I earned my B.A. Hon. (Literature and Society) and B.A. (German) from Brown University . I received my M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley , where I studied German literature from the medieval period through the late twentieth-century. My dissertation, Masquerade: Woman, Nature, Modernity, allowed me to combine my interests in gender theory, cultural studies and film history. These interests are reflected in my publications , which include articles on Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg, the representation of women healers in medieval epics, and the Elisabet Weirauch's three-volume novel, Der Skorpion.
I have lived in various cities in Germany (Tübingen, Göttingen, Regensburg and Berlin) and studied at universities in Tübingen (Eberhard-Karls- Universität,) and Berlin ( Freie Universität Berlin ). I spent the summer of 2000 researching in the libraries and archives in Berlin.
Currently I am engaged in a book-length study of Josephine Baker entitled "Ultra-Primitive/Ultra-Modern: Josephine Baker and the Racial Imaginary of the Weimar Republic." A beloved icon of Parisian (and Berlin) modernity, Baker's life and legend are ideal entry points for investigating the Weimar fascination with the black body. Not only did Baker serve as an inspiration for numerous artists, but her image and person were fictionalised and parodied in diverse media and cultural venues. For most German audiences, Baker's image and name were readily identifiable and legible indeed, they became a shorthand for a diverse array of discourses that were projected onto the black body.