M. A. Madeline Becker

wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin in der Kulturwissenschaft
Philologicum
Raum 217
Universitätsplatz 3
18055 Rostock
madeline.beckeruni-rostockde
Tel.: +49 (0)381 498-2596
Fax: +49 (0)381 498-2594
Sprechzeit im Semester
Freitag von
11.30 bis 12.30 Uhr
(Bitte beachten Sie, dass Änderungen der Sprechzeiten unter dem Menüpunkt "Aktuelles" bekanntgegeben werden)
Curriculum Vitae
since 2021
Research assistant for Cultural Studies at University of Rostock
2018-2021
Scholarshipholder of the Landesgraduiertenförderung Sachsen-Anhalt
2018-2021
Lecturer at the department of English Literary and Cultural Studies at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg
2017-2024
PhD student at the department of English Literary and Cultural Studies at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg
November 2017
Winner of the faculty award 2016/17: Best Graduates
2014-2017
Master’s degree English Literary and Cultural Studies, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg
2012-2013
Bachelor’s study course English Literature, Bath Spa University, Great Britain
2010–2014
Bachelor’s degree English Literary and Cultural Studies and European History, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg
Supervision of BA/MA Theses and Staatsexamensarbeiten
I am available to supervise final theses. If you would like me as your supervisor, please send me an email that includes the following information:
- Which Cultural Studies courses you have taken with me or in the programme.
- The semester in which you plan to write your thesis.
- A 200–300 word abstract outlining your (preliminary) idea for a topic.
- A brief explanation of why you think I would be a suitable supervisor for this topic.
Please note that I do not supervise theses that work exclusively with literary texts as their primary material. If the number of supervision requests exceeds my capacity, I will prioritise students who have attended one or more of my seminars and/or whose proposed topic meets with my research profile and expertise.
Research Projects and Interests
My current research project (Habilitationsprojekt) investigates different material artifacts (e.g., dolls, period products, reproductive technologies, and medical instruments) and how they shape cultural conceptions of femininity and the female body.
In 2024, I defended my dissertation, which provides a critical study of how Anglo-American wildlife and nature documentaries mediate environmental crises and their particular materialities.
My research interests include
- Anglophone Cultural Studies
- Environmental Humanities
- Material Culture Studies
- Gender and Feminist Studies
- film and other visual media
- zombies, vampires, post-disaster narratives, and the horror genre
Publications and Conference Presentations
Articles
with Kylie Crane, "Zwischen idyllischen Seerosen und gefräßigen Krokodilen: Val Plumwoods Reflektionen übers Beutesein und gefressen werden im Kontext des New Nature Writing." Welche Natur? Und welche Literatur? Zu Perspektiven des Nature Writing in Zeiten des Anthropozän, edited by Tanja van Hoorn und Ludwig Fischer. Springer, 2023.
"Controlling and Liberating the Womb: An Ecofeminist Perspective on Overpopulation, Reproductive Technologies, and Anti-Natalism." Journal for the Study of British Cultures 30.2 (2023): 193-209.
Reviews
Review of Posthuman Pathogenesis: Contagion in Literature, Arts, and Media, edited by Başak Ağin, and Şafak Horzum. Ecozon@, (in press).
Review of Writing Maternity: Medicine Anxiety, Rhetoric, and Genre, by Dara Rossman Regaignon. Journal for the Study of British Cultures, vol.31, no. 2 (2024): 296-299.
Rev. of Literature, Pedagogy, and Climate Change: Text Models for a Transcultural Ecology, by Roman Bartosch. Journal for the Study of British Cultures 27.2 (2020).
Presentations
"Commons and Capsules: Thinking Air and Co-Habitability through the Automobile." International Conference Cohabitability: Ecologies and Technologies of Living on Earth, Center for Environmental and Technology Ethics Prague, 08.-10.10.2025.
"Roundtable: Places under Threat--How Anglophone Studies Can Contribute to Public Discourse on Anthropogenic Environmental Studies." Jahrestagung Anglistiktag, Universität Duisburg-Essen, 21. – 24.09.2025.
"Mapping the Unstable: Coastal Erosion and the Fluidity of Spatial Formation." Biennial Conference ASLE UK Erosion, University of Galway (Ireland), 12.-14.08.2025.
"(Re)Thinking Urban Mobility Infrastructures through their Disruption by Environmental Protest Groups." Internationale Conference Ecoterrorism in Anglophone Media, Universität Dortmund, 11.-13. 12.2024.
"Myths of Re-Wilding Sanctuaries: Representing Nuclear Environments Through Digital and Analogue Media Technologies." Workshop The Nuclear Age, Redux: Forms and Modes of Environmental Change, Universität Würzburg, 15.11.2024.
