Seminar für Englische Philologie

Dr. Vanessa Künnemann

Dr. Vanessa Künnemann

Wiss. Mitarbeiterin




  • Ethnic Studies (esp. Asian American Studies)
  • Gender Studies
  • Middlebrow Studies
  • Popular Culture
  • New American Studies
  • Autobiography Studies
  • 19th and 20th Century Literature
  • The Financial Crisis in American Literature and Culture

Dissertation

"Middlebrow Mission. Pearl S. Buck's American China" (PhD Thesis, University of Hannover, 2013)

since 10/2013 Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin/Assistant Professor, English Department/American Studies, University of Göttingen
since 10/2013 Coordinator of Degree Programs, English Department/American Studies, University of Göttingen
10/2012-09/2013 Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin/Assistant Professor, English Department/American Studies, University of Paderborn
04/2002-03/2012 Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin/Assistant Professor, English Department/American Studies, University of Hannover

2013 Promotion/Ph.D.:
Dr. phil. in American Studies, University of Hannover
2002 Magister Artium (M.A.):
English/American Studies, Political Science, University of Hannover
2000 Bachelor of Arts (B.A.):
English/American Studies, Political Science, Journalism, and History, Angelo State University, TX

Monographs

  • Middlebrow Mission: Pearl S. Buck's American China (Bielefeld: transcript, 2015; US distribution: New York: Columbia UP, 2015).

Edited Books

  • with Ruth Mayer, ed. Chinatowns in a Transnational World. Myths and Realities of an Urban Phenomenon(New York: Routledge, 2011). Publisher's Website
  • with Ruth Mayer, ed. Trans-Pacific Interactions. The United States and China, 1880-1950 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Publisher's Website

Articles

  • "'Showing what it is to be Chinese': China/Town Authenticity and Hybridity in Pearl S. Buck's Kinfolk ." Chinatowns in a Transnational World. Myths and Realities of an Urban Phenomenon. Ed. Vanessa Künnemann, Ruth Mayer. New Routledge, 2011. 163-181.
  • with Birte Christ. "The Turn to Economic Inequality: A Chance for a New-New Americanist Middlebrow Studies?" American Studies/Shifting Gears. Ed. Birte Christ, Michael Butter, Christian Kloeckner, Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche. Heidelberg: Winter, 2010. 397-418.
  • with Ruth Mayer. "Transnational Nationalisms ? China and the United States in a Pacific World. An Introduction." Trans-Pacific Interactions. The United States and China, 1880-1950. Ed. Vanessa Künnemann, Ruth Mayer. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 1-18.
  • "'Left to follow with bleeding feet?' American Missions in China and the (Gendered) Critique of Pearl S. Buck." Trans-Pacific Interactions. The United States and China, 1880-1950. Ed. Vanessa Künnemann, Ruth Mayer. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 161-184.
  • "Sex and the City zwischen puritanischem Erbe und Provokation. Eine amerikanische Serie im Spannungsfeld von Pornografie, sexuellem Diskurs, Zensur und Prüderie." Screening Gender - Gendered Screens: Geschlechterszenarien im gegenwärtigen US-amerikanischen Film und Fernsehen. Erlanger Studien zur Anglistik und Amerikanistik. Ed. Heike Paul, Alexandra Ganser. Münster: LIT, 2008. 18-32.
  • "'Staging the Chinese for the West': Melodramatic Dimensions in Pearl S. Buck's Novel and the Film Adaptation of The Good Earth." Melodrama! The Mode of Excess from Early America to Hollywood. Ed. Frank Kelleter, Barbara Krah, Ruth Mayer. Heidelberg: Winter, 2007. 229-246.
  • with Inga Lindemann. "Bond of Blood: Englische Kriegsdichtung als Spiegel einer traumatischen Männlichkeitskrise." Feministische Studien (1/2004): 50-67.

    • Encyclopedia Entries

    • "Hannah Webster Foster, "The Coquette," "Grace Metalious, Peyton Place," "Pearl S. Buck, Das Romanwerk," Kindlers Literatur Lexikon. 3. völlig neu bearbeitete Auflage. Ed. Heinz Ludwig Arnold. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2010 .

