Be is a PhD candidate in the Department of German with a Designated Emphasis in Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies. Before coming to Berkeley, they studied in Berlin, where they received their B.A. (2016) and M.A. (2019) in Art History and Comparative Literature. They work as a translator and editor, and often collaborate with artists. At Berkeley, they serve on the editorial boards of TRANSIT, Qui Parle and Ki. They teach German as well as composition classes, on topics such as “Women and Labor in 20th century German Culture” or “Trans Reading and Writing Practices”. Be studies...
Lou Silhol-Macher is a seventh-year PhD candidate in the German Department at UC Berkeley with a Designated Emphasis in Film & Media. Her research engages with new media, installation art, film and video, queer theory, philosophy of media, critical race studies, and science and technology studies. Lou’s dissertation “Of Goo and Dust: Aesthetic Theories of Formlessness” investigates the role of form/lessness in film, video, and new media art, bringing into focus what emerges from the encounter between states of matter, minoritarian aesthetic practices, and racialized histories of...
Elizabeth Sun is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of German with Designated Emphases in New Media Studies and Dutch Studies. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Columbia University and an M.A. in Transcultural Studies from Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg. Her work engages with the remediation and mediatization of the migrant and refugee figure in literary, filmic, and digital texts. Elizabeth has taught classes on topics including "Refugees in a Mediated World" and "Migration, Labor, Gender."
Since 2021, Elizabeth has been Managing Editor of TRANSIT, a...
Sonja Thiel is a curator, philosopher, and historian who joined the department for the PhD program. She studied philosophy and history at the Humboldt University in Berlin (M.A. The Negative Moral Philosophy of Theodor Adorno in the Context of German Post-War Morality). After her studies, she worked as a participatory museum curator in Frankfurt, Freiburg, and Weißenfels, and as an academic coordinator for digital training in museum studies at the University of Freiburg. Most recently, she worked as a digital catalyst for artificial intelligence in museums in Karlsruhe, where she...
Thomas Siemerink joins the PhD program in German Studies in the Fall of 2025. His research interests focus on eurocentrism, interculturality, and migration in the twentieth century as well as contemporary German and Dutch literature and media. He is also interested in language instruction in both Dutch and German and plans to pursue a designated emphasis in European Studies.
Thomas holds a BA in German Language and Culture and an MA in Intercultural Communication, both from Utrecht University, and has studied Modern German Literature at the Free University of Berlin.
Elise Thora Volkmann is currently in her fourth year in the Department of German with a Designated Emphasis in Film & Media. Elise received her B.A. in German Studies and her B.M. in Voice Performance from the Oberlin College and Conservatory in 2018. After graduating from Oberlin, she attended the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University where she received an M.M. in Musicology and Voice Performance. She also holds an M.A. in Germanistik from Middlebury College. Her dissertation explores the concept of Musikalisierung and its use specifically in...
Kayla van Kooten is a PhD student in the Department of German, with Designated Emphases in New Media and Dutch Studies. Her current research revolves around questions of multilingualism, translation, migration, digital culture and media. Currently, she is the Creative & Web Designer of TRANSIT and the Social Media Manager of the Townsend Center. She holds a BA from the University of Washington in Middle Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
Qingyang Freya Zhou is a PhD student in German with a Designated Emphasis in Film Studies. She joined the program in 2020 after receiving a BA in German Studies, Film and Media Studies, and Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Originally from Shenzhen, China, Freya is interested in the literary and cinematic interactions between Germany and East Asia, particularly as they pertain to socialist internationalism and migration studies. Freya is currently the book review editorial assistant of the German Studies Review and the managing...
