Gesine Wegner, M.A.

© Nils Eisfeld

Former Faculty Member

Name

Gesine Wegner, M.A.

Research and Teaching

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Contact Information

Address work

Visitor Address:

Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Room 3.22 Wiener Straße 48

01219 Dresden

work Tel.

+49 351 463-34918

fax Fax

+49 351 463-37733

gesine.wegner@​tu-dresden.de

Office Hours:

To help with social distancing procedures, there will be no in-person office hours for the foreseeable future. I am available via e-mail and happy to schedule phone or (video)chat-consultations.

Academic Background

Research Interests

• US-American literature of the  20th and 21st century
• disability studies
• gender & sexuality studies
• multi-modality in American literature and culture
• trauma studies
• young adult literature
• higher education studies, special focus on disability and access as well as on digital learning and teaching

→ please find a brief description of my PhD-project at the research section
 

Publications

• With Mirjam Frotscher. “The Handmaid's Tale zwischen Feministischer Erzählung und ‘Torture Porn‘: Eine intersektionale Kritik”, in: Anja Besand (Hg.). Springer [forthcoming].

• “'[L]ess than accessible and seriously disheartening' Unfolding Transatlantic Eugenics in Disability Scholarship." Special Issue of Amerikastudien/American Studies, guest-edited by Simon Strick, vol. 64, no. 2, 2019, pp. 189-214. https://amst.winter-verlag.de/article/AMST/2019/2/5

• "Reflections on the Boom of Graphic Pathography: The Effects and Affects of Narrating Disability and Illness in Comics." Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, 2020, pp. 57-74. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/748214

• With Cedric Essi, Paula von Gleich, Stephen Koetzing and Samira Spatzek (Hg.): “White Supremacy in the US and Beyond.” Special Issue of Current Objectives of American Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, 2019. https://copas.uni-regensburg.de/issue/view/3

• With Cedric Essi, Paula von Gleich, Stephen Koetzing and Samira Spatzek (Hg.): “COPAS at Twenty: Interrogating White Supremacy in the US and Beyond.” Current Objectives of American Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, 2019, pp. 1-17. https://copas.uni-regensburg.de/article/view/336 

• "Erzählungen vom „Behindert werden“: Literaturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf Behinderung", in: David Brehme, Petra Fuchs, Swantje Köbsell, Rebecca Maskos, Carla Wesselmann, and Michael Zander (Hg.). Disability Studies im deutschsprachigen Raum. Zwischen Emanzipation und Vereinnahmung. Beltz Juventa, 2019, pp. 189-195. Inhaltsangabe des Tagungsbandes

• "Puller, Lewis Jr. Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet." Disability Experiences: Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Other Personal Narratives, edited by G. Thomas Couser and Susannah B. Mintz. Macmillan Reference USA/Gale, 2019, 249-253. Print and Ebook available at www.cengage.com

• "Relocating the Freak Show: Disability in the Medical Drama." Special Issue of Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik. 67.1 (2019), guest-edited by Anita Wohlmann: 19-36. https://www.degruyter.com/

• With Tanja Reiffenrath (Ed.). Special Issue “Dis-eased: Critical Approaches to Disability and Illness in American Studies.” Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies. 18.2 (2017). https://copas.uni-regensburg.de/issue/view/36

• With Tanja Reiffenrath. “Dis-eased: Critical Approaches to Disability and Illness in American Studies.” [Introduction] Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies. 18.2 (2017). https://copas.uni-regensburg.de/article/view/295

• "Comment from the Field" Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 11.4 (2017): 499-501.

