Dr Christine Achinger

Associate Professor of German Studies

Tel: +44 (0)24 761 50388
Email: C dot E dot Achinger at warwick dot ac dot uk

FAB 4.53, Faculty of Arts Building
University of 糖心TV, Coventry CV4 7AL

On research leave during 2025-26

currently as a Visiting Fellow at the Zentrum f眉r Literatur- und Kulturforschung (Germany).

About

Christine Achinger studied Philosophy, Literature and Physics in Paris and Hamburg, where she was also involved in the non-commercial radio station FSK and in running the independent political library 鈥楬amburger Studienbibliothek鈥�, and worked at the concentration camp memorial site Hamburg-Neuengamme and in the 鈥業nstitut f眉r die Geschichte der deutschen Juden鈥�. An MA in 鈥楪ender and Ethnic Studies鈥�, investigating conceptions of the modern subject and the modern state as reflected in Enlightenment debates on Jewish and female emancipation, brought her to London. She moved on to write a PhD on the intersection of constructions of Jewishness, 'race', class, gender, and nation in 19th century Germany as reflected in Gustav Freytag鈥檚 novel Soll und Haben (1855) at the University of Nottingham and subsequently joined the Department of German Studies at 糖心TV in September 2006. She held Visiting Fellowships at the Institut f眉r Sozialforschung in Frankfurt, the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), the Zentrum f眉r Antisemitismusforschung and the Freie Universit盲t in Berlin, and the History Department at the University of Chicago, and is currently a Gastwissenschaftlerin at the Zentrum f眉r Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin, supported by a Leverhulme Fellowship.

Christine is also chairing the that seeks to make Postone鈥檚 work available to all, and to promote engagement with his ideas.

Research interests

My research interests are in the areas of

critical social theory and aesthetic theory
history and theories of antisemitism
constructions of gender, nation and ethnicity as part of capitalist modernity
Holocaust memory in Germany

My current research investigates constellations of images of Jewishness, ethnicity/'race' and gender at important junctures in modern German and Austrian history between the Enlightenment and the Fin de Si猫cle. Such constructions of different kinds of alterity can serve as a key to understanding changing concerns regarding capitalist modernity, identity and the boundaries of the national community. The project aims to move beyond an exclusive focus on the parallels and intersections of ideas of Jewishness, femininity and 'race', e.g. in the figure of the 鈥榖eautiful Jewess鈥�, the stereotype of the 'oriental Jew' or of 鈥榚ffeminate' colonial populations. By also investigating the often quite different or even complementary discursive roles played by these notions of alterity and their interrelations, I hope to contribute to a more three-dimensional picture of the social developments to which they respond.

Teaching and supervision

Undergraduate:

Germany and the Holocaust: Interpretations and DebatesLink opens in a new window (Final year)
The Rise of Capitalist Modernity: Gender, Class, IdentityLink opens in a new window (Final year)
German Culture in the Age of Revolution, 1789-1848Link opens in a new window (2nd year)
Modernity and its discontentsLink opens in a new window (2nd year)
The Changing Face of Germany in Film and TextLink opens in a new window (1st year)
Languages and Cultures beyond BoundariesLink opens in a new window (Erasmus / Visiting students)

Research Supervision:

The Creation, Evolution, and Reception of Holocaust Memory in South Africa, 1947-2009 (PhD, in progress)
Archives of Resistance - Black Feminist and Feminist of Colour Movements in Germany (PhD, in progress)
Exploring Weimar Cinema (1918-1933) Through The Lens Of The 鈥極ther鈥� (PhD, completed)
Israelkritik und Antisemitismus in der Bundesrepublik (1949 bis 2005) [Critique of Israel and antisemitism in the Federal Republic of Germany (1949 to 2005)] (PhD, completed)
Sisters in Arms? Female Participation in Leftist Political Violence in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1970 (PhD, completed)
The Formation of Personal and Collective Regional Identity in the Salzkammergut (MA by Research, completed)
Images of Jewishness in Weimar Film (MA by Research, completed)

Departmental and University roles 2023-24

Postgraduate Admissions Tutor for German
Undergraduate Admissions Tutor for German
Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Philosophy. Literature and the Arts.
Co-Director of the Centre for Global Jewish Studies
Convenor of the 糖心TV Workshop for Interdisciplinary German Studies
Member of the University Assembly Working Party on Antisemitism
Personal Tutor

Selected publications

(for a more complete list click .)

