- Ruhr University, Bochum, American Studies, Adjunctadd
- Cultural Studies, Cultural Theory, Media Studies, Film Studies, Popular Culture, Cultural Geography, and 14 morePostmodernism, Space and Place, American Culture, Hip-Hop/Rap, Hip-Hop Studies, Theory of Space, American Visual Culture, Contested Spaces (Sociology), New York Downtown Writing, Cities, New York, Ambulating, Bronx, and Urban cultural studiesedit
- http://englisch.tu-dortmund.de/cms/de/100_IAA/140_Personen/142_mitarbeiter/Nitzsche.htmledit
In the early years of the Cold War, Western nations increasingly adopted strategies of public diplomacy involving popular music. While the diplomatic use of popular music was initially limited to such genres as jazz, the second half of... more
In the early years of the Cold War, Western nations increasingly adopted strategies of public diplomacy involving popular music. While the diplomatic use of popular music was initially limited to such genres as jazz, the second half of the 20th century saw a growing presence of various popular genres in diplomatic contexts, including rock, pop, bluegrass, flamenco, funk, disco, and hip-hop, among others.
This volume illuminates the interrelation of popular music and public diplomacy from a transnational and transdisciplinary angle. The contributions argue that, as popular music has been a crucial factor in international relations, its diplomatic use has substantially impacted the global musical landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries.
This volume illuminates the interrelation of popular music and public diplomacy from a transnational and transdisciplinary angle. The contributions argue that, as popular music has been a crucial factor in international relations, its diplomatic use has substantially impacted the global musical landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Research Interests:
At the beginning of the 21st century, comics are a medium ‘on the rise’ in scholarship and in schools. This collection of essays, which emerged from a graduate student conference at TU Dortmund University, demonstrates their immense... more
At the beginning of the 21st century, comics are a medium ‘on the rise’ in scholarship and in schools. This collection of essays, which emerged from a graduate student conference at TU Dortmund University, demonstrates their immense medial, artistic, and cultural potential. Authors from different academic perspectives - Applied Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Narratology, and Postcolonial Studies - take readers on an engaging trip through the world of contemporary comic books ranging from widely popular series to exclusive avant-garde auteur works.
Research Interests:
"Hip-Hop in Europe: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows is the first collection of essays to take a pan-European perspective in the study of hip-hop. How has it traveled to Europe? How has it developed in the various cultural... more
"Hip-Hop in Europe: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows is the first collection of essays to take a pan-European perspective in the study of hip-hop. How has it traveled to Europe? How has it developed in the various cultural contexts? How do its constituent elements – graffiti, DJing, MCing and b-boying – enter into dialogue with each other across borders?
Hip-Hop in Europe expands the current research on this fascinating art form by interpreting it as a complex phenomenon marked by a multitude of transnational and transcultural interactions between neighboring cultures, local traditions, and references to the American cultures of origin.
The 21 authors and artists provide a comprehensive overview of hip-hop cultures in Europe from the fringes to the centers. They address hip-hop in a variety of contexts such as class, ethnicity, gender, history, pedagogy, performance, war, as well as Communism and its aftermath.
Hip-Hop in Europe is essential reading for anyone interested in studying, teaching, and learning about European hip-hop cultures as well as about hip-hop in a transatlantic context."
Hip-Hop in Europe expands the current research on this fascinating art form by interpreting it as a complex phenomenon marked by a multitude of transnational and transcultural interactions between neighboring cultures, local traditions, and references to the American cultures of origin.
The 21 authors and artists provide a comprehensive overview of hip-hop cultures in Europe from the fringes to the centers. They address hip-hop in a variety of contexts such as class, ethnicity, gender, history, pedagogy, performance, war, as well as Communism and its aftermath.
Hip-Hop in Europe is essential reading for anyone interested in studying, teaching, and learning about European hip-hop cultures as well as about hip-hop in a transatlantic context."
Research Interests:
Sister Souljah is arguably one of the most important female “raptivists” in the United States. Published in 1994, her autobiography No Disrespect narrates the artist’s rise from poverty to become one of the most prolific writers,... more
Sister Souljah is arguably one of the most important female “raptivists” in the United States. Published in 1994, her autobiography No Disrespect narrates the artist’s rise from poverty to become one of the most prolific writers, educators and activists in the 1990s. Yet critics tend to overlook the autobiography’s strong emphasis on activism, especially how it is embedded in larger Afro-diasporic female literary traditions. No Disrespect re-writes earlier traditions of black women’s writing, visual culture and social activism in order to educate a younger generation on the ongoing need to promote racial justice. The autobiography is located in the larger context of what Paul Gilroy has called the Black Atlantic by situating it not only in American, but also in African cultural traditions.