• "Hitchcock's Brunettes: Visualizing Queerness in the 1940s and '50s." (Ed.) Schwanebeck, Wieland. Reassessing the Hitchcock Touch. Industry, Collaboration, and Filmmaking. Palgrave, 2017: 77-95.
• "R.J. Palacio. Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories. London: Random House, 2015", [Review] interjuli. Internationale Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung 17.1 (2017): 147-49. http://www.interjuli.de/de/
• With Mirjam M. Frotscher. "Von Max zu Maura: Auf der Suche nach Trans*gressiver Elternschaft im US-Amerikanischen Fernsehen." [Ed.] Besand, Anja und Mark Arenhövel. Väter allerlei Geschlechts. Generationenverhältnisse und Autoritätsfiguren in Fernsehserien. Springer, 2017: 77-95.
•  "'You’re Supposed To Wear Heels' -- Imaginationen (nicht-)behinderter Weiblichkeit in Grey’s Anatomy." (Ed.) Loster-Schneider, Gudrun; Horlacher, Stefan; Häusel, Maria; Schötz, Susanne. GraduateGenderProjects II – Differenzierungen, Diversitäten, Pluralismen. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2016: 157-176.
• "Self-Destructive Love: Homosexual Desires of a Mad Woman in Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940)." (Ed.) Yakalı-Çamoğlu, Dikmen und Morgan Ereku. Re-Imagining Gender and Love. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2016: 153-67. 
• "Making the Unspeakable Seen? Trauma and Disability in David Small’s Stitches." Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies 17.1 (2016). http://copas.uni-regensburg.de/article/view/260
• With Ulrike Kohn. "Sabotaging 'Hitchcock': Eine kritische Annäherung". [conference report] Rabbit Eye - Zeitschrift für Filmforschung. 7 (2015): 119-26. http://www.rabbiteye.de/2015/7/kohn-wegner_hitchcock.pdf
• "Susan Nussbaum. Good Kings Bad Kings. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 2013" [review] Disability Studies Quarterly 33.3 (June, 2013). http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/3786/3249
   

Presentations/Conference Papers

• "Carol (2015): Patricia Highsmith auf der großen Leinwand" [in cooperation with Wieland Schwanebeck]. Kino im Kasten [university cinema], Dresden, 17 December 2019. 
• Panelist in non-paper session "Toward Open Access for All: Theory, Methods, and Practice" [remotely via Skype] Annual meeting of American Studies Association. Hawai'i Convention Center, 8 November 2019.
• "To Be Continued? - Serializing Traditions of Cripping up on American Television" 8th Annual Conference of ALTER – European Society for Disability Research. University of Cologne, 5 September 2019.
• "Open Science, Open Access(ibility)? – Why Free Online Collaboration Might (Not) Be the Key to Challenging Disability Avoidance in Academia," International Conference "Disability and Disciplines: The International Conference on Educational, Cultural, and Disability Studies", Liverpool Hope University, 4 July 2019. 
• "When Literary Classics Meet Pop Culture: (Re)Imagining the American Literary Canon through Comics" Workshop "Popular Culture(s) in the Classroom" Annual Meeting of the GAAS. University of Hamburg, 14 June 2019.
• "E Pluribus Unum: Überlegungen zum Inklusionsbegriff aus Amerikanistischer Perspektive" Lecture Series "Inklusion: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven". 10 January 2019.
• with Mirjam M. Frotscher. "The Handmaid's Tale zwischen Feministischer Erzählung und "Torture Porn": Eine intersektionale Kritik". 7th conference of the research network Weitersehen: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven Dresdner Serienforschung, Sächsische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung, Dresden, 3 November 2018.  
• "Erzählungen vom 'Behindert werden' - Überlegungen zum Behinderugsbegriff aus literaturwissenschaftlicher Sicht". Disability Studies Konferenz 2018 [first interdisciplinary conference of disability studies scholars in German-speaking countries], Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin, 20 October 2018.
• "Hayes—Hitchcock—Burks: Das Fenster zum Hof (1954) als Kollaboratives Filmwerk". Kino im Kasten [university cinema], Dresden, 29 May 2018. 
• 'Through Deaf Eyes': Losing and Reclaiming Public Space in Brian Selznick’s Wonderstruck". Annual Meeting of the GAAS. Free University Berlin, 25 May 2018.

