Ruth Gehrmann, M.A.

I received my M.A. in American Studies from the University of Augsburg in 2014. During my studies I spent a semester at the National University of Ireland in Galway. In 2014 I moved to Mainz and worked as a PhD fellow at the DFG research group “Life Sciences – Life Writing: Boundary Experiences of Human Life between Biomedical Explanation and Lived Experience” for three years. This fellowship gave me the opportunity to spend a semester as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, New York. Since April 2018 I am a lecturer (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies.

My PhD project focuses on organ transplantation in speculative fiction and employs a new historicist approach to interrelate works of different forms of writing. By engaging with life writing, for instance doctor’s autobiographies, works of medical research and fictional representations of medical procedures, I emphasize intrinsic ties between these publications and underline their shared interest in speculation.

My general research interests include speculative fiction, young adult fiction and medical humanities.