postdoctoral fellow
dept. of humanities, social and political sciences, eth zurich
Feminist utopianism, SF & climate fiction
About
Dr. Sarah Lohmann is a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (Lehrstuhl Professor Andreas Kilcher) at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland, having previously held two postdoctoral positions (under Professor Ingrid Hotz-Davies) at the University of Tübingen in Germany. She holds a PhD in English literature from Durham University, UK, for a thesis entitled ‘The Edge of Time: The Critical Dynamics of Structural Chronotopes in the Utopian Novel', completed in 2020 under the supervision of Professors Patricia Waugh and Simon James. Dr. Lohmann is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice.
Dr. Lohmann's research and teaching focus on feminist utopian literature, particularly of the late 20th and early 21st centuries; utopian studies in general; science fiction and science-fictionality; climate and environmental fiction; systems theory; women’s writing; Gothic literature; and analytic philosophy as an instrument of cultural criticism (see CV for more specific areas of focus).
Dr. Lohmann is currently preparing her PhD thesis for publication as a monograph as well as writing a Habilitation, or second monograph, on cognition, ecofeminism and intersectional futurisms in climate fiction. Moreover, she is very active in science fiction, climate fiction and utopian studies scholarship: for example, she just co-founded the Zurich Science Fiction Network (ZSFN) with Professor Kilcher, Professor Christine Lötscher and PD Dr. Simon Spiegel; is currently serving a three-year term as Secretary on the executive committee of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA); and recently published five entries in This is Not a Science Fiction Textbook, edited by Mark Bould and Steven Shaviro (Goldsmiths and MIT, 2024).
Further recent publications include a peer-reviewed article, ‘“Wheels turning in opposite directions”: Objective Temporality, Utopia and the Individual in Sheri S. Tepper’s The Gate to Women’s Country and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed’, published in Fafnir - Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research in 2022, and a book chapter on utopia as living organism in the Festschrift Transgressive Utopianism: Essays in Honor of Lucy Sargisson, published in the Ralahine Utopian Studies Series by Peter Lang Publishing in 2021. Moreover, Dr. Lohmann is working on a commissioned short monograph on Marge Piercy's novel Woman on the Edge of Time for the new series Palgrave SFF: A New Canon by Palgrave Macmillan.
Dr. Lohmann has also presented her work at numerous national and international conferences and in regular invited talks, including two keynote speeches, as well as in several podcasts, including as co-host (with Dr. Adam Stock of York St John University) of a guided tour of York's utopian urban heritage for the York Festival of Ideas 2018. In 2017, Dr. Lohmann furthermore served as Project Officer for the exhibition 'Time Machines', on time travel and narrative, displayed at Palace Green Library, Durham; the exhibition's success led to it being used as an REF impact case study for the School of English at Durham University.
Dr. Lohmann has received numerous awards and grants, including several awards for outstanding academic achievement and community engagement, various research awards, funding for interdisciplinary lecture series and symposia, honorary fellow- and associateships, and a competitive grant in support of innovative teaching on gender studies (again, see CV for details).
As a German/American originally from Munich, Germany and previously a long-time resident of the UK, Dr. Lohmann is the proud holder of two native tongues (English and German), two master’s degrees from the University of St Andrews in addition to her PhD (English literature and philosophy), three passports (German, US and UK, plus one beautiful residence permit for Switzerland), and twenty-six houseplants. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, hiking/trailrunning, and choral singing (for example in the Durham University Choral Society and the Kammerchor Concerto Vocale an der Universität Tübingen).
Dr. Lohmann welcomes enquiries regarding collaborations, talk invitations and potential events as part of the Zurich Science Fiction Network (ZSFN), which covers science fiction studies in all of German-speaking Switzerland (though definitely not necessarily in German!).