Local Organizers
“Shifting Dynamics of American Studies” is organized by Austria’s Young Americanists, hosted by the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Salzburg, and coordinated by AYA’s local representatives Elisabeth Krieber and Christoph Straub.
Elisabeth Krieber
Elisabeth is a PhD student at the department of American studies at the University of Salzburg. She has received her Bachelor’s degree in English and American Studies from the University of Graz and holds a Master’s degree in “English Studies and the Creative Industries” from the University of Salzburg. Her PhD project focuses on the transmedial representation of women’s autobiographical subjectivities in graphic narratives and their adaptations. Elisabeth’s research interests include Gender and Women studies, Comic and Media studies as well as Narratology.
Christoph Straub
Christoph is a PhD student at the Department of English and American Studies at Salzburg University. In his research, he is most interested in postcolonial criticism, film studies, and Indigenous studies. His dissertation project focuses on decolonizing strategies in contemporary Indigenous films from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US. Christoph holds an MA in “English Studies and the Creative Industries” from Salzburg University and a BA in English Studies and South Asian Studies from Heidelberg University.
Further AYA Representatives
Roberta Hofer is a university assistant and PhD student at the Department of American Studies at the University of Innsbruck (Austria). Her research interests are film studies, narratology, performance, and [puppet] theater. In 2013, she was invited to be a teaching assistant of film studies at Boston University, and in 2014, the University of Innsbruck presented her with the Best Student Paper Award for her article on the meta-narration of Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier. Her articles on human puppeteering have been included in several international, peer-reviewed anthologies and journals, and she has been an invited guest speaker at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University.
Christian Stenico is a university assistant and PhD candidate at the University of Innsbruck and his research focuses on first-person narration in different media. He has published an article on the implicit bystander effect and video games in the Journal of Social Psychology. His other research interests include developments in film and television, such as technical advancements, changes in plot preferences, and innovations in filmic and oral storytelling.
Silke Jandl is currently working towards her PhD in English and American Studies at the University of Graz. In her thesis she will be exploring several aspects of the interrelationship between the medium of the book and YouTube. In 2013/14 she spent two semesters teaching German at the University of Minnesota. There she took the opportunity of expanding on her interest in Native American literature and culture by learning, among other things, some of the Dakota language. From March 2015 she will be working and teaching at the Center for Intermediality Studies in Graz.
Barbora Orlická studied at the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, where she received her MA in English Language and Literature. She is currently teaching and pursuing her PhD at the University of Graz. Her research interests are Native American and First Nation Studies, New Media Studies, and Narratology. Her dissertation focuses on Indigenous New Media in Canada and the U.S. Her current project investigates Indigenous videogames as sites of resistance and reclamation.
Eva Maria is a PhD candidate at the University of of Vienna.
Helena is a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna.
About Austria’s Young Americanists
Austria’s Young Americanists (AYA) is a network for graduate students in the field of American Studies at Austrian universities. The network is affiliated with the Austrian Association for American Studies and part of a general initiative undertaken by the European Association for American Studies that aims at making research on the PhD level across Europe more transparent.
First and foremost, AYA is designed to enhance the communication between students at Austrian universities and to make information on the ongoing research more accessible. The early career researchers’ workshop “Shifting Dynamics of American Studies” is a practical means to reach that goal.
The Workshop is supported by
