Julia Schade

Dr. Julia Schade is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Institute for Media Studies (IfM) at Ruhr University Bochum, working with Prof. Friedrich Balke on visual documentary forms. She completed her doctorate in Theatre, Film, and Media Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt in December 2020 with a thesis on temporality in artistic works, earning summa cum laude and the WISAG Dissertation Prize. Previously, she was a Postdoc at the DFG Research Training Group "The Documentary: Excess and Withdrawal" and completed a Visiting Research PhD at Brown University.

Her research focuses on three main areas:

• Performance and Theory
• Oceanic Fabulations and Figurations
• Decolonial theory and the media afterlife of colonialism

Currently, she leads the project "The Oceanic as Critical Fabulation: Representational Practices between Diaspora, Decolonization and Relationality," which examines oceanic representations as interdisciplinary constellations that negotiate diaspora, migration, and colonial heritage through strategies of authentication, fictionalization, and fabulation. Her work engages with artists including John Akomfrah, The Otolith Group, and Rabih Mroué.

Dr. Schade's scholarly contributions span performance studies, media theory, and decolonial thought, with a particular emphasis on temporal resistance, oceanic epistemologies, and the racialization of bodily processes. Her monograph "Unzeit. Widerständigkeiten in der Zeit in Performance, Kunst, Theorie" (2024) represents a significant contribution to contemporary German thought on time and resistance.

Among her notable achievements is the WISAG Dissertation Prize from Goethe University Frankfurt (2021) for her doctoral work. Her scholarly output demonstrates consistent excellence across multiple venues including Performance Research, Zeitschrift für Sprache und Literatur, and The Brecht Yearbook.

As an educator, Dr. Schade teaches courses on media theory and communication theory, as well as the "#TheaterTheorieLabor: (Dis)possessions" seminar with Dorota Sajewska. Her pedagogical approach reflects her research interests, emphasizing critical relationality and decolonial perspectives.

Her work connects theater, performance, and media studies with critical race theory, postcolonial thought, and environmental humanities, creating innovative interdisciplinary frameworks for understanding contemporary cultural production.