Atlanta Athens
Atlanta Athens
>> Dissertation project: "Queer Practices - Music and Zines of the Queer Punk Movement 1985 to today"
My dissertation project uses the queer punk movement to analyse the emancipatory potential of subcultures. At the centre of this are questions about the political and utopian in the aesthetic practices of the movement and the possibilities of negotiating social difference.
The phenomenon of queer punks emerged against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis in Canada and the USA in the mid-1980s. It is an artistic-political network of bands, labels, an active zine* scene, clubs and activists. Its protagonists take a critical stance towards the norms of mainstream society as well as those of the punk and gay and lesbian scenes, with which there are also overlaps.
With musical productions and zines, I examine two central areas of the artistic practice of queer punks. I subject selected works to precise analyses. In doing so, I explore the extent to which the interplay of different aesthetic strategies in queer punk productions contributes to the critique of hetero- and homonormative identities and cultural practices and which drafts of utopian queerness are formulated in them.
Based on a semiological and intermedial research approach to the construction of meanings, I approach the material with a mixture of (song) text, music, image and video analyses.
With my work, I want to document a piece of queer movement history and contribute to the debate on emancipatory cultural practices.
*zine from fanzine, small, self-produced booklets used by members of subcultures to communicate with each other.
>> Research focus
Queer/queerfeminist movements and subcultures, popular culture, cultural studies, cultural studies gender studies
>> Career
Currently a research assistant at the Helene Lange Centre for Queer Studies and Intermediality. Working on the dissertation "Queere Praxen - Musik und Zines der Queer Punk Bewegung 1985 bis heute".
2011 to 2012 Stay abroad in Canada/USA, research on queer punks, work as a freelance journalist
2009 Three-month stay in Israel for further political education
2007 to 2012 Editor at the daily newspaper "Neues Deutschland"
2005 to 2007 Traineeship at "Neues Deutschland"
2003 Three-month research stay in the USA
Since 2003 Freelance journalist
1998 to 2003 Studied cultural work at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences
1997 A-levels
>> Teaching
The body of pop music. Sounds - subjects - gender orders. Seminar in the BA degree programme Media Studies at the Braunschweig University of Art, SS 2017
Subject Trouble - Visual Politics and Negotiations of Social Difference. Seminar in the BA degree programme Art and Media at the C.v.O. University of Oldenburg, WS 2016/2017
Lookism. An introduction. Seminar at the Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin (as part of the Winter Academy), WS 2014/2015
What's Queer About Queer Punk? Heteronormativity-critical potentials of queer subcultures. Seminar in the BA degree programme Gender Studies at the C.v.O. University of Oldenburg, summer term 2014
Freelance lecturer for journalistic, academic and creative writing for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Arbeit und Leben (joint further education institution of the German Trade Union Confederation and the German Adult Education Association), among others; self-organised work with queer and trans* communities - seminars at Trans Inter Queer (Triq) e.V., among others, since 2009
>> Lectures
The band Tribe 8 as part of: Jungle World and Ventil Verlag present: 40 Years No Future! Reading, music and lectures on the book Damaged Goods: 150 entries in punk history, Berlin 12.1.2017
There's A Queer in the Pit. Lecture at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, 4 November 2016
Working at the border. Aesthetic practices and queer punk utopias in the zine J.D.s. In addition... Popular Music and Transgression(s) - Second Conference of the IASPM-D-A-CH, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, 20-23 October 2016
Appropriate Images. GB Jones' Tom Girls and the Zine J.D.s. Inside/Outside: Queer Networks in Transnational Perspective - International Summer School, Leibniz University Hannover, with the support of the Volkswagen Foundation, 11-16 September 2016
