Daniel Illger

Prof. Dr. Daniel Illger serves as Professor of Popular Culture within the Department of Language and Media Studies at European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder. His research examines how video games, television series, YouTube, TikTok, and blockbuster media reflect societal longings, fears, and contemporary diagnostics amid global crises, apocalyptic narratives, and utopian visions.

His educational foundation includes studies in Film Studies, General and Comparative Literature, and Philosophy at Berlin and Münster universities. He earned his doctorate analyzing urban staging in post-war Italian cinema and completed his habilitation with a theoretical study of fantasy modes in video games.

Dr. Illger's work prioritizes aesthetic-theoretically grounded popular culture research, investigating transmedia phenomena across digital platforms and narrative forms. His scholarship connects media consumption practices to broader cultural analysis, particularly how mass-received phenomena spanning millions of users transcend cultural boundaries to express collective hopes and anxieties.

He actively engages in science communication through podcasts including "A Whiskey" (January 2025) and "Picked Up - Science to the Fullest" (May 2025), discussing intersections of games, end-times narratives, and cultural theory. His Skargat trilogy (Klett-Cotta, 2015-2017) represents significant literary output within this research framework.