Thesis supervisors

Below you can find a list of all the potential supervisors at our department. This list is supposed to help you plan and select a topic for your MA, diploma or PhD thesis.

We recommend that you only contact a potential supervisor once you have a clear idea of what you would like to write about. Still, you should keep an open mind about any suggestions they may have, especially with regard to whether your topic is too narrow in focus or not focused enough.

Please also bear in mind that some supervisors may not currently accept any new students because they already supervise too many theses, or turn you down because your topic doesn't match their areas of expertise.

Looking for a defensio chair?

If you have found your 1st and 2nd examiner and have decided on a time and date for your defensio, please find a list of possible chairpersons here: Chairing List

* Senior PostDocs

* supervision of up to two theses per year

** supervision on special request

Linguistics

  • Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Christiane DALTON-PUFFER
    • Classroom discourse analysis
    • Content-and-Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
    • Instructed foreign language learning
    • Learner language
    • Word-formation in English
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. M. Evelien KEIZER
    • Linguistic analysis of Present-day English: models and approaches (in general)
    • Functional approaches to linguistic analysis (in particular Functional Discourse Grammar)
    • Cognitive approaches to linguistic analysis (in particular Cognitive Grammar)
    • Linguistic categorization and prototype theory
    • Syntax, semantics and pragmatics (and the interaction between them)
  • Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Nikolaus RITT
    • History of English in the widest sense
    • Language variation and change (all levels of description)
    • Phonetics and Phonology
    • Morphology
    • Linguistic theory and metatheory
  • Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Barbara SEIDLHOFER
    • English as a Lingua Franca
    • Variation in contemporary English
    • English in intercultural communication and multilingualism
    • Applied linguistics for language teacher education
    • Sociolinguistics
    • Text and discourse analysis
  • Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Ute SMIT
    • CLIL / EMI (English-medium instruction), esp. at the tertiary level
    • English language use and learning in and around the classroom (incl. motivation)
    • Genre analysis and ESP (English for specific purposes)
    • Analysing English discourse in various settings (incl. computer-mediated communication)
    • English-focussed language planning and policy (incl. attitudes)
  • Ass.-Prof. Igor YANOVICH, PhD
    • Corpus linguistics, especially with historical corpora 
    • Historical linguistics 
    • Phonological description
    • Quantitative analysis of linguistic data
    • Semantics and pragmatics 

Literary & Cultural Studies

  • Assoz.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Dieter FUCHS
    • James Joyce
    • High Modernism
    • Shakespeare
    • Early Modern Period
    • Irish Studies (C18-C20)
  • Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Alexandra GANSER
    • Cultural studies, cultural theory and American popular culture
    • Mobility studies, transatlantic American studies and the Black Atlantic
    • Gender Studies
    • Visual Cultures and Intermediality
    • Native American Studies 
    • Eco-criticism and scientific discourse
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sarah HEINZ, Privatdoz. 
    • Contemporary British drama and narrative literature
    • The contemporary Anglophone novel
    • Theories of intersectionality and race, specifically whiteness
    • Theoretical and narrative conceptualisations of transcultural encounters
    • Filmic, dramatic, and narrative representations of race, gender, class, and nation from Shakespeare to today
    • Cultural discourses of identity, normality, and normalisation
  • Dr. Tatiana KONRAD, MA* 
    • Environmental Humanities
    • Health Humanities
    • War/Genocide Studies
    • American Studies
    • Anglophone Postcolonial Studies 
  • Dr. Mag. Julia LAJTA-NOVAK, M.A.*
    • Life-writing & Biofiction
    • Poetry & performance
    • Gender studies
    • Restoration verse satire
    • Black British literature
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sylvia MIESZKOWSKI, Privatdoz. MA
    • British literature
    • Cultural analysis
    • Poststructuralist theory
    • Gender studies and queer theory
    • Literary sound studies
    • British popular culture
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Monika Maria PIETRZAK-FRANGER
    • British Cultural Studies 
    • British Literature (1800-)
    • Adaptation, Inter- and Transmediality Studies, Visual Culture
    • Literature, Culture and Science, Medical Humanities
    • Gender Studies
    • (Auto)biographic Fiction
  • Dr. Kevin POTTER, BA MA*  
    • Marxist theory
    • Deleuze and Guattari
    • Migration and philosophies of movement
    • Affect Theory 
    • Postcolonial Studies
    • Palestine
  • Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Susanne REICHL, Privatdoz.
    • Black and Asian British Literature
    • Time travel in fiction and other media
    • The teaching of literature and culture at school
    • Selected aspects of British Cultural Studies
    • Selected aspects of literature for children and young adults
  • Dr. Marta WERBANOWSKA* 
    • African American / Black literatures
    • Black Studies
    • Literatures of environmental justice
    • Caribbean literatures and theories
    • Poetry and poetics
    • Ecocriticism, posthumanism, new materialism
    • Environmental Humanities
  • Ass.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Katharina WIEDLACK
    • Cultural Studies
    • Popular Culture
    • TV, Film and Media Studies
    • Gender and Queer Studies
    • Disability Studies
    • Critical Race Studies
  • ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Eva ZETTELMANN
    • Narratology
    • Lyric theory
    • Cognitive poetics
    • Poetry C16 - C21

 

 

Teaching Methodology

  • Mag. Dr. Armin BERGER, MA*
    • Language testing and assessment
    • The interface between testing, assessment, learning and teaching
    • Feedback in foreign language learning
    • Teaching and assessing speaking
  • Mag. Dr. Helen HEANEY, BA*
    • Language testing
    • Second and foreign language reading
    • Innovative methods in EFL
  • Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Julia HÜTTNER, MSc
    • Language Teacher Cognition
    • Language Teacher Development
    • Classroom Discourse Analysis
    • Bilingual educational programmes, including CLIL/EMI
    • ESP and Genre Analysis
    • Spoken Language in the classroom
    • Disciplinary Language in the classroom
  • Mag. Dr. Karin RICHTER*
    • Pronunciation learning and teaching
    • Teaching speaking skills
    • Accents and attitudes
    • Action research projects
  • Mag. Dr. Alexandra SCHURZ*
    • Language learning in the digital age & Extramural English
    • Innovative methods in grammar teaching
    • Implicit and explicit learning conditions, processes, and types of (grammar) knowledge
    • Cross-country comparisons of language teaching & learning