Ruth Mayer holds the chair of American Studies at Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany. She has published in English and in German, focusing on (popular) cultural studies, and on processes of cultural contact, transnationalization, and diasporization with a strong focus on Chinese/American interactions. Her most recent book publication is Serial Fu Manchu: The Chinese Super-Villain and the Spread of Yellow Peril Ideology (Temple UP 2013). She is a member of the research unit "Popular Seriality: Aesthetics and Practice" (Berlin-Hannover-Göttingen), where she is currently directing a project on the cultural productivity of film serials from 1910 to 1940.