Dr. Marleen Knipping

Research Interests

  • Literary sociology
  • Contemporary U.S.-American poetry
  • Cultural ecology and ecocriticism
  • Cultural geography
  • Critical literary and media theory
  • Gender Studies
  • Television and media studies

In her PhD project Poetry as Ecosystem: Building and Sustaining Literary Communities in Minnesota, Marleen Knipping elucidates the characteristics and mechanisms of poetry funding, production, dissemination, expression, and reception in what she calls the Minnesotan literary ecosystem. Analyzing this system is important due to its exceptional status for contemporary U.S. poetry: It brings forth critically acclaimed poetry popular among local and translocal readers, critics, and consecration agencies and thus counters a much-attested decline in poetry publishing and reading that Knipping's work accounts for. Moreover, she details the Minnesotan literary ecosystem in order to show that understanding this system provides an insight into the ways in which participants, including players in the literary field as much as places and environments, collaborate to create literary culture. In this sense, the project's interdisciplinary look at the literary ecosystem's agents, their work and their works, and their relationships and intersections, fosters our understanding of how literature is produced and experienced today.


Education

  • Promotion (Ph.D.), American Studies, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 2020
  • M.A. American Studies/English Philology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 2013
  • B.A. American Studies/Economics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 2011

Recent Fellowships

In July and August 2019 and from August to October 2018, Marleen Knipping was a Visiting Scholar at the 'Upper Midwest Literary Archives' (Elmer L. Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis). She was a DAAD-funded Visiting Scholar at the University of Minnesota's Departments of English and American Studies between January and May 2017. She participated in the Harvard Institute for World Literature in 2017 (University of Copenhagen) and in the Fulbright American Studies Institute in 2014 (San Francisco State University).


Talks and Conference Papers

  • "The Poem's Voice Returns in This One: Instapoets and Instapoetics in the Digital Sphere" ("U.S.-American Culture as Popular Culture," Annual Meeting of the German Association for American Studies, June 15, 2019, University of Hamburg)
  • "Opening Remarks" and "Local Money, Global Impact: Funding the Midwestern Literary Ecosystem" (International Conference "Glocal Places of Literature: Production – Distribution – Reception," June 28 and 29, 2018, Comparative Literature, University of Göttingen)
  • "The 'Not Nowhere' of Poetry: Literary Ecosystems in the American Midwest" (Research Colloquium North American Studies, December 13,2017, University of Göttingen)
  • "Poetry from the 'Not Nowhere:' Literary Ecosystems in the American Midwest" (Harvard Institute for World Literature, July 05, 2017, University of Copenhagen)
  • "'Another beautiful Miami day. Mutilated corpses with the chance of afternoon showers:' The Narrative Negotiation of Normalcy in Dexter" (43rd International Conference of the Austrian Association for American Studies, Nov 11-13, 2016, Innsbruck, Austria)
  • "Global Places?: The Influence of Globalization on Small Presses" (Research Colloquium North American Studies, Jan 20, 2016, University of Göttingen)
  • "Postmodern Nonsense? Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair" (Invited Talk, Jan 19, 2016, University of Konstanz)
  • "Writing the Region in the Twenty-First Century: Literary Communities and Contemporary American Poetry" (Annual Postgraduate Conference at the German Association for American Studies, Nov 6-8, 2015, University of Bamberg)
  • "The Living Poets Society" (Research Colloquium "New Interventions in the Americanist Field," June 3, 2015, University of Göttingen)
  • "Death on the Mississippi: Negotiations of Decay in Contemporary American Poetry" (Fulbright American Studies Institute 2014, Sep 14 – 28, 2014, San Francisco State University, San Francisco)
  • "Spatial Configurations in Contemporary American Poetry" (Ph.D. Workshop American Studies; Norddeutsches Netzwerk Nordamerikastudien, May 23-24, 2014, University of Hanover)
  • Regionalism and Poetry: An Introduction" (Research Colloquium American Studies, May 14, 2014, University of Göttingen)

Affiliations and Memberships

Göttingen Centrum für Geschlechterforschung (GCG)

Litlog: Göttinger eMagazin für Literatur – Kultur – Wissenschaft (co-publisher)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien e.V. (DGfA)

Norddeutsches Netzwerk Nordamerikastudien

Graduiertenkolleg 1787 "Literatur und Literaturvermittlung im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung" (associated researcher, until discontinuation of the graduate school in 2017)


Teaching

Current Course
  • "Advanced Cultural History and Rhetoric: Feminisms in the U.S. Context" (summer 2021)
Past Courses
  • "America in Black and White: Race Relations on Film" (winter 2020/21)
  • "Advanced Cultural History and Rhetoric: American News Media and Politics" (winter 2019/20)
  • "Advanced Cultural History and Rhetoric: Making Books in the United States: Past, Present, and Future of the Literary Industry" (summer 2018)
  • "Advanced Cultural History and Rhetoric: Presidential Rhetoric" (winter 2017/18)
  • "Writing the Region in Scotland and the U.S.: Poetry from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century" (Edinburgh Summer School, summer 2017)
  • "The Place of Poetry – The Poetry of Place" (winter 2016/17)
  • "Advanced Cultural History and Rhetoric: U.S. Presidential Elections" (summer 2016)
  • "Cultural History and Rhetoric: American News Media and Politics" (summer 2015)
  • "Introducing Critical Theory II: Approaches and Methods in Media Studies" (winter 2014/15, winter 2015/16, winter 2018/19)
  • "Methoden der Geschlechterforschung" (two sessions on "Gender in Media Studies," winter 2014/15, winter 2015/16, winter 2018/19)
  • "Television Comedy: The American Sitcom" (summer 2014)
  • "Introduction to Film and Media Analysis" (winter 2013/14, winter 2014/15, winter 2018/19)
  • "Introduction to American Cultural History" (winter 2013/14, summer 2014)
  • "The Form of Television Narrative: Seriality, Narratology & Media Theory" (co-teaching with Prof. B. Tischleder, winter 2013/14)
  • Workshop "Film Production" (winter 2013/14, winter 2014/15, winter 2015/16, summer 2017, winter 2017/18, winter 2018/19)
  • "Directed Reading Course: One Modernity, Many Modernisms – U.S. Literature from the Armory Show to the Second World War" (summer 2013)
  • Tutorial "Introducing Critical Theory I: Approaches in Literary and Cultural Studies" (summer 2013)
  • Tutorial "Introducing Critical Theory II: Approaches and Methods in Media Studies" (winter 2012/13)
  • Workshop "Scholarly Writing and Composition" (winter 2011/12, summer 2012)