• "Affective/Effective Images? The Aesthetics of Representing Disability Experiences in Comics," guest lecture as part of the seminar series "Disability and the Emotions," Centre for Culture and Disability Studies, Liverpool Hope University, UK, 07 March 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvUwXs4Kw6U

• “A Crip Culture Talks Back: Zur Darstellung von Behinderung in der (Amerikanischen) Populärkultur,” seminar “Inklusion auf allen gesellschaftlichen Ebenen”, Center for Media and Social Work, College Mittweida, 17 November 2017.

• "'Surely this is not me!’ - Recapturing the Tragic Model of Disability through the Lens of Trauma Theory," International Conference "Disability and Disciplines: The International Conference on Educational, Cultural, and Disability Studies", Liverpool Hope University, 06 July 2017. 

• "Das Krankenzimmer als Ausgangspunkt von Protest: Feministische und Behindertenaktivistische Auseinandersetzungen mit dem Gesundheitssystem", Short presentation at "The Long Night of Sciences", Dresden University of Technology, 16 June 2017.

• "Rekonzeptionalisierungen Visueller Lust: Geschlecht und Behinderung in der amerikanischen Populärkultur", Conference for Young Researchers (GenderConceptGroup) "Gender in Transition?", Dresden University of Technology, 30 May 2017.

• "Nur für Kinder? Comics als Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Analyse." Short presentation at "The Long Night of Sciences", Dresden University of Technology, 10 June 2016.

• "Disability in Motion: Reframing Notions of (Im)mobility in American Reality TV."

  International Graduate Conference 2016 "Flows and Undercurrents: Dimensions of Im/mobility in North America," John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, 3 June 2016.

• With Katja Kanzler. "Recent Developments in American Literature: The Novel in an Age of Media Rivalry." Teacher Training Seminar "Aspects of American Culture,' Saxony-Anhalt's Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Magdeburg, 18 March 2016.

• With Mirjam M. Frotscher. "Von Max zu Maura: Auf der Suche nach trans*gressiver Elternschaft." Interdisciplinary Conference on Television "Väter Allerlei* Geschlechts," Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden, 12 December 2015.
• "Visualizing the Failed Body: Physical Disability and Trauma in American Multi-Modal Narratives." Post-Graduate Workshop of the conference "The Failed Individual," University of Mannheim, 12 November 2015.
• "Making the Unspeakable Seen? Disability and Trauma in David Small’s Stitches and Brian Selznick’s Wonderstruck." Post Graduate Forum of the German Association for American Studies, University of Bamberg, 8 November 2015.
• "Relocating the Freak Show: The Medical Drama in a Post-Millennial America." Guest lecture/ part of the undergraduate class "How We Look – Disability and Visual Culture," University of Paderborn, 18 June 2015.
• "Geschlecht: Behindert? Zur Konstruktion von Weiblichkeit und Ability im US-amerikanischen 'Medical Drama'." 2. Colloquium of Young Researchers in Gender Studies, Dresden University of Technology, 6 May 2015. 
• "Before the Scream: Women and Hitchcock in the 1940s and 1950." International conference "Sabotaging 'Hitchcock': Eine kritische Annäherung," Dresden University of Technology, 20 June 2014. 
• "Madly in Love: Homosexuality and Mental Illness in Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940)." 3rd Global Conference on "Gender and Love," Mansfield College, Oxford, UK, 15 September 2013.

Public Events & Conference Panels

• Conference Panel: "Cripping up: Staging the Disabled Body" 8th Annual Conference of ALTER – European Society for Disability Research. University of Cologne, 5 September 2019.
• "Pränataldiagnostik - Ethisches Dilemma oder Wissen als Chance?" Film & Discussion, Programmkino Ost, Dresden, 11 October 2018. https://www.mdr.de/religion/praenataldiagnostik-100.html
• Host of Lecture Series: "Disability From the Inside Out – Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Behinderung" (with Dorothee Schneider, Kenny Fries und Ella Houston) Summer Semester 2018. TU Dresden.
• "Was ist mit den Amis los? Hundert Tage Präsident Trump und die Folgen für Amerika und Europa." Discussion with Christoph von Marschall, Motorenhalle Dresden, 26 April 2017. 
• "Not who we are“ - Geflüchtete Syrische Frauen." Film and Discussion, Grüne Ecke, Dresden, 10 March 2016. 
• Host of Lecture Series: "Rethinking Disability - Behinderung Neu Denken" (with Kenny Fries, Swantje Köbsell und Tanja Reiffenrath) Summer Semester 2015. TU Dresden.
• chairing of conference panels (Postgraduate Forum of the GAAS (2019), Passau; International conference "Transcultural Adaptation" (2018), TU Dresden; Postgraduate Forum of the GAAS (2017), HU Berlin; "The International Conference on Educational, Cultural, and Disability Studies" (2017), Liverpool Hope University)

