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Dr. Deborah de Muijnck

Debora de Muijnck.jpg
Debora de Muijnck.jpg
About me

 

Dr. Deborah de Muijnck is a scholar of anglophone Literature, Narratology and the academic coordinator of internationalisation at the GCSC.

From 2019 - 2023 she was a (post-)doctoral research assistant at the Institute of English Literature at RWTH Aachen University, where she completed her dissertation in 2022.

Her teaching portfolio covers the entire field from early modern literature to contemporary literature, including English-language world literature such as Aboriginal and Maori storytelling,
across various BA and MA degree programmes in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Since spring 2019, she has taught BA and MA seminars, workshops, master classes, and lectures at multiple renowned institutions in Europe, including the Department of English and American Literature at RWTH Aachen University (Germany), Karl-Franzens University Graz’ Institute for English Literature and Cultural Studies (Austria), the Department of English at Justus-Liebig University Giessen (Germany), Bergamo University’s Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures (Italy), the University of Witten/Herdecke’s interdisciplinary Studium Fundamentale (Germany), the Institute of English and American Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany), and the University of Groningen’s winter school on Narrative and the Mind (Netherlands). In 2023, she was an affiliate at the Institute for World Literature, Harvard University and a visiting Research Fellow at Karl-Franzens' University's Centre for Cultural Studies in 2024. 
 

Her research interests are rooted in (cognitive) narratology, the medical humanities, literary history/transgressive literature, and in empirical ecocriticism. In her doctoral thesis, titled Cultural Models of Narrative Identity: The Case of Military Autobiographical Writing, she examines how British soldiers and veterans reconstruct their identities after war experiences through autobiographical storytelling. Other notable publications such as Pandemic Storytelling (Brill, 2025) address the reciprocal influence of pandemics and narrativity, the influence of non-normative life experiences on narrative (Poetics of Disturbances, Brill, 2024), and the reciprocal relationship between narrative, culture and identity (Routledge Companion, in print). Her second monograph (habilitation) examines literary scandal as a form of cultural transgression in Britain from the 18th to the 21st century. Together with Tero Vanhanen (Helsinki University) she is currently editing a special issue on Narratives of Scandal and Shock for the international, peer reviewed journal 'Frontiers of Narrative Studies' (De Gruyter). Dr. de Muijnck is also an investigator in the NextGenerationEU funded project Narratives for Ecological and Sustainable Transition (NEST). NEST unites postdoctoral researchers from diverse European universities and backgrounds to address the global challenges of climate change through the study of narratives capable of raising awareness, addressing ethical concerns, and offering alternatives to ecological crises in local communities. The project is funded by the European Union (NextGenerationEU) and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) - Fondo Promozionee Sviluppo throught the DM 737/2021*. The NESt group is currently also editing a special issue on Narratives for Ecological and Sustainable Transition for the international, peer reviewed journal 'Meteoritic'. 

In her role as academic coordinator, she conceptualizes, organizes and manages (inter)national research events such as conferences, summer schools and symposia, and coordinates the binational doctoral procedures at the Centre. She cooperates particularly closely with our partner universities Stockholm, Helsinki, Warwick, Graz, Bergamo, and the Cátolica in Lisbon, as well as with participating universities of the ESSCS. She leads the publication of network-related research results, acts as strategic support for the internationalization management, and teaches seminars in B.A./M.A. courses in Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies as well as doctoral courses in research and self-management. 

Dr. de Muijnck worked as an online editor in Cologne, Berlin, Dortmund, Munich, and Aachen, and traveled around the globe as an analog photographer and artist from 2015 until she settled in academia in 2019.

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7863-2011

 

Publications

Monographs:

  • Literary Scandals as Forms of Cultural Transgression: A Study of the Emergence, Functions, and Effects of Scandals in 19th – 21stCentury British Literature (in progress)
  • Post-War Storytelling: A Cognitive Narratological Approach toward the Reconstruction of Narrative Identity (in progress)
  • Thesis: Cultural Models of Narrative Identity: The Case of Military Autobiographical Writing. Aachen: RWTH Aachen Publications, 2022 (dissertation).

Edited Volumes:

  • With Elisabeth Waghall-Nivre, Joakim Wredhed, and Anna Klishevich. A Reading Crisis? The Challenges of Reading Generally and Reading Fiction Specifically (in progress)
  • Troubling Time(s): Questioning Prevailing Notions of Time in the Study of Literature and Culture. Trier: WVT (2025).
  • With Jan Alber and Jessica Jumpertz. Pandemic Storytelling. Leiden: Brill (2025).
  • With Ralf Schneider, Jessica Jumpertz, and Teresa Turnbull, eds. Poetics of Disturbances - Narratives of Non-Normative Minds and Bodies. Leiden: Brill (2024).

