Institute of Media Studies

Dr. Melanie M. Mika

University of Tübingen
Medienwissenschaft
Wilhelmstr. 50
Room 258
D-72074 Tübingen

 

+49 7071 29-72817
melanie.mikaspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de

Office Hours

Office Hours by appointment, via Zoom/Teams or in person on campus. I would kindly ask you to send me a short description of your inquiry by email no later than two days before our appointment.

Profile

Melanie Mika’s current research focuses include media practices on digital platforms, especially with regard to gender relations in a post-migrant society. Her areas of focus include short-form video formats, platform studies, television series, and popular mental-health discourses. She has many years of professional experience in the production of radio and audio media, as well as in video post-production.

Curriculum Vitae

Melanie Mika studied Music and Media Studies (BA) at the University of Tübingen and then completed an international master’s degree in Audiovisual and Cinema Studies (at the universities of Montréal, Amsterdam, and Goethe University Frankfurt). They are also a trained media designer (audiovisual media) and worked at SWR Stuttgart (2010–2019) in radio broadcasting and sound design (SWR4 BW) and for the online channels of SWR Aktuell.

In 2025, Mika completed a doctorate with a dissertation on the representation of mental illness in US television series, examining popular imaginaries of health, illness, and therapy. The project was funded by the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) from 2019 to April 2022. Since 2022, Mika has been a research associate at the Institute of Media Studies and is responsible, among other things, for Internationalization (Erasmus coordination, maintaining CIVIS partnerships, and supporting visiting professors and researchers).

In addition, Mika is co-spokesperson for the Commission for Good Work in academia within the Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft).

Publications

  • Mika, M. (2023). Ein optimierter Serienmörder: Die Faszination des hochfunktionalen Psychopathen in der Populärkultur. Zeitschrift für Semiotik, 45(3–4), 191–204.

  • Mika, M., Ossa, V., & Patka, K. (2022). Montieren. In H. Christians, M. Bickenbach, & N. Wegmann (Hrsg.), Historisches Wörterbuch des Mediengebrauchs [Band 3]. Böhlau.
  • Mika, M. (2021). Paranoide Nachrichtenbilder. Inszenierungen von Verschwörungen und Verschwörungstheorien in der TV-Serie Mr. Robot. ffk Journal, 6, 326–340.
  • Mika, M. (2020). Kooperation und Konkurrenz. Veränderungen der Mediengestalter*innen-Ausbildung als Wettbewerb zwischen Sendeanstalten und Privatwirtschaft. Rundfunk und Geschichte, 46(3–4), 43–52.
  • Mika, M. (2020). Produktive Psychopathen: Inszenierungen von Selbstoptimierung in amerikanischen Fernsehserien. FFK Journal, 5, 223–236.