Quick Facts
Biography
Christina Gerhardt is an author, academic and journalist. She has written on a range of subjects, including critical theory, the environment and film. She has been awarded grants from the Fulbright Commission, the DAAD and the NEH. And she has held visiting positions at Harvard University, the Free University of Berlin, and Columbia University. Previously, she taught at the University of California at Berkeley. Her journalism has been published (under Tina Gerhardt) in Climate Progress, Grist.org, The Nation, The Progressive and the Washington Monthly.
Career
Gerhardt has made important contributions to a number of fields, notably critical theory, environmental humanities and film studies.
Critical Theory
Gerhardt has published on critical theory and on Theodor W. Adorno. Her writings examine the concept of nature and of animals in the writings of the Frankfurt School's first generation. She has published articles on Adorno and nature; on nature in Adorno and Kracauer; on animals and compassion in the writings of Adorno, Horkheimer and Schopenhauer; and on animals in Adorno, Derrida, Cixous and Levinas.
Environmental Humanities
Gerhardt has written about walking and experiential learning; about plastic and the Pacific; and about sea level rise, future shorelines and islands. Her writing in the environmental humanities explores how public art installations foster civic engagement. For example, she has written about art installations that documents and makes the public aware of sea level rise. She has also written about performative art that aims to bring attention to the relationship between climate change and the refugee crises. She regularly takes students on walking tours, revealing the past histories hidden in the urban landscape and how the present day environment came to be shaped, and imagining possible future geographies.
Film Studies
Gerhardt has written about new wave cinemas around 1968, about the representation of the Red Army Faction in film, about New German Cinema and the Berlin School, and about directors ranging from Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Harun Farocki to Helke Sander and Hito Steyerl.
Awards
- DAAD Faculty Research Award
- Fulbright Commission - Junior Research Grant
Selected Publications
Special Issues
- 1968 and West German Cinema, Editor, special issue of The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture, 2017
- Adorno and Ethics, Editor, special issue of New German Critique, 2006