Englisches Seminar

Katharina Luther

Ph.D. Project: Knowing & Doing & Becoming: A Natureculture Poetics of Contemporary Matter Poetry

Katharina Luther is a PhD student and research fellow at the Univeristy of Tuebingen’s Department of English Literatures and Cultures, section for American Sturdies. She double-majored in English and History and minored in Political Science both during her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Tuebingen (Germany) and Hobart and William Smith Colleges (USA). 

Her dissertation Knowing & Doing & Becoming: A Natureculture Poetics of Matter Poetry coins a new genre of contemporary poetry as “matter poetry” and establishes Donna Haraway’s concept of “naturecultures” (2003) as an entire philosophy in its own right, highlighting in how far Haraway’s natureculture philosophy has been a key constituent for a Feminist New Materialism. In short: using Haraway’s natureculture philosophy, eco-criticism, affect studies, and quantum-physics, her dissertation turns our ideas of nature and culture as well as language and matter on its head. 

In 2019, Luther received the Prof. Dr. Friedrich Schubel-Foundation Prize for the advancement of young researchers for her dissertation project. Luther’s research interests focus on the New Materialism(s), Contemporary Poetry and Literature, the cultural semantics of the Early Modern period, Philosophy of Science, Environmental Humanities, and the Nonhuman at large. She co-edited a volume on Kinship and Collective Action in Literature and Culture (Narr, 2020).

During the fall term 2019, Luther taught as a guest lecturer at the English Department and Honors program at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA; during that time, she was also a scholar in residence at the Honors College of the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. 

Fields of Academic Interests and Research

  • New Materialism(s)
  • Object & Thing Theory
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Nature Writing
  • Environmental Criticism
  • Body Studies
  • Contemporary Poetry, Modern & Contemporary English Literature
  • Creative & Academic Writing.

Prizes

2019: Prof. Dr. Friedrich Schubel-Foundation Prize for the advancement of young researchers with dissertation project Knowing & Doing & Becoming: A Natureculture Poetics of Contemporary Matter Poetry

Recent Courses

  • S: "How to Meet the Universe? Quantum Fictions (post-1900), summer term 2021
  • S: "Fairies, Monsters, & Stone: Premodern Post-Humans (pre-1900), summer term 2021
  • S: "Forest or Factory? The (Overlooked) Ecology of American Modernism", winter term 2020/21
  • S: "Darwin & World Building in Transatlantic Literature and Culture", winter term 2020/21
  • Engl. 255: “Literature of Science and Technology,” fall term 2019, UMD
  • Hon. 2280 “Are We Down to Earth? Imagining Our Planetary Futures in Times of Climate Change,” fall term 2019, UMD
  • HS "Nonhuman Vistas in Contemporary Literature," summer term 2019 with Prof. Dr. Ingrid Hotz-Davies
  • PS 2 "Climate Fictions: Can Literature Save the Planet?," winter term 2018/2019
  • PS 2 "On Words: A.L. Kennedy's Novels, Short Stories, and Essays," summer term 2018
  • PS 2 "Imagining and Visiting Naturecultures," winter term 2017/2018
  • PS 2 "Reading John Milton: Radical Political Prose and Paradise Lost," winter term, 2017/2018
  • PS 2 “Playing with Chaos: The Lyric Essay,” summer term 2017
  • PS 2 “Bodies Matter: The Body in Philosophy and Literature,” winter term 2016/17
  • PS 2 “The Way It Is: Contemporary Poetry,” summer term 2016

