Dr. Ruth Gehrmann

What does my research in the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1482 focus on?

As a postdoctoral researcher in project A04: “Successful Aging: Best Agers at the Intersection between Differentiating Age and Achievement,” I am concerned with the representation and construction of age and aging in the field of lifestyle. In this context, for example, I explore the representation of older people in the pop cultural realm and am particularly interested in how established readings of age are circumvented or reinforced. In my recently published articles, I look at the role of age (also intertwined with gender) in the Twilight series, the TV show The Boys, and social media.

What shapes me and my research?

I am very interested in the intersection between the humanities and other disciplines. The field of medical humanities offers new possibilities in this regard, and my PhD project focused on the representation of organ transplantation in medical and literary narratives. I am particularly invested in engaging with texts that often receive less attention, such as young adult fiction.

What brought me to the CRC?

After completing my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Constance and Augsburg, I was part of the DFG Research Training Group “Life Sciences, Life Writing,” which gave me the opportunity to spend a semester as a visiting scholar in the Narrative Medicine Program at Columbia University in New York. As a lecturer at the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, I was particularly excited about the opportunity to teach seminars on a variety of topics, such as young adult fiction and illness in literature. In addition to conference visits in English-speaking countries, I have had the opportunity to teach at York University in Toronto.

Foto: Stephanie Füssenich