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Curriculum Vitae

Alexia Schemien was an associate lecturer at the University of Duisburg-Essen in North American literary and cultural studies. She was a research and teaching assistant (wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at the University of Duisburg-Essen in North American and literary studies. She holds a master’s degree in English, Spanish, and Anthropology from the University of Münster as well as the University of Burgos, Spain. Her master’s thesis was concerned with the representation of the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa in literature and film. Her dissertation, which she defended in 2016, will be published in the Inter-American Studies book series under the title Of Virgins, Curanderas, and Wrestler Saints: Un/Doing Religion in Contemporary Mexican American Literature (Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier/Bilingual Press, Tempe, AZ). Complementary to her work at the University of Duisburg-Essen, she monitors the social media for the International Association of Inter-American Studies. In the summer of 2011 she conducted a research stay at the Arizona State University in Tempe and in 2012 she did extensive research at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.. In 2013 she co-taught a course on “Indigenous Identities” at the Graz International Summer School Seggau. In July 2017, she was a visiting scholar at Fort Hays State University, Kansas where she taught a course on “Gender and Nationality in Early American Literature.” Between 2010 and 2015 she was one of the organizers of the “Ruhr PhD Forum,” a PhD conference organized by the Ruhr University of Bochum, the Technical University of Dortmund, and the University of Duisburg-Essen. Since September 2016 she is a member of the ProDaz-Team of the University of Duisburg-Essen and organizes workshops on the topic of language awareness, interculturality, and German language acquisition in the foreign language classroom („sprachsensibler Unterricht").

Conference Papers and Workshops

“The Dead Women of Juárez. The Superimposition of Borders in Alicia Gaspar de Alba's Desert Blood.” 1^st Biennial Conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies. Transnational Americas: Difference, Belonging, Identitarian Spaces. Essen, Germany, November 2010.

“‘My Faith in Cristo is Enough.’ – Mexican American Spirituality in Ana Castillo's The Guardians.” CIAS Opening Conference. Bielefeld, Germany, May 2011.

“Hybrid Spiritualities in Literature and Film of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.” Ruhr PhD Forum. Essen, Germany, January 2012.

“Poems and Mysteries From the Desert – Various Representations of the Tohono O’odham Homeland.” 33rd American Indian Workshop. Zürich, Switzerland, April 2012.

“Crossing Religious Boundaries: Mexican-American Spirituality in the Borderlands.” 2nd Biennial Conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies. Crossing Boundaries in the Americas: Dynamics of Change in Politics, Culture, and Media. Guadalajara, Mexico, September 2012.

“The Politics of Spirituality in Mexican American Literature.” Invited Talk in the Research Colloquium at the University of Münster, Germany. Münster, November 2012.

“The Politics of Spirituality in Mexican American Literature.” Graduate Symposium of the French Association of American Studies (AFEA). Religion and Spirituality. Angers, France, May 2013.

“A Cosmos of its Own: Salvador Plascencia’s The People of Paper.” Ruhr PhD Forum. Essen, Germany, January 2014.

“Of Librotraficantes and MAS Races: Alliance Building in the Aftermath of Arizona’s Book Ban.” John F. Kennedy-Institute of North American Studies, Free University of Berlin, Germany, Graduate School. Alliances: Un/Common Causes and the Politics of Participation, May 2015.

“Decolonizing the Religious Mind: Doing Religion and Hybrid Spiritualities in the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands as Aspects of TransArea Studies.” Invited Talk at the University of Rostock, Germany, Decolonizing and TransArea-izing Knowledge-Production: Conflicts of Interpretation and Aspirations of Prospective TransArea-Studies, June 2016.

“Closing Remarks” together with Sylvia Mieszkowski and Silvia Schultermandl. The Politics and Polemics of Gender in Early American Theater, Salzburg, Austria, September 2016.

“Migrating Religions as a Form of Political Activism: Spirituality in Contemporary Mexican American Literature.” 4th Biennial Conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies: Human Rights in the Americas. Santa Barbara, CA, October 2016.

With Steinhoff, Sarah. “Sprachsensibler Fachunterricht im Fremdsprachen­unter­richt.“ Prozessbegleitung „GezBi - Gemeinsam zur Bildungssprache.“ Freiherr vom Stein Gymnasium Recklinghausen. Oktober 2016 – Januar 2017.

“Sprachsensibler Unterricht.“  Workshoporganisation und Vortrag. Kopernikus-Gymnasium Rheine. Februar 2017.

“Sprachsensibler Unterricht im Deutsch- und Fremdsprachenunterricht.“ Gymnasium Horkesgath Krefeld. April 2017.

“Of Freeways and Mechanical Tortoises: Solitude, Urbanity, and Modernity in Their Dogs Came with Them and The People of Paper.” DGfA Jahrestagung Modernities and Modernization in North America. June 2017.

„Sprachsensibler Gesellschaftsunterricht." Hanse-Kolleg - Weiterbildungskolleg in Lippstadt. October 2017.

„Sprachstandsdiagnostik und Sprachförderung." Schillerschule Herne. November 2017.

