Franzi Finkenstein (she/her or they/them) received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Philipps-University of Marburg and her master's degree from the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg with an exchange year at UCL London.
Franzi's research interests encompass narrative theory, autobiography, feminist studies, and queer theory. Franzi is particularly interested in the examination of performance, work, and gender as well as the relationshpi between trauma and temporality in life narratives (writings and visuals) by German-Jewish women (19th and 20th centruy). Franzi teachers in German and Women, Gender, and Sexualiry Studies.
Activities
German Studies Association conference 2019: "Traveling Narratives in Rudolf von Ems Willehalm and Weltchronik"
English Graduate Studies Association Symposium 2021: "'...don't you know that I'm decaying, completely decaying, like something that ceases to exist?' The decaying self and self-constitution in Rahel Varnhagen's letters to David Veit"
German Studies Association conference 2021: Participant in Emerging Scholars Workshop with Professor Monica Black
2021/22: Co-Vice President of GemWGS (Association of Gender Minoritized and Women Graduate Students)
2021/22: Co-Convener of the Comparative Readings of LGBTQ+ Literature in German reading group, sponsored by the Center for the Humanities
Rahel Varnhagen Conference Kraków 2021: "Auch ist der Schmerz, wie ich ihn kenne, auch ein Leben“. Leid und Selbsterfahrung in Rahel Varnhagens Briefe an David Veit
30th Graduate Symposium (German Department at Washington University in St. Louis) 2022: Un)making Pain – Translation of Pain into Art in the Case of Charlotte Salomon
Fellow at The Berlin Seminar 2022
Grimmelshausen Conference “Gender in Grimmelshausen and Early Modern Literature” 2022: “Unmasking the Masks. The Picaresque and the Complexity of Gender in Grimmelshausen’s Courasche”
2022: German Studies Association (GSA): "Doing Autobiographical Work: Performance and Conditions of Craft in Life Writings by Charlotte Salomon an dElse Lasker-Schuler"
2022/23: Convener, alongside Ivan Bujan, of the "Crusing Utopia in 2020s" reading group, sponsored by the Center for the Humanities
2023: Participant in the workshop "To be (dis)continued. New Perspectives on the Entanglements of Gender, Sexualities, and Jewishness" (Berlin)
Others
Editor: WEAK zine (first issue on "Music and Mental Health", upcoming issue on "Demons")
Guest at netcon talks, refuge radio, Berlin (theme: "Empowerment")
Freelance writer for music magazines
