In 2018, Oliver is Guest Researcher at the Linnaeus University Center for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, Sweden. His research interests lie in the areas of European formations of Indigeneity, postcolonial and whiteness theory, German imperialism and transnational history. Oliver has co-edited a book on ego-histoire and Indigenous Studies, Ngapartji Ngapartji: Reciprocal Engagement (Australian National University Press, 2014). His latest book – entitled The Persistence of Race from the Wilhelmine Empire to National Socialism (Berghahn Books, 2017) – is concerned with cultural narratives of race in Germany. With Eva Schandevijl he has completed a special issue of National Identities (Routledge) and, with Linda Westphalen, a special issue of JEASA on Ruby Langford Ginibi. Oliver’s scholarship has appeared, inter alia, in Continuum, Aboriginal History and Australian Aboriginal Studies. He is co-editor of the bilingual Australian Studies Journal (Zeitschrift für Australienstudien).

Her publications include articles on contemporary Indian fiction, diaspora, gender studies, and black speculative fiction; she has edited special issues on 21^st century literature (Anglistik 26.2, 2015) and on “Doing Science: Texts, Patterns, Practices” (with Nina Engelhardt; Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 42.3; forthcoming September 2017). She is also assistant editor of ANGLISTIK: International Journal of English Studies.

Her main research interests are literature and science, the English novel, gender studies, new English literatures and postcolonial criticism (in particular South Asia, Canada, and Australia). Her teaching and research focuses on postcolonial adaptation studies and narratives of risk and includes, amongst others, works by Australian writers such as Tim Winton, Richard Flanagan, and Kate Jennings.

His engagement with Yan-nhangu people produced the first Yan-nhangu dictionary (1993-2003), ethnography, Time and Tide in the Crocodile Islands: Change and Continuity in Yan-nhangu Marine Identity (2009) and the Yan-nhangu Atlas and Illustrated Dictionary of the Crocodile Islands (2014).

He initiated a family of award winning collaborative projects with friend and co-researcher Baymarrwangga including the Crocodile Islands Initiative (CII), Genealogical/Geographical Traditional Owner Mapping, the Crocodile Islands Rangers and Junior Rangers programs, online Yan-nhangu Ecological Knowledge data base, Cultural Heritage programs, Yan-nhangu ‘language nests’ for pre-school aged children and Bilingual Bimodal resources.

This interest also extends to her academic teaching: “Teaching Australia in Postcolonial and Intercultural Perspective” (summer semester 2018) will explore the theoretical question of representing cultural identities in view of lesson and sequence planning for school teaching at lower and upper secondary levels, with a special focus on the genres of fiction and short film.

She was also involved in the organization and coordination of the Dr R Marika Chair for Australian Studies at the English Department of the University of Cologne (from 2010-2014).

Her current research projects focus on the polycentric network of Anglophone world literatures and on postcolonial ekphrasis/ literary visuality. Together with Juergen Reulecke she is general editor of the series Forms of Remembering/Formen der Erinnerung (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, since 2004). Recent publications include co-edited volumes on Anglophone World Literatures (Special Issue Anglia, 2017) and on Literary Environments: Ecocritical Theories and Ethics in Anglophone Literatures (anglistik & englischunterricht, 2018) as well as a number of articles on verbal-visual configurations in Anglophone Literatures. She is currently writing a monograph on Postcolonial Ekphrasis and Counter-Visions in Anglophone Literatures – Contacts, Contests and Translations.

She has published numerous articles on postcolonial theory and literatures, especially on Australian literature and culture. She has recently edited, together with Elisabeth Bähr, a collection of essays by Australian and German scholars, ‘And there‘ll be NO dancing’: Perspectives on Policies Impacting Indigenous Australia since 2007 (Cambridge Scholars 2017). She has served on the board of the German Association for Australian Studies (GASt) and is a member of the association’s Academic Advisory Council.

He received his PhD from the University of Bremen in 2007. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Graduate School Society and Culture in Motion, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow of the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (Australia). Since October 2014, he leads the research group “The Transcultural Heritage of Northwest Australia, Dynamics and Resistances”, funded by the German Excellence Initiative. He teaches anthropology and transcultural studies at undergraduate and honours level and supervises postgraduate research students and PhD candidates.

Dr. Wergin has published widely on music, tourism and heritage as well as general theoretical aspects of anthropology and transcultural studies research in Australia and elsewhere. He is co-editor of the volume Musical Performance and the Changing City (with Fabian Holt, Routledge 2013) and the Special Issue Materialities of Tourism (with Stephen Muecke, Tourist Studies 2014). His current research concentrates on aspects related to socioecological transformations triggered by tourism, heritage and the resources sector. This has resulted in a number of contributions to major journals, such as Australian Humanities Review, Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, and Journal of Cultural Economy.