Dr. Davina Höll

wiss. Mitarbeiterin, Abteilung Banerjee
 

I am an Assistant Professor (wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) in Professor Mita Banerjee’s team. I hold a B.A. in European Literature, an M.A. in German Literature from the University of Marburg, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Mainz. In my research, I am interested in the inexpressible, the marginalized, the tabooed, and the suppressed in 19th-21st-century Transnational American Literature. I particularly inquire into the connections between knowledge production and literature, art and science, and popular culture, with a special focus on Medical and Environmental Humanities. Accordingly, inter- and transdisciplinary research and teaching are crucial to my work within and beyond Academia.

Research

I completed my dissertation Das Gespenst der Pandemie (The Specter of the Pandemic) on the politics and poetics of cholera as part of the DFG Research Training Group “Life Sciences – Life Writing” at Mainz University. At the interface of literary studies and medical history, I analyzed how the traumatic epidemic experience of cholera, the leading disease of the 19th century, found its way into contemporary literature. In 2021, I received the Dissertation Prize from Johannes Gutenberg University and the First Prize of the German Thesis Award given by the Körber-Foundation.

As a post-doctoral researcher within the Cluster of Excellence 2124 (CMFI) “Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections” at Tübingen University, I investigated the historical, epistemological, ethical, and cultural implications of cutting-edge biomedical research. With the project “The Popular Microbiome,” I initiated a collaboration with the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design (ABK) that delved into different dimensions of science communication, knowledge transfer, and artistic research.

In my second book project, tentatively titled “The More-Than-Human in American Literature and Culture,” I look at various conceptualizations of the More-Than-Human across different media and genres of the 19th to the 21st century. I ask about the ethical and aesthetical implications of (literary) thinking beyond human agency, especially in the face of current and future states of emergency.

Teaching

I teach American Literature and Culture at undergraduate and graduate levels. I especially enjoy teaching in inter- and transdisciplinary settings and engaging in innovative teaching formats, e.g., on Pop Culture, varieties of the Gothic, and Narrative Medicine.

 

Contact

Dr. Davina Höll
Philosophicum II
Jakob-Welder-Weg 20
Room 02.204

Phone: +49-6131-39-30399
hoell@uni-mainz.de

Office hours:
by appointment

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