Thank you for your interest in the work our associated PhD students are currently undertaking! PhD students listed here are under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl and/or Prof. em. Dr. Gabriele Müller-Oberhäuser.
Chandni Ananth
Lena Anlauf
Ellen Barth (PhD completed, 2024)
Jessica Eickmann
Luise Hertwig (PhD completed, 2022)
Inge Orlowski
Miaïna Razakamanantsoa
Carla Schäfer
Swara Shukla
Chandni Ananth’s current doctoral research looks at the role of institutions of literature as intermediaries in the circulation of books in the anglophone literary sphere. Focusing on institutions such as the Sahitya Akademi, India’s national academy of letters, this project aims to explore how institutional intermediaries promote and shape the transmission and reception of translated Indian literature in the global anglophone book market.
Lena Anlauf, B.A., M.A. (PhD student at JGU Mainz, subject: Buchwissenschaft, first advisor: Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl)
Working title of thesis: Der sowjetische Bilderbuchmarkt der 1920er Jahre (The Soviet Picture Book Market in the 1920s)
Abstract:
Lena Anlauf’s doctoral research deals with the early Soviet picture book market. In this era, children's books became a means of political education to define a new kind of childhood and to build a new socialistic society. The required mass production of children's books resulted in unprecedented artistic experimentation. After giving an overview of the general conditions of the children’s book market in Soviet Russia, the core of this PhD is the historical analysis of the blossoming and decline of the private publisher “Raduga”. Furthermore, the perception of Soviet picture book art abroad; parallel developments and trends, international exhibitions then and now will be examined, offering insights into the role of children's books as cultural heritage.
Brief biographical statement:
Lena Anlauf is a doctoral candidate in Buchwissenschaft at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, researching the Soviet picture book market of the 1920s from a publishing historical perspective with a focus on children’s books as cultural heritage. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Buchwissenschaft and Philosophy and a Master’s degree in Buchwissenschaft from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. She is an editor for the German publishing house kunstanstifter.
Ellen Barth, B.A., M.A. (PhD student at the University of Münster, subject: English Philology, first advisor: Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl). Ellen Barth is research and teaching associate at the Chair of Book Studies. More information on her PhD thesis can be found on our research website.
Title of thesis: Contradictory Cookbooks: Women and the Production of Community Cookbooks in America, 1950 to 1990
The dissertation is under contract with University of Georgia Press.
Jessica Eickmann, B.A., M.A. (PhD student at the University of Münster, subject: English Philology, first advisor: Prof. em. Dr. Gabriele Müller-Oberhäsuer, second advisor: Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl)
Working title of thesis: Female Readers in Early Modern England
Abstract:
Jessica Eickmann’s doctoral dissertation examines female readers in early modern England. The early modern period was a critical phase when women’s reading was associated with cultural and economic power. From 1500 onwards, women were becoming increasingly active in the literary world. The period from 1500 to 1610, with the spread of literacy and the expanding book market, was an especially crucial time for female readers. Despite the advances on the book market, patriarchal structures and prescriptive rules, such as determined in reading manuals, defined a strict and limited space for women’s reading experiences. Focusing on individual readers, this thesis aims to explore some of the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of their reading and the manifold ways women created their space as readers in early modern society.
Brief biographical statement:
Jessica Eickmann is currently a PhD student at the University of Münster. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anglophone Studies from the University of Marburg and a Master’s degree in British, American, and Postcolonial Studies with a focus on book studies from the University of Münster.
Luise Hertwig, M.A. (PhD student at the University of Flensburg, subject: Romance Philology, first advisor: Prof. Dr. Marco Thomas Bosshard, second advisor: Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl)
Title of thesis: Bibliodiversität im Kontext des französischen Ehrengastauftritts Francfort en français auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse 2017. Die ganze Vielfalt des Publizierens in französischer Sprache? (transl.: Francfort en français – Bibliodiversity in the context of France's presentation as Guest of Honour at the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair)
The dissertation has been published with Narr/Francke/Attempto in the Lendemains series. More information can be found here.
