Dr. Maria Sulimma of the Department of Anglophone Studies, University Duisburg-Essen, and the Research Group City Scripts has received the Rolf Kentner Dissertation Prize of the Center for American Studies at the University Heidelberg. The award-winning dissertation was written at the John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, and as part of the Popular Seriality Research Unit. Maria Sulimma was a member of the JFKI culture department from 2013 to 2018. The faculty and staff of the culture department congratulate her on this great achievement.

The Rolf Kentner prize awards outstanding work in the field of American studies and is endowed with € 1.000. On the occasion of the award ceremony, Maria Sulimma will give a lecture in Heidelberg on television narration, seriality studies and gender studies (“Seriality and Gender: The Politics and Practices of American Television”). The public event will take place on October, 24^th.

Her study Serial Genders, Gendered Serialities: Practices of US-American Television Narratives in the 21st Century develops an analytical model based on the ‘doubled seriality’ of both television series and intersectional gender performance. For three different US-American television series, Girls, How To Get Away with Murder and The Walking Dead, Maria Sulimma provides readings of their different production and reception contexts, as well as narrative strategies. She demonstrates how these series mobilize current socio-political discussions for their own commercial continuation.

The Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) awards the Rolf Kentner Dissertation Prize for the tenth time this year. It recognizes outstanding work in the field of American studies, including American literature and culture, geography, history, art history, political science, religious studies, sociology or constitutional law. More information can be found here.