Ruth Gehrmann, M.A.
formerly: wiss. Mitarbeiterin, Abteilung Banerjee
PLEASE NOTE:
Ruth Gehrmann is currently on maternal leave. For matters regarding second and third term paper attempts, please contact other colleagues at Prof. Banerjee’s chair.
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.