Having graduated from the University of Oldenburg (a lovely city in the north of Germany) with a BA in English Studies and Politics and Economics in Summer 2015, I was delighted when I received my acceptance email from the University of Stirling. My friends in Germany said it was only “natural” that I would end up in the UK – I like to think this reflects my interest in other cultures, and my desire to take on new challenges…

I had struggled with finding “the right career choice” for a long time. After studying Japanese Studies at the University of Düsseldorf for one semester, I realized that I instead wanted to do “something that has to do with literature” (wow, so specific!). After some consideration, I decided to pursue a degree in English Studies with a focus on literary and cultural studies. I was (and still am) especially interested in pop literature and its representation of contemporary discourses, a fact that was reflected in the choice of my bachelor thesis topic “We Are the Inquisition! (Are we not?): The Representation of Female Warriors and Leaders in Bioware’s Dragon Age: Inquisition.”

I worked for Professor Martin Butler at the Univeristy of Oldenburg, which gave me the opportunity to be involved in the copy-editing and proofreading process of an academic edited volume and several papers and bibliographies. This sparked my interest not only in academic publishing, but in the publishing industry in general. Finally, my original plan to pursue a career that has “something to do with literature” took a more precise shape!

I believe that with my great attention to detail, ability to critically reflect my own as well as others’ work, and skill set I developed through my undergraduate studies, an editorial position might best suit me in the future. However, I am also interested in the design aspects of the publishing process and know a thing or two about Adobe software, so I am excited to see where my journey during and after the MLitt will take me!