Professor Lemke | Curriculum Vitae
Prof. Dr. Sieglinde Lemke
NORTH AMERICAN STUDIES SECTION
sieglinde.lemke@anglistik.uni-freiburg.de she/her
☎ +49 761 203-3349
Sieglinde Lemke is the author of Poverty, Inequality, and Precarity in Contemporary American Culture (Palgrave McMillan, 2017) (ALH Review), Vernacular Matters in American Literature (Palgrave, 2009) and Primitivist Modernism: Black Culture and the Origins of Transatlantic Modernism (Oxford UP, 1998). She is also the co-editor of the volume Class Divisions in Serial Television (Palgrave, 2017).
Sieglinde Lemke, who studied at the University of Konstanz and at UC Berkeley, was an assistant professor at the John F. Kennedy Institute at the Free University in Berlin and a guest professor at Harvard University before taking up her position in the English Department at the University of Freiburg, where she also initiated the Black Forest Writing Seminars, a summer academy for creative writing.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Cultural and Literary Theory
- Poverty Studies
- Modernism
- African-American Studies
- Visual Culture
- Gender and Queer Studies
PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT
| 2021 – 2022 | Executive Director of the English Department University of Freiburg |
| 2016 – 2017 | Deputy Equal Opportunity Commissioner, Philological Faculty University of Freiburg |
| Since 2009 | Director Summer Academy for Creative Writing – Black Forest Writing Seminars |
| Since 2005 | Senior Professor at the English Department University of Freiburg |
| 1997 – 2005 | Assistant Professor John F. Kennedy Institute | Free University Berlin |
| 1995 | Guest Lecturer NEH Seminar | Wheelock College, Boston, USA |
| 1994 – 1995 | Guest Lecturer African-American Studies Department | Harvard University, Cambridge, USA |
| 1990 – 1994 | Assistant Professor John F. Kennedy Institute | Free University Berlin |
EDUCATION
| 2003 | Habilitation "The Enigma of the Vernacular: The Vernacular Tradition in American Literature Exemplified by Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and So Far From God" Free University Berlin |
| 1995 | Dissertation "Reconsidering Modernism: Cultural Hybridity and American Art in the Early 20th Century" Free University Berlin |
| 1990 | MA in History and English University of Konstanz |
AWARDS
- First prize for the entry "Prekäre Räume – Straßenkampf"
Hackathon der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin 2020: Hackathon@SBB | Coding Precarity – Social Issues in Cultural Data
► Precarious Spaces – eine digitale Ausstellung - Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellent Teaching
Free University Berlin, 2005 - "Berlin and Boundaries: Sollen vs. Geschehen" Boundary 2
Awarded by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, USA, 2000 - Honorary Permanent Non-Resident Fellow
Du Bois Institute | Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, 1995–2000
RESEARCH & FELLOWSHIPS
| 2018 | University of Delhi and Indian Institute of Technology |
| 2014 | United States Studies Center in Sydney |
| 2013 | Georgetown University, Washington DC |
| 2013 | Rice University, Houston |
| 2010 | UCLA & Harvard University, Cambridge |
| 2006 | USC, Los Angeles & UCSB, Santa Barbara |
| 2005 | Harvard University, Cambridge |
| 2001 – 2002 | University of California at Irvine |
| 1994 – 1995, 1992 – 1993 |
Harvard University, Cambridge |
| 1987 – 1988 | University of California at Berkeley |
CONFERENCE ORGANIZER
- Connectivity and its Other
University of Freiburg
07/2022 - From Racial Polarization to Black Liberation
with Luvena Kopp
University of Freiburg
02/2021 - Precarious Representations
University of Freiburg
01/2018 - Screening Class – Precarious Visions and American Studies
University of Freiburg
06/2013
- Too Big to Ignore: Narratives of Inequality
University of Freiburg
07/2012 - Arm, nicht sexy: Repräsentationen von Armut in der amerikanischen Gegenwartskultur
University of Freiburg
07/2011 - Trans-formations: Theorizing Class and Race in the 21st Century
University of Freiburg | FRIAS
06/2010 - Make Poverty History
University of Freiburg
01/2008 - Contemporary American Poetry
Symposium, University of Hamburg
07/2007 - The Power of Perception: Aesthetics, Internationalism, and Visual Culture in Henry James
co-organizer with Anette Jael Lehmann
Free University Berlin
01/2005 - Aesthetic Transgressions: Modernity, Liberalism, and the Function of Literature
co-organizer with Thomas Claviez and Ulla Haselstein
John F. Kennedy Institute, Free University Berlin
04/2003 - Beyond Multiculturalism
Amerikahaus Berlin
06/1997
ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS
| Since 2019 | Member of the Internal Accreditation Committee of Freiburg University |
| Since 2019 | Member of the DFG committee for the assessments of Research Clusters (SFB) |
| Since 2016 | Deputy Equal Opportunity Commissioner of the Philological Faculty, University of Freiburg |
| 2014 – 2015 | Executive Director of the English Department, University of Freiburg |
| Since 2013 | Examiners Committee DFG (German Research Foundation) |
| 2010 – 2012 | Equal Opportunity Commissioner of the Philological Faculty, University of Freiburg |
| 2008 – 2009 | Dean of the English Department, University of Freiburg |
| 2002 – 2004 | Examiners Committee, Free University Berlin |
| 1998 – 2000 | Member of the Board of the John F. Kennedy Institute, Free University Berlin |
GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS
| 09/2013 – 02/2014 | Research Fellowship at the United States Studies Center in Sydney |
| 2011 – 2014 | Grant from the German Research Fund "Representations of Poverty in Contemporary America" |
| 2010 – 2011 | Fellowship, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) |
| 2005 – 2009 | Trans-coop Program, Alexander v. Humboldt Foundation |
| 2005 | GRF Travel Grant, ASA. Washington D.C. |
| 2003 – 2004 | Scholarship: ProFil – Mentoring Grant |
| 2001 – 2002 | GRF Research Scholarship, University of California at Irvine |
| 1994 – 1995 | Ford Foundation Grant |
| 1992 – 1993 | DAAD Grant, Harvard University |
| 1987 – 1988 | DAAD postgraduate Grant, University of California at Berkeley |
READER FOR JOURNALS, BOOKS & GRANT PROPOSALS
- African American Review (2010 –)
- American Academy, Berlin (2004 –)
- American Literary History (2013 –)
- Cambridge University Press (2017 –)
- Freiburger Zeitschrift für Geschlechterstudien (2012 –)
- German Research Fund (2013 –)
- Journal of American Studies (2018 –)
- Modern Fiction Studies (2018 –)
- Palgrave (2019 –)
- Routledge (2018 –)
- Stiftung Einstein Forum (2018 –)
SUPERVISED PH.D. THESES
- Claudia Conrady
"Closet Narratives" - Janek Domonell
"Trauma and Cross-Cultural Solidarity: A Post-Colonial Reading of Teju Cole’s Oeuvre" - Jennifer Howard
"Higher Ground in a Divided Nation: Civil religion in America" (working title) - Sarah Sands
"African American Crime Fiction of the 20th Century"
- Shane Frankiewicz
"The Western: A Diachronic Analysis of the All-American Genre" (completed) - Samad Sharif
"The Discourse on Non-Violence" (completed)