Simon Sunka

Simon Sunka is a Professor of German, Film, and Media Studies at Swarthmore College, USA. She holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins University and specializes in German, European, and U.S. popular culture, with a focus on television, cinema, and music. Her recent work, *German Crime Dramas from Network Television to Netflix* (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024), examines the evolution of German crime dramas across broadcast and streaming platforms, analyzing their cultural and aesthetic strategies. Earlier publications include *Mail-Orders. The Fiction of Letters in Postmodern Culture* (2002) and co-authored *Globally Networked Teaching in the Humanities* (2015).

Her research bridges media history, transnational storytelling, and the impact of digital platforms on narrative forms. She explores how German television adapts to global streaming trends while maintaining cultural specificity, as seen in analyses of series like *Tatort*, *Dark*, and *Dogs of Berlin*. Sunka’s interdisciplinary approach integrates close textual analysis with industry practices and audience reception studies.

Her work has been praised for its contributions to understanding media convergence and the global reach of German cultural production. She teaches courses on European media, postmodern narrative forms, and digital humanities, emphasizing collaborative, globally networked pedagogy.