Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – Institut für Kulturwissenschaft
Sophia Lohmann
Sophia Johanna Lohmann
PhD Candidate
Institut für Kulturwissenschaft der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Georgenstraße 47
10117 Berlin
sophiajohanna.lohmann@gmail.com
Sophia Lohmann is pursuing a PhD on essayism as a cultural practice of “intervening writing” (eingreifendes Schreiben) in the works of North American women authors. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature and Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin, she pursued a Master’s in Cultural Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Edinburgh. Her current research focuses on evolving practices of knowledge and representation within the essay form, particularly in relation to race and gender. Through paradigmatic analyses of works by Joan Didion, Audre Lorde, and Susan Sontag, she investigates and reconceptualizes the specific aesthetics and ethics of regarding and textualizing the Other. Initially supervised and supported by the Graduate School of North American Studies (GSNAS, literature department) at Freie Universität Berlin, her research has since been carried forward at the Institute for Cultural Theory and History at Humboldt University. Her research is supported by a doctoral fellowship from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes), after previously receiving the Humboldt Research Track Fellowship from the Excellence Initiative. She most recently completed a research semester at UC Berkeley, California. Her broader academic interests encompass the history of knowledge, aesthetic and cultural practices, genre and film theory, gender and queer studies, transcultural literature, and practices of resistance in the arts.
She has previously worked as a research assistant at the Peter Szondi Institute for Comparative Literature and later as project assistant at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW, Anthropocene Curriculum). Additionally, she served as head of editorial department for the print magazine ROM – Gesellschaftsmagazin. For several years, she has worked as a freelance editor and writer (e.g., ZEIT, Epitext). Currently, alongside her academic research, she is involved in the development of two screenplays and is working on a collection of essays.
Academic publications
»Wider den Stand. Transformatorische Schreibweisen, Essays im Wandel(n) und der fluide Textkörper in Maggie Nelsons The Argonauts«, in: Iris Därmann / Andreas Gehrlach (Eds.): Widerstand und Ablehnung. Berlin: De Gruyter, publication planned for 2024.
»Welt empfangen, Um/frieden verweigern. Dimensionen des Versammelns, Transformierens und Affizierens im Essay«, in: Sebastian Köthe / Antonio Lucci / Beate Absalon et al. (Eds.): Empfangen. Die andere Seite der Gabe. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023.
»The phantasmatic and the real. Navigating the essay’s critical potential«, in: Jasper Delbecke (Ed.): From the Scenic Essay to the Essay-Exhibition. Expanding the Essay Form in the Arts beyond Literature and Film. Ghent: SPAM – Studies in Performing Arts & Media, 2023.
»Das Wort ergreifen. Ansprache und relationale Ethik im Wirken Audre Lordes als Public Intellectual«, lecture series Gegenwartsliteratur und Transnationalität, Free University Berlin, 11/2023.
»Your silence will not protect you. Widerrede, Anrufung und Ethiken der Begegnung bei Audre Lorde«, lecture series Kulturwissenschaftliche Ästhetik, Humboldt University Berlin, 06/2023.
»Paradigmen, Ausschlüsse, Ermächtigungen. Die Schreibszene des Essays von Montaigne bis Didion«, Berkeley-Cologne-Yale Summer School – Aesthetic Possibilities: Literature, Rhetoric, Philosophy. Yale University, New Haven, 08/2022.
»Ways of Seeing and not Knowing. Gendered Exclusions and Embodied Positions in the Essay«, international conference From the scenic essay to the essay-exhibition. Research Centre Spam, University of Ghent, 04/2022.
Sophia Lohmann
Sophia Johanna Lohmann
PhD Candidate
Institut für Kulturwissenschaft der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Georgenstraße 47
10117 Berlin
sophiajohanna.lohmann@gmail.com
Sophia Lohmann is pursuing a PhD on essayism as a cultural practice of “intervening writing” (eingreifendes Schreiben) in the works of North American women authors. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature and Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin, she pursued a Master’s in Cultural Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Edinburgh. Her current research focuses on evolving practices of knowledge and representation within the essay form, particularly in relation to race and gender. Through paradigmatic analyses of works by Joan Didion, Audre Lorde, and Susan Sontag, she investigates and reconceptualizes the specific aesthetics and ethics of regarding and textualizing the Other. Initially supervised and supported by the Graduate School of North American Studies (GSNAS, literature department) at Freie Universität Berlin, her research has since been carried forward at the Institute for Cultural Theory and History at Humboldt University. Her research is supported by a doctoral fellowship from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes), after previously receiving the Humboldt Research Track Fellowship from the Excellence Initiative. She most recently completed a research semester at UC Berkeley, California. Her broader academic interests encompass the history of knowledge, aesthetic and cultural practices, genre and film theory, gender and queer studies, transcultural literature, and practices of resistance in the arts.
She has previously worked as a research assistant at the Peter Szondi Institute for Comparative Literature and later as project assistant at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW, Anthropocene Curriculum). Additionally, she served as head of editorial department for the print magazine ROM – Gesellschaftsmagazin. For several years, she has worked as a freelance editor and writer (e.g., ZEIT, Epitext). Currently, alongside her academic research, she is involved in the development of two screenplays and is working on a collection of essays.
Academic publications
»Wider den Stand. Transformatorische Schreibweisen, Essays im Wandel(n) und der fluide Textkörper in Maggie Nelsons The Argonauts«, in: Iris Därmann / Andreas Gehrlach (Eds.): Widerstand und Ablehnung. Berlin: De Gruyter, publication planned for 2024.
»Welt empfangen, Um/frieden verweigern. Dimensionen des Versammelns, Transformierens und Affizierens im Essay«, in: Sebastian Köthe / Antonio Lucci / Beate Absalon et al. (Eds.): Empfangen. Die andere Seite der Gabe. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023.
»The phantasmatic and the real. Navigating the essay’s critical potential«, in: Jasper Delbecke (Ed.): From the Scenic Essay to the Essay-Exhibition. Expanding the Essay Form in the Arts beyond Literature and Film. Ghent: SPAM – Studies in Performing Arts & Media, 2023.
Rankine, Claudia: Just Us, in: H. L. Arnold (Ed.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon (KLL). Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-05728-0_23193-1 .
Talks and public lectures
»Das Wort ergreifen. Ansprache und relationale Ethik im Wirken Audre Lordes als Public Intellectual«, lecture series Gegenwartsliteratur und Transnationalität, Free University Berlin, 11/2023.
»Your silence will not protect you. Widerrede, Anrufung und Ethiken der Begegnung bei Audre Lorde«, lecture series Kulturwissenschaftliche Ästhetik, Humboldt University Berlin, 06/2023.
»Paradigmen, Ausschlüsse, Ermächtigungen. Die Schreibszene des Essays von Montaigne bis Didion«, Berkeley-Cologne-Yale Summer School – Aesthetic Possibilities: Literature, Rhetoric, Philosophy. Yale University, New Haven, 08/2022.
»Ways of Seeing and not Knowing. Gendered Exclusions and Embodied Positions in the Essay«, international conference From the scenic essay to the essay-exhibition. Research Centre Spam, University of Ghent, 04/2022.