Julia Rieger

Julia Rieger is a Research Associate in the Department of Educational Science – Social Pedagogy at the University of Siegen, specializing in critical criminology and cultural studies of crime representation. Previously, she served as a research assistant and lecturer at the University of Düsseldorf, contributing to academic instruction in social work and justice studies.

Education

• Social work degree with specialized focus on offender rehabilitation, drug services, and homeless support systems.
• Master's thesis research on non-criminal conflict resolution strategies within left-wing autonomous communities.

Research Interests

Rieger's work critically examines criminal justice systems through transformative justice and community accountability frameworks, while analyzing gangsta rap as a cultural vehicle for exploring norm violations. Her research investigates how youth symbolically appropriate 'unsafe' spaces through popular music, interrogating the intersections of crime narratives, identity formation, and urban experience in contemporary society.

Publication Trends

Her 2023-2024 publications reveal a cohesive focus on gangsta rap's sociocultural functions, employing ethnographic and narrative methodologies to dissect how norm transgressions are staged and consumed. These studies collectively examine youth engagement with crime representations across urban landscapes, car culture symbolism, and the transformation of criminal narratives into popular cultural artifacts.

Teaching and Professional Experience

With prior lecturing experience at the University of Düsseldorf, Rieger brings practical social work expertise from direct service in low-threshold drug facilities to her academic work. Her current research associate position involves active collaboration across interdisciplinary projects examining cultural expressions of deviance.

Active Research Projects

• A03 (2021-2024): Staging of crime: Gangsta Rap in Interactive Identity Practices of Young People
• AG5: Somatics of the Popular: Transformations of the Physical