"Taming the Ocean Through its Visual Mediation: Underwater Documentaries and Google Earth's Underwater Streetview". International Conference Narratives of Water: Flows, Routes, Crises in the Atlantic World, University of Turin (Italy), 21.-22.03.2024.
"Visual Technologies as Extractivist Practice: Media and Matter in the Anthropocene.” Workshop Cultural Studies and the Nonhuman, Universität Leipzig, 21.-22. April 2023.
"Inhabiting Virtual Environments: Representations of the Ocean on Google Earth.” Workshop Critical Uninhabitations, Universität Rostock, 23.-25.Juni 2022.
„Die Studierendenkonferenz als alternative Prüfungsform.“ Weiterbildungsseminar der BritCult, Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg, 06.-07. Mai 2022.
“Of Immortal Heroes and Decaying Flesh: The Abject Body of the Zombie as a Counter Narrative to the Pandemic-Hero.” Conference Theorizing Zombiism II: Undead Again, University of Gothenburg (Schweden), 29.-31. Juli 2021
„Empathetic Encounter or Naive Encounter? Timothy Treadwell in Werner Herzog’s Drama Documentary Grizzly Man.” Gastvortrag. Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 9. Januar 2020.
„Vorstellung des Dissertationsprojektes Screened Encounters: The Nature Documentary in the Anthropocene.” Postgraduierten Forum der BritCult. Universität Hildesheim, 21. November 2019.
„Environmental Hollywood: Ecocritical Perspectives on Film.” campusdateLIVE. Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, 2. Juni 2018.
“Posterpräsentation Documenting the Anthropocene: The Nature Documentary in the 21st Century.” Forschungsmesse der Fakultät für Humanwissenschaft. Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, 23. Mai 2018.
Teaching
Wintersemester 2025/26
Cultural Studies Perspectives on the International New Right: Narratives, Media, Imaginaries (University of Rostock)
2 Grundkurse: Introduction to Cultural Studies (University of Rostock)
Sommersemester 2025
Some Fundamentals of Cultural Studies in 12 Social Media Trends (University of Rostock)
Power, Perception, and Culturral Exchange in 19th Century Exhibitions (University of Rostock)
Zombies: Cultural Anxieties and the Undead (University of Rostock)
Grundkurs: Introduction to Cultural Studies (University of Rostock)
Wintersemester 2024/25
Contructing and Controlling Black, Female, Disabled, and Animal Bodies in the Long 19th Century (University of Rostock)
Enigmatic Depths: Exploring Human Interactions with Aquatic Environments (University of Rostock)
Grundkurs: Introduction to Cultural Studies (University of Rostock)
Summersemester 2024
Cultures of Contagion: Diseases, Viruses, and Pandemics in the Cultural Imagination (University of Rostock)
Wintersemester 2023/24
Constructing of Children and Childhood Grundschule (University of Rostock)
Summersemester 2023
Constructing and Controlling Black, Female, Disabled, and Animal Bodies in the Long 19th Century, BATS (University of Rostock)
Wintersemester 2022/23
Suicidal Lemmings, Man-Eating Bears, and Motherly Cheetahs: Animals in Documentaries (University of Rostock)
Summersemester 2022
Mudbloods, Noughts, and Mockingjays: Constructions of Race, Class, Gender, and Species in Young Adult Fiction (University of Rostock)
"I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way!" - Heroes and Superheroes in American Popular Culture (University of Rostock)
Wintersemester 2021/22
Encounters with the Undead: The Zombie Imagination as a Reflection of Crises and Anxieties (University of Rostock)
Summersemester 2021
Woman in Visual Culture (University of Rostock)
Wintersemester 2020/21
Post-Human, Post-Capital, Post-Apocalypse: The World in Atwoods MaddAddam Trilogy (OVGU Magdeburg)
Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten im Cultural Engineering (OVGU Magdeburg)
Summersemester 2020
Ecocritical Perspectives on Monsters and Monstrosity (OVGU Magdeburg)
Student Conference Imagining the Monster and the City in Contemporary Fantasy and Horror (OVGU Magdeburg)
Wintersemester 2019/20
The Human, Non-Human, and Posthuman (OVGU Magdeburg)
Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten (OVGU Magdeburg)
Wintersemester 2018/19
Why Look at Animals? Exploring Magdeburg Zoo (OVGU Magdeburg)
Summersemester 2018
Eco-Desaster Narratives: Fiction in the Anthropocene (OVGU Magdeburg)
Wintersemester 2016/17
Tutorium "Introduction to Cultural Studies" (OVGU Magdeburg)
