Dr Tom Smith
Lecturer
- Phone
- +44 (0)1334 462998
- tas3@st-andrews.ac.uk
- Office
- Room 106
- Location
- Buchanan
- Office hours
- Monday 12-1 in Weeks 1, 3-11; Monday 4-5 in Week 2 only, or by appointment
Research areas
I started in St Andrews in 2017 as Lecturer in German, having previously taught at Newcastle University, University College London, and Worcester College and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. My research interests are:
- post-war and contemporary German literature and culture
- German film and television
- gender and queer studies
- emotions and affect theories
- theories of the ?postcritical?
- the culture of East Germany
- music (classical and popular, especially electronic) in German culture
I am happy to discuss supervision of doctoral work on any of these areas.
My current project explores experiences of marginalisation in Germany?s techno scene, with a specific focus on emotions. I am working with a range of sources, from techno music, photography and club promotional material to magazines, literature and film. The first stage of the project has been funded by a Research Incentive Grant from the Carnegie Trust, and is entitled Afrogermanic? Cultural Exchange and Racial Difference in the Aesthetic Products of the Early Techno Scenes in Detroit and Berlin. I was selected as one of the AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinkers in 2019. I presented some of my work on BBC Radio 3?s Free Thinking ? listen here to my ?postcard? from the queue at one of Berlin?s most famous clubs.
With Nicola Thomas (QMUL), Rey Conquer (Oxford) and Richard McClelland (Bristol), I?ve been developing an online resource called Expanding the German Studies Curriculum. It features a bibliography of texts and films, and a blog. Please get in touch if you?d like to contribute!
My book, Comrades in Arms: Military Masculinities in East German Culture, appeared in February 2020 with Berghahn Books, and is available to download as an open-access e-book. I presented some of my ideas from the book as an Essay on BBC Radio 3 ? listen to it on BBC web site.
PhD supervision
- Sam Osborn
Selected publications
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Comrades in arms: military masculinities in East German culture
Smith, T. A., 17 Feb 2020, New York: Berghahn. 269 p.Research output: Book/Report ? Book
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Berlin's other anniversary
Smith, T. A., 1 Nov 2019, History Today, 69, 11, p. 42-49.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication ? Article
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A postcritical poetics? Transtemporal encounters in defunct Soviet barracks in works by Ulrike Almut Sandig and Clemens Meyer
Smith, T. A., 2018, In : Oxford German Studies. 47, 3, p. 313-328Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Emotional ambivalence and the musical canon: Elfriede Jelinek's restaging of Schubert's songs in Winterreise (2011)
Smith, T. A., Jul 2018, In : German Life and Letters. 71, 3, p. 331-352 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Music, the GDR military and the GDR today in the works of Walter Flegel
Smith, T. A., 31 Aug 2018, The GDR Today: New Interdisciplinary Approaches to East German History, Memory and Culture. Ehrig, S., Thomas, M. & Zell, D. (eds.). Oxford: Peter Lang, (Studies in Modern German and Austrian Literature ; vol. 6).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding ? Chapter
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Körpersprache ? ein in den Geisteswissenschaften wenig behandelter Aspekt: Doris Schöps liefert mit ?Körperhaltungen und Rollenstereotype im DEFA-Film? neue Einblicke in die Figurenanalyse
Smith, T., 2017, In : Literaturkritik.de.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Book/Film/Article review
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The archive and the closet: same-sex desire and GDR military service in Stefan Wolter's autobiographical writing
Smith, T., 2016, In : Oxford German Studies. 45, 2, p. 198-211 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Narrative and the body in uniform: East German military masculinities in Claus Dobberke?s Ein Katzensprung and Jürgen Fuchs?s Fassonschnitt
Smith, T., Jan 2015, In : Modern Language Review. 110, 1, p. 204-221 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Review: 'Art and Democracy in Post-Communist Europe' by Piotr Piotrowski
Smith, T., 2014, In : Journal of Contemporary European Studies. 22, 1, p. 85-86 2 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Book/Film/Article review
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'Eine Befreiung aus einer Einengung': Helga Königsdorf?s Queer Protagonists, Shame and Self-Censorship in 'Ungelegener Befund' and 'Gleich neben Afrika'
Smith, T., 2013, In : German Life and Letters. 66, 2, p. 187-198. 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article