Sarah Lahm

Profile

My research aims to contribute to feminist television criticism. I am interested in exploring questions of complex and prestige TV and television aesthetics and narrative techniques, as well as questions of feminist resistance and resilience in serial narratives. My current work analyses articulations of neoliberal feminism in US-American female-led half-hour comedy-dramas and feminism’s entanglement with contemporary complex and 'quality' TV. By tracing the trope of the fragmented female subject and investigating currently popular mashups of genres, I hope to contribute to our understanding of twenty-first century feminisms and television storytelling practices. Intriguing programmes that exemplify the contradictions and complexities of feminist discourse's current junctures and their relationship to form and aesthetics on TV are, for example, Russian Doll (Netflix, 2019-2022), Undone (Amazon Prime, 2019-2022), and Search Party (TBS/HBO Max, 2016-2022). I have continuously presented my research at conferences and symposia, including MeCCSA, Screen, and Critical Studies in Television.

 

Research interests

Television
US TV
Gender
Genre
Feminism
Neoliberal feminism
Affect and Emotion

 

Qualifications

• MA in English and American Studies, University of Graz
• Graduate studies at the City College of the City University of New York (CCNY/CUNY)
• BA in English and American Studies, University of Graz

Student education

At the University of Leeds, I have been module leader for a first-year undergraduate module and a third-year undergraduate module. I have also been seminar leader for various other undergraduate modules. My previous teaching experience includes the role of adjunct lecturer at the University of Graz, with two American cultural studies modules including being responsible for the design and organisation of the entire module, the module theme, contents of each session, course reading list, as well as assessments and marking. In the US, I was a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) at the University of Oklahoma’s Department of Modern languages (German).