Department of Germanic Studies

• contemporary theater and performance
• theater theory
• posthumanism
• landscape and urbanism
• globalization, migration and transcultural theater
• politics of aesthetics
• cultural analysis
• intermediality
• comedy
• gender and queer theory
• Elfriede Jelinek
• Christoph Schlingensief

My research focuses on contemporary theater and performance with a specific interest in the politics of aesthetics and theater theory. I engage with the sociopolitical dimension of theater and performance in times of neoliberalism and globalization. Specifically, I am interested in how theater starts a dialogue with the public urban space and how it resonates in a multicultural society.

I studied German literature as well as theater, film and media studies at the University of Vienna. Most recently, I was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan (funded by the Austrian Science Fund). Before, I held a position at the University of Vienna where I taught in the Department for Theater, Film and Media Studies as well as the German Studies Department.

My first book Drama als Störung. Elfriede Jelineks Konzept des Sekundärdramas [Drama as Disruption: Elfriede Jelinek’s Concept of the Secondary Drama] (2016) focuses on different theoretical approaches to the principle of disruption and deals with the critical and political dimension of this concept as deployed by Nobel-prize laureate Elfriede Jelinek. My second book is interested in contemporary theater and performance’s engagement with destruction and decay. I explore how theater takes up a ruinous practice to reflect on the human condition in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In addition, I’m co-editor of several volumes on theater and performance studies.

• Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler-Award, Austrian Society for German Studies (2017)
• Women in German Dissertation Prize (2017)
• Doc.Award, University of Vienna and City of Vienna (2016)

Monographs

• Drama als Störung. Elfriede Jelineks Konzept des Sekundärdramas. Bielefeld: transcript 2016 (= Theater 88). [Drama as Disturbance: Elfriede Jelinek’s Concept of the Secondary Drama]

Edited books

• Postdramatic Theatre as transcultural Theatre / Postdramatisches Theater als transkulturelles Theater. (ed. with Koku G. Nonoa) Tübingen: Narr 2018 (= Forum Modernes Theater). Elfriede Jelineks Burgtheater – Eine Herausforderung. (ed. with Pia Janke and Christian Schenkermayr) Wien: Praesens Verlag 2018. [Elfriede Jelinek’s Burgtheater: A Challenge]
• Schreiben als Widerstand. Elfriede Jelinek & Herta Müller. (ed. with Pia Janke) Wien: Praesens Verlag 2017. [Writing as Resistance: Elfriede Jelinek & Herta Müller] „Postdramatik“. Reflexion und Revision. (ed. with Pia Janke) Wien: Praesens Verlag 2015. [‘Postdramatic:’ Reflection and Revision]
• Der Gesamtkünstler. Christoph Schlingensief. (ed. with Pia Janke) Wien: Praesens Verlag 2011. [The ‘Gesamtkünstler:’ Christoph Schlingensief]
• „Die endlose Unschuldigkeit.“ Elfriede Jelineks „Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel).“ (ed. with Pia Janke and Christian Schenkermayr) Wien: Praesens Verlag 2010. [‘The endless innocence:’ Elfriede Jelinek’s Rechnitz]

Articles and book chapters (peer-reviewed)

