School of Culture and Society

Research Profile

My work addresses four overarching themes:  

1) The methods and theories of memory studies including critical explorations of key concepts in the field such as trauma, generation, (re)mediation, transnational memory, and migration & memory (for instance History & Theory 2002; Rethinking History 2004, Writing the History of Memory 2014; Cultural History of Memory 2020; National Stereotyping 2021)

2) The role of visual media -- TV, film, digital culture -- in the formation of cultural memory (for instance Probing the Limits of Categorization 2019; Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture 2017; Digital Memory Studies 2018; Demokratisierung der Deutschen 2020) 

 3) Post-narrativist historical theory/philosophy of history and, more specifically, the application of the methods of narratology, text linguistics, and argumentation theory in close readings of professional historical writing (for instance History & Theory 2009; Beiträge zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus 2019; On Historical Narratives 2021).

 4) Holocaust history, memory & historiography (for instance In Pursuit of German History 2007; The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe 2007; Den Holocaust erzählen 2013; Probing the Ethics of Holocaust Culture 2016).

Biography

I joined the Department of History and Classical Studies at Aarhus University in 2014 after having taught at Binghamton University (SUNY) for 15 years. I studied at Ruhr University Bochum and UCLA and was born in Dortmund in 1964.

Current Projects

The Oxford Handbook of History and Memory (with Christina Morina), funded by Bielfeld University, 2020-2024

SoundTrak: Sounds of War: The Memory of World War WII in Taiwan, East Germany and Denmark (with Andreas Steen), funded by Velux Foundation, 2019-2023

Raul Hilberg and Holocaust Historiography (with René Schlott), funded, among others, by Leibniz Zentrum für Zeitgeschichtliche Forschung Potsdam, 2017-2022

Agonistic Memory and Representations of War in Twentieth-Century Europe (with Stefan Berger), 2019-2021

Sites of Tension, Shifts in Holocaust Memory, Antisemitism and Political Contestation in Europe, University of Haifa, 2020-2022, project member

Other Activities

• Co-founder and co-editor of Memory Studies (Sage)
• Member of the Editorial Board of Media and Cultural Memory (de Gruyter) 
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Memory Studies Association
• Member of the Board of Mnemonics: Network for Memory Studies
• Member of the Advisory Board of The International Network for Theory of History
• Member of the Board of Uses of the Past Research Program, Aarhus University
• Memory and Migration, research network, Aarhus University 
• Center for Digital History, Aarhus (Cedhar)
• Member of the Editorial Board of Geschichtsdidaktik diskursiv – Public History und Historisches Denken

Past Project & Activities

UNREST: Horizon2020 Project, WP leader, 2016-2019

MeMiBas, 2017-2019

Memory Studies Association, member of the executive committee, 2016-2019