Dr Britta C. Jung
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My research brings together cultural, comparative and inter-/transcultural literary studies. It is highly interdisciplinary and has a strong focus on the German-, Dutch-, and English-speaking context. I have published widely in these areas in German, English, and Dutch. In addition, I have led a major applied research project on the impact and learning experience of foreign languages for the Irish Government (2018-2020).
My first monograph Komplexe Lebenswelten – Multidirektionale Erinnerungsdikurse (V&R, 2018) investigates the specific dynamics of postmemory in a broad corpus of German literary texts aimed at younger audiences, and in dialogue with the broader socio-cultural context of Germany and Europe. The study has been lauded as a “milestone in our understanding of memory discourses in youth literature” (S. Blumesberger, Vienna) and as “a novel approach to the literary genre” (K. Kumschlies, Trier) that will influence the field moving forward (e.g. G. v. Glasenapp, Cologne; L. Jagdschian, Bielefeld).
I have held academic positions (i.e. research and/or teaching) at University of Groningen, Mary Immaculate College, University College Dublin, Maynooth University, and South East Technical University (Waterford). I have been a Visiting Professor at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France in Valenciennes, France, and the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia. Furthermore, I have been a fellow at the reknowned HEF Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilisation at Northwestern University, USA.
You can find me also on Bluesky.
Conference talks/presentations in 2026:
5-8 March 2026, University of Pittsburgh, USA
- Faithful to What? Co-Creation, Paratexts, and the Translator’s Role in Contemporary Translation; 57th NeMLA Convention.
27 May - 29 2026, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
- Translating the Unnarratable: Victimhood, Voice, and Localisation in Anna Burns’s Milkman and Patrick McCabe’s Breakfast on Pluto; XXV AEDEI Anniversary Conference.
29 June - 1 July 2026, Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau, Germany
- Versmaß, Voice, Verlust? Songübersetzung und der Transfer politischer Narrative in der deutschsprachigen Hamilton-Fassung; Übersetzung und Musik im interdisziplinären Dialog/Translation and Music: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue, in collaboration with the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France and the Université de Lorraine.
6-10 July 2026, Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPCU), Budapest, Hungary
- Reframing Irish Trauma: Translation, Voice, and the Politics of Victimhood; IASIL 2026: Translating Ireland.
Ongoing research projects:
September 2026 - August 2028
TRAMM - Traduction, Musique et Multimodalité, financed by La Maison Européenne des Sciences Humaines et Sociales (MESHS Lille Nord de France)
- This project analyses the translation of musical works through the lens of multimodality, that is, to observe the transfer of meaning between four modes: text, music, voice, and sound engineering. Its approach, therefore, combines translation studies, translation, musicology, and linguistics. Part of the "Landscapes and Territories" research area, and guided by transdisciplinarity and multilingualism, the project relies on the collaboration of a group of international, interdisciplinary researchers who enrich it with complementary perspectives at each stage. French, English, German, and Turkish are the main working and research languages, but attention is also paid to regional and dialectal languages, whose specificities are geocultural in nature.
- Group members/partners: Stephanie Schwerter (Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, Valenciennes; Project Lead), Britta C. Jung (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick), Klaus Kaindl (Universität Wien, Vienna), Jean-Charles Meunier (Université Paris-Est Créteil, Paris), Sündüz Öztürk-Kasar (Galatasaray Üniversitesi, Istanbul), Nadine Rentle (Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau, Zwickau), Nils-Christian-Terp (Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, Valenciennes/Friedrich Schiller Universität, Jena), Samuel Trainor (Université de Lille, Lille), Vincent Vivès (Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, Valenciennes), Michel de Senarclens (Théâtre Thénardier, Montreuil).
Recent academic publications include:
- Über translatorische Herausforderungen, die Verflechtung kultureller und subkultureller Referenzrahmen und interkulturelle Missverständnisse. Amanda Gormans virales Inaugurationsgedicht The Hill We Climb (2021). In: Lebende Sprachen 70 (2), 2025, pp. 412-434.
- Die Universität als Institution. In: S. Neuhaus/H. Grugger (Eds.): Der Campusroman. Texte – Theorien – Traditionen. Berlin: J.B. Metzler, 2025, pp. 181-195.
- Andreas Höfele. Die Heimsuchung des Assistenten Jung. In: S. Neuhaus/H. Grugger (Eds.): Der Campusroman. Texte – Theorien – Traditionen. Berlin: J.B. Metzler, 2025, pp. 181-195.
