I am driven by curiosity and like to do research into things that fascinate me. My main research focus lies on the ‘roaring’ 1920s, in particular the Weimar Republic, popular culture, the connection between literature and music, intertextuality and intermediality.
After studying Schlager texts and urban sounds in Alfred Döblin’s novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929) and the question whether the Schlager of the 1920s is capable of more than just being entertainment, like for example serving as a critical reflection (Master’s thesis), I return to the reason why I got fascinated by the 1920s in the first place, namely their image of ‘golden’, ‘roaring’ and ‘wild’, which is largely shaped by contemporary popular culture.
In my PhD research, I take a look at popular media like Krimis (literature), television series, music and visual styles to investigate what image contemporary German popular culture creates of the 1920s. I want to find out how this image is constructed, understand how popular culture and cultural memory influence each other and ultimately get to know why the 1920s have become so popular again in our time. This project, with the working title The 1920s revisited: The cultural memory of 1920s Berlin in contemporary popular culture, is supervised by Prof. Thony Visser (Groningen) and Dr. Johannes Müller (Leiden).
I do my PhD as an external PhD candidate, which means that, next to my research, I work as a Research Support Officer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS). Here I am supporting researchers with the full life cycle of their projects, from giving grant advice and supporting the writing process of the grant applications to the project management of successful projects and the development of a funding strategy for the institute.
The combination of both conducting research and supporting great research in the field of the Humanities, creating opportunities for new research projects, make me feel that I can live out my ambition to drive forward our understanding of ourselves and the culture and world we live in.