Research Interests 

Nature Simulation, German Climate Fiction (Cli-Fi), Cognitive Narratology, Narrative Theory, Environmental Humanities, Virtual Worlds (VW), New Media Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, German Romanticism and Realism, Intercultural Competence and Communication (ICC) 

Education 

• Doctor of Philosophy, Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University
  o Tentative Dissertation Title: The Simulation of Nature in Different Narrative Forms: From German Climate Fiction (Cli-Fi) to Open-World Video Games (in progress)
• MA, German Studies, The University of Alabama
• Erstes Staatsexamen (a combined BA+MA degree), Majors: English, History, Education, The University of Kassel, Germany 

Awards, Funding, and Fellowships 

• Graduate Associate Distinguished Teaching Award, The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures (GLL), The Ohio State University, 2025
• Umwelt Center for Germanic Studies & Environmental Humanities, Summer Graduate Research or Experiential Learning Fellowship, 2025
• The Project Narrative Travel Grant, Project Narrative, The Ohio State University, 2025
• The Germanic Languages and Literatures Departmental Travel Grant, The Ohio State University, 2025
• Arts & Humanities Graduate Research Small Grants Program, The College of Arts and Sciences, The Ohio State University, 2025
• The Graduate Associate Teaching Award (GATA), The Ohio State University, 2023-2024
• The Graduate Student Seminar Paper Award, The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures (GLL), The Ohio State University, 2024
• CLLC Pedagogy Advancement Series Award, Center for Languages, Literatures and Cultures, The Ohio State University, 2024
• Umwelt Center for Germanic Studies & Environmental Humanities, Summer Graduate Research or Experiential Learning Fellowship, 2024
• Arts & Humanities Graduate Research Small Grants Program, The College of Arts and Sciences, The Ohio State University, 2023
• The Germanic Languages and Literatures Departmental Travel Grant, The Ohio State University, 2023
• Fellowship recipient, University Fellowship, The Ohio State University, 2022-2023
• Honoree, Hessischer Hochschulpreis für Exzellenz in der Lehre: Zweiter Projektpreis (Second prize on state level for the project ‘Online Educational Initiatives: An Intercultural Online Cooperation between German, Israeli, and Arab Students’). The prize was endowed with a research grant of €30,000, 2019
• Scholarship recipient, Federation of German-American Clubs (Verband Deutsch-Amerikanischer Clubs e.V., VDAC), 2018-2019

Academic Appointments 

• Graduate Teaching Associate, Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University, 2023-present
• University Fellow, Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University, 2022-2023
• Lecturer of Applied Linguistics, Department of English and American Studies, The University of Kassel, Germany, 2021-2022
• Tutor and Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of English and American Studies, The University of Kassel, Germany, 2020-2021
• Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of German, The University of Alabama, 2018 – 2019
• Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of English and American Studies, The University of Kassel, Germany, 2017-2018 

Courses Taught (at the University Level)

• 1x Elementary German (GER 1101), The Ohio State University
• 4x Intermediate German (GER 1103), The Ohio State University
• 1x Elementary German (GN 102), The University of Alabama
• 2x The Mental Lexicon and Vocabulary Acquisition, The University of Kassel, Germany
• 1x Listening and Speaking, The University of Kassel, Germany
• 2x Testing, Assessment and Evaluation in the EFL Classroom, The University of Kassel, Germany
• 1x Working with Research Portfolios, The University of Kassel, Germany
• 2x Teaching Practicum for Secondary School Teaching Candidates, The University of Kassel, Germany
• 1x Pop Culture in Language Education, The University of Kassel, Germany
• 1x Writing in the EFL Classroom, The University of Kassel, Germany
• 2x Mental Lexicon and Vocabulary Acquisition in the EFL Classroom, The University of Kassel, Germany 

Professional Service 

• Committee Member and CGS Representative, Graduate Associate Teaching Award (GATA) University Committee, 2025-2026
• Delegate, Council of Graduate Students (CGS), 2025-2026
• Co-President of the Germanic Graduate Student Association (GGSA), The Ohio State University, 2024-2025
• Vice President of the Germanic Graduate Student Association (GGSA), The Ohio State University, 2023-2024
• Departmental Council Representative, The Ohio State University, 2022-2023
• Member, Faculty Search Committee, The Ohio State University, 2022
• Organizer, Schnupperstudium 2022, The University of Kassel
• Jury member, Textbook of the Year Award 2021, Georg-Eckert-Institute, Germany
• Presenter, Meet-A-German, German-American Fulbright Commission, 2021
• Co-organizer, establishing international cooperations between the English Department of the University of Kassel and other European language departments, 2021
• Translator, Museum tour in German, The Alabama Museum of Natural History, 2019
• Translator, Gustav Schröder’s Heimatlos auf hoher See (1949) (not published), 2018
• Co-organizer, One-week excursion to Israel with students from The University of Kassel in the context of the "Cooperation Germany-Israel" project by Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner and Prof. Dr. Miri Shonfeld, 2018 