„Sprachsensibler Fremdsprachenunterricht." Heisenberg Gymnasium Dortmund. December 2017.

with Bettina Thode. „Stereotypisierung der hispanophonen Bevölkerung in den US-amerikanischen Medien.“ Identität durch Sprache in migratorischen Kontexten der Gegenwart, May 2018.

"Jane the Latina Heroine? Negotiating sociolinguistic and cultural perspectives on heroism in Jane the Virgin.“ with Katharina von Elbwart as part of the lecture series „We Don’t Need Another Hero? Heroism in Contemporary Culture.“ University of Duisburg-Essen, July 2018.

"Sprachsensibler Fremdsprachenunterricht.“ Käthe-Kollwitz-Gesamtschule Grevenbroich, September 2018.

Publications

Schemien, Alexia. "Hybrid Spiritualities in Ana Castillo’s The Guardians." Forum for Inter-American Research. 6.1. (2013). Web.

Schemien, Alexia, and Astrid Haas. "Revisiting the Ancestral Past, Envisioning Chicana Lives: An Interview with Santa Barraza, Artist of the Borderlands." Interculturalism in North America: Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Beyond. Ed. Josef Raab and Alexander Greiffenstern. Inter- American Studies/Estudios interamericanos 8. Trier: WVT/Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press, 2013. 259–274.

Schemien, Alexia. “’You People Used to Be Conquistadores, for Christ’s Sake!’ An Inter- American Perspective on Breaking Bad.“ Spaces – Communities – Discourses: Charting Identity and Belonging in the Americas. Ed. Josef Raab and Saskia Hertlein. Inter- American Studies/Estudios interamericanos. Trier: WVT/Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press, 2016. 117-138.

Schemien, Alexia. Of Virgins, Curanderas, and Wrestler Saints: Un/Doing Religion in Contemporary Mexican American Literature. Inter-American Studies/Estudios interamericanos. Trier: WVT/Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press, 2018.

Raab, Josef, and Alexia Schemien. Inter-American Flows: Transnational Imaginaries and Impacts. Inter-American Studies/Estudios interamericanos. Trier: WVT/Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press, im Erscheinen.

Schemien, Alexia. “Poems from the Desert: Transnational Imaginaries in the Tohono O’odham Homeland.“ Inter-American Flows: Transnational Imaginaries and Impacts. Ed. Josef Raab and Alexia Schemien. Inter-American Studies/Estudios interamericanos. Trier: WVT/Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press, im Erscheinen.

Schemien, Alexia. “Masculinity and the Nation in James Nelson Barker’s The Indian Princess.” Essay Collection on Early American Drama. Ed. Leopold Lippert and Ralph Poole. Heidelberg: Winter Verlag, in Vorbereitung.

Schemien, Alexia. “Trade Winds.” Encyclopedia of The Atlantic World, 1400-1900: Europe, Africa, and the Americas in An Age of Exploration, Trade, and Empires. Santa Barbara: Clio-ABC, 2018.

Research Interests

• American drama
• Inter-American Relations
• Mexican American Literature and Culture
• American Film and TV series
• (Neo-)Slave Narratives
• The American Renaissance
• Race and Ethnicity, Postrace, Race Theory
• Gender and Queer Studies
• Feminist Theory and Masculinity Studies
• Religion in American Society
• Native American literature and Indigenous Studies
• Postmodern Literature

Courses Taught at the UDE

• “The U.S.-Mexican Border in Literature”
• “Contemporary African American Literature”
• “Just Like a Prayer: Religion in U.S.-American Popular Culture and Literature“  
• “Home is Where the Heart is: ’American Immigrant Literature’’”
• “A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: A Different Approach to American Presidents” (Co-teaching mit Christina Axmacher und Wiebke Engel)
• “Of Virgins and Rosaries: Religion in Mexican American Literature”
•  “A Survey of American Literature”
• “Native American Literature of the Americas”
• “Introduction to Literary Studies”
• “Setting the Stage: Early American Drama”
• “Going Abroad: Intercultural Theory and Practice”
• “Technisches Englisch”, “Grammatik und Literatur” und B1-, B2-, C1-Englischsprachkurse im Institut für Optionale Studien

Module/Credit Responsibilities

Modulbeauftragte [mit Saskia Hertlein] für Modul X "Auslandserfahrung erwerben und reflektieren" (alle Bachelor Englisch mit Lehramtsoption)

Beauftragte [mit Luisa Alfes, Saskia Hertlein, Samuel Sanders und Jasamin Ulfat] für Inklusionscredits (Bachelor/Master Englisch mit Lehramtsoption)

Additional Positions

• Translator for the Quist App, an app that educates the world about the roots of the LGBTQ communities and makes LGBTQ history accessible (https://www.quistapp.com/about/)
• Member of the ProDaz-Team of the University of Duisburg-Essen

Grants

• DAAD Travel Grant to attend the 2nd biennial conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies in Guadalajara, Mexico, 2012
• DAAD Travel Grant to attend the 4th biennial conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies in Santa Barbara, USA, 2016

Memberships

DGfA (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien)

ASA (American Studies Association)

IAS (International Association of Inter-American Studies)

OAH (Organization of American Historians)