Team > Dr. Katrin Horn


Faculty of Languages and Literature
American Studies / Anglophone Literatures and Cultures
I am an assistant professor in American Studies/Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at the University of Bayreuth. My research focuses on queer and gender studies, the history of knowledge, and popular culture from the long nineteenth century until today (esp. novels, magazines, film, and television).
My publications include the monograph Women, Camp, and Popular Culture – Serious Excess (Palgrave, 2017) and the co-edited collections Stimme, Kultur, Identität. Vokaler Ausdruck in der populären Musik der USA, 1900-1960 (transcript, 2015) and American Cultures as Transnational Performance. Commons, Skills, Traces (Routledge, 2021). I have also published articles on a diverse range of topics from narrative strategies in Edith Wharton's fiction to queer affect in the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Currently I am working on my second monograph and leading the DFG-funded research project “The Economy and Epistemology of Gossip in 19th- and Early 20th-Century US-American Literature and Culture” (2019–2022). For current info on our research and a collection of our digitized archival material, see ArchivalGossip.com.
NEWS: Listen to the LadyFiction Podcast, ep. 16 to hear me talk about "Gossip's Public Intimacies in the 19th Century"
My teaching reflects my research interests and has focused on US American literature in the 19th and popular culture in the 20th and 21st century. I have laid additional emphasis on core issues of American Studies such as US American history between the colonial and the progressive period as well as literary and cultural theory. Beyond enabling my students to gain knowledge and information and learn about methodologies and concepts in my classroom, I strive to foster their critical thinking skills, b) improve their writing, reading, and research expertise, and c) expand on their competency for productive debate. Hence, I consider active and cooperative learning strategies to be invaluable tools. I also hope to share my enthusiasm for my seminar topics and the discipline of American studies at large.
If you are one of my (prospective) students, I encourage you to make use of my office hours!
Academic CV
- since 2018: Assistant Professor of American Studies and Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at University of Bayreuth
- 2019: Visiting Scholar at the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC
- 2018: BAA Fellow at John W. Kluge Center, Library of Congress
- 2017/18: Assistant Professor of American Studies and Assistant to the Managing Director of the Institute for English and American Studies, Julius-Maximilian-University of Würzburg
- 2016/17: Assistant Professor of American Studies and Coordinator for the MA program “North American Studies: Literature and Culture,” FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
- 2015/16: Assistant Professor of American Studies and Assistant to the Managing Director of the Institute for English and American Studies, Julius-Maximilian-University of Würzburg
- 2014: Research Assistant at the government-funded research project Stimme und Gesang in der populären Musik der USA (1900-1960) at the Liszt School of Music, Weimar
- 2010–2015: Lecturer at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and University of Bayreuth
- 2010: Visiting Researcher at Harvard University
- 2010–2016: Participant in the BAA Summer Institute “Race and Ethnicity,“ the Summer School “Queer Temporalities” (Manchester), the Summer School at the Clinton Institute for American Studies “New Media, Power, and Foreign Policy” (Dublin), the Fulbright Summer School “Contested Visions: The United States in 2012 ” (San Francisco), and the Summer School “Inside/Outside: Queer Networks in Transnational Perspective” (Hannover)
- 2009: Member of Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program “Cultural Hermeneutics: Reflections of Difference and Transdifference,” FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
- 2003–2008: M.A. in Theater and Media Studies, English Literature and American Cultural Studies at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
Grants and Fellowships
- 2018: DFG-Research Grant (Module "Individual Research Grants," 36 months) for “The Economy and Epistemology of Gossip in late 19th and early 20th-Century US American Literature and Culture”
- 2018: Bavarian Library of Congress Fellowship
- 2016: Dissertation Award of the Bavarian American Academy
- 2015/2017: PostDoc-Fellowship of the “Program for the Advancement of Gifted Female Scholars” awarded by FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (interrupted in 2016)
- 2013: Doctoral Grant for “Promotion of Equal Opportunities for Women in Research and Teaching” awarded by FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
- 2011: Travel Grant from the Dr. Alfred Vinzl Foundation, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
- 2010: Harvard University Post-Graduate Research Fellowship from the Bavarian American Academy
- 2010/2012: Grant for Conference Presentations from the German American Exchange Service (Minneapolis/Boston)
- 2009–2012: Graduate Scholarship (Elite Network of Bavaria), distributed by Universität Bayern e.V.

