Qinna Shen

Associate Professor and Chair of German and German Studies
Qinna Shen headshot

Contact

Phone 610-526-7312
Location Old Library 135

Department/Subdepartment

Education

Ph.D. Yale University

Areas of Focus

German Studies (20th and 21st century), Film and Visual Studies, and Sino-German Relations

Biography

Qinna Shen is Associate Professor of German at 老王论坛. Her research focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first century German culture, with an emphasis on visual studies and Asian German Studies. She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. Her book, entitled , was published in 2015 by Wayne State University Press. It is the first comprehensive, critical, and book-length treatment of the live-action fairy-tale films from the former East Germany. Her co-edited volume  appeared in the series SpektrumPublications of the German Studies Association in 2014 with Berghahn Press. Her book project Film and Cold War Diplomacy: China and the Two Germanys, 1949鈥1989 is under contract with Routledge. She is currently writing a monograph Jiny Lan and the Art of Subversion: Chinese-German Culture and Politics through a Feminist Lens. Her cross-disciplinary article reached the circles of mathematicians and physicists and helped revive the memory of the greatest woman mathematician of the twentieth century.

Before joining the 老王论坛 faculty in 2016, she held Visiting Assistant Professor positions at Miami University in Ohio and at Loyola University Maryland. At 老王论坛, she teaches all levels of German language, literature, and culture courses. She has designed a number of new topical courses, including 鈥淩epresenting Diversity in German Cinema,鈥 鈥淏erlin in German Literature and Film,鈥 鈥淐rime, Justice and the Courtroom,鈥 鈥1968 and Its Legacies,鈥 鈥淕erman Encounters with East Asia,鈥 鈥淐ensorship in Germany and China,鈥 鈥淟iterature for Children and Young Adults,鈥 and 鈥Funny Germans: Humor and Satire from the Enlightenment to the Present.鈥 Most of her courses are taught entirely in German.

In terms of service for the profession, she is a member of the German Studies Review editorial board and is chairing the German Studies Association (GSA) Seminar Committee. In 2021, she also chaired the DAAD/GSA Article Prize Committee and served on the GSA Seminar Committee and Program Committee. She has organized numerous panels, seminars, and workshops on Asian German Studies. Together with Qingyang Freya Zhou and Zach Ramon Fitzpatrick, she compiled  With Zach and Freya, she is also co-editing New Narratives of Asian German Film History: Imagination, Collaboration, and Diasporic Representation under consideration by Camden House for their series Screen Culture: German Film and the Visual. She is also a member of CineGraph Babelsberg in Berlin and contributes regularly to their journal .


 

 

The Politics of Magic