Annalina Benner
Research Assistant, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Nünning
Contact
Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
Institut für Anglistik / English Department
Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10 B 304
35394 Giessen
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 641 / 99 30 09 5
Mail to: annalina.benner@anglistik.uni-giessen.de
Information for Students
While I am happy to complete all BA and Lehramt supervisions currently in progress, please note that I will be leaving JLU at the end of September 2025. Therefore, I am unable to take on any new supervision projects, including those for the fall 2025 cycle of the Erste Staatsprüfung.
For any other inquiries, please feel free to reach out via email to schedule an online or in-person meeting during my office hours, which take place from Monday to Wednesday.
Psychologische Beratungsstelle: The PBS team is available to students as a point of contact for all issues that are troubling them in the context of their studies or also in their private lives.
Research Interests
- Musico-Literary Intermediality
- African American Literature and Culture
- Graphic Memoirs
- Life Writing
Memberships
- European PhDnet Literary and Cultural Studies
- International Association for Word and Music Studies (WMA)
- International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC)
- International PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies (IPP)
- International Society for Intermedial Studies (ISIS)
Academic CV
| since 04/2022 |
Research Assistant to Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ansgar Nünning Department of English, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen |
| 04/2024 - 12/2024 |
Exchange Semester and Research Stay (as Part of a Cotutelle Agreement, co-supervised by Dr. Hodkinson) School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick (England) |
| 09/2022 - 02/2024 |
Editorial Team Member [Issues 14-16] |
| 08/2020 - 03/2022 |
Student Assistant SFB/TRR 138 Dynamics of Security. Forms of Securitization from a Historical Perspective; Subproject A01 — Securitisation by Holding Hostages in the Early Modern Period. |
| 10/2019 - 04/2020 |
Teaching Assistant to Prof. Dr. Carla Damiano World Languages Department, Eastern Michigan University (USA) |
| 09/2019 – 12/2019 |
B.A. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Study Abroad Semester without Degree) Eastern Michigan University (USA) |
| 10/2017 - 04/2023 |
Erste Staatsprüfung für das Lehramt an Hauptschulen und Realschulen (English and History) Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Hessische Lehrkräfteakademie |
| 10/2016 – 12/2021 |
Erste Staatsprüfung für das Lehramt an Gymnasien (English and Philosophy) Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Hessische Lehrkräfteakademie |
Papers and Talks (ORCiD: 0000-0001-7171-915X)
- 01/2025: "Telling My Life in Pictures - An Introduction to Graphic Memoirs." IPP Workshop Series. International PhD Programme "Literary and Cultural Studies" (IPP), 30 January 2025.
- 10/2024: "Workshopping the Canon - Reading Fiction across the Curriculum." A Reading Crisis? The Challenges and Affordances of Reading Generally and Reading Fiction Specifically. PhDnet "Literary and Cultural Studies", Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen & The Department of Slavic and Baltic Studies, Finnish, Dutch and German, and the Department of English, Stockholm University, 10 - 11 October 2024.
- 06/2024: "'Everything We Need' - Changing Perspectives on the Formation of the Good Life in the Music of A Day To Remember." Forms of the Good Life in a Global Context: Hegemonic Cultural Models, Literary Form, and Counter-Narrative. Research Centre for the Study of Culture (RCSC), 12 - 13 June 2024.
- 05/2024: "From Great Rock and Roll Pauses to The Bricks that Built the Houses - Musicalization in 21st Century Fiction." Guest session in Specialized Topics in Cultural Studies: The Musicalization of Poetry? Investigating the Intersections of Early Modern Sonnets and Music. University of Graz, 15 May 2024.
- 07/2023: "'Own Your UnconsciousTM' - Literary Lessons on the Abandonment of Privacy and the Future of Autonomy." FUTURE/FUTURES. The Lisbon Consortium, 03 - 08 July 2023.
- 06/2023: "'When I Wake Up I have Music in My Head' – Repetition and Variation in John Darnielle's Master of Reality (2008)." Repetition/Variation in Literature and Music. International Association for Word and Music Studies (WMA), 28 June - 01 July 2023.
- 12/2022: with Juan Camilo Brigard, Pinar Gümüş Mantu, Isabella Kalte, Jens Kugele, Margarita Pavlova, Robin Schmieder, and Eva Zimmermann: "Editorial: Codes: Power and Subversion." In: On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture 14 (2022).
- 05/2022: "You're Not Hardcore Unless You Live Hardcore [Review of: Winkler, Robert A.: Generation Reagan Youth: Representing and Resisting White Neoliberal Forms of Life in the U.S. Hardcore Punk Scene (1979-1999). Trier: WVT, 2021.]." In: KULT_online 65 (2022).
- 12/2021: "Akademikerinnen in Oxbridge im 20. Jahrhundert – Femmes universitaires à Oxford et Cambridge au XXe siècle." Genre, Milieux, Savoirs et Écrits Académiques. Université de Strasbourg, 09 - 10 December 2021.
- 01/2021: with Lena Frewer, Julia Carolin Hinze, and Filip Emanuel Schuffert: "Juristen als Experten: Eine Untersuchung der Wissensbestände und Diskurse der Juristen im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert." In: H-Soz-Kult, 26 January 2021.
Teaching
| Summer 2025 |
Listen Closely - Musico-Literary Intermediality in Contemporary English and American Fiction. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. |
| Winter 2024/25 |
Picture This! - Representations of Mental Health and the Search for Identity in Graphic Novels and Picture Books. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. |
| Summer 2024 |
All is Fair in Love and War - Narrating War, Love, and Friendship in American Lyrical and Musical Tradition. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. |
| Winter 2023/24 |
Introduction to English Studies. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. |
| Summer 2023 |
A Tramp Abroad - Exploring National Literature, Humor, and Tragedy in Mark Twain's Work. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. |
| Winter 2022/23 |
Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. |
| Summer 2022 |
All Men are Created Equal – Narrating Racial (In)Equality Through Contemporary African American Music, Literature, and TV Series. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. |
Supervised Theses
- Between My Community and Me. The Effects of Internal Conflicts and External Influences on Identity Formation in Angie Thomas' Young Adult Novels. (WHA, Summer 2025)
- The Representation of Beauty and the Role of African American Women in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970). (BA, Summer 2024)
- The Hill We Climb. The Representation of African American Feminism in the Poetry of Maya Angelou and Amanda Gorman. (BA, Winter 2023/2024)
- Poetry as Means of Socio-Political Participation. African American Rhetoric in the Poetry of Langston Hughes (1921-1936). (BA, Summer 2023)