Serial Ecologies of New Golden Age Television: Conceptualizing Seriality, Ecology, and Eco-Pedagogy (Working Title)

In her PhD project, Serial Ecologies of New Golden Age Television: Conceptualizing Seriality, Ecology, and Eco-Pedagogy, Verena Wurth explores the ecologies of popular US-American TV series from 2000 to present with special focus on their often unconscious representations of the Anthropocene. Moreover, in conceptualizing the interdependences of seriality and ecology, she advances ecocritical research on TV series and argues that ecological paradigms help to understand how these TV series function, both on their diegetic and extradiegetic levels. To create an interdisciplinary triad of seriality and cultural and media studies, the environmental humanities, and education for sustainability, Verena Wurth discusses the eco-pedagogical potentials that arise from the considerations of ecological and serial relationalities. She argues that the medium is extremely productive when facing the pressing demands of educating about environmental and ecological issues and challenges in the age of the Anthropocene. 

The project is supervised by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Roman Bartosch.

Biography

Verena Wurth studied in English, History and Educational Sciences at the Universities of Passau and Cologne, Germany. She holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Rochester, NY (2019) and a second Master's in English, History, Educational Sciences at the University of Cologne (2020), where she has been teaching American literary studies courses since 2016, and worked as research assistant and lecturer at the Chair for American Literature and Culture. Her research interests include Modernist Literature, Feminist Theory, African American Studies, Ecocriticism, and Seriality Studies. Especially the latter two research fields touch upon the topic of her PhD thesis on Serial Ecologies of New Golden Age TV: Conceptualizing Ecology, Seriality and Ecopedagogy in the Anthropocene, a project she began in April 2021 as a scholarship holder at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School. At a.r.t.e.s., she acts as graduate student representative in the academic year of 2021/22 and is an active member in the interdisciplinary a.r.t.e.s. reading group for the Environmental Humanities* and in the  
Anti-Discrimination and Equal Opportunities Working Group.

Contact

verena.wurth(at)uni-koeln.de

Profile page at the Department of English I

Talks

10/2021 "Missing Persons, Vanishing Places: Crime, Environmental Catastrophe, and Seriality in True Detective," (Narrating) Environmental Displacements: Virtual Workshop, University of Augsburg.

09/2021 “Pains, Planes, and Automobiles: Disguising Extractivism through Nostalgic Aesthetics in Mad Men (2007-2015),” Sentimental Extraction: Virtual Workshop on Fossil Fuel Extraction, Gender, and Sentimentality, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Chair of American Studies: Culture and Literature.

03/2021: “Serial Ecologies of New Golden Age Television: Conceptualizing Seriality, Ecology, and Eco-Pedagogy,” Workshop on Critical Environmental Education and American Popular Culture, University of Cologne, English Seminar I.

Teaching

Summer Semester 2021
“Black Feminist Texts,”  Proseminar, English Seminar I, University of Cologne, with an incorporated guestlecture by Dr. Natasha A. Kelly entitled “Schwarzer Feminismus, Rassismus und Intersektionalität“ (7/7/2021)

Scholarships and Grants

2021
Grant from the “Finanzfonds zur Umsetzung des gesetzlichen Gleichstellungsauftrages der Universität zu Köln,” to finance a guestlecture by Dr. Natasha A. Kelly entitled “Schwarzer Feminismus, Rassismus und Intersektionalität“ (7/7/2021)

* The reading group welcomes all PhD students who address ecological or environmental questions. If you are interested in participating, feel free to contact me.