Gerhild Krebs PhD

About

Born and raised at the heart of the multilingual EU-region SaarLorLux, I earned a Magister Artium degree summa cum laude in 1990/91 from the University of Cologne in History, Theatre-, Film- and TV-Studies and Philosophy. My working languages include Rhine Frankish, German, English (BE/AE), French and Italian. My work keeps contributing to an optimised cut surface between the humanities and the public. This brought in its wake the post-1991 completion of further vocational trainings as a film archivist (Archimedia, FIAF), journalist-cum-PR specialist and teacher in German secondary education, plus work experience as a translator and interpreter. Since late 1983, I have researched and worked for public and private culture and media employers in several EU countries on all scales from local to global.

Viva 2 July 2021, e-copy handed in to Warwick Library

Walter Rilla (1894-1980): Medien, Darstellende Künste, Exil und Startum am Beispiel seines frühen und mittleren Filmwerks im deutsch-britischen Kulturkontext 1921-1957

working title for anglophone publication:

Media, Performing Arts and Exile in 20th Century Germany and Britain - the Example of Multiple Artist Walter Rilla (1894 - 1980)

Four Research Fields

Culture: Performing Arts and Media Popular Entertainment; stage and screen interaction; Magic Lantern; Early Film; Silent Film; script writing; independent production; industrial film; German Cinema; British Cinema; French Cinema (1930s to 1970s); Italian Cinema (1940s to 1970s); the relationship of European Cinema and US-cinema; genre mixes; comedy; Heimatfilm; Exilfilm; Science Fiction; Film Noir; animation; relationship of media to society, politics and economy

Language and Identity between Translation and the Transcultural local and regional languages, identities and traditions; concept of Heimat; regional language vs. "high" language; transcultural exchange; impact of industrialisation on regional environment and society; relationships between region, nation, state and international bodies; contested areas; the Saarland and the EU-region SaarLorLux respectively the EU-Großregion/Grande Région in comparison with similar European regions

Power: Structural and Open Violence private and organised violence; women in patriarchal society; theory and practice of democracy; propaganda in open and covered forms; science and power; anthropology; utopian and dystopian concepts of society; centre and periphery; phenomena of marginalisation, colonialism and "southernisation"

Dimension: TimeSpaceTime time concepts; time-space perception; circular time; nomadism; calender concepts; cartography; natural movement vs. transport technology; the idea of progress; temporality distortion phenomena - experiences of Ungleichzeitigkeit, dislocation and "detimeisation"; cross-temporality; relationship of actual space to digital virtual space

Contact

G.U.Krebs@warwick.ac.uk

Awards

2014-2018 AHRC Chancellor's Bursary, University of Warwick

2018 two grants for PhD completion, University of Warwick

Other scholarly activities

My most ambitious project to date is creating a public Saarland-Kinemathek via the registered charity Saarländisches Filmarchiv (SFA).

Research for the SFA on Saarland-born Walter Rilla triggered my Warwick PhD project.

The SFA researches on film, cinema and general media. Since its foundation in 1998 on my initiative, our association has saved 1,500 films plus many hundreds of other media history items, including global rarities such as the sole surviving print of a Cecil Hepworth film.

We provide professional services for film productions, film festivals and educational institutions, including e.g. script doctoring. We host multilingual film conferences, stage film events and contribute to exhibitions. We are active in outreach and lobby work for audiovisual archiving.