1 October 2026, by Nicole Nitschke

Since October 1, 2026, Prof. Dr. Guido Kirsten has held a Heisenberg Professorship in Media Studies in the Department of Language, Literature, and Media I.

Guido Kirsten completed his master’s degree in film studies, philosophy, and sociology at Freie Universität Berlin in 2006. In 2013, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich with a dissertation titled “Filmischer Realismus”, and in April 2026, he completed his habilitation at the Film University Babelsberg in Potsdam with a thesis on “Elemente einer Theorie der Diskursivierung von Armut, Prekarität und Klassenfragen im fiktionalen Film”. This was followed by a postdoctoral position at Stockholm University and a visiting professorship at the University of Mainz. From 2019 to 2024, Guido Kirsten served as the principal investigator (PI) of the project “Die Verarbeitung der Arbeit im Film: Eine Analyse der kinematografischen Diskurse zur Veränderung des Arbeitens in Europa” at the Film University Babelsberg. There, between 2018 and 2025, he also led the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group “Filmische Diskurse des Mangels: Zur Darstellung von Prekarität und Exklusion im europäischen Spiel- und Dokumentarfilm”. Most recently, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Freiburg and was accepted into the DFG’s Heisenberg Program in 2026.

We warmly welcome Guido Kirsten to the Faculty of Humanities!