Every Spring, we are delighted to celebrate our graduate students in the areas of teaching and research, and this Spring 2023, Florian White, a PhD Candidate in German Studies, much deserves this recognition. He has shown outstanding dedication and initiative in his classes and for his students, and he has supported the German Studies community in a great many ways.

More about his research: Florian White’s (Kastner) dissertation project, “The Berlin Nightclub as Space in Contemporary German Literature,” deals with the representation of Berlin nightclubs in German-language literature from 1990 to 2020. The texts are brought into a historical context and are analyzed using various methods of literary spatial analysis.  His just-published article “Flaschenbier im Trümmerfeld: Temporäre autonome Zonen in Rafael Horzons Das weisse Buch” explores the relationship between nightlife venues and temporary autonomous zones, a philosophical concept of the recently deceased US-American writer Peter Lamborn Wilson. Florian is co-chair of the Graduate Student Working Group at the Connecticut/Baden-Württemberg Human Rights Research Consortium where he also works as an administrative assistant. 

Congratulations, Florian!