place)

• ecocriticism

• Visual Culture (in particular: contemporary Hollywood film)B

I am currently working on a book project focusing on the portrayal of consumer practices in antebellum American literature. Moreover, I am the co-speaker (with Prof. Dr. Uta Schaffers, German Department) of the international research network "Traveling Bodies: Corporeality and Travel Literature" (funded by the DFG 2023-2025). With colleagues from the University of Koblenz-Landau, the University of Bonn, and the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Koblenz), I have worked on the relationship between food and culture: "Esskulturen: Objekte, Semantiken, Praktiken" (funded by the BMBF, 2018-2021). Since 2015, I have been a founding member and the co-speaker of the division "Material Cultures" (together with Dr. Marion Steinicke), which is part of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (German Association of Cultural Studies).

I am also part of two editorial teams (a journal and a book series):

Publications (selection):

For a complete overview of publications, please see my SciPort page. Many of my publications are also available via "The Stacks" (Library of Anglo-American Culture & History).

Edited Collections:

Monographs:

Articles:

"'The most dirtiest children': Spectacles of Otherness on the American Frontier." Traveling Bodies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Traveling as an Embodied Practice. Eds. Nicole Maruo-Schröder, Sarah Schäfer-Althaus, and Uta Schaffers. Routledge, 2024, 99-120. (Series: Routledge Research in Travel Writing)

"Alien (Alien – Das unheimliche Wesen aus einer fremden Welt; Ridley Scott, 1979)." Kleiner Kanon großer Film. Eds. Michael Braun and Stefan Neuhaus. Stuttgart, Metzler, 2023 (forthcoming).

„Esskultur und Servicepersonal im Amerika des 19. Jahrhunderts“ Bulletin Esskulturen (Mappe IV, Faszikel 19-24: Servicepersonal. Sozialstatus und Rollenspiel). Hg. Marion Steinicke. Jahrgang 2020. Görres Verlag, o.S.

„‘A Family of Peculiar Construction’. Tisch-(Un)Ordnungen in Frank J. Webbs The Garies and Their Friends.“ Bulletin Esskulturen (Mappe I, Faszikel 1-6: Tisch­ordnungen. Hierarchisierung und Egalisierung). Hg. Marion Steinicke. Jahrgang 2019. Görres Verlag, o.S.

"Justice Has a Bad Side": Figurations of Law and Justice in 21st-Century Superhero Movies. EJAS 13.4 (Winter 2018): 1-23.

"Technological Progress, Adult Power, and Teenage Bodies in 21st-Century Dystopias." '"Tell Freedom I said Hello": Issues in Contemporary Young Adult Dystopian Fiction. Heidelberg: Winter, 2018, 47-72.

"Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women." Handbook of the American Novel of the Nineteenth Century. Ed. Christine Gerhardt. Berlin/ Boston: De Gruyter, 2018, 385-403.

"Framing War: Teaching (with) the Graphic Novel The Photographer." Anglistik 29.1 (2018): 87-101.

"A(t) Home on the Frontier: Place, Narrative, and Material Culture in Caroline Kirkland and Eliza Farnham," ZAA 64.1 (2016): 43-59.

"'From the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom': Raum, race und gender in afroamerikanischen Sklavenerzählungen." Intersektionalität und Forschungspraxis: Wechselseitige Herausforderungen. Eds. Mechthild Bereswill, Folgert Degenring, and Sabine Stange. Münster, Westfälisches Dampfboot, 2015, 115-133.

"A 'Dish Offered to the Public': The Business of Gender and Class in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables." Literature and Consumption in Nineteenth-Century America. Eds. Nicole Maruo-Schröder and Christoph Ribbat. Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 49-70.

"Commodifying Difference: Depiction of the Other in 19th-Century American Trade Cards." 19th-Century Contexts 34.2 (2012): 85-115.

Selected Talks:

• "Einführung: Populäre Materielle (Fest-) Kultur – Objekte auf Bildern, Bilder als Objekte“
  Workshop „Populäre Materielle (Fest-) Kultur“ of the Division "Material Cultures", Saarland University, Saarbrücken, September 29, 2023

• (with Uta Schaffers) "Der Körper als Grenze und Medium der Welterfahrung in Reiseliteratur: ‚Traveling Bodies‘ als Forschungsfeld“
  Workshop: „Körper und Körperlichkeit in der Reiseliteratur“, Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für interkulturelle Germanistik (GiG), University of Utrecht, June 15, 2023

• "Laying the Table: The Politics of Food and Identity in 19th-Century US America“
  invited talk, Technical University Dortmund, February 13, 2023

• (with Uta Schaffers) "Reisende Körper/Traveling Bodies“
  invited talk, Kolloquium am Kap, University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University and the University of the Western Cape, November 10, 2023

• „Of Servants, Cooks, and (Fancy) Dinners: (Material) Food Culture in Nineteenth-Century American Literature“
  invited talk, Ruhr Universität Bochum, July 19, 2021

• „Unseemly Sights: Bodily Encounters in 19th-Century Women’s Travel Narratives“
  invited talk, Universität Duisburg-Essen, July 9, 2021

• „‚the frightful manner of feeding with their knives‘: Esskultur, Materialität und (nationale) Identität in der amerikanischen Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts“
  invited talk, lecture series "Exquisit und inklusiv? Essen, Materialität und Migration in Bad Godesberg und anderswo“, University of Bonn, November 27, 2019

• „Kulinarische Vergemeinschaftung versus Vereinzelung beim Essen. Beispiele aus der US-amerikanischen Literatur“
  keynote, autumn school "Esskulturen der Ver­ge­mein­schaftung“, Trifels, September 12, 2019

• Bodies and Identities in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction
  invited talk, lecture series "Lecture Series "Reading in the Classroom, Learning for the World," University of Würzburg, May 20, 2019

• "Oh! such a supper!": Tischszenen in der amerikanischen Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts
  lecture series "Esskulturen in Kunst, Literatur und Film" (Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolloquium), University of Koblenz-Landau, April 17, 2019

• "I breathe free…": (De)Civilized Bodies on the Frontier
  International Conference "Traveling Bodies," University of Koblenz-Landau, July 6, 2018

• "'Fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way': Ausnahmezustände im zeitgenössischen Superheldenfilm.“
  lecture series "Ausnahmezustand" (Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolloquium), University of Koblenz-Landau, May 16, 2018

• "Buying and Selling (Self-) Culture in Thoreau's Walden"
  Invited Talk, Lecture series for the 200th anniversary of Henry David Thoreau, University of Münster, July 3, 2017

Conference Organization

Sektionentagung der Kulturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft
University of Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz, September 23-25, 2019
co-organization with Michael Klemm and Wolf-Andreas Liebert
International Conference "Traveling Bodies" University of Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz, July 5-6, 2018
co-organization with Sarah Schäfer-Althaus and Uta Schaffers
Symposium "Auf-Sammeln und Ver-Werten" University of Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz, July 14-15, 2017
co-organization with Melanie Hackenfort and Marion Steinicke
"Tell Freedom I said Hello": Issues in Contemporary Young Adult Dystopian Fiction University of Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz, January 22, 2016
co-organized with Christian Ludwig, University of Karlsruhe
Buying America: Literature and Consumption in the 19th Century University of Paderborn, 12-13 June 2012
co-organized with Christoph Ribbat
Reading the Everyday University of Paderborn, 3-4 July 2009
co-organized with Miriam Strube
Amerika und Europa im Dialog: Philosophieren über Literatur und Kunst University of Duesseldorf, 21-22 Mai 2004
co-organized with Astrid Böger and Georg Schiller