- Hartwig Spitzer. Elfenbeinturm. Roman einer Universität In: S. Neuhaus/H. Grugger (Eds.): Der Campusroman. Texte – Theorien – Traditionen. Berlin: J.B. Metzler, 2025, pp. 379-383.
- The Hill We Climb / Den Hügel hinauf. Intercultural Misunderstandings and Semantic-Stylistic Shifts in the Translation of Amanda Gorman’s Inaugural Poem. In: S. Schwerter/M. Cassidy (Eds.): Intercultural Misunderstandings in Literary and Song Translation. Stuttgart: Ibidem, 2025, pp. 217-238.
- An Claíomh Défhaobhrach / A Double-Edged Sword. Irlands konstitutionelle Zweisprachigkeit und das Erlernen moderner Fremdsprachen. In: S. Schwerter/N. Rentel/B. Meisnitzer (Eds.): Mehrsprachigkeit. Spracheinstellungen, mediale Erscheinungsformen und didaktische Implikationen, Stuttgart: Ibidem, 2024, pp. 281-306.
- Die Judenverfolgung und der Holocaust in der deutschsprachigen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. In: AG Jugendliteratur und Medien (Ed.): kjl&m (76/2), 2024, pp. 13-23. Invited article for the thematic issue „Nie wieder!“ ist jetzt. Verfolgung im Nationalsozialismus in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, guest edited by P. Josting/L. Jagdschian.
- Territories of Otherness. Genoa’s Prè Neighbourhood as a Deviant Terrain and Exotic Counterspace in Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer’s La Superba (2013). In: B.C. Jung/S. Ehrig/G. Schaffer (Eds.): Exploring the Transnational Neighbourhood. Perspectives on Community-Building, Identity and Belonging, Leuven: Leuven UP, 2022, pp. 265-289. Open access.
- Local Color Literature und Frontier Humor. Der Zerfall der ‚Germania Slavica‘ aus Sicht von Josef Holubs böhmischem Lausbuben. In: S. Egger/S. Hajduk/B.C. Jung (Eds.): Sarmatien – Germania Slavica – Mitteleuropa. Vom Grenzland im Osten über Johannes Bobrowskis Utopie zur Ästhetik des Grenzraums / Sarmatia – Germania Slavica – Central Europe. From the Borderland in the East and Johannes Bobrowski’s Utopia to a Border Aesthetics, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021, pp. 233-250.
- Verboden te vliegen. Oorlog verbeeld. In: WO2 Onderzoek uitgelicht (10/1), 2021, no pagination.
- The Learning Experience and Impact of Foreign Languages on Participants of Erasmus+ in all Education Sectors in Ireland, Dublin: Higher Education Authority/Léargas/Department of Education and Skills, 2020, 120 pp.
- Komplexe Lebenswelten – multidirektionale Erinnerungsdiskurse. Jugendliteratur zum Nationalsozialismus, Zweiten Weltkrieg und Holocaust im Spiegel des postmemorialen Wandels, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018, 310 pp.
Academic articles/chapters in preparation:
- Adoleszenz in der Erinnerungsliteratur (working title). Invited article for a thematic issue of kjl&m, May 2027.
- Vorgeschichte/Machtübergabe in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur über die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus (working title). Invited article for the Metzler Handbuch Kinder- und Jugendliteratur über den Nationalsozialismus, edited by Petra Josting, Jana Mikota, and Larissa Carolin Jagdschian, Berlin: J.P. Metzler, 2027.
- Waltraud Lewin (working title). Invited article for the Metzler Handbuch Kinder- und Jugendliteratur über den Nationalsozialismus, edited by Petra Josting, Jana Mikota, and Larissa Carolin Jagdschian, Berlin: J.P. Metzler, 2027.
- Porosity and the City. Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer's La Superba (2013) and the Mediterranean Cityscapes of Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, and Siegfried Kracauer.
Public engagement:
- Why All Quiet on the Western Front Resonates so much in Germany, RTÉ Brainstorm, 2023.
- Why Germany is a Country Grappling with Its Past, Present and Future, RTÉ Brainstorm, 2022.
- Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser. German-Language Study Materials for Students and Teachers, Lezen voor de lijst (Database for the Dutch Primary and Secondary Education Sector).
