Dr. Isabell Sluka successfully completed her dissertation in July 2024. Her project is entitled “From a Postmigrant Society to Radical Diversity: (Re)Negotiating Germanness in the Digital Realm.” Written with a focus on German Media Studies and employing a variety of approaches, the thesis seeks to address the following issues:

The question of what it means to be German is as old as Germany itself, yet it is currently being debated once again. A significant actor in these discussions are post-migrants – individuals who either have ancestors from another country who immigrated to Germany or who immigrated themselves, and who continue to be migranticized and marked as “others” by members and institutions of the dominant society. In my dissertation, I examine how post-migrants respond to these processes and, even more importantly, how they self-determinately engage with questions of Germanness, national identity, and belonging online. Drawing upon theories of citizenship and belonging, the (digital) public sphere, and media as practice, as well as selected examples of post-migrant media practices from various levels of the digital public sphere, I argue that these practices can be conceptualized not only as interventions into current conceptions of Germanness, national identity, and belonging, but also as acts of belonging that contribute to the (re)writing of more diverse and inclusive alternatives on both the individual and collective levels.

Post graduation, Dr. Sluka is continuing her work with Greenhouse Studios at the University of Connecticut.

CONGRATULATIONS from the entire Section!