      • Reviews

      • "Ingrid Gessner, From Sites of Memory to Cybersights. (Re)Framing Japanese American Experience", ZAA - Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik. A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture LVII 4:4 (2009): 426-28.
      • "Mario Klarer, Einführung in die anglistisch-amerikanistische Literaturwissenschaft", Amerikastudien/American Studies 50:4 (2005): 657-58.
      • "Klaus Schreiner / Marc Müntz (Hg.), Frömmigkeit im Mittelalter. Politisch-soziale Kontexte, visuelle Praxis, körperliche Ausdrucksformen", sehepunkte 4 (2004), Nr. 7/8 [15.07.2004]

      Conference Papers

      • "Middlebrow|Money Matters: The Representation of the Financial Crisis in Contemporary Middlebrow Culture" (Conference: "Inventing the Middlebrow," St. Catherine University, Minneapolis/St.Paul, MN, 26-28 June 2014)
      • "'I only wish Pearl Buck was alive and walk into my restaurant so I can cut out her heart and liver.' Pearl S. Buck and the Ethnicization of the Middlebrow" (Conference "Middlebrow Cultures," Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland, 14-15 July 2009)
      • "Between Victimization and Self-Empowerment: Pearl S. Buck and the Role of American Female Missionaries in China" (Conference "The Spirit and the Flesh: Transregional Perspectives on Religion, Race, and Gender in History," Erfurt University, 18-19 June 2009)
      • "'We must show this vast new country what it is to be Chinese': Pearl S. Buck and the (Re-) Negotiation of Diasporic Identity in China/Town" (Conference "Chinatowns. Myths and Realities of an Urban Phenomenon in the United States and Europe," University of Hannover, September 2008)
      • Respondence to Thoralf Klein: "Christian Mission and the Internationalization of China, 1830-1950" (Conference "Pacific Interactions," University of Hannover, November 2006)
      • "Sex and the City zwischen puritanischem Erbe und Provokation. Eine amerikanische Serie im Spannungsfeld von Pornografie, sexuellem Diskurs, Zensur und Prüderie" (Invited lecture at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, June 2005)
      • "Pearl S. Buck and the American Missionary Presence in China" (Paper in conjunction with "Graduiertenförderung", University of Hannover, January 2005)
      • "An Introduction to Pearl S. Buck" (Workshop conference "Asian American Studies", University of Hannover, July 2003)

