I am a writer, scholar, and educator, currently appointed as Associated Professor of American Studies at the University of Klagenfurt, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Freiburg where I direct the Visions of Sustainability project at the Sustainability Innovation Campus.

I am the author of three academic books, Growing Hope (2024), Affective Ecologies (2017), and Cosmopolitan Minds (2014), and the (co-)editor of several books and journal issues. My trans- and interdisciplinary research explores contemporary environmental culture with input from the social sciences and a focus on affect and emotion. I have a special interest in climate change communication and narrativization, eco-documentaries, and food narratives. In recent years, I have also returned to creative writing with some short stories and my first novel, Fragile (2023).

UPCOMING TALKS & EVENTS 

January 14, 2025

Film conversation with Hanna Münstermann on Nic Balthazar’s Duty of Care: The Climate Trials

Hamonie Arthouse Cinema; transdisciplinary research project “Visionen der Nachhaltigkeit/Visions of Sustainability” (University of Freiburg/KIT)

Freiburg, Germany

February 3, 2025

Visions of Sustainability/Visionen der Nachhaltigkeit

Presentation of research results at concluding workshop “Climate Protection”; transdisciplinary research project “Visions of Sustainability” (University of Freiburg/KIT)

Freiburg, Germany

June 3-4, 2025

Invited Lecture and Masterclass as part of the Cologne Media Conversation (CMC) at the University of Cologne

Cologne, Germany

June 23-25, 2025

Keynote lecture at the Conference “Engaging Communities in Environmental and Climate In/Action: Narratives, Discursive Practices, and Transdisciplinary Approaches,” organized by the Interuniversity Research Centre Dis4Change: Studies on Climate Change and Environmental Discourse, University of Bari Aldo Moro

Bari, Italy