Faculty of Languages and Literature
American Studies / Anglophone Literatures and Cultures
Research Interests
- PostDoc-Project “The Economy and Epistemology of Gossip in late 19th and early 20th-Century US American Literature and Culture“
- Gender and Queer Studies, Popular Culture and Media Studies, Postfeminism, History and Theory of Knowledge, Narration, Transnational American Studies
- Member of the DFG Research Networks "Cultural Performance in Transnational American Studies" (2014–2018) und "The Failure of Knowledge/Knowledges of Failure" (2020–2023)
- Member of DASI – Digital American Studies Initiative. For more, see das.americanstudies.de.
See ArchivalGossip.com for more info on my research.
Past Events
- Speculative Endeavours: Cultures of Knowledge and Capital in the Long Nineteenth Century. Digital conference, Oct 21-23 2021, with keynotes by Peter Knight and Lori Merish.
- CfP: Auto/Biographie und Geschlecht: Fakt, Fake, Fiktion (July 2020)
- CfP: Speculative Endeavours: Cultures of Knowledge and Capital in the Long Nineteenth Century (October 2020)

Faculty of Languages and Literature
American Studies / Anglophone Literatures and Cultures
Publications
Book/Monograph
American Cultures as Transnational Performance : Commons, Skills, Traces
publ: Horn, Katrin; Lippert, Leopold; Saal, Ilka; Wiegmink, Pia
London ; New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022. - 206 pp. . - (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
doi:10.4324/9781003048947 ...
Horn, Katrin
Women, Camp, and Popular Culture : Serious Excess
New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. - 264 pp.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319 ...
Stimme, Kultur, Identität : Vokaler Ausdruck in der populären Musik der USA, 1900-1960 ...
publ: Pfleiderer, Martin; Hähnel, Tilo; Horn, Katrin; Bielefeldt, Christian
Bielefeld : transcript, 2015. - 518 pp. . - (Texte zur populären Musik; 8)
Article in a journal (peer-reviewed)
Horn, Katrin
âEvery One Knewâ : Epistemologies of the City in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence ...
in Edith Wharton Review vol. 36 (2021) issue 2. - pp. 148-164
doi:10.5325/editwharrevi.36.2.0148 ...
Horn, Katrin
Dangerous Domesticity : Gossip and Gothic Homes in Edith Wharton's Fiction
in Edith Wharton Review vol. 35 (2019) issue 1. - pp. 22-46
doi:10.5325/editwharrevi.35.1.0022 ...
Dexl, Carmen; Horn, Katrin
âBeef Jerky in a Ball Gownâ : the Camp Excesses of Titus Andromedon in Unbreakable Kim ...
in Open Cultural Studies vol. 1 (2017) . - pp. 442-453
doi:10.1515/culture-2017-0041 ...
Article in a journal (not peer-reviewed)
Horn, Katrin
Of Gaps and Gossip : Intimacy in the Archive
in Anglia : Zeitschrift für englische Philologie vol. 138 (2020) issue 3. - pp. 428-448
doi:10.1515/ang-2020-0037 ...
Horn, Katrin
Lady Gaga : Pop als Maske, Weiblichkeit als Maskerade
in Kjl & m : Forschung, Schule, Bibliothek vol. 12 (2012)
Horn, Katrin
Camping with the Stars : Queer Perfomativity, Pop Intertextuality, and Camp in the Pop Art ...
in Current Objectives in Postgraduate American Studies vol. 11 (2010)
doi:10.5283/copas.131 ...
Article in a book (peer-reviewed)
Horn, Katrin
Right or Obligation? : Privacy in Henry James' "The Bostonians"
In: Brittner, Irina ; Meyer, Sabine Nicole ; Schneck, Peter (ed.): We the People? : The United States and the Question of Rights - Heidelberg: Winter, 2020. - pp. 137-156 . - (American Studies; 309)
Horn, Katrin
âPeriod Sexâ : Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and the Feminist Politics of Offence
In: Gräfer, Anne (ed.): Media and the Politics of Offence - Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2019. - pp. 127-145
doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17574-0_7 ...