  • "Cultural Distinctions Remediated: Beyond the High, the Low, and the Middle" (international conference with Lynn Spigel (Northwestern University, Illinois) and Jason Mittell (Middlebury College, Vermont); co-organized with Ruth Mayer, Shane Denson, and Florian Groß; funded by the Embassy of the United States of America and the German Association of American Studies (GAAS/DGfA); University of Hannover, December 2011)
  • "Middlebrow Fiction" (workshop conference with Gordon Hutner (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), funded by the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies FRIAS; co-organized with Birte Christ (University of Giessen); University of Freiburg, November 2009)
  • "Cinema of the Asian Diaspora" (workshop conference with filmmakers and film critics Renée Tajima Peña (Los Angeles), Sun-ju Choi (Berlin), Feng-mei Heberer (Los Angeles), and Kimiko Suda (Peking); with a public film screening of My America (Renée Tajima Peña); co- organized with Ruth Mayer; University of Hannover, June 2009)
  • "Telling and Reading Asian American Stories" (workshop for students with Viet Thanh Nguyen (University of Southern California); co-organized with Ruth Mayer; University of Hannover, May 2009)
  • "Chinatowns. Myths and Realities of an Urban Phenomenon in the United States and Europe" (international conference with John Kuo Wei Tchen (New York University), Peter Kwong (City University of New York), Yong Chen (UC Irvine), Mary Lui (Yale University), Flemming Christiansen (University of Leeds), Thoralf Klein (University of Erfurt), Lars Amenda (University of Hamburg); co-organized with Ruth Mayer, funded by the German Research Foundation/Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG; University of Hannover, September 2008)
  • "Family Values: The Politics of Private Representation" (workshop at the 55th annual conference of the German Association of American Studies (DGfA) "The American Presidency and Political Leadership"; co-organized with MaryAnn Snyder-Körber (FU Berlin); Heidelberg, May 2008)
  • "Pacific Interactions: The USA, China, and the Chinese Diaspora in Historical Perspective" (international conference with Xiao-huang Yin (Occidental College, Los Angeles), Pheng Cheah (UC Berkeley), Thoralf Klein (University of Erfurt), Se¬bastian Conrad (FU Berlin), Andrea Riemenschnitter (University of Zurich), Yong Chen (UC Irvine), Dominika Ferens (University of Wroclaw), Peter Schneck (University of Munich LMU), Mita Banerjee (University of Siegen), Detlev Claussen (University of Hannover), Kirsten Twelbeck (University of Hannover); co-organized with Ruth Mayer, funded by the German Research Foundation/Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG; University of Hannover, November 2006)
  • "Internationalizing American Studies" (international conference with Robyn Wiegman (Duke University), Sabine Sielke (University of Bonn), and Balint Rosznyai (University of Szeged, Hungary)), co-organized with Birte Christ and Alexander Vazansky in conjunction with the DFG research network "The Futures of (European) American Studies"; Gummersbach, July 2006)
  • "20 Jahre Feministische Studien" (conference on the occasion of the 20th anniverary of the interdisciplinary journal Feministische Studien; organized for the publishers Anna Maria Stuby (University of Hannover/Bremen) and Mechthild Rumpf (Hannover/Frankfurt am Main); Hannover, November 2002)

  • Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien (DGfA)
  • European Association of American Studies (EAAS)
  • research network "Middlebrow: An Interdisciplinary Transatlantic Research Network," (Strathclyde University, UK; Sheffield Hallam University, UK; since 2009)
  • research network "The Futures of (European) American Studies" (funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)/ German Research Foundation, 2005-2008); final publication: American Studies / Shifting Gears (Heidelberg: Winter, 2010)

  • "Diasporische Selbstinszenierungen. Chinesisch-amerikanische und amerikanisch-chinesische Identitäten im Austausch"/"Diasporic Self-fashionings. Chinese American and American Chinese Identities in Exchange" (with Ruth Mayer, University of Hannover; funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)/German Research Foundation, 2006-2010)
  • "The Futures of (European) American Studies" (funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)/ German Research Foundation, 2005-2008)

Current Courses

SoSe 2023'Cultural History and Rhetoric: Foundational Texts' (Seminar)
'Los Angeles in American Literature and Culture' (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
Research and Professional Skills (introductory class)



