I am a writer, scholar, educator, facilitator, and organizer living in Vancouver, on the ancestral and unceded territory of the ʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Currently, I am a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Prior to joining UBC, I have been a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Bern.

I completed my PhD in Gender Studies with the highest distinction at the University of Bern in 2023. In 2022, I was a visiting doctoral student at the Chair in Transgender Studies at the University of Victoria.

Before moving to Canada, I lived in Vienna, where I completed my graduate diploma in Development Studies with a focus in feminist theory and postcolonial studies in 2014.

Biography

A young man with glasses and a beard, wearing a black shirt, standing outdoors with a blurred modern building in the background.

I am a gender and cultural studies scholar who is interested in trans histories, archives, film and popular culture, affects, and memory culture. My work explores how the trans past is narrated, imagined, and contested, whose stories are remembered and whose are forgotten or erased, and what political imaginaries, transnational solidarities, and visions of collective futures these narratives inspire. I pay particular attention to 19th- and 20th-century trans histories in German-speaking Europe and their colonial entanglements.

I regularly present my work at conferences, at public events, or through invited lectures.

A man giving a presentation at the front of a room full of seated audience members. There is a large screen behind him displaying a slide with text and images.

Reading at QWien, December 2025.

My work has been funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation, and the Austrian Scientific Community (ÖFG).

In 2024, I was awarded the Barbara Lischetti Award by the University of Bern, which recognizes outstanding dissertations in the field of Gender Studies.

I deeply believe in collaboration, mutual aid, and collectivity!

Together with Dr. Ervin Malakaj, I have co-founded and co-convene the DDGC Queer and Trans German Studies Research Cooperative, aka the Pink Pony Club.

With Dr. Bodie A. Ashton, I serve as the co-editor of the Transnational Queer Histories series at De Gruyter. We are particularly committed to supporting emerging scholarship in queer and trans history. Please reach out if you have an idea for a book you would like to discuss!

I regularly review manuscripts for scholarly journals and academic presses.

Display window with a large poster advertising Trans*formations event from June 28-29, 2019, and a small blackboard on the sidewalk outside a building with steps leading up to the entrance.

Love Trans*formations at Les Complices* in Zurich, 2019.

I am a passionate educator who is committed to engaged pedagogy and social justice!

I have taught a range of introductory and upper-level classes in Gender Studies, Film and Media Studies, Development Studies, and Educational Studies at the University of Vienna, the University of Innsbruck, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and the University of Bern.

Additionally, I have facilitated workshops for NGOs, activists, and students on topics such as gender-inclusive youth counselling, trans inclusion at work and in schools, gender and language, disability justice, colonialism and global inequalities.

Stacked booklets with colorful covers on a white surface, including a purple booklet with a classical sculpture on the cover, a blue booklet with handwritten text and illustrations about threatening and destruction, and a pink booklet with lively graphics and text.

Mini zines created by participants during a workshop in 2026.

I am enthusiastic about bringing people together and creating opportunities for meaningful connection. Building spaces that foster creative thinking and collaboration among academics, artists, and activists is central to my work. I am committed to transdisciplinary, community-based approaches that cultivate relationality, playfulness, and care.

Between 2017 and 2019, together with Nick Prokesch, I co-organized and co-hosted “trans*screenings,” a monthly film screening series focusing on trans cinema, community, and culture.

In 2019, together with Dr. Simon N. Harder and in collaboration with Gökçe Ergör, I co-organized the transdisciplinary event “Love Trans*formations” in 2019. Exploring political notions of ‘love’ and their pitfalls within trans communities and cultural productions, we brought together international scholars, artists, musicians, filmmakers, and activists to present their work through public talks, art installations, performances, and workshops.

People watching a projection of colorful abstract visuals on a screen in a dark room.

trans*screenings at XSPACE in Vienna, 2018.

You can download my academic CV here.