Thomas Susanka, M.A.

Thomas was born in 1980 in Rheinfelden, Germany. From 2001 until early 2008 he studied Rhetoric and American Studies at the University of Tübingen. He spent the academic year 2004/2005 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

He worked as a graduate assistant (2005 – 2008) for Professor Dr. Horst Tonn. In summer 08 he assisted Prof. Dr. Jan Stievermann as tutor in his seminar.

He graduated in January 2008. His MA thesis was on photography and rhetoric and was mainly concerned with the persuasive strategies in the work of the American war photographer James Nachtwey. Since April 2008 he is member of the postgraduate program "Dimensions of Ambiguity". His dissertation deals with rhetoric and phenomena of ambiguity in war photography.

Conferences:

24 Oct. 2008 "Authenticity", English Department, Universtity of Bern
Paper: "Authenticity as Communicative Strategy in War Photography"

15 – 18 June 2006 "Kriegskorrespondenten als Deutungsinstanzen in der Mediengesellschaft", Konferenz des Sonderforschungsbereich "Kriegserfahrung" der Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen und der Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg

The (current) abstract of his PhD project "Mehrdeutigkeit in bildlichen Persuasionsvorgängen" can be found here (only available in German)

Contact: thomas.susanka(at)student.uni-tuebingen.de