Past Courses

University of Göttingen:
WS 2022/23'American Literature and Culture of the 1980s' (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
'American Regionalism' (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
'The Old South and its (Re)Visions' (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
SoSe 2022'Pearl S. Buck and the Creation of an American China' (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
'The New Woman in American Literature and Culture' (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Research and Professional Skills (introductory class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
WS 2021/22'Nineteenth Century Women's Anti-Slavery Narratives' (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
'Representations of France in American Literature and Culture' (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
'Contemporary American Short Stories' (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
SoSe 2021'Representations of the Family in Recent American Literature and Culture' (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Research and Professional Skills (introductory class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
WS 2020/21'Seduction in American Literature and Culture' (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
'Recent and Contemporary Asian American Literature and Culture' (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
'The Lost Generation' (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
SoSe 2020'The Great Depression in American Literature and Culture' (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
'African-American Autobiography' (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
Research and Professional Skills (introductory class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
WS 2019/20'A Mob of Scribbling Women?' American Women's Writing of the 19th Century (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Representations of the American West (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
The Harlem Renaissance (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
SoSe 2019The Literatures and Cultures of American Suburbia (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Research and Professional Skills (introductory class)
The Beat Generation (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
WS 2018/19'Money, Money, Money...': The World of Finance in Recent American Fiction and Film (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Cultural History & Rhetoric: (Hi)Stories of American Feminism (undergraduate class)
'Yang kwei-tse, Yellow Peril, Model Minority?': Representations of Chinamerica (Proseminar/ undergraduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
SoSe 2018Seduction in American Literature and Culture (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Cultural History & Rhetoric: America in the 1980s (undergraduate class)
Research and Professional Skills (introductory class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
WS 2017/18The Harlem Renaissance (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Cultural History & Rhetoric: (Hi)Stories of Feminism in US Culture and Rhetoric (undergraduate class)
Cultural History & Rhetoric: Money Matters - Finance and the Economy in American Culture (undergraduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
SoSe 2017Pearl S. Buck and the Creation of an 'American China' (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
African-American Autobiography (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
Research and Professional Skills (introductory class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
WS 2016/17The Old South and Its (Re)Visions (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
The Lost Generation (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
Cultural History & Rhetoric: (Hi)Stories of Feminism in US Culture and Rhetoric (undergraduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
SoSe 2016"L'amour toujours?" American Representations of France (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
"Wild Wild West": Representations of the American West (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
Research and Profesional Skills (introductory class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
WS 2015/16"Spaces In-Between?": American Middlebrow Literatures and Cultures (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Cultural History & Rhetoric: Finance and the Economy in American Culture (undergraduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
SoSe 2015Research and Professional Skills (introductory class)
The Beat Generation (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
WS 2014/15Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
Contemporary Asian American Literature and Culture (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
SoSe 2014Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)
"Life Writing." Gendered Perspectives on the Art of American Auto/Biography (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
WS 2013/14Introduction to American Cultural History II (undergraduate class)
Introduction to the Study of American Literature and Culture (introductory class)



University of Paderborn:
SoSe 2013Introduction to Cultural Studies (lecture class)
Key Concepts and Issues in American Studies (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
WS 2012/13"Wild, Wild West": Representations of the American West (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
"Yang kwei-tse, Yellow Peril, Model Minority?": Representations of Chinamerica (Hauptseminar/graduate class)



University of Hannover:
WS 2011/12Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies (American Studies) (introductory class)
The Beat Generation (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
SoSe 2011"Life Writing." Gendered Perspectives on the Art of American Auto/Biography (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
Professional Skills for MA students (Masterseminar/graduate class)
WS 2010/11 Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies (American Studies) (introductory class)
SoSe 2010American Literature and Culture from the 1830s to the Present (lecture class)
WS 2009/10"Spaces In-Between?": American Middlebrow Literatures and Cultures (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
SoSe 2009Contemporary Asian American Literature and Culture (co-taught with Ruth Mayer) (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
WS 2008/09Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies (American Studies) (introductory class)
WS 2007/08"Yang kwei-tse, Yellow Peril, Model Minority?": Representations of Chinamerica (Hauptseminar/graduate class
Examenskolloquium/colloquium for exam candidates
SoSe 2007American Literature and Culture from the 1830s to the Present (lecture class)
Examenskolloquium/colloquium for exam candidates
WS 2006/07The Old South and its (Re)Visions (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies (American Studies) (introductory class)
SoSe 2006"L'amour toujours?": American Representations of France (Hauptseminar/graduate class)
"Wild, Wild West": Representations of the American West (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
WS 2005/06America in the 1950s (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies (American Studies) (introductory class)
SoSe 2005African-American Autobiography (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
American Literature and Culture from the 1830s to the Present (lecture class)
WS 2003/04Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies (American Studies) (introductory class)
SoSe 2003"Cosmopolitan Women": Pearl S. Buck, Karen Blixen, and the Experience of Diasporic Life (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
WS 2002/03"Sex and the City": Representations of (Single) Women in Contemporary Popular Culture (Proseminar/undergraduate class)
SoSe 2002"Raped by the Rake": Women's Inferiority in the Novel of Seduction and in Eighteenth-Century American and English Society (Proseminar/undergraduate class)