I join Reiland Rabaka and others in moving forward the field of hip hop studies by establishing more cultural, literary and visual continuities between late twentieth-century hip hop culture and earlier literary forms of Afro-diasporic expression, such as poetry and autobiography. In tracing Sister Souljah’s oeuvre to the beginnings of African American women’s literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is the aim of the article to contribute a new perspective to the origins of hip hop culture and activism beyond the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
I join Reiland Rabaka and others in moving forward the field of hip hop studies by establishing more cultural, literary and visual continuities between late twentieth-century hip hop culture and earlier literary forms of Afro-diasporic expression, such as poetry and autobiography. In tracing Sister Souljah’s oeuvre to the beginnings of African American women’s literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is the aim of the article to contribute a new perspective to the origins of hip hop culture and activism beyond the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Research Interests:
The street or the “hood” are typically regarded as heteronormative and hypermasculine urban spaces where chauvinist drug lords reign and pimps showcase their misogynistic swagger. In recent years, however, a new kind of fiction emerged... more
The street or the “hood” are typically regarded as heteronormative and hypermasculine urban spaces where chauvinist drug lords reign and pimps showcase their misogynistic swagger. In recent years, however, a new kind of fiction emerged which challenges those spatialized imaginations by situating queer narratives in the "hood." Charles Rice-Gonzáles’ gay romance Chulito (2011), for instance, locates a coming-out story between the Puerto Rican teenagers Chulito and his love interest Carlos in the Hunts Point neighborhood of The Bronx. My paper argues that the novel Chulito re-imagines The Bronx as a queer space which allows its male protagonists to discover and navigate their sexual identities within a larger framework of the heteronormative space of the "hood."
Research Interests:
Popular music constitutes an important mode of public expression which can stimulate not only a change in the public image of place but also wider social and cultural communities in shrinking cities. Focusing on the internationally... more
Popular music constitutes an important mode of public expression which can stimulate not only a
change in the public image of place but also wider social and cultural communities in shrinking cities.
Focusing on the internationally successful indie-rap band Kraftklub from the Eastern German city of
Chemnitz, we analyse how they visually, rhetorically and musically address shrinkage and the GDR
as a critical comment on municipal memory and identity politis. Contextualizing Kraftklub’s oeuvre
with the official city marketing campaign, we show that popular music scenes help establish a new,
inclusive and confident post-industrial identity as well as contribute to a more positive urban image.
The article can be downloaded at the journal's website (see link).
change in the public image of place but also wider social and cultural communities in shrinking cities.
Focusing on the internationally successful indie-rap band Kraftklub from the Eastern German city of
Chemnitz, we analyse how they visually, rhetorically and musically address shrinkage and the GDR
as a critical comment on municipal memory and identity politis. Contextualizing Kraftklub’s oeuvre
with the official city marketing campaign, we show that popular music scenes help establish a new,
inclusive and confident post-industrial identity as well as contribute to a more positive urban image.
The article can be downloaded at the journal's website (see link).
Research Interests:
Introduction to the edited volume Breaking the Panel! Comics as a Medium.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Emceeing. DJing. Breaking. Graffiti. Hip-hop is commonly understood to consist of these four elements. The idea of four elements is one of hip-hop culture’s core narrative and most pervasive founding myth since its beginnings in the... more
Emceeing. DJing. Breaking. Graffiti. Hip-hop is commonly understood
to consist of these four elements. The idea of four elements is one of
hip-hop culture’s core narrative and most pervasive founding myth
since its beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s. Yet, the idea of four
core elements has been highly contested since the beginning of the
culture as there is no unified definition of how many elements exist,
who defined them, and how they came together.
The second meeting of the European HipHop Studies Network
therefore explores one of hip-hop’s most central ideas, the ideas of
elements: Who defines them? What do they tell us about cultural,
social, and economic communities and boundaries across Europe?
How do these limits vary according to various contexts and practices
across Europe? What are their consequences for cultural production
and consumption? The objective of the meeting is to trace,
interrogate, and expand the notion of elements as central organizing
principles in hip-hop culture and their variations across Europe.
We invite papers, panels, performances, and contributions
from a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and angles.
Scholarly disciplines include but are not limited to art history,
cultural studies, black studies, ethnography, geography, graffiti
studies, literary studies, musicology, pedagogy, performance studies,
philosophy, political science, sociology, and visual culture studies.
Artistic contributions include performances, themed panels of any
format, lecture-recitals, and philosophies which combine research
and praxis (or practice-as-research).
Artistic and scholarly proposals engaging with European hiphop’s
elements (those based both in Europe and outside of it)
should include a title, 250 word abstract of their contribution
and short biographical sketch. This should be submitted to
hiphopnetworkeurope@gmail.com no later than 31 January 2019.
We especially welcome papers that engage with less-academically visible work, and from artists and practitioners from a wider
variety of backgrounds. We hope to see you in Bristol!
to consist of these four elements. The idea of four elements is one of
hip-hop culture’s core narrative and most pervasive founding myth
since its beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s. Yet, the idea of four
core elements has been highly contested since the beginning of the
culture as there is no unified definition of how many elements exist,
who defined them, and how they came together.
The second meeting of the European HipHop Studies Network
therefore explores one of hip-hop’s most central ideas, the ideas of
elements: Who defines them? What do they tell us about cultural,
social, and economic communities and boundaries across Europe?
