Hannah Perleth, M.A.

Department of English and American Studies
Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik, insbesondere Literaturwissenschaft

Room C6A3
Bismarckstraße 01
91045 Erlangen

Dissertation Project: A Counterpublic of Care: North American and Scandinavian Indigenous Perspectives on Care in the Arctic

This dissertation is interested in the experience of the many Indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic, concentrating on Northern America and Scandinavia. The Arctic seems to be a magnifying glass of today’s most urgent problems. It is already more impacted by climate change than most other regions in the world, giving us a glimpse into what the future might hold. I understand the Arctic as a “Contact Zone” following Mary Louise Pratt, and therefore as a place where different perspectives meet and influence each other. With a focus on contemporary Indigenous writings and theory, this project explores an Indigenous notion of care, more specifically how the effects of colonization have impacted an Indigenous way of living, have shaped the way Indigenous peoples care for each other and for the environment, and whether there are Indigenous ways of caring that have resisted falling into colonized norms.

Research Interests

Indigenous Studies
Postcolonial Studies
Critical posthumanist theory
Eco-feminist and ecocritical theory

Since October 2025: Research associate in the research training group “Literature and the Public Sphere in Differentiated Contemporary Cultures” (GRK2806)
September 2024: M.A. Ethik der Textkulturen (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
June 2022: B.A. Nordische Philologie und English and American Studies (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
August 2018 – September 2021: Treasurer and member of the board of the Professional Association for German-Language Scandinavian Studies (Fachverband für Deutschsprachige Skandinavistik)
August 2018 – September 2021: Student Research Assistant at the Department for Scandinavian Studies at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg