Dr. Annika Rink

Annika Rink is a research assistant to Prof. Dr. Jan-Henrik Witthaus and is doing her doctorate in Hispanic literature and cultural studies after studying to become a teacher of Spanish and music. She also publishes for a musicological audience. Her research interests include authenticity and identity in (protest) music and folklore from a decolonialist perspective and culture in dictatorships of the Cono Sur. Her doctoral thesis, defended in September 2024, is entitled "Strategic Authenticities: Of Liberation and Essentialisms of the Nueva Canción Latinoamericana". She is also interested in the relationship between nature, culture, sustainability and decolonization, for example in the context of the Ecuadorian "Buen Vivir" ("Good Life") and in indigenous liberation discourses.

In the winter semester 2024/25 she is a fellow at CALAS as part of the "Tándem transnacional". Together with Javier Rodríguez Aedo, she is researching in the project "Luchas emancipadoras en prácticas folklóricas: Transferencias epistemológicas y circulaciones musicales entre Alemania, Argentina y Chile (siglo XX)".

She is a member of the Interdisciplinary Working Group Climate Thinking at the University of Kassel, which deals with storytelling, speaking and thinking about the climate crisis from a humanities and cultural studies perspective.

From 2021 to 2022, she also worked in Prof. Dr. Angela Schrott's team and gave seminars on linguistic discourse analysis in her subject area.

2025 Böhnert, Martin, Hornisch, Maria and Rink, Annika (eds.) Apokalypse und Apathie: Handlungs(un)fähigkeiten in der Klimakrise, transcript Verlag.

2024. co-editor of the series "climates - cultures - contexts" at transcript (Bielefeld)

2023. "Liberación latinoamericanista a pesar de la 'auténtica' música de los pueblos", in print, Guadalajara, CALAS.

2022. "Auténticos antiimperialismos - La Nueva Canción Latinoamericana en la República Democrática Alemana", available online at: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/CMIB/article/view/78847/4564456562047.

2022. "Atahualpa Yupanqui en la búsqueda de lo auténtico argentino - La (re-)construcción de indigeneidad y canción testimonial", available online at: https://atem-journal.com/index.php/ATeM/article/view/4076/3298.

2022. postcolonial narratology - an attempt at a summary. in: Böhm, Felix; Böhnert, Martin; Reszke, Paul (eds.): Climate Thinking - A Living Handbook. Kassel: University of Kassel. URL=https://wiki.climate-thinking.de/index.php?title=PostkolonialeNarratologie - Der Versuch einer Zusammenfassung, last accessed on 07.10.2022.

2022. constitution of Ecuador. In: Böhm, Felix; Böhnert, Martin; Reszke, Paul (eds.): Climate Thinking - A Living Handbook. Kassel: University of Kassel. URL=https://wiki.climate-thinking.de/index.php?title=VerfassungEcuadors, last accessed on 07.10.2022.

2022 Buen Vivir - The "Good Life" in Ecuador. In: Böhm, Felix; Böhnert, Martin; Reszke, Paul (eds.): Climate Thinking - A Living Handbook. Kassel: University of Kassel. URL=https://wiki.climate-thinking.de/index.php?title=BuenVivir - The "Good Life" in Ecuador, last accessed on 07.10.2022.

2024 Panel with João Romão "Collecting Latin Americanism: Transnational Perspectives on Music and Sound Archives" at the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, Cologne

2024 Lecture "Cantos tristes de esperanzas: La Nueva Canción del Cono Sur y sus proyecciones esencialistas hacia lo rural" at the Encuentro Latinoamericano of the University of Kassel

2024 Lecture "El Buen Vivir, the good life - indigenous cosmology and decolonial adaptations for dealing with the climate crisis" in the lecture series of Students for Future Kassel

2023 Lecture "Mitos de autenticidad en la Nueva Canción Latinoamericana. Sobre sus potenciales esencialismos estratégicos" at the IV Congreso MUSAM/SEdeM, Oviedo, Spain

2023 Lecture " "Break what breaks you!". Musical (Self-)Stagings of the "Climate-RAF"" at the 8th KWG Annual Conference "Popular Cultures" at Saarland University, section panel on "Activism and Popular Climate Cultures" (Chair: Simon Probst and Gabriele Dürbeck)

2023 Lecture with Lucía Patiño Mayer (UNSAM/UNLA) "Sentidos de autenticidad en la transnacionalización del folklore argentino (1965-1967)" at the Colloque internacional "Musique, politiques culturelles et identités", EHESS Paris, France

2023 Participation in the international summer school "Historias de Resistencia: Recordar y archivar conflictos políticos y medioambientales" Bogotá, Colombia