• “Travelling Concepts, Travelling Theatre? Transcultural Translations of Performance in Wunderbaum’s Looking for Paul.” (with Katharina Pewny) In: Kovacs, Teresa / Nonoa, Koku G. (ed.): Postdramatic Theater as transcultural Theater. Tübingen: Narr 2018, pp. 71–86.
• “Disturbance in the Intermediate. Secondary Drama as a Parasite.” In: Koch, Lars / Nanz, Tobias / Pause, Johannes (ed.): Disruptions in the Arts. Textual, Visual, and Performative Strategies for Analyzing Societal Self-Descriptions. Berlin: de Gruyter 2018, pp. 339–346.
• “Zwischen Ohnmacht und Autonomie. Christoph Schlingensiefs Theater der Angst.” In: Limbus. Australisches Jahrbuch für germanistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft 2017, pp. 63–80. [Between powerlessness and autonomy. Christoph Schlingensief’s theater of fear]
• “Elfriede Jelinek and Ewald Palmetshofer in between. Sedimentations, Enclosures and Overlyings of Dramatic Formations in Contemporary German-language Playwriting.” In: Augustová, Zuzana / Jiřík, Jan / Jobertová, Daniela (ed.): Horizonty evropského dramatu. Prague: Kosmas 2017, pp. 243–260. − Polish translation: Dialog 4/2016, pp. 228–237.
• “Criticizing Americanness, Criticizing Austrianess. Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Elfriede Jelinek.” In: JELINEK[JAHR]BUCH. Elfriede Jelinek-Forschungszentrum 2016-2017, pp. 187–202.
• “Widerständiges Schreiben. Subversion bei Elfriede Jelinek und Herta Müller. In: Janke, Pia / Kovacs, Teresa (ed.): Schreiben als Widerstand. Elfriede Jelinek & Herta Müller. Wien: Praesens Verlag 2017, pp. 237–252. [Resistive writing. Subversion by Elfriede Jelinek and Herta Müller]
• “‘…die ehernen Blöcke männlichen Schaffens umkreisen.’ Elfriede Jelinek queert Lessing und Goethe.” In: Aussiger Beiträge 10 (2016), pp. 81–97. [‘...circling the monuments of male creativity:’ Elfriede Jelinek is queering Lessing and Goethe]
• “Schwarm und Schwelle: Migrationsbewegungen in Elfriede Jelineks Die Schutzbefohlenen.” (with Silke Felber) In: Transit 10.1/2015, (January 12, 2016). [Swarm and Threshold: Migratory Movements in Elfriede Jelinek’s Charges (The Supplicants)]
• “Unterbrechung, Übermalung, Dialog. Elfriede Jelineks „Sekundärdrama“ im Dialog mit Lessing / Goethe.” In: Janke, Pia / Kovacs, Teresa (ed.): „Postdramatik“. Reflexion und Revision. Wien: Praesens Verlag 2015, pp. 226–241. [Interruption, Overpainting, Dialogue: Elfriede Jelinek’s Secondary Drama in dialogue with Lessing / Goethe]
• “Fläche und Tiefenstruktur. Die leere Mitte von Geschichte in Jelineks Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel) und Winterreise.” (with Monika Meister) In: Janke, Pia / Kovacs, Teresa (ed.): „Postdramatik“. Reflexion und Revision. Wien: Praesens Verlag 2015, pp. 119–129. [Surface and Depth Structure: The Empty Center of History in Jelinek’s Rechnitz]

Articles and book chapters (non peer-reviewed)

• “Flowing Space. Theater – Raum – Bewegung bei Christoph Schlingensief und Friedrich Kiesler.” In: Degeling, Jasmin / Knapp, Lore / Pogoda, Sarah / Lindholm, Seven (ed.): Christoph Schlingensief und die Avantgarde. München: Fink 2019, pp. 153–172. [Flowing Space. Theater – Space – Movement in the Works of Christoph Schlingensief and Frederick Kiesler]
• “Störung! Formen der Überlagerung in Elfriede Jelineks Sekundärdrama.” In: Donat, Sebastian / Fritz, Martin / Raic, Monika / Sexl, Martin (Hg.): Interferenzen - Dimensionen und Phänomene der Überlagerung in Literatur und Theorie. Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press 2018, pp. 107–121. [Noise! Forms of superposition in Elfriede Jelinek’s secondary drama]
• “‘Fremd bin ich eingezogen, fremd zieh ich wieder aus.’ AußenseiterInnentum und Innere Emigration bei Elfriede Jelinek und Thomas Bernhard.” In: Golaszewski, Marcin / Kardach, Magdalena / Krenzlin, Leonore (ed.): Zwischen Innerer Emigration und Exil. Deutschsprachige Schriftsteller 1933-1945. Berlin: de Gruyter 2016, pp. 205–215. [‘I came here a stranger / as a stranger I depart:’ Alienation and Inner Emigration in the Literature of Elfriede Jelinek and Thomas Bernhard]
• “Sanktion und Selbstzensur. Elfriede Jelineks Aufführungsverbote für Österreich.” (May 20, 2014) [Sanction and Self-Censorship: Elfriede Jelinek’s Performance Bans for Austria]
• “‘Nimm hin und iß mein Fleisch.’ Zum Kannibalismusmotiv im Epilog von Elfriede Jelineks Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel).” In: Janke, Pia / Kovacs, Teresa / Schenkermayr, Christian (ed.): „Die endlose Unschuldigkeit“. Elfriede Jelineks „Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel)“. Wien: Praesens Verlag 2010, pp. 289–309. [‘This is my body which is for you:’ On Cannibalism in the Epilogue of Elfriede Jelinek’s Rechnitz]