Leonie Werle; M.A.
Education:
2018
MA (North American Studies with the focus areas Cultural Studies and Political Science), Freie Universität Berlin
2015
BA (English, North American Studies and Political Science), Universität Potsdam
Employment Career
2019
Researcher German Resistance Memorial Center Berlin
2018
Research Assistant for Prof. Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (University of Edinburgh, Emeritus)
2016
Camera Work Gallery Berlin
2012
Allianz Kulturstiftung Berlin
My dissertation project analyzes visual material of the Nazi concentration camps freed by the US army and seeks to dispute the visual and media processing of Nazi atrocities in the US public in 1945 and 1946. Aim of my research is to understand the complex portrayal of the Second World War crimes as not only motivated by political choice but also by a deeper moral obligation to represent victims and honor their suffering. Against this background, the goal of my dissertation project is to shed light on those transatlantic dimensions and to examine specifically the ways images of Nazi German atrocities shaped American responses.
Beyond the scope of my dissertation project, I am highly interested in the effect of photography on a nation’s public perception. Since a few years, I am engaged with the “realities” of images, from depicting war and atrocities to street photography and how the “visual works”.