Workshops

• "Inklusive (Hochschul-)Lehre: Einführung und Umsetzungsbeispiele." Didactics workshop targeted at other university teachers, Zentrum für Weiterbildung, TU Dresden, 30.06.2020.
• "Of Scholars and Superheroes: An Introduction to American Comic Studies." Visit of 10th-grade students at TU Dresden, 30 April 2019.
• With Michael Moser. "More than Entertainment: Approaching Television in American Studies." Visit of 10th-grade students from the regional Highschool Romain-Rolland-Gymnasium at TU Dresden, 27 April 2018.  
• With Alexander Wedel. "Gender & Culture in Science and Research." SSPEXA Symposium 2016, Leibniz Supercomputing Centre Munich, 27 January 2016.
• With Sebastian Manzke. "Sexuelle Vielfalt - eine politische Bestandsaufnahme."  Student Conference "Diskriminierungen im Spannungsdreieck von Kirche, Politik und Gesellschaft," EHS Dresden, 19 November 2013.

Stays Abroad, Stipends and Awards

Teaching at the TU Dresden

• Summer 2015: "Challenging the Narrative Prosthesis - Contemporary Negotiations of Disability in American Literature and Film." [Proseminar/Übung : undergraduate class for 1st and 2nd-year students]
  Course Hompage 
• Winter 2015/16: "'The End of Poetry?'- Narrating Trauma after World War II." [Proseminar: undergraduate class for 2nd-year students]
  Course Hompage
• Summer 2016: "Reading Comics- The Evolution of the American 'Graphic Novel'." [Proseminar/Übung: undergraduate class for 1st and 2nd-year students]
  Course Hompage
• Winter 2016/17: "The Great American Novel." [Proseminar: undergraduate class for 2nd-year students]
  Course Hompage
• Summer 2017: "The Golden Age(s) of Young Adult Literature: From the 1970s to the Present."  [Proseminar/Übung: undergraduate class for 1st and 2nd-year students]
  Course Homepage
• Winter 2017/18: "Performing the American Dream? American Drama since the 1960s" [Übung/Proseminar: undergraduate class for 2nd-year students]
  Course Hompage
• Summer 2018: "A Crip Culture Talks Back: Disability in Contemporary Life Writing and Fiction" [Proseminar/Übung : undergraduate class for 1st and 2nd-year students]" Course Homepage
• Winter 2018/19: "Basics of American Literary Studies" (Übung: undergraduate class for 1st-year students) Course Homepage
• Summer 2019: "Jewish Voices in American Literature: From the 1880s to the Present" [Proseminar/Übung : undergraduate class for 1st and 2nd-year students]. Course Homepage
• Winter 2019/2020: "The Great American Novel" [Blended Learning Seminar:  for 1st and 2nd-year students]. Course Homepage

Engagements Within and Outside the University

• Member of the Equal Opportunities Team at the Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies (since 2018)
• Member of the DFG-Research Network "Narrative Liminality and/in the Formation of American Modernities" (since 2018)
• Co-editor of Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies (COPAS) (since 2017)
• Associate Member of the Collaborative Research Center "Invectivity: Constellations and Dynamics of Disparagement" - Assistance in the project on poetics of disparagement in popular culture  (since 2017)
• Board Member of  Weiterdenken- der Heinrich Böll Stiftung Sachsen (since 2016)
• Regional Tutor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (as part of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange) (2017-2019)
• Subsidiary Member of the Local Advisory Council Dresden Cotta (2014-2019)