Kieran Howard

School of Languages and Cultures

Postgraduate research student

Postgraduate research student Kieran Howard
Profile picture of Postgraduate research student Kieran Howard
khoward2@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Kieran Howard
School of Languages and Cultures
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
91Ö±²¥
S3 7RA
Profile

I am a German Studies PhD candidate funded by the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH). My research concerns German society’s confrontation with its colonial past. Specifically, I investigate representations of German colonialism in novels by Black German writers and authors from Germany’s former African colonies published since the 1980s. In doing so, I explore the shifting parameters and changing contours of Germany’s literary engagement with its colonial past.

My doctoral research builds on my MA dissertation on Sharon Dodua Otoo’s 2021 novel Adas Raum, which I interpreted both as a work of Afrofuturism and as a literary intervention into debates surrounding the then-newly opened Humboldt Forum in Berlin. In the context of this dissertation, I conducted an interview with Otoo.

I am also interested in representations of the past in museums. In 2022 I was awarded a Petrie Watson Exhibition by the University to investigate the memorialisation strategies at the Holocaust Memorial and the House of the Wannsee Conference. More recently, I have become interested in representations of the colonial past in German museums by organisations such as Dekoloniale.

Before moving to 91Ö±²¥ in 2021 to begin my master’s study, I worked for three years as a Digital Marketing Executive in London.

Qualifications
  • MA Modern Languages and Cultures (German), University of 91Ö±²¥ (2021-2023)
  • BSc Chemistry with German, University College London (2014-2017)
Teaching activities

I give a lecture on the module ‘MDL117 Resist! The Art of Protest in Berlin and Amsterdam’ at the University of 91Ö±²¥.

Awards
  • WRoCAH AHRC PhD Studentship (2023-2027)
  • SLC Postgraduate Taught Prize: Best Overall Performance (2022-2023)
  • SLC Postgraduate Taught Prize: Dissertation Award (2022-2023)
  • Petrie Watson Exhibition (2021-2022)