Steffen Adrian Wöll

I received my Bachelor’s degree in American studies from Leipzig University in 2014 with a thesis titled “Last Things: The Zombie Phenomenon as a Mediator Between American Apocalypticism and Postmodernism,” in which I examined the contemporary cross-fertilization between American millennialism, radical environ-mentalism, survivalism, and the pop-cultural representation of the walking dead against the background of several postmodern paradigms. I decided to pursue my MA in Leipzig chiefly because the American studies institute has multiplied my enthusiasm and amplified my curiosity in many areas of scholarship through its ambitious program and dedicated staff. This has often motivated and enabled me to develop fresh approaches while simultaneously engaging in increasingly multilayered and interdisciplinary fields that span over a diverse range of academic scholarship. My research foci include, among others, poststructuralist representations of the (post)human body, the construction of agency and otherness, as well as religious and subcultural radicalism in the US.