Silvia Gerlsbeck
My research focuses predominately on postcolonial and Black British writing, especially on Anglo-Caribbean literature and culture in the period since Windrush, as well as masculinity studies, theories and forms of fashioning and staging authorship and subjectivity theories. My teaching and further interests include British and anglophone literature and culture from the early modern period until today, with an emphasis on intertextuality, postcolonial theory, body studies, interculturality, and literary history and theory. Currently, I am working on my Dissertation, provisionally entitled “New Portraits of the Writer (and the Reader)? Negotiating Authorship, Ethnicity, and Masculinity in the Anglo-Caribbean Artist Novel”, in which I examine desires and discourses involved in authorship and writerly subject formation. I am presently also the speaker of the early career scholars section (Forschungskolloquium) of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender, Difference, and Diversity (IZGDD).
Activities/Coming Soon
As part of an English Studies panel at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften on October 19th, I will speak about current author celebrities and their reception and marketing in my talk “Die Vermessung der Welt(literatur): Zeitgenössische Star-Autoren zwischen medialem Hype und Exotismus”.
Papers and Publications
Conference papers
“Unbearable Bodies? Körperdiskurse in karibisch-britischer Literatur.” Body Talk: Körperdiskurse, Körperpraktiken, Körperpolitik. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 06/2019.
“The Ethics and Ideologies of ‘Sharing’ in a Postcolonial Tradition: The Case of Marlon James.”The Age of Sharing? Practices of Sharing in Contemporary Media, Literature and Culture. Universität Koblenz-Landau, 03/2019.
“‘Dark Strangers Crossing the Nation’s Threshold’: Reading Borders in George Lamming and Samuel Selvon.” Negotiating, Subverting, Reconfiguring Borders in the English-Speaking World. Université de Strasbourg (SEARCH – Savoirs dans l’Espace Anglophone), 10/2018.
“Deeds Not Words: Die Suffragettenbewegung in Großbritannien.” Vortragsreihe ‚100 Jahre Frauenwahlrecht‘ der Stadt Erlangen. VHS Club International Erlangen, 06/2018.
“Authorship in the Nexus of Ethnicity and Masculinity in the Anglo-Caribbean (Artist) Novel between the 1970s and 1990s.” Nationalism and the Postcolonial. Annual Conference of the GAPS – Gesellschaft für Anglophone Postkoloniale Studien.Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 05/2018.
“Differenzkonzepte in der kulturwissenschaftlichen Forschung: Ethnizität/race undgender.“ 11. Weiterbildungsseminar der Deutschen Gesellschaft für das Studium britischer Kulturen(BritCult).Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 05/2017.
Publications
“’dark strangers crossing the nation’s threshold’: Confinement and Border Crossings in George Lamming and Sam Selvon.” [Strasbourg University Press – Etudes Anglophones,under review]
Review: Contemporary Masculinities in the UK and the US: Between Bodies and Systems, eds. Stefan Horlacher and Kevin Floyd, Palgrave, 2017. JSBC – Journal for the Study of British Culturesvol. 25, 1/2018, pp. 103-106.
Conference Organisation
De/Constructing Masculinities: Critical Explorations into Affect, Intersectionality, and the Body, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 22-23 June 2018 (together with Dr. Carmen Dexl, University of Regensburg)
Miscellaneous/Academic CV
08/2018: participation in the International Summer School “Political Masculinities in Europe: New Definitions, Methods and Approaches”.Universität Koblenz-Landau, 08/2018.
Since 08/2016: lecturer and doctoral researcher in English Studies, Chair of English Literature and Culture, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
04/2016: first state exam (Staatsexamen) English/German, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Teaching
Grund- and Aufbauseminar Literature
Grundseminar Culture
Hauptseminar Interkulturalitätstheorien
Text Analysis: British Literature
Proseminare: To Stranger Shores: Travel and Island Motifs in Literature and Film, The Black British Bildungsroman, The Human Body: Subversive Bodies in Literature and Culture, Colonial Masculinities: Adventurers, Explorers, Heroes?
Text Analysis: British Literature