About

I am currently a research and teaching assistant for American Studies at the University of Potsdam. My first book In Search of the Utopian States of America: Intentional Communities in Novels of the Long Nineteenth Centurycame out in 2020 with palgrave macmillan. It is based on my PhD thesis, which was supervised by Prof. Dr. Nicole Waller, University of Potsdam, and Prof. Dr. Gregory Claeys, Royal Holloway, University of London.

In addition, I am the host and creator of a podcast on the currents of North American Studies in Germany:  talkingamericanstudies.buzzsprout.com

Research Interests

• Utopian studies and communalism
• Political participation
• African American SF and horror
• Gothic/horror literature

Habilitation Project: Secret Nations and Hidden Empires – Black Resistance and Conspiracy at the Beginning of the 20th Century

My research revolves around conceptions of Black conspiracies in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. I focus on speculative fiction by African American authors who imagined secret societies and concealed empires in which Black people could seek refuge, power, justice, and/or revenge against national and international systemic White supremacist oppression. Considering historical covert Black organizations, Black nationalism, popular conspiracy theories of the time, and related racialized imagery and identities in the USA, texts are investigated for their engagement with entangled conceptions that underwent crucial shifts at the time, such as nation, race, populism, fascism, colonialism, and empire.

List of Publications

Follow this link to find a list of publications.