
Dr. Aileen Jorena Behrendt
Senior Lecturer
about
My current research project discusses the politics of kindness in contemporary, single-camera sitcoms. I am a member of the research network ‘Comic Literacies: Cultural Techniques of Comedy’ at the KWI Essen.
In 2019, I completed my PhD thesis on Dynamic Stasis and Gender Politics in British Novels of the 1930s, focusing on Nancy Mitford, Stevie Smith, Rosamond Lehmann and Jean Rhys (supervised by Prof. Dr. Dirk Wiemann and Prof. Dr. Eveline Kilian, Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin). The dissertation won the Gender Award of the Philosophical Faculty at the University of Potsdam. In 2017 and 2018, I was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA.
I graduated from the master’s programme English Literatures at Humboldt-University Berlin in 2014 and received my bachelor’s degree from the University of Potsdam in 2011. I spent an Erasmus semester at the University of Hull.
research and teaching interests
- British Humour and Contemporary Comedy
- Fandom and Television Studies
- Economic Narratives
- Reproductive Justice
- Gender and Queer Theory
- Cultural and Literary Theory
- Modernism
- Metropolitan Cultures
- Victorian Literature and Culture
publications
Books
(Forthcoming) Ed. with Stefanie Jakobie and Hadassah Stichnothe: Critical Perspectives on Enid Blyton, Routledge.
(2021) Ed. with Nick Courtman: Writing the Economic Subject in Modern Western Europe, Peter Lang.
(2020) Gender Politics and British Women Writers of the1930s. Königshausen & Neumann.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
(Forthcoming) “The Pursuits of Romance and Happiness in the TV Musical Comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” Comedy Studies, Special Issue: A Formula for Love - The State of Romantic Comedy, Ed. Heike Mißler
(2025) “The Dark Undercurrents of the Sitcom’s Happy Homes: A Reading of Kevin Can F Himself.” Coils of the Serpent, Special Issue: The Politics of Home, Eds. Kristin Aubel and Sarah Heinz.
Open Access: https://coilsoftheserpent.org/2025/08/the-dark-undercurrents-of-the-sitcoms-happy-homes/
(2025) “Zwischen Wissensnetzwerken und Schweigepolitiken: Literarische Abtreibungen in Britischen Romanen der 1930er Jahre als kollektive Erfahrung.” Literatur und Abtreibung, Eds. Carolin Slickers and Veronika Hofeneder, Frank&Timme. DOI: 10.26530/20.500.12657/99162.
Open Access: https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/99162/9783732987733.pdf?sequence=9
(2024) “Femininity, Humor, and TV Comedies: The Wit of Fran Fine, Lorelai Gilmore, and Mrs. Maisel.” The European Journal of American Studies, Special Issue 19.3/2024: Funny Women, Ed. Nele Sawallish, DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/12avd.
Open Access: https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/22584
(2024) “Sexual Health and Transnational Television: The British Highschool Experience in Netflix’s Sex Education,” Hard Times 107: Health, Eds. Anke Bartels, and Luke Martell.
Open Access: https://hardtimesmagazinecom.wordpress.com/
(2021) “Against the Economic Imperative – Jean Rhys’s Interwar Women as Capitalist Failures.” Writing the Economic Subject in Modern Western Europe, Ed. Nick Courtman and Aileen Behrendt. Peter Lang (2021)
(2021) with Nick Courtman. “Introduction.” Writing the Economic Subject in Modern Western Europe, Peter Lang (2021)
(2020) “Female Friendships, Domesticity and the Construct of Englishness in Winifred Watson’s Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.” Interwar Women's Comic Fiction: 'Have Women a Sense of Humour?' Ed. Nicola Darwood and Nick Turner. Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2020)
(2018) “Who can we laugh at? – British Humour in Times of Brexit.” Hard Times 101: The Return of Politics, Eds Anke Bartels and Dirk Wiemann.
Open Access: https://hardtimesmagazinecom.wordpress.com/archives/
international conference
Writing a British Childhood in a Global Context?
Critical Perspectives on Enid Blyton
University of Potsdam, 25-27 September 2024