Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Gender as a Category of Knowledge

PhD Project:

Pain and Desire: Media-Techniques of Queer Affects in Amateur Culture

Description of the Project

In my project I pursue a media history of the connection between affect and vernacular image production. At the end of the 19th century, the amateur was imagined as someone who passionately photographs without any intended economic gain. During this same period, homosexuality was socially constructed and thus marginalized. Pain therefore changes its qualities. Located at the intersection of suffering and desire, I investigate neglected sources of amateur photography. Within the context of a visual culture of homosexual media, the amateur’s pain and desire developed a specific potential to destabilize normative gender relations and heteronormativity. I would like to call this the potential of queer affects. Experiences of pain and desire are aesthetically and materially assembled and enable sharing forms of communication like visual migration and image exchange. This project deals with queer theory from the perspective of affect theory.

Particulars

Köppert, Katrin studied administration management, German language and literature, gender studies in Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin). PhD in media studies, 2010-2013 research assistance in DFG-research-project “Media Amateurs in Gay Culture“ (University of Siegen), 2012 Visiting Fellow Gender Institute London School of Economics and Political Science, 2011-2012 affiliated and 2012-2013 scholarship of the PhD-Program »Gender as a Category of Knowledge«.

Selected Publications

zus. m. Susanne Regener (Hg.): privat/öffentlich. Mediale Selbstentwürfe von Homosexualität, Wien/Berlin 2012.

Intra-Activities of the Queer Diaspora. Berlin-Kreuzberg and the »Jerusalem-Kings« Phenomenom. In: Contemporary Jewish Reality in Germany and Its Reflection in Film, hg. v. Claudia Simone Dorchain u. Felice Naomi Wonnenberg, Boston/Berlin 2012. P. 157 – 170.

»Alle waren sportlich, jugendlich und jungenhaft.« Fotografische Selbstzeugnisse des jungen- und jugendbewegten Medienamateurs Heinz Dörmer. In: Historische Jugendforschung. Jahrbuch des Archivs der deutschen Jugendbewegung 7, Schwalbach/Taunus 2011. S. 197 – 211.

Queering Terrorists. Vergeschlechtlichte Bilderpolitiken im Kontext von Krieg und Terror seit 9/11 – interdependent betrachtet. In: Das Geschlecht der Anderen. Figuren der Alterität: Kriminologie, Psychiatrie, Ethnologie und Zoologie, hg. v. Sophia Könemann u. Anne Stähr, Bielefeld 2011. S. 83 – 102.

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