Article in a book (not peer-reviewed)
Horn, Katrin
#god im so glad i got to go : The Monster Ball Tour, Transnational Performances, and Digit ...
In: Horn, Katrin ; Lippert, Leopold ; Saal, Ilka ; Wiegmink, Pia (ed.): American Cultures as Transnational Performance : Commons, Skills, Traces - London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022. - pp. 147-160 . - (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
doi:10.4324/9781003048947 ...
Horn, Katrin; Foltinek, Selina
Cushmania : Reconstructing Queerness and Celebrity of a Nineteenth-Century Actress
In: Mettele, Gisela ; Prell, Martin ; Marzell, Pia; Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Philosophische Fakultät (ed.): Digital Humanities and Gender History - Jena: dbt, 2021
doi:10.22032/dbt.48957 ...
Horn, Katrin
Bewegte Bilder / Bewegte Vergangenheit : Queeres Kino der USA
In: Feldmann, Doris ; Keilhauer, Annette ; Liebold, Renate (ed.): Zuordnungen in Bewegung : Geschlecht und sexuelle Orientierung quer durch die Disziplinen - Erlangen: FAU University Press, 2020. - pp. 151-172 . - (FAU Studien Gender Differenz Diversität; 1)
Horn, Katrin
30 Rock : Complexity, Metareferentiality and the Contemporary Quality Sitcom
In: Ernst, Christoph ; Paul, Heike (ed.): Amerikanische Fernsehserien der Gegenwart : Perspektiven der American Studies und der Media Studies - Bielefeld: transcript, 2015. - pp. 153-183
Horn, Katrin
'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels' : Geschlechterrollen und Klassenzugehörigkeit ...
In: Pfleiderer, Martin ; Hähnel, Tilo ; Horn, Katrin ; Bielefelt, Christian (ed.): Stimme, Kultur, Identität : Vokaler Ausdruck in der populären Musik der USA, 1900-1960 - Bielefeld: transcript, 2015. - pp. 303-332 . - (Texte zur populären Musik; 8)
Horn, Katrin
'Sometimes I Live in the Country/ Sometimes I Live in Town' : Von Folklore zum Urban Folk ...
In: Pfleiderer, Martin ; Hähnel, Tilo ; Horn, Katrin ; Bielefeldt, Christian (ed.): Stimme, Kultur, Identität : Vokaler Ausdruck in der populären Musik der USA, 1900-1960 - Bielefeld: transcript, 2015. - pp. 271-302 . - (Texte zur populären Musik; 8)
Horn, Katrin
USA 1900-1960 : Populäre Musik im/als Spiegel ihrer Zeit
In: Pfleiderer, Martin ; Hähnel, Thilo ; Horn, Katrin ; Bielefeldt, Christian (ed.): Stimme, Kultur, Identität : Vokaler Ausdruck in der populären Musik der USA, 1900-1960 - Bielefeld: transcript, 2015. - pp. 23-52 . - (Texte zur populären Musik; 8)
Horn, Katrin
Follow the Glitter Way : Lady Gaga and Camp
In: Gray, Richard J. (ed.): The Performance Identities of Lady Gaga : Critical Essays - Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. - pp. 85-106
Review
Horn, Katrin
Bradbury-Rance, Clara: Lesbian cinema after queer theory. Edinburgh, 2019
New Review of Film and Television Studies
2019
doi:10.1080/17400309.2019.1623512 ...
Doctoral thesis
Horn, Katrin
Camp / Pop : Interventions into Popcultural Discourses of Gender and Sexuality
Erlangen, 2014
(thesis, 2014, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Faculty of Languages and Literature
American Studies / Anglophone Literatures and Cultures
Dr. Katrin Horn
Assistant Professor (NTT / Akademische Rätin a. Z.)
Universität Bayreuth
Universitätsstraße 30
Building: GW I Raum: 1.27
95447 Bayreuth
- During the summer semester: Wednesdays, 1 pm
- Please get in touch via email katrin.horn@uni-bayreuth.de to book a slot and to inform me about your preference for in-person or virtual conversations.
Phone: +49 (0)921/55-3577
E-mail: katrin.horn@uni-bayreuth.de