Articles in peer-reviewed edited volumes:

  • “Cultural Models of Narrative Identity as Salutogenic Sense-Making Strategies in Illness Narratives.” Cognition, Culture, Narrative.Eds. Ansgar Nünning, Vera Nünning. Berlin: De Gruyter (in press). 
  • “Salutogenesis and the Trope of the Dying Girl: Cognitive and Affective Strategies in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction.” New Conjunctures and Directions in Literary and Cultural Studies. Eds.  Ansgar Nünning, Magdalena Pfalzgraf, Anna Tabouratzidis. Tübingen: Narr 2024 (in press).
  • with Jan Alber and Jessica Jumpertz. “Introduction: What is Pandemic Storytelling?” Pandemic Storytelling. Eds. Jan Alber, Deborah de Muijnck, Jessica Jumpertz. Leiden, Brill (2025).
  • “The Transformative Power of Literature in Challenging Eras: Time, Trouble, and Hope for the Future.” Troubling Time(s): Questioning Prevailing Notions of Time in the Study of Literature and Culture. Ed. Deborah de Muijnck. Trier: WVT (2025).
  • with Ralf Schneider, Jessica Jumpertz, and Teresa Turnbull. ‘Introduction: Poetics of Disturbances.’ Poetics of Disturbances - Narratives of Non-Normative Minds and Bodies. Eds. Deborah de Muijnck, Ralf Schneider, Jessica Jumpertz, and Teresa Turnbull. Brill (2024).
  • with Francesca Wessing, Nalin Camur, and Linda Wetzel. ‘Plot’. Introduction to Cognitive Narratology. Eds. Jan Alber, Peter Wenzel, vol. 24, WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2021, pp. 119–42.
  • with Ralf Schneider. ‘Methods of Reception Theory and Cognitive Approaches - From Reception Aesthetics to Cognitive Poetics’. Methods of Textual Analysis in Literary Studies - Approaches, Basics, Model Interpretations. Eds. Vera Nünning and Ansgar Nünning, vol. 23, WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2020, pp. 251–72.

     

Articles in peer-reviewed journals:

  • ‘The Performative Nature of Literary Scandals: Cultural Transgression, Disgust, and the Case of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey’ (in progress).
  • “with Jan Alber. ‘Narrative Techniques of Neutralisation and the Scandalous Nature of Nabokov’s Lolita.’ Frontiers of Narrative Studies (12), (forthcoming).
  • with Stefano Rozzoni, Maria Jordet, Nikolai Skiveren, Nikoleta Zampaki. ‘Nesting as a Theoretical and Methodological Concept in Empirical Ecocriticism’. Metacritic (forthcoming).
  • with Stefano Rozzoni. ‘Temporal Landscapes and Nesting: The Transitional Potential of Contemporary Aboriginal Writing’. Metacritic (forthcoming).
  • ‘Narrative, Memory and PTSD. A Case Study of Autobiographical Narration After Trauma’. European Journal of Life Writing (11), Apr. 2022, pp. 75–95.
  • ‘When Breath Becomes Air: Constructing Stable Narrative Identity during Terminal Illness’. Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique (38), 2019, p. 44-69.

Edited special issues:

  • with Stefano Rozzoni, Maria Jordet, Nikolai Skiveren, Nikoleta Zampaki. Special Cluster Publication N.E.S.T.- Narratives for Environmental and Sustainable Transitions. Metacritic (forthcoming).
  • with Tero Vanhanen. Special Issue Narratives of Scandal and Shock: Transgression, Media, and Cultural Response. Frontiers of Narrative Studies (12) (forthcoming).

Articles in handbooks and encyclopedias:

  • ‘Narrative, Culture, and Identity’. Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies. Eds. Jan Alber and Ralf Schneider. Routledge (in press).
  • ‘Clarke, Susanna: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell / Piranesi’. Kindlers Literatur Lexikon (KLL). Ed. Heinz Ludwig Arnold, J.B. Metzler, 2023, pp. 1–2. 

  • ‘Clarke, Susanna’. Kindlers Literatur Lexikon (KLL). Ed. Heinz Ludwig Arnold, J.B. Metzler, 2023, pp. 1–1. 

Reviews:

  • de Muijnck, Deborah. Review ‘Lena Linne. 2019. Unlived Lives in English Literature: A Typological Study. Anglistische Forschungen 467. Heidelberg: Winter, 287 Pp., € 48.00/£ 43.00.’ Anglia, vol. 138, no. 4, Nov. 2020, pp. 730–33.

