Dr Brenda Hollweg

Profile

Before joining the University of Leeds, I held teaching and research positions at leading institutions in Germany and the UK, including Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Leipzig, and Chemnitz University of Technology. My teaching has spanned US-American film and literature, cultural theory and history, feminist/queer theory, art history and exhibition cultures, including visiting lectureships at Leeds Beckett University and Leeds Arts University. My professional background is interdisciplinary, combining academic, managerial and media experience. I received formal training in industrial management and have previously worked as newspaper journalist, as well as programme manager within the cultural sector.

Responsibilities

• Programme Lead Cultural and Media Studies

Research interests

I research contemporary visual culture, screen media and exhibition cultures, with particular expertise in essayistic and self-reflective documentary forms. In 2010, I realized a 45 minute video essay on the affective ecologies of voting. My research is concerned with questions of subjectivity, voice, memory, migration, human–non-human relations and the intersections of aesthetics and politics, with particular attention to the role of affect and lived experience in the production of knowledge. My current book project on the essay as extended cultural form and counter-practice investigates how contemporary women writers, artists and filmmakers use essayistic modes to resist and reimagine structures of violence, exclusion and social injustice.

I warmly welcome applications from prospective PhD researchers interested in innovative and interdisciplinary projects across visual culture, film, media, literature and exhibition cultures. I am particularly keen to supervise research on essayistic modes and practices that engage critically with contemporary social, cultural, aesthetic and political questions from feminist/queer, transnational and/or post/decolonial perspectives.

Qualifications

• PhD University of Technology Chemnitz (2000)
• MA Free University of Berlin (1994)
• BA Augustana College, Ill. (1990)
• HND Interactive Media, Leeds Arts University (2007)

Student education

I currently teach on two second-year modules on the BA Cultural and Media Studies. In one module I teach at the intersection of essayistic practice and feminist critique, exploring the essay as a dynamic form of critical and creative enquiry. My teaching brings feminist/queer thinkers from different historical periods into dialogue with contemporary essayistic writing and media practices from around the world. Students examine both the analytical and affective dimensions of critique, developing innovative approaches to questions of culture, power, identity/subjectivity and social transformation.

In the other module I teach cultural theory and textual analysis with a particular focus on absence, disappearance and haunting in contemporary culture. My teaching examines how silences, omissions and forms of erasure can shape meaning and connect questions of representation to broader histories of power and violence. Through close analysis of diverse cultural texts, students uncover new and critical ways of interpreting culture, examining how what is absent can be as revealing as what is present.

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>