2023 Lecture "Expectations, inventions, experiences Strategic myths of authenticity?" at the Gekko colloquium, Hofgeismar

2023 Lecture "El neo-extractivismo esencialista en la música 'auténtica' de los pueblos. Por qué la Nueva Canción Latinoamericana no podía transformar" at the German Hispanist Conference Graz

2022 Lecture at the "Campus Walk Sustainability" at the Campus Fest of the University of Kassel

2022 Lecture "Climate Thinking - Talking about Climate Change" in the academic program of the Campus Fest of the University of Kassel

2022 Poster presentation "Sustainoble Savages in Argentine Folklore - Atahualpa Yupanqui and the SDGs" at the conference "Challenges of Sustainability" at the University of Kassel

2022 Lecture at the Georg Forster Colloquium "Upwind, Alterity and Exploitation. Protoextractivism with Columbus", University of Kassel

2022 Panel "El "extractivismo" en la "historia natural" colonial"" with Prof. Dr. Jan-Henrik Witthaus at the Escuela de Verano, "El malestar en el extractivismo: movimientos artísticos y de contra cultura", Kassel

2022 Short lecture and moderation at "Sustainable Thinking - Thinking Sustainable: Stories of the Past, Thoughts about the Present, Languages for the Future" at the conference "Challenges of Sustainability" at the University of Kassel

2022 "Liberación latinoamericanista a pesar de la 'auténtica' música de los pueblos" at the Congreso de Jóvenes CALAS "Latinoamérica en discusión", Guadalajara (Mexico).

2021 Lecture at the colloquium Gekko, Hofgeismar

2024 Summer semester: "Apocalypse and apathy. Climate Discourses in South America" as a cooperative seminar with Martin Böhnert's philosophy seminar and with the authors of the anthology

2023/24 winter semester: "Carmen in Kassel: Racism and Labor Struggle in Spain" in cooperation with the Staatstheater Kassel

2022/23 winter semester: Hispanic literature and cultural studies proseminar "From protest to terrorism in Argentina's last military dictatorship, " colloquium on academic work in Romance studies (financed by third-party funds), organization of the lecture series "Apocalypse and Apathy - Handlungs(un)fähigkeit im Kontext des Klimawandels" of the IAG Climate Thinking

2022 summer semester: Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies proseminar "Buen Vivir as a utopia of sustainability and postcolonialism [teaching focus Climate Thinking]" Excursion to Ecuador, Spanish linguistics Proseminar "Lo latinoamericano im Kulturdiskurs. Comparative analyses from Mexico to Argentina.", proseminar "Spanish", colloquium for Romance studies theses (financed by third-party funds)

2021/22 winter semester: Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies proseminar "Buen Vivir and Literature [teaching focus Climate Thinking]", Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies proseminar "Carmen in Kassel: Femme fatale and folkloric representation of the Sinti and Roma" and Spanish Linguistics proseminar "Latin American Music and Strategic Essentialism in the GDR - discourse-linguistic analyses of artists, states and censorship"

2021 Summer semester: Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies Proseminar "Protest media in the dictatorships of the Cono Sur"

2020/21 winter semester: Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies Proseminar "Political identity formation in Mariana Dimópulo's "Quemar el cielo""

2020 Summer semester: Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies Proseminar "Identity construction in Icaza's "Huasipungo" in the mirror of postcolonial theories"

2019/20 winter semester: Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies Proseminar "Indigenismo: Concepts for post-extractivist forms of life in South American literature"

IAG Climate Thinking

2024 Education coach for Department 02 of the University of Kassel (€16,000 from QSL funds)

2023 Further training as an education coach

2023 Representative for degree program marketing

2022 Excursion to Ecuador with the literary seminar "Buen Vivir as a utopia of sustainability and postcolonialism [teaching focus on climate thinking]"

2022 Acquisition of third-party funding (€28,000 from QSL funds) for the "Booster Romance Studies" project (together with Valentina Roether)

2022 Reaccreditation working group for the "Culture and Business French/Hispanic Studies" degree program (evaluations, structure and editorial activities)

2021 Excursion to Berlin with the linguistics seminar on "Latin American music and strategic essentialism in the GDR - discourse-linguistic analyses of artists, states and censorship"

2021 Representative for Marketing (production of image videos)

2021 WG Changes to module examination regulations (innovative examination formats, structure and editorial activities)

2020-2024 Representative for mid-level faculty

2019-2022 Women's and Equal Opportunities Officer of the Institute of Romance Studies

2019-2021 Evaluation of the Spanish internship reports