Burak Sezer

• Environmental Humanities
• Animals and Plant Studies
• American Renaissance
• Philosophy of Science/Mathematics
• Historiographic Metafiction 

Winter Term 2022/23

"Animals in American Literature and Culture", Proseminar, English Seminar I, University of Cologne

Summer Term 2018

“Pädagogische Topologien”, Proseminar, Chair of Educational Anthropology, University of Cologne

Summer Term 2018

“Wissens- und Bildungsutopien”, Proseminar, Chair of Educational Anthropology, University of Cologne

Winter Term 2016/17

“American Objects”, Tutorial for North American Studies M.A. program, English Seminar I, University of Cologne

Winter Term 2015/16

“American Bestiary”, Tutorial for North American Studies M.A. program, English Seminar I, University of Cologne

Summer Term 2015

German 102 and recitations, Department for Modern Languages and Cultures der University of Rochester, NY, USA

Winter Term 2014

German 101, Department for Modern Languages and Cultures der University of Rochester, NY, USA

since Summer 2024 

PostDoc at the Chair of American LIterature and Culture, TU Dortmund University

2022 - 2024

Contract Lecturer at the Chair of American Literature and Culture, University of Cologne

Summer term 2018

Research Associate at the Chair of Educational Anthropology, University of Cologne

2015/10 - 2017/03

Teaching Assistant and Tutor at the Chair for American Literature and Culture, University of Cologne

2018 - 2021 | PhD thesis: After Maths: Thomas Pynchon's Poetics of Mathematics, a.r.t.e.s. Integrated Track Scholarship, University of Cologne, Degree: Doctorate (summa cum laude)

2018-2019 | Graduate Studies in Comparative Literature, University of Rochester, Degree: M.A. (1,0)

2010-2017 | State Examination in English, Mathematics, and Educational Sciences, University of Cologne, Degree: 1. Staatsexamen (1,2)

2014-2015 | Graduate Studies in Comparative Literature, University of Rochester, NY, USA., Degree: Master of Arts, GPA 4.0

2022/11

“Underwater. Immersive Ecologies in Subnautica, BioShock, and Ecosystem”, Playing the Field III: Video Game Ecologies and American Studies (accepted),  Amerikahaus Munich

2022/09-10

“The Afronauts of the Future. Black Speculative Fiction as More Than Postcolonial Participation?”, Participating in Postcolonial Wor(l)ds (accepted), Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf

2022/06

“Into the Crypts of Crypto: Pynchon’s Cryptographic Imagination”, International Pynchon Week 2022, University of British Columbia

2021/10

“The Essential Difference Between 9/11 and 11 September”, Digital Americas, University of Vienna

2019/09

“Cryptography and Randomness in Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge”, Trust and Truth, Cambridge University

2019/06

“From Rainbows to Stonebows: Ossifying Mathematics in Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow”, International Pynchon Week 2019, Sapienza University of Rome

2018/12

“’Avoid the Discomfort:’ Sloth as Counter-Entropy in Pynchon’s Work”, Challenging Comfort as an Idea(l) in Contemporary Literature and Culture, Campus Landau, University of Koblenz-Landau

2018/11

“Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon – A Geometrical Moving West”, American Im/Mobilities, Austrian Association for American Studies, University of Vienna

2016/12

“The Contact Galaxy: Edgar Allan Poe’s Interface of Mathematics and Poetry in 'Eureka'”, Speculative Fictions, University of Cologne

2015/03

“Ghosts, Ghouls, Aliens, Cyborgs: Vivian Sobchack and the Mélange of Science Fiction and Horror in Film”, The Biggest Comebacks: Tenacious Resurgence of Cultural Topoi, University at Buffalo

2014/01

“Uncanny Rooms in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves and H. P. Lovecraft’s 'The Dreams in the Witch-House'”, Connect the Dots!, University of Bayreuth

• “On the Temptations of Comfort. The Poetics of Slothfulness in Pynchon”

  In: Dorothee Birke/Stella Butter (Eds.), Comfort in Contemporary Culture Bielefeld: transcript. 2020, pp. 43-63 https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839449028-003

• “The Empowering Paradox of ‘1=2.’ Mark Z. Danielewski’s Arithmopoetics”

  In: Sascha Pöhlmann (Ed.), Orbit: A Journal of American Literature 10 (2): 8, pp. 1-51 https://doi.org/10.16995/orbit.8226

• “Why Scientists Creep and Crawl. Moving West in Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon”

  In: Leopold Lippert/Alexandra Ganser/Michael Fuchs (Eds.), American Im/Mobilities. JAAAS (Vol. 2, No. 2, 2022). Forthcoming.

• “Schuld”

  In: Markus Dederich/Jörg Zirfas (Eds.), Glossar der Vulnerabilität, Springer VS, 2022. Forthcoming.

• “Katastrophe”

  In: Markus Dederich/Jörg Zirfas (Eds.), Glossar der Vulnerabilität, Springer VS, 2022. Forthcoming.

• “Endlichkeit”

  In: Markus Dederich/Jörg Zirfas (Eds.), Glossar der Vulnerabilität, Springer VS, 2022. Forthcoming. 

Since 2021 | DGfA/GAAS: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien/ German Association for American Studies