Memberships

International Society for the Study of Narrative

IGEL - International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature

Deutscher Anglistenverband

Research Interests

Literary Scandals in English Literature from the 18th - 21st Century, Cognitive Narratology, Ecocriticism, Medical Humanities, Contemporary Maori and Aboriginal Storytelling

Conference Presentations and Lectures as invited Guest Speaker (selected)

05/2025 “Hyperbolic Extensions and Affective Eruptions: A Comparative Reading of Fanny Hill, Pamela, and Shamela“. Invited Guest Speaker in Joakim Wretheds Seminar on Ongoing Work (Stockholm University)

04/2025: "Obsession, Delusion, and the Abuse of Power: Narrative Techniques of Neutralisation in Nabokov's Scandalous Lolita", Narrative 2025 Conference, Florida State University (Miami, USA), 02.04.2025

11/2024 “The Embodied Nature of Literary Scandals: Cultural Transgression, ‘Performative Disgust’, and the Case of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Britcult Conference, Innsbruck University (Austria), 23.11.2024

06/2024 “Literary Scandals as Culture Wars – ‘A Little Wilder’ and the Case of Dorian Gray”, Culture at War Summerschool, Cátolica University Lisbon (Portugal), 27.06.2024

04/2024 “The Embodied Nature of Literary Scandals: Cultural Transgression, ‘Performative Disgust’, and the Case of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Narrative2024 Conference, Newcastle University (United Kingdom), 18.04.2024

09/2023: “Cultural Models of Narrative Identity as Post-Trauma Sense-Making Strategies”. Deutscher Anglistiktag 2023 (Germany). Section: Narratives of Health and Illness, 25.09.2023

06/2023: Invited guest speaker to the Narrative Research Roundtable together with Prof. Sylvie Patron (Paris), Prof. Hanna Meretoja(Turku), Prof. Jan Alber (Gießen), Prof. Molly Andrews (London), Prof. Richard Walsh (York), Prof. John Pier (Tours/Paris), Prof. Mari Hatavara (Tampere). Narrative Matters Conference, Tampere (Finland), 15.06.2023

07/2023: 06/2023: “Cosmodernism and New World Literature: Conceptualizations of Home(-sickness), Moral Values, and Sense of Obligation in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Gravel Heart. New World Literature and Postcolonialism colloquium, Harvard University(USA), 19.07.2023

06/2023: “Cosmodernism and New World Literature: Conceptualizations of Home(-sickness), Moral Values, and Sense of Obligation in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Gravel Heart. Narrative Matters Conference, Tampere University (Finland), 16.06.2023

06/2022: “A Story of War and All That Follows - Time and Temporality in Post-Trauma Narratives”. Narrative2022 conference, University of Chichester, Chichester (United Kingdom), 29.06.2022

07/2021: “Narratives of Displacement - Altruistic Sense-Making through Autobiographical Storytelling in (Former) Refugees”. Conference of the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature (IGEL), University of Liverpool, Liverpool (United Kingdom), 23.06.2021

05/2021: “Cultural Models, Narrative Identity and Literary Genre - Narrating Life Through Culturally Conventionalized Plots”. Narrative2021 conference, Ohio State University (online), 27.05.2021

03/2021: “Cultural Models and Narrative Identity: The Case of Military, Autobiographical Writing”. Invited guest speaker at the Aston Literary Linguistics research seminar series, Aston University, Birmingham (United Kingdom, online). 03.03.2021

03/2020: “Autobiographical Storytelling: Constructing Relatively Stable Narrative Selfhood During Terminal Illness”. Narrative2020 conference, Mississippi State University, New Orleans (USA), 06.03.2020

10/2019: “Mission Narratives: Creating Purpose-Driven Narrative Identity through Autobiographical Storytelling after War-Experience”. Narratives of Displacement conference, St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford (United Kingdom), 26. October 2019

Organized Conferences, Lecture Series, Summer Schools, and Symposia (selected)

  • 02/2025 Cátolica University Lisbon (Portugal): Conception, co-organisation, and co-coordination of the 5th PhDnet Doctoral Symposium, together with Prof. Peter Hanenberg (UCP), Dr. Ana Margarida Abrantes (UCP) and Dr. Diana Goncalves (UCP). Keynote speakers: Prof. Isabel Gil (UCP), Prof. Vera Nünning (Heidelberg University). 12.-14.02.2025

  • 10/2024 Stockholm University (Sweden): Co-conception and co-organisation of the conference ‘A Reading Crisis? The Challenges and Affordances of Reading Fiction’, together with Prof. Elisabeth Waghall-Nivre (SU) and Prof. Joakim Wrethed (SU), 10.-11.20.2024. 

