Research
I conduct research on the history of media in the 20th century, with a particular focus on the relationship between media policy, media law and media cultures.
Content:
Dissertation
Today, computer games and gambling machines are associated with judgements, emotions, discursive rules and legal practices that first had to emerge, assert themselves against other attributions and regulations, and become part of everyday life. My dissertation is dedicated to the genesis of this seemingly self-evident discourse with the following research question: What forms of state control over gaming and gambling existed during the period under investigation, and what historical conditions can be reconstructed for their emergence? Starting with the first bans on mechanically operated slot machines in Prussia around 1904 and continuing until the end of the first “wave” of computer game banning in 1990, the thesis traces how and on what grounds governments and authorities banned or regulated slot machines and computer games. Using ministerial and administrative documents, I reconstruct the connections between different discourses: knowledge discourses had just as much influence on control practices as emotional value patterns and legal discourses.
The thesis takes a discourse and emotion history approach to complement research on media control, which has so far mainly dealt with book, magazine and film censorship, with a look at the control of technically mediated games and a closer examination of the perspective of the executing authorities and actors. The focus is on aspects of moral and knowledge history as well as aspects of law and public administration history. The aim of the thesis is not to understand “the” controlling state as a uniform, powerful individual (as is often the case in discourses on state regulation of games and gambling), but to describe the multitude of actors, paragraphs, documents and evaluations in their interplay.
Publications
„Politiken der Spielwirkung: Computerspiele und Indizierung in der Bonner Republik“. In Politiken des (digitalen) Spiels, edited by Arno Görgen and Tobias Unterhuber, 239–48. Game Studies 4. Bielefeld: transcript, 2023. DOI: 10.14361/9783839467909-013.
„Protecting the Youth by Controlling the Ludic: BPjS Indexing Practices in 1980s Western Germany“. In Mental Health | Atmospheres | Video Games: New Directions in Game Research II., edited by Jimena Aguilar Rodríguez, Federico Alvarez Igarzábal, Micheal S. Debus, Curtis L. Maughan, Su-Jin Song, Miruna Vozaru, and Felix Zimmermann, 35–50. Studies of Digital Media Culture. Bielefeld: transcript, 2022. DOI: 10.14361/9783839462645-005.
„Taking It Public: Walking the Fine Ethical Line of Game Regulation“. In Freedom | Oppression | Games & Play, edited by Nikolaus Koenig, Natalie Denk, Alexander Pfeiffer, Thomas Wernbacher, and Simon Wimmer, 375–89. Krems an der Donau: University of Krems Press, 2023. DOI: 10.48341/ttmb-rz82.
„Technisierung des Menschlichen: Disruptionen naturalisierter Spielbegriffe am Beispiel der Digitalisierung“. Spiel|Formen 2 (23 June 2023): 125–44. DOI: 10.25969/mediarep/19724.
Talks
Von Spielimaginationen und Verbotsbegründungen: Automaten- und Computerspielkontrolle in den deutschen Staaten 1900-1990, presentation at the Annual Gathering of the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaften, Paderborn University, 17 September 2025.
Was kam vor „Year One“? Zum notwendigen Mythos vom missverstandenen Computerspiel, conference paper at „Spielgeschichte(n) – Games und Game Studies in medienkulturgeschichtlicher Perspektive“, Universität Innsbruck, 13 April 2024.
Historische Wechselspiele: Zur Dialektik von Spielkultur und Recht, paper at the symposium »Recht im Spiel, Spiel im Recht«, Universität Innsbruck, 30 November 2023.
Technisierte Spiele als Krise des modernen Anthropozentrismus: Wie Spielautomaten und Computerspiele den Humanismus ängstigten, conference paper at the third annual conference of the Bamberg Graduate School for Literature, Culture, and Media »Machine Modernisms«, Otto-Friedrich-Universität, 17 June 2023.
Game Regulation Between Oppressing and Facilitating Freedom, conference paper at 6th Future and Reality of Gaming Conference (FROG) "Freedom, Oppression, Games & Play", Donau-Universität für Weiterbildung Krems, 26 November 2022.
Fearing the Hybrid: How the Spread of Personal Computers Caused Concerns of Dehumanisation, conference paper at 7. Cambridge AHRC International Conference "Hybridity", St Catherine's College, Cambridge, 21 September 2022.
Teaching
Wissenschaftliche Kontroversen: Forschungsmethoden im Zeichen der (Post-)Digitalisierung, colloquium for the a.r.t.e.s. Research Master, a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne, winter semester 2025/26.
How to Write an Academic Paper, practical course, ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln, summer semester 2024.
Über interaktive Medien schreiben, practical writing course, Institut für Medienkultur und Theater, summer semester 2024.
Gutes Spiel, schlechtes Spiel: Die soziale Konstruktion von Mediennutzung am Beispiel des digitalen Spiels, seminar, Institut für Medienkultur und Theater, summer semester 2023.
Workshops
The extended PhD brain: Productive reference and note management from source collection to writing with Zotero and Obsidian, workshop for fellow PhD students at a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School, University of Cologne, 13 & 15 May, 2025.
Conference Organisation
Head of Organising Commitee, a.r.t.e.s. forum 2023 „Challenging Surroundings“, University of Cologne, 6 July 2023.
Student Assistent, Retro-Kulturen und Digitale Archive, University of Cologne, 31 January und 1 February 2020.