Dr. Heike Mißler: CV, Research, and Teaching

https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7564-6302

Research Interests

Gender and Queer Theory, Feminist Theory, Critical Race Studies, Critical Whiteness Studies, British Cultural Studies, Contemporary British Novels, Popular Romance Studies, Chick Lit, Popular Culture Studies, TV and Film Studies, Posthumanism

 

Teaching

I teach the following modules/courses:

 

  • Module Language and Use Intermediate (CEFR level C1)
  • Module Language and Use Advanced (CEFR level C2)
  • Introduction to Cultural Studies UK and Ireland
  • Cultural Studies II (UK and Ireland): Introduction to Gender Studies
  • Proseminar British Literary and Cultural Studies

Here is a selection of the topics in British Literary and Cultural Studies I have taught:

 

  • Bad Romance? Gender in Postfeminist Fiction and Film (summer term 2012)
  • Sisters Wild: The Fiction of the Brontës (winter term 2015/16)
  • In-yer-Victorian-Face: British Neo-Victorian Fiction (winter term 2015/16)
  • Pride and Prejudice and its TV and Film Adaptations (summer term 2016)
  • Queer Britain: Sexual Identities in Contemporary British Fiction and Film (winter term 2016/17)
  • Early Novels: Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko (1688) and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) (summer term 2018)
  • The First Wave of Feminism: Suffragettes, New Women, and other Rebels (winter term 2018/19)
  • British Dystopian Fiction of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Orwell, Alderman, and Lanchester (winter 2019/2020)
  • Posthumanism in Contemporary British Film and Fiction: Machines Like Me (2019) and Ex Machina (2014) (summer term 2020)
  • Nothing to Lose but Their Chains? Representations of the British Working Class in Literature and Film since 1950 (winter term 2020/21)
  • Introduction to Literary Animal Studies: Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books (1894/5) and Aminatta Forna’s Happiness (2019) (summer term 2021)
  • British Celebrities (summer term 2021 – for the poster presentations that students created for this course, see here)
  • “Am I Not a Man and A Brother?” British Abolitionism in Literature and Film (winter term 2021/22)
  • “I am the tall dark stranger / those warnings prepared you for.” (Yrsa Daley Ward, “intro”) – 21st-Century Black British Writing (summer 2022)
  • Reading the Romance: Jane Austen's Emma, E.M. Hull's The Sheik, and Alexis Hall's Boyfriend Material (summer term 2024)

Current courses can be found here: www.lsf.uni-saarland.de

 

Academic Positions

Since Apr 2015: Senior Lecturer in the English Department at Saarland University (British Literary and Cultural Studies, Language Teaching, Erasmus Coordinator, Coordinator of Gender Studies Certificate, academic adviser, Junior- and Starterstudium)

Oct 2012 - Mar 2015: External lecturer in the English Department at Saarland University (Language Teaching)

Jul 2011 - Sep 2012: Lecturer and research assistant at the chair of American Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland University

Jun 2010 - Jul 2011: Lecturer and research assistant at the chair of British Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland University

 

University Education

Apr 2010 - Dec 2014: PhD in English Studies, Saarland University (doctoral thesis: “The Cultural Politics of Chick Lit: Popular Fiction, Postfeminism and Representation”)

Oct 2003 - Nov 2009: Staatsexamen (English and French), Saarland University

Sep 2007 – Apr 2008: Erasmus stay at Cardiff University

 

Scholarships

Apr 2013 - Mar 2014: PhD scholarship granted by the federal State of Saarland (Abschlussstipendium der Landesgraduiertenförderung Saar)

 

Publications

  • Monographs

The Cultural Politics of Chick Lit: Popular Fiction, Postfeminism and Representation. Routledge, 2017.

 

  • Articles/Chapters

“They are here. They are everywhere. They are us.” – Posthuman Encounters in Samanta Schweblin’s Little Eyes (2018).” Journal of Posthumanism, vol. 4, no. 2, 2024, 133-40, doi:10.33182/joph.v4i2.3347. https://journals.tplondon.com/jp/article/view/3347

“Ian McEwans Machines Like Me (2019).” in Handbuch Künstliche Intelligenz und die Künste, eds. Stephani Catani und Jasmin Pfeiffer. De Gruyter, 2023. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110656978-023/html

“Antifeminism, Antigenderism, and the (Religious) Right: A Case Study of Antiabortion Feminism in Saarbrücken.” in Gender and Protest: On the Historical and Contemporary Interrelation of Two Social Phenomena, eds. Frank Jacob and Jowan A. Mohammed. DeGruyter, 2023. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111102757-012/html