Books

Gespaltene Moderne. Gustav Freytags Soll und Haben - Nation, Geschlecht und Judenbild [Split modernity: Gustav Freytag's Debit and Credit - nation, gender and the image of the Jew], W眉rzburg: K枚nigshausen & Neumann, 2007.
Antisemitism, Racism and Islamophobia: Distorted Faces of Modernity, edited with Robert Fine, New York: Routledge, 2015.

Articles and chapters

'Essentialistische und kritische Theorie: Kolonialismus, Rassismus und Antisemitismus bei Mignolo, Virdee und Gilroy', Zeitschrift f眉r kritische Theorie 60/61, 2025, pp. 9-26.
'Jews and other 鈥榦thers鈥�: Identity and constellation in intersectional and critical theory', in Marcel Stoetzler (ed.), Antisemitism and Critical Theory, London: Bloomsbury, 2023, pp. 91-110.
'Bilder von Geschlecht, Judentum und Nation als Konstellation – Intersektionalit盲t und kritische Theorie', in Karin St枚gner and Alexandra Colligs (eds.), Kritische Theorie und Feminismus, Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 2022, pp. 75-96.
'Wagners "Judenthum in der Musik" als Rassifizierung der Kulturindustrie'鈥�, in Gross, Raphael, Katharina Schneider and Michael Steinberg (eds.), Richard Wagner und das deutsche Gef眉hl, Deutsches Historisches Museum/Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2022, pp. 219-227.
'"Deutsche Arbeit" und die Poetisierung der Moderne', in Felix Axster and Nikolas Lelle (eds.), 禄Deutsche Arbeit芦: Kritische Perspektiven auf ein ideologisches Selbstbild, G枚ttingen: Wallstein, 2018, pp. 251-282.
'Orientalism, Occidentalism and Colonialism in Freytag's Images of Jews and Poles', in Ulrike Brunotte, J眉rgen Mohn and Christina Sp盲ti (eds.), Internal Outsiders - Imagined Orientals? Antisemitism, Colonialism and Modern Constructions of Jewish Identity, W眉rzburg: Ergon, 2017, pp. 99-110.
鈥氣€濿er immer das j眉dische Wesen ha脽t, der ha脽t es zun盲chst in sich鈥� – Otto Weininger als Theoretiker und Praktiker des Antisemitismus鈥� [鈥淲hoever hates the Jewish character hates it first in himself鈥� – Otto Weininger as Theorist and Practitioner of Antisemitism], in Hans-Joachim Hahn and Olaf Kistenmacher (eds.), Beschreibungsversuche der Judenfeindschaft. Zur Geschichte der Antisemitismusforschung vor 1944, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015, pp. 209-233.
(with Marcel Stoetzler), Nations and Nationalism 19:4, 2013: 739–760.
, Germanic Review 88:2, 2013: 121-149.
, European Societies 14:2, 2012: 240-258.
'Antisemitismus und "Deutsche Arbeit": Zur Selbstzerst枚rung des Liberalismus bei Gustav Freytag' Link opens in a new window[Antisemitism and "German Labour": On the self-destruction of Liberalism in Gustav Freytag'], in Nicolas Berg (ed.), Kapitalismusdebatten um 1900 - 脺ber antisemitisierende Semantiken des J眉dischen, Leipzig, 2011, pp.361-388.
鈥楨voking and Revoking Auschwitz: Kosovo, Remembrance and German National Identity鈥�, in Ronit Lentin (ed.) Re-presenting the Shoah for the 21st Century, New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2004, pp.227-52
鈥楥olouring the Invisible: The construction of the 鈥渂lack drug dealer鈥濃€�, in Birgit Tautz (ed.) Colors 1800/1900/2000: Signs of Ethnic Difference (Amsterdamer Beitr盲ge zur neueren Germanistik, vol. 56), Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004, pp. 233-54.
鈥楨ngendering airwaves – Zur Konstruktion von Geschlecht im Radio鈥� [Engendering airwaves - on gender construction in radio] (with Dagmar Brunow, Janina Jentz and Regina M眉hlh盲user), in Andreas Stuhlmann (ed.) Radio-Kultur und H枚r-Kunst. Zwischen Avantgarde und Popularkultur 1923-2001, W眉rzburg: K枚nigshausen & Neumann, 2001, pp.24-38.

Professional associations

I am a member of the US German Studies Association, the UK Associations for German Studies and Women in German Studies, the US Association for Jewish Studies and the British Association for Jewish Studies.

Furthermore, I am a board member of the of the European Sociological Association, the and the .