    Keynote speaker: Prof. Merja Polinen (Helsinki University). 10/2024

  • 05/2024 Karl-Franzens University Graz (Austria): Conception, co-organisation, and co-coordination of the Symposium ‘Emerging Concepts in the Study of Culture’, together with Prof. Christine Schwanecke (KFU) and Dr. Angela Gencarelli (KFU). 09-11.05.2024

  • 02/2024 University of Bergamo (Italy): Conception, co-organisation, and co-coordination of the 3rd PhDnet Doctoral Symposium, together with prof. Raul Calzoni (BU), and Dr. Alessandra Goggio (BU). Guest speaker: Prof. emer. Angela Locatelli (University of Bergamo). 08.-10.02.2024
  • 11/2023 Justus-Liebig University Giessen (Germany): Conception, co-organisation, and co-coordination of the conference Literary Scandals as Forms of Cultural Transgression, with Prof. Jan Alber (JLU Giessen). Keynote speaker: Prof. Stephan Karschay (FU Berlin). 09.-10.11.2023
  • 09/2023 Warwick University (UK): Conception, co-organisation, and co-coordination of the 2nd PhDnet Doctoral Symposium, together with prof. Elisabeth Herrmann (WU) and Dr. James Hodkinson (WU). Guest speaker: Prof Fabio Camilletti. 20.-22.09.2023
  • 06/2023 Justus-Liebig University Giessen (Germany): Organisation and coordination of the European Summer School in Cultural Studies (ESSCS) in cooperation with the TransHumanities network (University of Bern). Topic: ‘Bouncing Forward: Future Narratives, Scenarios, and Transformations in the Study of Culture’.

    Keynote Speakers: Ansgar Nünning (JLU Giessen); Ursula Heise (UCLA, online), Jörg Metelmann (University of St. Gallen), Susie O'Brien (McMaster University). 19.-23.06.2023

  • 05/2023 University of Helsinki (Finland): Conception, organisation, and coordination of the 1st PhDnet Doctoral Symposium, together with Prof. Riikka Rossi (UH) and Prof. Heta Pyrhonen (UH). Guest speakers: Jan Rupp (JLU Giessen), Anna Ovaska(University of Tampere), Natalya Bekhta (University of Tampere). 24.-26.05.2024

  • 01/2023 Justus-Liebig University Giessen (Germany): Organisation and coordination of the PhDnet Induction Week, 24.-27.01.2023

  • 04/2021 RWTH Aachen University (Germany): Conception, organisation, and coordination of the conference ‘Narratives of Body and Mind’. Keynote Speakers: Leanne Dodd (School of Education and the Arts, Central Queensland University), Lieven Ameel(Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere). 08.-09.04.2021

  • 11/2020 - 04/2021 RWTH Aachen University (Germany): Conception, organisation, and management of the international online-event series Pandemic Storytelling. Guest speakers: Erica Charters (Oxford University), Rita Charon (Columbia University), Elena Semino (Lancaster University), Jarmila Mildorf (Paderborn University), Stefan Iversen (Aarhus University), Molly Andrews (University of East London), Christoph Ernst (University of Bonn), Jens Schröter (University of Bonn), Ansgar Nünning (Justus Liebig University Giessen), Vera Nünning (University of Heidelberg), Jim Phelan (Ohio State University), Marina Grishakova (University of Tartu), Anneke Sools (University of Twente).

  • 10/2020 RWTH Aachen University (Germany): Co-conception, organisation, and coordination of the Workshop “The Study of Literature, Reading, and Cognition: Interdisciplinary Concepts, Methods, and Terminologies.” Participants: Alice Bell (Sheffield Hallam University), Alexander Bergs (Osnabrück University), Marisa Bortolussi (University of Alberta), Jens Brockmeier (The American University of Paris), Marco Caracciolo (Ghent University), Barbara Dancygier (University of British Columbia), Peter Dixon (University of Alberta), Richard Gerrig (Stony Brook University), Marcello Giovanelli (Aston University), Melanie Green (University at Buffalo), Chloe Harrison (Aston University), Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo), Moniek Kuijpers (University of Basel), Brian Schiff (The American University of Paris), Paul Sopčák (MacEwan University), Peter Stockwell (University of Nottingham), Lieven Vandelanotte (University of Namur). 05.-06.10.2020