Annalina Benner

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About me: Annalina Benner is a PhD candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), International PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies (IPP), and European PhDnet Literary and Cultural Studies at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen. For her dissertation project, she researches modes of representing contemporary music in anglophone fiction as part of a cotutelle agreement under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ansgar Nünning at Justus-Liebig-University (Germany) and A/Prof. Dr. James Hodkinson at the University of Warwick (England). Her research interests further include African American literature and culture, graphic memoirs, and life writing.

Dissertation Working Title: Modes of Representing Contemporary Music in Anglophone Fiction. Musical Thematization, Imitation, and Incorporation.

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ansgar Nünning (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), A/Prof. Dr. James Hodkinson (University of Warwick)

ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7171-915X

Contact: Annalina.Benner

Publications

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).
"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).
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.

Conference Contributions, Summer School Presentations, and Workshops

"'All Gave Some, Some Gave All'. Affordances and Constraints in the Representation of American Soldier Narratives in Post-9/11 Music." Why Narratives Matter: Affordances and Constraints of Storytelling. PhDnet "Literary and Cultural Studies", 09 October 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.
"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.
"'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.
"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.
"'Own Your Unconscious^TM' - Literary Lessons on the Abandonment of Privacy and the Future of Autonomy." FUTURE/FUTURES. The Lisbon Consortium, 03 - 08 July 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.
"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.

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)

Research Interests

African American Literature and Culture
Graphic Memoirs
Life Writing
Musico-Literary Intermediality

Teaching

Winter 2025/26

Of History and Hope - Poetry as Means of Socio-Political Participation and Cultural Critique.