AAbout me
The Not-So-Traditional Variant
On the 88th day of the year 1981 anno domini, a woman gave birth to a child that was soon to be baptized in the name of the commander of the Army of God, though the child may have preferred to be called Ishmael.
Little did the youngling’s parents know that their son was to undertake the original sin by taking a bite from the Tree of Knowledge rather than having unquestioning faith in a transcendental being, knowing that the presence of the being’s absence does not necessarily equate to its presence by way of its absence.
Everything that has happened since has happened, be that because of the intervention of some superior life form (a.k.a. destiny), because I chose so or because it is merely randomness that determines our existence, and made me what I am today, but may no longer be tomorrow or the day after; definitely not five years down the road.
I could tell you my life story, but whatever I would tell you would be merely re-creations of the events and feelings of the past (if not constructions altogether), events and feelings re-created in a way to give them meaning … from a future point in time (which, paradoxically, turns out to be the present), looking back at things that were … supposedly. What would it be good for to tell you of my life? You out there. Some anonymous being cruising on the data-superhighway—a word as extinct in the present day as mankind will be at some future point in time. Would you know me from reading my life story? Would you think to know me? I don’t care. I don’t feel the need to broadcast myself.
Aware of the paradox contained within the previous lines I am, living with it I can. Why? Because I contain multitudes. Is this now the end with a bang or a whimper? This, mon hypocrite lecteur, I leave you to decide …
The Academic Take
I’m a media and cultural studies scholar whose research focuses on horror, monstrosity, and temporality across film, television, videogames, comics, and literature. My work investigates how media texts use the figure of the monster—human and nonhuman alike—to navigate cultural anxieties surrounding identity, embodiment, and ecological crisis. I’m especially interested in liminality, consumption (both literal and symbolic), and the boundaries of the human.
I’ve published widely on topics such as cannibalism, animal horror, and ecogothic, as well as transmedia franchises such as Hannibal, Alan Wake, and Supernatural. In addition to a focus on horror and the gothic, much of my research focuses on intermediality and narrative structure, including recursive and time loop narratives as mechanisms for working through trauma and repetition. Drawing on psychoanalysis, ecocriticism, and critical theory, I examine how genre texts reflect and reshape collective memory, affective economies, and sociopolitical tensions.
I’m also engaged in thinking through American exceptionalism and the cultural work of national mythmaking, particularly as refracted through speculative fiction in different media. Across these strands, my work traces how popular media grapple with repressed histories, haunted futures, and the unstable categories we rely on to make sense of the world.
Degrees and Accreditations
Venia docendi in American Studies and Film and New Media, University of Innsbruck (Austria), 2025
L’acreditació de recerca for Humanities, l’Agència per la Qualitat del Sistema Universitari de Catalunya (Spain), 2021
Doctor philosophiae in English and American Studies, University of Graz (Austria), 2012
Magister philosophiae in English and American Studies, University of Graz (Austria), 2007
CVExperience
This abbreviated version of my CV highlights the main stops in my academic career
-
University of Innsbruck Visiting Assistant Professor, Postdoc, and Adjunct Lecturer
I was a postdoc on the project “Delocating Mountains: Cinematic Landscapes and the Alpine Model” (funded by the FWF / Austrian Science Fund, project no. P 32994), in the Department of American Studies, between May 2022 and July 2025. Since July 2025, I’ve been a postdoc on the project “W( )oles and ( )holes: Politically Engaged Erasure Poetry in Twenty-First-Century United States” (funded by the DFG / German Research Foundation, project no. 524829573). During a brief interlude in the fall/winter semester 2024-2025, I was a visiting assistant professor for American studies. In addition, I’ve been teaching courses in American studies and media studies since fall 2023, including introductions to media studies and media analysis and seminars such as “American Nightmares: Horror Films and American Culture” and “Life in the Age of Extinction.” Since the fall of 2025, I’ve been teaching in the Department of Media, Society and Communication in addition to the research conducted in the Department of American Studies.
-
University of Graz Fixed-Term Assistant Professor and Postdoc
From February 2016 to January 2020, I was a fixed-term assistant professor in American studies at the University of Graz. Since this was a part-time position, I was also employed as a postdoc in the projects “Gendering Age: Representations of Masculinities and Ageing in Contemporary European Literatures and Cinemas” (ERC project funded through the FWF / Austrian Science Fund, project no. I 4187) and “Interpreneurship: Styria Meets America” (funded by the Styrian Government). During this stint at the University of Graz, I taught undergraduate seminars such “In A Galaxy (Not So) Far, Far Away: Star Wars at 40” (with Stefan Rabitsch), “Serial Killers in American Literature and Popular Culture,” and “Moby-Dick Meets the Digital Generation” in addition to introductions to American literature.
-
University of Graz Contracted Postdoc
In 2014, I spent a few months in a postdoc position at the University of Graz (internally funded), with the aim of setting up a research network in “Transcultural Urban Spaces in North America” and developing a proposal for an ERC Advanced Grant related to that network.
-
University of Graz Adjunct Lecturer
Between spring 2012 and spring 2014, I taught between one and four courses per semester at the University of Graz, including the survey lecture courses “American Culture: History & Society” and “Survey of American Literary History,” introductions to American literature, and undergraduate seminars such as “Cult Cinema” and “Horror Films: Genre–History–Culture.”
-
University of Oldenburg Postdoc and Adjunct Lecturer
At the University of Oldenburg, I was a postdoc in the project “Fiction Meets Science II: Varieties of Science Narrative” (funded by the Volkswagen Foundation). More specifically, for 1.5 years, I was in the sub-project “Science in TV Series” and another year in the sub-project “Pandemic Meets Fiction.” I taught seven undergraduate and graduate seminars during my time at the University of Oldenburg, including “Epidemics and Pandemics in American History and Popular Culture,” “Imagining Extinction: Paleontology, Deep Time, and the Return of Vanished Species in Anglophone Literature and Popular Culture,” and “Representations of Shark Science/Scientists in Anglophone Literature and Culture.”
-
University of Graz Adjunct Lecturer
In spring 2015, I taught two undergraduate seminars at the University of Graz, “The Lost Decade After the End of History: American Fiction Between the Fall of the Iron Curtain and 9/11” and “ImageTexTs: Understanding Graphic Novels.”
-
University of Siegen Visiting Lecturer
In the fall/winter term 2014-2015, I was a visiting lecturer (maternity leave cover) for Anglophone literatures and cultures at the University of Siegen, co-teaching the lecture course “Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies” and the undergraduate seminars “Introduction to American Gothic Fiction” and “Understanding American Television.”
-
University of Applied Sciences Burgenland Adjunct Lecturer
In spring 2014, I taught two courses at the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland, “English for Academic Purposes” and one course that accompanied students writing their master’s theses in English.
-
University of Graz Research and Teaching Associate
While pursuing my PhD in American studies, I had a two-year position as a research and teaching associate in the Department of American Studies at the University of Graz, teaching introductions to American literature.