Conferences 

• Roundtable Panelist, State of the Weather, State of the World: Environmental Studies at the GSA (sponsored by the Environmental Studies Network), Forty-Ninth Annual Conference, German Studies Association (GSA), Arlington, VA, Sep. 2025
• Presenter, Nature Simulation in German Climate Change Fiction (Cli-Fi), Forty-Ninth Annual Conference, German Studies Association (GSA), Arlington, VA, Sep. 2025
• Participant, Engaged Digital German Environmental Studies (EDGES) Summer Symposium, 2025 Environmental Studies Network, Jul. 2025
• Presenter, Nature Simulation in Contemporary German Climate Change Fiction, 40th Annual International Conference on Narrative, Miami, FL, Apr. 2025
• Co-organizer, Germanic Graduate Student Association (GGSA), The 17th Annual Graduate Student Conference, The Ohio State University, Feb. 2025
• Participant, Engaged Digital German Environmental Studies (EDGES) Summer Symposium, 2024 Environmental Studies Network, Jul. 2024
• Co-Presenter, International Cooperation in Virtual Worlds, The 17th Conference of the Association Language Awareness: “Language Awareness, Education, and Power,” Karlsruhe, Germany, Jul. 2024
• Presenter, The Greenhorn Gaze: Indigenous Landscapes and German Identity in German Indianerliteratur, Umwelt Center for Germanic Studies & Environmental Humanities: Junior Scholars Workshop, The Ohio State University, Apr. 2024
• Co-organizer, Germanic Graduate Student Association (GGSA), The 16th Annual Graduate Student Conference, The Ohio State University, Feb. 2024
• Presenter, The ‘Greenhorn Gaze’: The (De-)Construction of the Indigenous World in German Indianerliteratur, Forty-Seventh Annual Conference, German Studies Association (GSA), Montreal, Canada, Oct. 2023
• Participant, GSA Seminar 2023: Environment, Activism, and Social Change in German Studies: GSA Environmental Studies Network, German Studies Association (GSA), Montreal, Canada, Oct. 2023
• Presenter, International Online Cooperation in a Multilingual Context: A Pre-Post Survey Study, Evidence-Based Foreign Language Learning - Multilingualism in Education (EBFL), Ascona, Switzerland, Jun. 2023
• Presenter, The ‘Greenhorn Gaze’: The (De-)Construction of the Indigenous World in German Indianerliteratur, Germanic Graduate Student Association (GGSA), Columbus, OH, Mar. 2023
• Participant, The ACTFL Annual Convention, Boston, MA, November 2022
• Presenter, Self-, Peer-, and Group-Assessment Analyses on Diverse Group Communication in a Digital Higher Education Learning Environment: A Mixed Method Approach, Association for Language Awareness (ALA), Bauru, Brazil, July 2022
• Co-moderator, International Student Colloquium, International Association for Intercultural Education (IAIE), Kibbutzim College, Tel Aviv, Israel, June 2021
• Participant, Association for Language Awareness (ALA), Deakin University, Australia, October 2020
• Presenter, Reviving Discourses of Refugee Crises through Translation: From the St. Louis Incident to Present Day, The University of Alabama Languages Conference, The University of Alabama, February 2019
• Co-moderator, International Student Conference, Kibbutzim College, Tel Aviv, Israel, June 2018
• Co-moderator, The 23rd Kassel English Colloquium (KEC), The University of Kassel, Germany, June 2018

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

• Mentee, The Project Narrative Mentoring Program for Graduate Students at The Ohio State University, Southern Methodist University, and The University of Texas at Austin (mentor: James Phelan)
• Co-founder, The Project Narrative Graduate Student Association at The Ohio State University
• Member, Umwelt Center for Germanic Studies & Environmental Humanities at The Ohio State University
• Member, The Germanic Graduate Student Association (GGSA)
• Member, International Society for the Study of Narrative (ISSN)
• Member, The German Studies Association (GSA)
• Member, Association for Language Awareness (ALA)
• Member, National German Honors Society: Delta Phi Alpha
• Member, The American Association of Teachers of German (AATG)