Dr. des. Silvia Anastasijevic
Research Associate / Postdoc
Office hours via appointment: anastasijevic@uni-bonn.de
Research Interests
- World Anglophone Literatures and Cultures
- Postcolonial and Transcultural Studies
- Humor Studies
- Indigenous Literatures and Cultures
- (Cross-) Media Studies
- Posthumanism and Speculative Fiction
Functions and Activities
- Deputy Equal Opportunities Officer at the Faculty of Arts (University of Bonn) since November 2025
- Editorial Assistant at Matatu: Journal for African Literary and Cultural Studies (Brill) from April 2023 until July 2025
- Co-Chair of the GRADE Initiative “Transcultural Narratives" (Goethe University Frankfurt) from March 2021 until March 2025
- Treasurer of the Gesellschaft für Anglophone Postkoloniale Studien (Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies) from May 2020 until May 2022
- Treasurer of the Calliopean Society e.V. from June 2016 until February 2019
- Mentee of SciMento (Mentoring Hessen) from November 2016 until April 2018
Publications
Anastasijevic, Silvia, Magdalena Pfalzgraf and Hanna Teichler (Editors). The Many Worlds of Anglophone Literature: Transcultural Engagements, Global Frictions. London: Bloomsbury, 2024.
Anastasijevic, Silvia, Magdalena Pfalzgraf and Hanna Teichler (Editors). Moving Centers & Traveling Cultures. Special Issue of Kairos. A Journal of Critical Symposium 4.1, 2019.
"Beyond the Victim-Perpetrator Paradigm: Overcoming 'Single Stories' Through Humor?" Contested Solidarities: Agency and Victimhood in Anglophone Literatures and Cultures. Edited by Kathrin Bartha-Mitchell, Pavan Malreddy, and Frank Schulze-Engler. Heidelberg: Heidelberg UP, 2025.
“Inside/Outside the Joke? Humor Across and Between Cultures.” Collisions of Cultures: Frictions and Re-Shapings. Edited by Lily Rose Tope and Wolfgang Zach. Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovac. 2022.
Anastasijevic, Silvia, Magdalena Pfalzgraf, and Hanna Teichler (Editors). “Moving Centers & Traveling Cultures: Readings in Contemporary Anglophone Literatures”. Moving Centers & Traveling Cultures. Special Issue of Kairos. A Journal of Critical Symposium 4.1, 2019: 1-8.
“Transcultural Humor.” Keywords in Transcultural English Studies. Department of English and American Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt, December 2019.
Teaching
Who Needs Identity? Self, Culture, Nation, Other
Graduate seminar at Bonn University, winter term 2025/26
Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies - Übung
Undergraduate seminar at Bonn University, winter term 2025/26
(Im)possible Societies? Contemporary Speculative Narratives in the Anglophone World
Graduate seminar at Bonn University, summer term 2025
Imaginaries of Empire: A Journey from the 19th to the 21st Century
Undergraduate seminar at Bonn University, summer term 2025
Epic Tales in Anglophone Media: Heroes, Myths, and Legends
Undergraduate seminar at Goethe-University Frankfurt, winter term 2022/23
Reading Indigenous Visual Media
Undergraduate seminar at Goethe-University Frankfurt, summer term 2022
Research Colloquium "Transculturality in the Anglophone World"
Co-Chair of the weekly Research Colloquium of the Department of New Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at Goethe University Frankfurt, summer term 2021, winter term 2021/22, summer term 2022
Narratives of Ethnic and National Identity
Undergraduate seminar at Goethe-University Frankfurt, winter term 2021/22
Revisions, Intertextuality, Adaptations: The Art of Rewriting
Undergraduate seminar at Goethe-University Frankfurt, summer term 2021
Fictions of Empire
Undergraduate seminar at Goethe-University Frankfurt, winter term 2020/21
Are You Joking? Anglophone Stand-Up Comedy from the 19th to the 21st Century
Undergraduate seminar at Goethe-University Frankfurt, summer term 2020
Seriously funny? Transcultural Humor in the English-Speaking World
Undergraduate seminar at Goethe-University Frankfurt, winter term 2019/20.
Conferences & Symposia
Co-Organizer of the panel “Co-Organizer of the panel “New Perspectives on Transcultural English Literatures in a Multipolar Age“ with Nadia Butt, Magdalena Pfalzgraf, and Michelle Stork. 20th Triennial Conference of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS). University of Nairobi, July 1-5, 2025.
“Intertextual Adventures: Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.“20th Triennial Conference of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS). University of Nairobi, July 1-5, 2025.
“Stories Within Stories: Humor and Thomas King's Green Grass, Running Water.” Postcolonial Theories and Literatures in the Twenty-First Century. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, October 4-5, 2024.
Co-Organizer of the panel “The Many Worlds of Anglophone Literature, Transcultural Engagements, Global Frictions” with Nadia Butt and Magdalena Pfalzgraf. Postcolonial Theories and Literatures in the Twenty-First Century. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, October 4-5, 2024.
“The Other Within: Humorous Transgressions in The Infidel.” 19th Triennial Conference of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. University of Toronto (Online), July 11-15, 2022.
"Beyond the Victim-Perpetrator Paradigm: Overcoming 'Single Stories' Through Humor." 31st Annual Conference of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies. Goethe University Frankfurt, May 26-29, 2022.
“Transcultural Encounters: Remembering the Colonial Past through Comedy.” 5th Annual Memory Studies Association (MSA), University of Warsaw (Online), July 5-9, 2021.
“Transcultural Comedy and the Migrant Experience.”17th Triennial Conference of the European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, Cardiff University (Online), June 28-31, 2021.
Co-Chair of the 5th Annual Postgraduate Forum “Postcolonial Narrations 2018” with Magdalena Pfalzgraf and Hanna Teichler: Organization of the conference "Moving Centers and Traveling Cultures", Goethe University Frankfurt, October 10-12, 2018.
"Transcultural Encounters: Remembering Colonial History Through Comedy." 31st Annual Conference of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies. Goethe University Frankfurt, May 21-24, 2020. Conference canceled due to the pandemic.
"Toward a Theory of Transcultural Humor." 29th Annual Conference of the International Society for Humor Studies. Université du Québec à Montréal, July 10-14, 2017.
"Transcultural Humor and the City: Cross-cultural Encounters in Urban Spaces." 16th Annual Conference of the European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. University of Oviedo, April 3-7, 2017.
"Inside/Outside the Joke: Forms of Exclusion and Inclusion in Transcultural Humor." 17th Triennial Conference of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. University of Stellenbosch, July 10-15, 2016.
"Transcultural Narratives in Anglophone Humor: The Case of Stand-Up Comedy." 28th Annual Conference of the International Society for Humor Studies. Trinity College Dublin, June 27-July 1, 2016.
"Transcultural Humorscapes in Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media: Humorous Representation and Communication in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America." 27th Annual Conference of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies. University of Augsburg, May 5-7, 2016.
Co-Organizer of the international symposium “Entanglements: Envisioning World Literature from the Global South“ with John Njenga Karugia, Anne Löber, Frank Schulze-Engler, and Jarula Wegner. Held at the Department for New Anglophone Literatures and Cultures. Goethe University, January 20-21, 2016.
"(Im)Possible Societies: Beyond Cultural and Biological Borders." Invited presentation at the Postdoc Day at Goethe-University Frankfurt on October 18, 2025.
"Laughter Across Borders: The Complexities of Transcultural Humor." Invited talk to the graduate seminar Satire and Humour in African Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures by Prof. Rodwell Makombe. November 25, 2024.