Dr. Kaya de Wolff has been appointed as a visiting professor for gender and diversity at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies in the summer semester 2026.

Her research lies at the intersection of media and communication studies, memory studies, postcolonial and decolonial theory, and political violence research. For her doctoral research (2014-2018), she examined German-language press coverage of German colonial history and the recognition of the genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama. Her Dissertation, “Post-/Koloniale Erinnerungsdiskurse in der Medienkultur”, was published by transcript Verlag in 2021.

As a postdoctoral researcher she worked in the regional network Transformations of Political Violence Centre (TraCe) at Goethe University Frankfurt (2022 to 2026). Within this interdisciplinary research context, she investigated transformations in media cultures and collective memories of histories of violence - including military dictatorship, enslavement, and violence against Indigenous communities - as well as contemporary struggles for recognition in Brazil

We warmly welcome Kaya de Wolff to the Institute for Media and Communication Studies and are pleased that she will enrich our teaching with her international and interdisciplinary research.

As part of her visiting professorship, Kaya de Wolff will hold the following five seminars for Bachelor’s and Master’s students in the Summer Semester 2026:

• Postcolonial und Decolonial Studies - Theorie und Kritik für die Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft (BA-Seminar)
• Erinnerung, Macht und Gender in Medienkulturen (BA-Seminar)
• Colonial History and Diversity in Journalism (BA-Seminar, together with Cristina Haritos)
• Indigenous Women Rise Up: Memory and Activism in the Digital Era (MA-Seminar)
• Re-Mediating Memories of Dictatorship: Intersectional Perspectives (MA-Seminar)