Person

Dr. phil.

Julia Vaeßen

Julia Vaeßen
Chair of British Literature

Address

Room 204

Kármánstr. 17-19

52062 Aachen

 

Completed Projects

Cultural Models and the Construction of Literary Character: Toward a Cognitive and Cultural Theory of Reception
(PhD project, supervisors: apl. Prof. Dr. Sven Strasen und Prof. Dr. Peter Wenzel)

Research Interests

  • cognitive approaches to literature and culture
  • empirical approaches to literature and culture
  • narratology, reception theory
  • contemporary British fiction

Publications

Vaeßen, Julia and Aljoscha Merk. 2019. "Models of Communication and their Application in the Study of Literature: Toward an Integration of Cognition and Culture." In Modelle in der Literatur- und Sprachwissenschaft sowie Ihrer Didaktik / Models in Literary Studies and Linguistics, edited by Sven Strasen and Julia Vaeßen, 29-51. Trier: WVT.

Strasen, Sven and Julia Vaeßen, eds. 2019. Modelle in der Literatur- und Sprachwissenschaft sowie Ihrer Didaktik / Models in Literary Studies and Linguistics. Festschrift für Peter Wenzel. Trier: WVT.

Vaeßen, Julia. 2018. Cultural Models and the Construction of Literary Character: Toward a Cognitive and Cultural Theory of Reception. PhD Thesis, RWTH Aachen University.

Kutsch, Caroline, Julia Vaeßen and Sven Strasen. Forthcoming. "T-Rex – Triggers of Reader Emotion and Experientiality: Combining Empirical Literary Studies, Corpus Linguistics and Affective Computing." Forthcoming.

Vaeßen, Julia, and Sven Strasen. 2015. “A History of Anthony in 3 1/2 Stories: History, Memory, and Fabulation in Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending.” In Last Things: Essays on Ends and Endings, edited by Gavin Hopps, Stella Neumann, Sven Strasen, and Peter Wenzel. Aachen British and American studies 19. Frankfurt am Main: Lang.

Vaeßen, Julia, and Timo Lothmann. 2014. “Do You Read Me? Metaphor as a Pathway to the Conceptualisation of Literary Identity.” International Journal of Literary Linguistics (3.1): 1–18.

Vaeßen, Julia. 2010. “Challenging Binary Oppositions: Carter Revard's 'Dragon-Watching in St. Louis' (1993).” In Discourses of Mobility - Mobility of Discourse: The Conceptualization of Trains, Cars and Planes in 19th- and 20th-Century Poetry, edited by Peter Wenzel and Sven Strasen, 185–92. Trier, Germany: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.

Talks

"Cultural Models and Literary Characters: A Cognitive Cultural Theory of Character Construction." Styles and Methods (PALA 2018). Birmingham, England. 28. Juli 2018. (with Sven Strasen)

"Cultural Models and the Construction of Literary Character." Aachen Lectures on Empirical and Cognitive Literary Studies. Aachen, Germany. 18. Juni 2018.

"A Cognitive Reader Response Theory of Literary Character." Conference Style and Response: Minds, Media, Methods. Sheffield, England, 11. November 2016. (with Sven Strasen)

"T-REX: Triggers of Reader Emotion and Experientiality". Stylistics Reading Group Symposium 2016: Experiencing Fictional Worlds. Nottingham, England, 21 June 2016. (with Sven Strasen)
Abstract

“Do You Read Me? Metaphor as a Pathway to the Conceptualisation of Literary Identity”. First International Conference on Cognition and Poetics. Osnabrück, Germany, April 2013. (with Timo Lothmann)

“A History of Anthony in 3 ½ Stories: History, Memory and Fabulation in Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending.” Colloquium on Ends and Endings in Literature and Culture, St. Andrews, Scotland. March 2012. (with Sven Strasen)

“The Influence of Cultural Models on Identity Construction in Modern British Literature.” BritCult Graduate Forum. Mainz, Germany. November 2011.

Memberships

Teaching

  • seminar/tutorial: Practical Introduction to Literary Studies (2010 – 2018)
  • seminar/tutorial: Introductory Seminar Literary Studies (2011 – 2017)
  • seminar/tutorial: Application of Periods of English and American Literary History (winter term 2018/19)
  • seminar: The American Election 2016 and its Aftermath (winter term 2018/19)
  • seminar: Cognitive Reception Theory (winter term 2017/18)
  • seminar: Poetry and Religion (winter term 2016/17)
  • seminar: Characters in Fictional Worlds (winter term 2015/16 & summer term 2016)
  • seminar: Contemporary British Theatre (winter term 2014/15)
  • seminar: The British Novel after 1980 (winter term 2013/14)
  • seminar: Memory and Identity in 19th and 20th Century Literature (winter term 2010/11)
  • research colloquium for B.A. students (winter term 2017/18)

Curriculum Vitae

01/2013 - 03/2019

Research and Teaching Assistant at the Chair of English Literature, RWTH Aachen University

04/2011 – 03/2013

Assistant Lecturer at the Chair of English Literature, RWTH Aachen University

10/2010 – 03/2011

Teaching Assistant at the Chair of English Literature, RWTH Aachen University

10/2005 – 06/2010

State Examination for Teachers at Secondary Schools (Erstes Staatsexamen für das Lehramt an Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen), RWTH Aachen
subjects: mathematics, English literature and linguistics, catholic theology

Final thesis: "Memory, Identity and Unreliability in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro"

Honours/Scholarships

PhD scholarship awarded by the scholarship body of the Catholic Church in Germany (Cusanuswerk, 2011 – 2013)

undergraduate scholarship awarded by the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, 2008 – 2010)

undergraduate scholarship awarded by the scholarship body of the Catholic Church in Germany (Cusanuswerk, 2007 – 2010)