How do these limits vary according to various contexts and practices
across Europe? What are their consequences for cultural production
and consumption? The objective of the meeting is to trace,
interrogate, and expand the notion of elements as central organizing
principles in hip-hop culture and their variations across Europe.
We invite papers, panels, performances, and contributions
from a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and angles.
Scholarly disciplines include but are not limited to art history,
cultural studies, black studies, ethnography, geography, graffiti
studies, literary studies, musicology, pedagogy, performance studies,
philosophy, political science, sociology, and visual culture studies.
Artistic contributions include performances, themed panels of any
format, lecture-recitals, and philosophies which combine research
and praxis (or practice-as-research).
Artistic and scholarly proposals engaging with European hiphop’s
elements (those based both in Europe and outside of it)
should include a title, 250 word abstract of their contribution
and short biographical sketch. This should be submitted to
hiphopnetworkeurope@gmail.com no later than 31 January 2019.
We especially welcome papers that engage with less-academically visible work, and from artists and practitioners from a wider
variety of backgrounds. We hope to see you in Bristol!
Research Interests:
Urban decline is conventionally framed as a devastating process both for the physical fabric as well as for the social structure of urban communities. Particularly in mass media and popular culture, the common representation of declining... more
Urban decline is conventionally framed as a devastating process both for the physical fabric as well as for the social structure of urban communities. Particularly in mass media and popular culture, the common representation of declining urban spaces is dominated by images of physical decay and destitute people as well as narratives of social failure, lack of morality, and crime. These spaces and communities are thus presented as having little to nothing to offer with respect to educational achievement, creative expressivity and intellectual development. Indeed, at the same time as some cities, such as San Francisco and Portland, have become celebrated icons of growth, creative energy and hip intellectualism, others, including Detroit and Newark, seem to have become mired in their image as examples of economic decline, social destitution, and educational apathy. They thus appear to be what social critic Chris Hedges has called " sacrifice zones, " economically exploited, politically abandoned, and socially marginalized areas without hope. Whereas Hedges' critical term implicates structural forces of e.g. neoliberal politics and institutionalized racism in these cities' decline, dominant cultural representations of e.g. the South Bronx of the 1970s and 1980s or contemporary Detroit in photography, film, and TV not only focus on dereliction, decay, and crime, but also tend to lay much of the blame for the decay on the moral, educational, and motivational shortcomings of the people living in these areas, often racial and ethnic minorities. These cultural texts thereby perpetuate the stigmatizing representation by what urban critic Robert Beauregard has called the hegemonic " voices of decline " and fail to acknowledge that declining urban spaces oftentimes open up new opportunities to rethink existing norms, dominant values, and, most importantly, conventional pedagogies.
This panel provides a new take on urban decline by interrogating and elevating the roles and possibilities of education and pedagogy in those spaces. It seeks to uncover popular cultural strategies and educational/pedagogical practices of dissent and resistance to dominant narratives of moral decay and physical decline of places such as Detroit or The Bronx. Looking at particularly visual material and cultural practices, the proposed panel examines the alternative voices and transformative spatial practices emerging from urban decline contexts as forms of discursive resistance that create new physical and imagined spaces in which teaching and learning can happen outside of established institutions. By engaging in an aesthetic of dissent, popular cultural texts and practices are providing possibilities of a subversive and critical reaction to dominant representations of marginalized urban spaces. They thereby engage in a transformative pedagogy that strives to educate and empower disenfranchised local and national communities. These dissenting voices thus challenge and undermine not only notions of apparently morally failing and economically hopeless cities that may be sacrificed but also issue a powerful critique of one-sided hegemonic representations of urban space in general.
Please send your abstract (500 words) and a short biography (350 words), to Eric Erbacher and Sina Nitzsche by 31 May 2017. We look forward to receiving your contributions.
This panel provides a new take on urban decline by interrogating and elevating the roles and possibilities of education and pedagogy in those spaces. It seeks to uncover popular cultural strategies and educational/pedagogical practices of dissent and resistance to dominant narratives of moral decay and physical decline of places such as Detroit or The Bronx. Looking at particularly visual material and cultural practices, the proposed panel examines the alternative voices and transformative spatial practices emerging from urban decline contexts as forms of discursive resistance that create new physical and imagined spaces in which teaching and learning can happen outside of established institutions. By engaging in an aesthetic of dissent, popular cultural texts and practices are providing possibilities of a subversive and critical reaction to dominant representations of marginalized urban spaces. They thereby engage in a transformative pedagogy that strives to educate and empower disenfranchised local and national communities. These dissenting voices thus challenge and undermine not only notions of apparently morally failing and economically hopeless cities that may be sacrificed but also issue a powerful critique of one-sided hegemonic representations of urban space in general.
Please send your abstract (500 words) and a short biography (350 words), to Eric Erbacher and Sina Nitzsche by 31 May 2017. We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Research Interests:
TU Dortmund
6-8 November 2015
Deadline for Submissions: 1 April 2015
6-8 November 2015
Deadline for Submissions: 1 April 2015