"A Black Bridget Jones? Candice Carty-Williams’s Queenie (2019): Challenging Discourses of Race and Gender in the Chick-Lit Genre". Journal of Popular Romance Studies, vol 12, 2023. https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/02/a-black-bridget-jones-candice-carty-williamss-queenie-2019-challenging-discourses-of-race-and-gender-in-the-chick-lit-genre/

"Chick Lit and the New Domesticity." in The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction, eds. Patrick O'Donnell, Stephen J. Burn, and Lesley Larkin. Wiley-Blackwell, 2022. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119431732.ecaf0153

"Neoliberal Fantasies: Erica Kennedy’s Feminista (2009)." in Theorizing Ethnicity and Nationality in the Chick Lit Genre, ed. Erin Hurt. Routledge, 2018.

"'Of Chicks and GIRLS': New Femininities in Chick Culture" in Rethinking Gender in Popular Culture in the 21st Century: Marlboro Men and California Gurls, eds. Astrid Fellner, Marta Fernandes Morales and Martina Martausová. Cambridge Scholar, 2017.

"Irishness between Myth and Brand." Etudes Irlandaises, vol. 38, no.1, 2013, 91-106. https://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/3316

 

  • Edited collections

Bernardi, Verena, Amanda Kopf-Giammanco, and Heike Mißler, eds. Covid-19 in Film and Television: Watching the Pandemic. Routledge, 2025.

 

  • Reviews

Review of Gender Studies: Gender und gesellschaftlicher Wandel, by Wolfgang Funk. Journal for the Study of British Cultures, vol. 25, no. 1, 2018, 106-108.

Review of How to Do Cultural Studies: Ideas, Approaches, Scenarios, by Jürgen Kramer and Bernd Lenz (eds). Journal for the Study of British Cultures, vol. 27, no. 2, 2020, 207-9.

 

Selected Talks and Conference Papers

17 July 2024 “Frauenliteratur? Gender und Genre am Beispiel der popular romance”, Facetten der Vielfalt: Genderforschung und ihre Bedeutung für die Gesellschaft - Ringvorlesung, Saarland University

22 and 25 April 2024 “, ”Subverting Whiteness in Chick Lit: Candice Carty Williams's Queenie (2019)", research seminars at the University of Oviedo and the University of the Balearic Islands,  https://romanceforchange.uib.es/research-seminars/

4 Dec 2020: “Posthumanism and Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me (2019)”, Humanities after Humans: Deconstructing Anthropocentrism (Webinar Miniseries), Université de la Lorraine, Metz (online)

29 Sep 2020: “Sexualmoral, Frauenbilder, und Frauengesundheit als Menschenrecht: Das Thema Schwangerschaftsabbruch aus kulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive“, Pressegespräch zum Safe Abortion Day 2020, Rathausfestsaal Saarbrücken

12 Nov 2019 “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”, Erfolg in Serie: Amerikanische TV-Serien als Gesellschaftsdramen, Kino Achteinhalb Saarbrücken

9 Jul 2019: “Rewriting the Past, Rewriting the Future: Bernardine Evaristo’s Blonde Roots (2008) and Naomi Alderman’s The Power (2016)”, Saarland University

4 Apr 2019: “'It's a truth universally acknowledged that the moment one area of your life starts going okay, another part of it falls spectacularly to pieces.' (Bridget Jones) - Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)", guest lecture at Université de la Lorraine, Metz

10 Feb 2018: “Gender Studies und Third Wave Feminism: Eine (ganz kurze) Einführung“, Lady*fest 2018 at Garelly Haus, Saarbrücken

24 May 2016: “Sex and the City“, Erfolg in Serie: Amerikanische TV-Serien als Gesellschaftsdramen, guest lecture at Filmhaus Saarbrücken

9 July 2015: “Chick Lit: Mehr als Happy Ends und Mr. Rights”, FrauenGenderBibliothek Saar

23 Jun 2015: “'Ups and Downs for the Babes in Bondage': Gender and Punk in Britain in the 1970s”, guest lecture at University of Erlangen-Nürnberg

 

Memberships

FrauenGenderBibliothek Saar

Forum Geschlechterforschung der Universität des Saarlandes

Fachgesellschaft Geschlechterstudien/ Gender Studies Association

pro familia e.V. (Ortsverein Saarbrücken)

Romance for Change