2024

• Hintringer, Stefanie Klara, “Beating Traditional Domesticity: Sex, Drugs, Buddhism, Isolation, and the Road as Symbols of Non-Conformist Masculinity in Jack Kerouac's On the Road, The Dharma Bums, and The Subterraneans”
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Hochsteiner, Laura Nadine, ““The World Will Finally See Us As We Are” - Dis/ability and Life Writing: Taking Control of the Narrative in Alice Wong's Year of the Tiger (2022)””
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg
• Koch, Rita Andrea, “Unlocking The Great Gatsby: Innovative Approaches to Teaching F. Scott Fitzgerald's Masterpiece in Today's Classroom”
  Betreuerin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer
• Meister, Michael, “Intermedial Ecopoetry as Monumental Writer-Activism - Witnessing Slow Violence and Apprehending the Anthropocene in Craig Santos Perez's Habitat Threshold”
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Nassim Balestrini
• Neubert, Katie Beth, ““We Will Live!” Protesting America's Collective Memory of the Vietnam War in Viet Thanh Nguyen's Fiction”
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Nassim Balestrini
• Plieschnegger, Thomas, ““Living through fear or living through rap.” The Poetics of Kendrick Lamar's Concept Album DAMN (2017)”
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Nassim Balestrini

2023

• Aschauer, Anna, “(Re-) Learning to Be a Species: Richard Powers's The Overstory (2018) and Annie Proulx's Barkskins (2016) as Novelistic Attempts to Rethink the “Human””
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Nassim Balestrini
• Hunsky, Dolores, “Contemporary Trauma Narratives and Their Gothic Heritage: Exploring the Origin and Importance of Trauma Literature”
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg
• Lautner, David, ““God made this world, but he didn't make it to suit everybody” – An Ecocritical Perspektive on Discourses of Genocide and Ecocide in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian””
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt

2024

• Ehmann, Saskia, ““The Old Bag You'll Actually Love” - Gendered Ageism in Advertisements””
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg
• Malis, Selina, “Who am I - The Construction of (Lost) Identities and their Connection to Memory in the The Maze Runner Books and Movies”
  Betreuer: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Klaus Rieser

2023

• Niedermayr, Maria, ““Nothing's more important than family”: Narrative and Visual Depiction of Family Conflict(s) in Disney and Pixar Animation Feature Films”
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Pöttler, Elisabeth, ““Would you like to see disabled people depicted als people?”: Examples of Positive Disability Representation in the US Documentary Crip Camp”
  Betreuer: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Klaus Rieser

• Wenegger, Walter, ““It Means no Worries for the Rest of Your Days” – Sidekick Characters in The Jungle Book (1967/2016) and The Lion King (1994/2019)”
  Betreuer: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Klaus Rieser

Laufende Dissertationen:

• Bagnasco, Filippo Maria. The Emergence of Masculinities in US Blank Fictions
  Betreuerin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer
• Bashota, Halil. Eco-Poetry and Modernism: Reassessing Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams
  Betreuerin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer
• Färber, Andrea. Reimagining Relationships: Exploring Interactions between the Human and the More-than-Human in Climate Change Literature
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Nassim Balestrini
• Horvat, Jonatan. 'Before Life and After': An Intermedial Exploration of the Implications of Death and Salvation in Benjamin Britten's Four Anglo-American Operatic Adaptations
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Nassim Balestrini
• Iacobescu Dumitru, Rafaela Nicoleta. Female Choices of Self Expression in Con­temporary Latino/a Literature and Culture
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Kipourou, Ioanna. Memory-Making in Black Women's Narratives: Intersectionality, Belonging, and Citizenship during the Long Nineteenth Century – Hannah Crafts, Emilie Francis Davis, Elizabeth Keckley
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. Stefan Brandt
• Knaus, Juliann. The Strength of My Roots: Hair as a Political, Cultural, and Historical Marker of Identity in Contemporary Multi-Ethnic Canadian Drama
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Nassim Balestrini
• Maric, Mirna. Images of Islands in Caribbean-American Literature
  Betreuerin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer 
• Mitskidou, Paschalia. Virtual Reality, Escapism and Nostalgia in Contemporary American Literature and Culture Narratives
  Betreuung: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt, Co-Betreuung mit Tatiani Rapatzikou, Aristotle University, GR, und Jerome de Groot, University of Manchester, UK
• Neuwirth, Manuela. 'Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness' and Their Opposites: Mental Illness, Suicide, and Antinatalism in American Literature and Culture
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Planinsek Zlof, Jerneja. Dysfunctional Families and the American Dream in Mid-20th-Century American Drama
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Reibenschuh, Nina. Las Chicas de Allí: Representations of Latina Identities in Inter-American Literature
  Betreuerin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer 
• Scholz, Christina. Quantum Fiction: Uncertain Space and Intertextuality in M. John Harrison's Empty Space Trilogy
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Nassim Balestrini  
• Seitinger, Wilma: Representations of Aging in Graphic Novel
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg
• Shishko, Besmir. Mediating Individual and Collective Identities: Paula Huntley and Alice Mead as American Perspectives of the Kosovo
  Betreuerin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer
• Steiner, Philip. The Dance of the Media: Literary Features in Music, Film, and Video Games, and the Evolution of Intermediality
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Tayebi, Seyedhamed. Narratives and Representation of Contemporary America: A Critical Reading of David Foster Wallace
  Betreuerin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer

Abgeschlossene Dissertationen:

2024

• De Bettin Padolin, Nina. Drama's Ecocritical Capabilities of Decolonizing Indigenous Epistemologies
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Nassim Balestrini

2023

• Makala, Liliia. Battles of the Uncanny: Naturalist Gothic Subtexts in U.S. War Fiction
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt

2022

• Bellerive, Karin. Murmurations. Écrire les vieillissements: une recherche-création Écrire ses vieillissements, ses rapports changeants à soi, à son père, à l’écriture, au temps. Université de Montréal, Kanada
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg (externe Evaluatorin)
• Perwein, Christian. Human Ascension and its Perils – Transhumanism and Class in 21st Century Literature and Film
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg
• Trinkaus, Eva-Maria. Experiencing Life through Fiction: Lore Segal’s Literary Foodscapes from Childhood to Old Age
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg

2021

• Whybrew, Si Sophie Pages. Neither One nor the Other: Non-Binary Gender Embodiment in Contemporary North American Speculative Fiction
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg

2020

• Christ, Susanne. Fictions of Dementia: Narrative Modes for Presenting Dementia in Anglophone Novels
  Betreuerin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer, Co-Betreuung mit JLU Gießen im Rahmen einer Cotutelle-Vereinbarung
• Ederer, Petra. The Empowered Child: Discourses of Childhood in Time Travel Stories for Children and Young Adults
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. Stefan Brandt (Co-Betreuung mit Universität Wien)
• Franzetti, Sindija. The Epistolary Motif in a Post-Letter World
  Betreuerin: Assoz.-Prof. Dr.phil. Silvia Schultermandl (Co-Betreuung mit Uppsala University)
• Weber, Stephanie. Staging the Freak. Das (Un-)Heimliche als Raum und Rahmen für die Inszenierung außergewöhnlicher Körper in deutsch- und englischsprachiger Literatur der Postmoderne
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt (Co-Betreuung mit Universität Wien)

Laufende Dissertationen:

• Buchegger, Lisa. Fascinating Fiends – The Construction of the ‘Villain’ in American Film and Television
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Hinlicka, Kerstin. Sapphic Casualty Expectations – An analysis of the 'Dead Lesbian Syndrome' in 'The 100'
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Klaus Rieser
• Hladin, Florian. Metaphors of Aging in Cultural Representations
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg
• Klecok, Gabriele. Shaping the Modern Body – Joseph Pilates' 'Contrology' and the American Idea of Agency
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Kreishan, Hanan. Invisible Wounds: The Affect and Dynamics of Gender Discrimination in the U.S. Military between 2012 and 2018
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Kuckenberger, Verena Chiara. Die Pornofrauen: Konzepte weiblicher Sexualität und Identifikation als Rezeptionserlebnis?
  Betreuer:innen: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Bettina Rablehofer und Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Klaus Rieser (Zweitbetreuer)
• Rokvity, Alekszandra. Endometriosis, the Invisible Illness: A Study of the Social Discourse Surrounding Menstruation
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg
• Schneider, Elisabeth. 'Saying 'No' Only Makes Me Want You More': The Represen­tation, Recognition, and (Re)Distribution of Consent in Popular Media
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Schöffmann, David. The Changing Face of Xenophobia in American Television and Film
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Klaus Rieser
• Szendrei, Ágota Viktória: Beyond esoteric practice – The potential of arts in soft-skills trainings. Visual arts-based methods for sustainable human resource development
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Klaus Rieser
• Wallenstorfer, Dagmar. Diversity and Diverse Identities in Classroom Settings – A Multi-Level Instrument for Relational Diversity Education (MIRDE)
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Stefan Brandt
• Wolf, Matthias Georg. America the Free-For-All. A study into stories of power, violence and general brutishness that made and make a rogue America
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg
• Zeller, Johannes. Selling Counterculture: Divergence between Brand Practice and Product Content in South Park and VICE Media
  Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Klaus Rieser

Abgeschlossene Dissertationen:

2023

• Haring, Nicole. Let's Talk about Gender: Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer in Education
  Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer