Welcome to my dissertation project site!
My name is Katrina Sark. I'm a PhD candidate in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University in Montréal. I have been studying post-reunification Berlin culture since 2004.
In my dissertation project, I am looking at the way in which the urban marketing campaign "be Berlin" has shaped and affected not only the public and international image and identity of Berlin, but also its cultural policy. I use several recent Berlin documentary films as case studies to examine the transformations in Berlin culture, urban identity constructions, as well as elements of nostalgia that transcend Ostalgie and Westalgie (nostalgia for the former East or former West). By looking at these oppositional forces of branding and nostalgia, I am able to piece together and analyze Berlin's post-Wall reconstruction, rapid gentrification, and international marketing, all of which have shaped cultural products and make up what is the New Berlin today.
This website is inspired by the Digital Humanities collective at McGill University, and the presentations by the graduate students of Stéfan Sinclair's course on New Approaches to Scholarship in the Digital Humanities (Fall 2011).
This is also a work-in-progress, and I would appreciate your feedback and comments, both on the content and form of this project.
Disclaimer: The contents of this site are copy-right protected and cannot be reproduced without the author's permission. © Katrina Sark, 2012.