Academic Pathway

  • Fall 2019: Scholar & Lecturer in Residence at the English Department and Honors College, University of Maryland, College Park, USA
  • Since 2019: Research fellow and lecturer for Prof. Dr. Astrid Franke, Department of American Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
  • 2016-2019: Research assistant and lecturer for Prof. Dr. Ingrid Hotz-Davies, Department of English Literature and Gender Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
  • Co-coordination of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Program "Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones" (from 2013-2018) and the Erasmus Mundus M.A. "Crossways in Cultural Narratives" (from 2018) with Prof. Dr. Ingrid Hotz-Davies
  • Since 2016: Ph.D. in English Literatures and Cultures. Dissertation title: "From Roots to Cosmos. A New Materialist Poetics of Contemporary British and Canadian Poetry." Supervisors Prof. Dr. Ingrid Hotz-Davies &  Prof. Dr. Christoph Reinfandt, Department of English Literatures and Cultures, Faculty of Philosophy, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
  • 2007-2015: State Exam (with distinction) with a double Major in English and History and a Minor in Political Science, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY/USA
  • Thesis in English Literature: “Body Fantasies of Inclusion in China Miéville's Perdido Street Station (2000)” (with distinction)
  • 2012-2015: Tutor for Prof. Dr. Ingrid Hotz-Davies' lectures and courses, Department of English Literature and Gender Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
  • Lecture tutorial "Before the Novel: 17th Century Prose Culture," winter term 2014/15
  • Lecture tutorial "Gender Around 1800," summer term 2014
  • Lecture tutorial "Literatures and Cultures of the English Civil War and Commonwealth," winter term 2013/2014
  • PS I tutorial "Introduction to Literary Studies," winter term 2012/2013
  • 2012-2015: Academic writing tutor for Shawn Raisig, Research and Writing Center, English Department, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
  • 2012-2013: National Model United Nations head delegate und project coordinator for Bettina Ahrens and Prof. Dr. Andreas Hasenclever, Institute of Political Science, Department of International Politics and Peace Studies, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
  • 2010-2011: Teaching Assistant, German Department, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY/USA
  • 2004-2006: “Studienvorbereitende Ausbildung” (SVA) of Lower Saxony, Germany, state scholarship for the musically gifted in preparation for attending a conservatory. Major: Clarinet; Minor: Piano

Publications

Books

2020

  • Co-Edited: Kinship and Collective Action in Literature and Culture. Bauer, Heise-von-der-Lippe, Hirschfelder, Luther, Tübingen, Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, 2020. (Verlagsseite)

Articles

Forthcoming

  • "Object Restor(y)ing: The Travels of Rabban Sawma." Globalgeschichte des Mittelalters. Ed. Ellen Widder et al. (forthcoming).
  • "Space_Time_Matter Travels from Here to Delhi: The Pedagogy of the Spiral in Sam Miller’s Delhi. Adventures in a Megacity." Modes of Being South: Territorialities, Affects and Power. Eds. Fernando Resende, Diego Amaral, Roberto Robalinho, (forthcoming).

2018

2013

  • "’Got Skill?’ Stufenmodell zur Softskill-Entwicklung und Förderung bei SchreibtutorInnen.“ Journal der Schreibberatung (JoSCH), 6. Vol. 2013, p 1-9.
     

Poetry

2016

  • “Tunnels Underground – a Party”; “The Gut Feeling – a Regime.” Leigh Valley Vanguard, 11/2016.
  • “Bankrupted Idealism. A National Tale“; “Human Cattle.” The End Is Where We Start. Leigh Valley Vanguard Collections, Volume 13, 2016. Marlana, Eck Ed. Leigh Valley Vanguard, 49;69.

Conferences and Lectures

Conference Papers & Presentations

2020

  • Optimierte Lyrik? Tentakel-Schreiben, Scienceculture & gegenseitige Achtsamkeit in J.O. Morgan’s Interference Patterns.“ DGfE 2020, University of Cologne, Cologne, 17.03.2020.

2019

  • “When Poetry Speaks Back: Producing Material Resonance and Relationality in Denise Riley’s Say Something Back.” LLS, University of Maryland, College Park, USA, 13.11.2019.

2018

  • “Material Agency: Or, The Active Principle of Water in Sue Goyette’s Poetry.” International workshop Tracing Nonhuman Agency in Literatures in English, Heinrich Heine Univeristy of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 15.-17.11.2018.
  • "Reading as Mattering: Surrender to these Poems!" International workshop How Matter Comes into Literature & How Literature Comes into Matter. New Materialist Methodologies for Literary Studies, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, 18.-20.10.2018.

2017

  • "Mapping the Unseen: The Pedagogy of the Spiral in Sam Miller’s Delhi. Adventures in A Megacity (2009)." International conference Modes of Being South: Territorialities, Affects and Powers, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, 03.-06.10.2017. 
  • Hotz-Davies, Ingrid and Katharina Luther. "Strictly Material: Scientization in Donna Haraway's Staying with the Trouble." International conference Transcending Humanity? Transhumanism, Algorithms & Scientization as phenomena of late modernity. University of Tübingen, Tübingen, 13.-15.07.2017.

2016

  • "The Pedagogies of SkinNed Places. FeMale Body Metarmorphosis in Nandipha Mntambo's Installations.” International Conference Rethinking Gender from the Global South, Universidad National Autónoma de México, Mexico City, 26.-29.09.2016.

Conference Workshops & Lectures

2020

  • “From the Outskirts: Story, Community, and Hope in Times of Climate Change.” Interdisciplinary Workshop, Honors College, University of Maryland, College Park, 25.11.2020.