Critical pop culture studies

In the context of critical pop culture studies, the various artefacts of contemporary and mostly medialized pop culture are understood as complex cultural phenomena. In order to do justice to these phenomena and to better understand the present, an intensive examination of concrete artifacts (literature, films, TV series, computer games, pop music, etc.) is required, as well as a majority of specialist perspectives and methodological approaches, as they are present in Department 02. The concept is thus based on three central research-related ideas: qualitative research, multidisciplinarity and multiperspectivity. The aim is to combine a precise analytical focus on individual pop culture artifacts with the added value of cooperative, cross-method and cross-disciplinary research.

The individual, partly interlinked and interdisciplinary projects have been developed in the context of the GeKKo Research Training Group and are the responsibility of the doctoral candidates as well as other doctoral students and postdocs. The projects have so far resulted in several project seminars, lecture series, anthologies and a scientific conference. The projects therefore not only contribute to the profile of the department, but also to the further qualification of the researchers involved.

Projects of the focus area

- Department-wide courses, including the seminar series "Linguistics & Philosophy VS Pop Culture", winter semester 2015/16, summer semester 2016, summer semester 2017, which won the University of Kassel's teaching innovation award, as well as "Multiplayer Mentors. Video games meet science communication", winter semester 2022/23.

- Interdisciplinary specialist publications

- Multi-year, interdisciplinary lecture series "Gender & Genre", winter semester 2014/15, winter semester 2015/16, winter semester 2017/18.

- Interdisciplinary lecture series "Verspielte Realität. Interdisciplinary approaches to video games", summer semester 2019.

- Interdisciplinary lecture series "Multiplayer Mentors. Specialist science meets games", winter semester 2022/23.

- International, interdisciplinary symposium"Didactics - Games - Science", Sep. 17-18 Kassel 2021.

Participants:

Dr. Tamara Bodden
Dr. Felix Böhm
Dr. Martin Böhnert
Fabian Mehmel
Dr. Paul Reszke