Aesthetic Strategies for Queering Punk: The Zine J.D.s. Keep It Simple Make It Fast. Crossing Borders of Underground Music Scenes - International Conference, University of Porto, Portugal, 13-17 July 2015
Queer Punk Visions. Keep It Simple Make It Fast. Underground Music Scenes and D.I.Y Cultures - International Conference, University of Porto, Portugal, 8-11 July 2014
Queer Practices - Music and Zines of the Queer Punk Movement 1985 - today. 3rd Gender Research Day at the C.v.O. University, Oldenburg, 29.11.2013
Queerfeminist Spoken Word and Girls Rock Camps - Presentation of two projects from the book "Riot Grrrl Revisited", lecture together with Juliane Jürgenson, Linke Buchtage Berlin, May 2011
>> Projects and queer/activism
2013 "The Queer Takeover - A cabaret for the Köpi birthday", Berlin
since 2008 co-organiser of the queer-feminist spoken word shows "Shut Up and Speak" and (since 2010) "Shut Up and Sign_Speak", Berlin
2007 to 2009 active in the group "TAM" - Confrontations with violence and boundary violations in queer relationships, Berlin
2006 and 2007 co-organiser and initiator of the "Dyke Trans March", Berlin
1998 to 2003 active in the organisation "FelS - Für eine linke Strömung", Berlin
2000 Exhibition "(Political) Engagement and Graphic Design", NGBK, Berlin
>> Publications
Editorships:
Perverse Assemblages. Queering Heteronormative Orders Inter/medially (conference proceedings) - together with Barbara Paul, Josch Hoenes, Natascha Frankenberg and Rena Onat. Revolver Verlag, Berlin 2017 (forthcoming)
2009 to 2010 co-editor of the pop culture anthology "testcard", issues #18 ("Regress") and #19 ("Blühende Nischen"), Ventil Verlag, Mainz
Publications:
The Queer Punk Visions of J.D.s. In: Guerra, Paula, Quintela, Pedro (eds.): Fast, Furious and Xerox. Independent DIY Publications and Underground Urban Cultures (currently in negotiations with the publisher). Expected to be published in 2017
Queer Punk Politics. An Introduction. In: Paul, Barbara, Hoenes, Josch, Beyer, Atlanta Ina, Frankenberg, Natascha, Onat, Rena (eds.): Perverse Assemblages. Queering Heteronormative Orders Inter/medially. Revolver Verlag, Berlin 2017
Review of the book Sounding Like a No-No. Queer Sounds & Eccentric Acts in the Post-Soul Era by Francesca T. Royster. In: Bartsch, Cornelia, Sweers, Britta (eds.): Grenzgänge. Gender, Ethnicity and Class as Categories of Knowledge in Musicology. Yearbook Music and Gender 8, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zurich, New York 2017, pp. 169-171 (peer-reviewed)
Encyclopaedia entries on the bands Tribe 8 and Team Dresch. In: Engelmann, Jonas (ed.): Damaged Goods. 150 entries in punk history. Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2016, pp. 278-280; 287-289
Gendertramp. In: Spilker, Verena (ed.): MOM Make Out Magazine, No. 3, Dirt, Eigenverlag, Berlin 2015, pp. 43-46
The most natural way to be: to change. Interview with the homo hop and spoken word artist Athens Boys Choir. Published in: Missy Magazine Online Issue 13/02/2013
Queer across the country. Portrait of the US-American singer songwriter Chris Pureka. Published in: ak - analyse & kritik - newspaper for left-wing debate and practice, No. 575, Hamburg 21.9.2012
Word Up! - Your word for the revolution. The Shut Up and Speak project. In: Riot Grrrl Revisited, Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2011
Lookism. On dealing with beauty, aesthetic judgement and the hangover afterwards. Together with HW. Published in: arranca! #43, Bodycheck and left hook, Berlin, December 2010
Taking space as long as the others are smiling? In: Testcard #18 "Regress", Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2009
What was your best orgasm? The film "Shortbus" pleads for expanding sexual negotiation spaces. In: Testcard #17 "Sex", Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2008
Genderkilling Comedy. Interview with Lynn/ee Breedlove. Published in: arranca! #34, Struggles for direction and street demands, Spring 2006
Smells Like Queer Spirit. In: Testcard #14 "Discover America", Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2004
Is This What the KLF is About? In: Testcard #11 "Humour", Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2002
Interfacial Tendencies. In: Testcard #10 "Music of the Future", Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2001