Inge Orlowski, M.A. (PhD student at Université de Luxembourg, subject: Literature, First Advisor : Prof. Dr. Jeanne E. Glesener, members of the thesis supervision committee: Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl and Prof. Dr. Till Dembeck)
Working title of the thesis: Small Multilingual Book Markets in Comparison
Abstract:
Inge Orlowski’s doctoral research examines language dynamics in several small, multilingual book markets on the African and the European continents. Book market indicators, discourses about literature and the (multilingual) literature itself offer different perspectives on the ways in which languages interact within a given context and how they are used and perceived by authors, publishers, and readers. These language relations will be examined in terms of (cultural) capital and as a result of overlapping, linguistically defined literary fields, but foremost as a local phenomenon shaped by the specific sociolinguistic constellation of each context, thereby challenging national and monolinguistic conceptions of book markets and literature.
Brief biographical statement:
Inge Orlowski is a doctoral candidate at the University of Luxembourg. She holds a Master’s degree in Kulturpoetik der Literatur und Medien from Münster University and a double Bachelor’s Degree in Deutsch-Französische Literatur- und Kulturstudien from Freie Universität Berlin and Université Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle. She currently works as an editor and public relations manager at éditions guy binsfeld, Luxembourg.
Miaïna Razakamanantsoa’s doctoral research examines the marketing and packaging of literary translations. Focusing particularly on non-Western works published in Western book markets, and through the analysis of their paratexts, this project aims to shed light on the various forms in which exoticism is employed throughout the creation and distribution process of literary translations as well as on the impacts that this marketing strategy has on these works.
Carla Schäfer, M.A. (PhD student at the University of Münster, subject: English Philology, first advisor: Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl, second advisor: Prof. Dr. Oliver Scheiding, JGU Mainz)
Working title of the thesis:
The Myth of Publishing. An Intersectional Analysis of Labor and Labor Activism in the U.S. Trade Publishing Industry
Abstract:
Carla Schäfer’s PhD project examines labor and forms of labor activism in the U.S. trade publishing industry by conducting qualitative interviews and examining archival sources. Her research makes use of frameworks from sociology, cultural studies, book studies, and literary studies to grasp the role of publishing as affective, creative, invisible, and political labor in gendered and racialized post-Fordist regimes of production. The aim of the thesis is to interrogate the strategies which emerge from publishing workers’ laboring identity and which challenge the exploitative methods of multinational media conglomerates.
Brief biographical statement:
Carla Schäfer holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Pedagogy and a master’s degree in National and Transnational Studies from the University of Münster. She has previously been part of the publishing collective edition assemblage, has taught at the University of California in Davis and now works as a bookseller in Cologne.
Swara Shukla, BA (Honours) English Literature, MLitt (PhD student at the University of Münster, subject: English Philology, first advisor: Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl, second advisor: Prof. Dr. Caroline Koegler, Freie Universität Berlin)
Working title of the thesis:
“Smothered in Quantity and Number” in the Digital-Serial Age: Serialising Fiction, Reading and the Book in the Wattpad Book Publishing Ecosystem
Abstract:
Swara Shukla’s PhD project studies serialisation in reading and bookmaking practices through a heuristic exploration of the serial-to-book publishing model of Wattpad, a social storytelling platform for user-generated stories, and its publishing arm, Wattpad Webtoon Book Group. The project uses primary and secondary research on the Victorian serial market to explore serialisation as a transhistorical concept and establish touchstones to remediate the serialised book publishing pathway for born-digital fiction in the 21st century. The project is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Brief biographical statement:
Swara is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Münster. She holds a Bachelors with Honours degree in English Literature from University of Delhi, India and a Master of Letters (MLitt) in Creative Writing from University of Glasgow, Scotland. She has previously worked with the digital and video rights teams at Penguin Random House India. She has designed and taught seminars on Indian Book Publishing at the English Department on an ad-hoc basis. In 2024, she delivered a keynote at the annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) hosted by the Centre for Book Culture and Publishing, University of Reading, UK.
Publications:
“Reimagining Greek Gods, Mermaids and Witches: Exploring User-Generated ESL Young Adult Fiction on Wattpad,” Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies, Volume 35, Issue 2 (2024), pp. 167–187. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33675/ANGL/2024/2/14.
“Paul Fyfe. Digital Victorians: From Nineteenth-Century Media to Digital Humanities. (Book Review)” SHARP News (May 2025). https://sharpweb.org/sharpnews/2025/05/15/paul-fyfe-digital-victorians-from-nineteenth-century-media-to-digital-humanities/.