Lena Sophie Trüper

Ph.D. Student

E-mail: lstrueper@g.ucla.edu Fields of interest: Global and transnational histories, German media and visual culture, Science and Technology Studies, Medical Humanities.

Lena Sophie Trüper is a Ph.D. candidate in European Languages and Transcultural Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include visual popular science, histories of cybernetics, digital art, colonial medicine, and performance studies. In her dissertation, she explores the connections between the histories of hygiene and the cybernetics as epistemologies of behavioral control through a global and transcultural lens.

Prior to her doctoral studies at UCLA, she held a position with the DFG Research Training Group Knowledge in the Arts at the University of the Arts Berlin. She has also gained research and curatorial experience at several museums and cultural institutions, including the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, the Goldkammer Frankfurt, and the DZ Bank Art Foyer in Frankfurt. While completing her dissertation (expected 2026), she holds a position as Research Assistant in the Department of Photographs at the Getty Research Institute.

LANGUAGES SPOKEN

German (native), English (native), Spanish (native), French (advanced), Italian (reading knowledge), Latin (working knowledge).

Education

Ph.D. Candidate in German Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, 2022-2026 (projected)
M.A. in German Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, 2020-2022
M.A. in Art History, Goethe University, Frankfurt. Department of Art History, 2011-2017
Vocational training as chemical laboratory assistant, IGS Gersthofen, Germany. Industrial Park Gersthofen, 2008-2011

Publications

“Wake the Flies: Transcontinental Filmmaking between Germany and Nigeria,” co-authored by Longgul Dakwom, in Nina Berman, Sara Pugach (eds.) Hidden Transcripts in Germany’s Contact Zones (abstract accepted, in progress).
“The Potential of Free Play: Adventure Playgrounds through the Lens of Ursula Schulz-Dornburg,” in Getty Research Journal (abstract accepted, in progress)
“Cell Cultures and German Nationalism: A Visual Investigation,” in Heather Perry, Kirsten Hetrick, and Charles Vannette (eds.), Medical Humanities in German Studies, Bern: Peter Lang (forthcoming).
“Über Ökosysteme und verkabelte Kartoffeln im Argentinien der 1970er Jahre,” in Michael Rottmann (ed.), Theorie und Praxis der Maschinenkünste im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert: Prozesse – Medien – Kreativität, Berlin: De Gruyter (forthcoming).
“Biopolitics and Superstition in Barbara Albert’s Film Böse Zellen,” in Sophie Duvernoy, Karsten Olson, and Ulrich Plass (eds.), Representing Social Precarity in German Literature and Film: New Directions in German Studies, New York: Bloomsbury, 2023, pp. 254-276.
“Opening the Cage at Hungría 74: Hungarian Artists in Argentina and Their Critical Take on the Dematerialization of Art Objects,” in Laura Petrauskaitė (ed.), Give My Regards to Those You Connect! Cultural Interactions Between South America and Eastern Europe, Vilnius: Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis (AAAV), 2022, pp. 141-168.
“Wolken der Kybernetik – Metaphern der Interaktivität: Ein Blick auf die Geschichte von Motion Tracking und Virtual Reality,” in Georg Peez (ed.), Mixed Reality und Augmented Reality im Kunstunterricht, Munich: kopaed, 2021, pp. 213-226.
“Visual Natural Metaphors of Cybernetics in Arts and Popular Culture,” in J.M. Morcillo and C.Y. Robertson von Trotha (eds.), Genealogy of Popular Science: From Ancient Ecphrasis to Virtual Reality, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2020, pp. 441-460.
“No One Knows What Cybernetics Is! On Communication and Control in Art after 1945,” in Anna Fricke (ed.), The Assembled Human, Berlin: Kerber Verlag and Museum Folkwang Essen, 2019, pp. 319-336
“Macht’s gut, und danke für den Fisch! Meerestiere als Metaphern der Virtualität: Ein historischer Einblick in das visuelle Erbe der Kybernetik,” in Dokumentation des 31. Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftlichen Kolloquiums, 4, 2019, pp. 231-249.
“Von Menschenbildern und Textmaschinen: Was Cyborgs im Film über den Wandel medialer Kommunikation erzählen,” in Visual Past, no. 3.1, 2016, pp. 469-508.

Conference Talks (selection)

“Wake the Flies: An Activist Approach to Transcontinental Filmmaking between Germany and Nigeria,” German Studies Association (GSA) Annual Conference, panel Hidden Transcripts: Colonial Memory Cultures, Arlington, Virginia. September 2025.

“Fly Pitch,” Food for Thought Showcase, German Studies Association (GSA) Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia. September 2024.

“Contesting Cybernetic Futures,” Annual Graduate Student Conference on Speculative Futurities, Past and Present, Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. November 2023.

“Juan Downey’s Video Journey’s through the Americas,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois (via Zoom due to Covid). March/April 2022.

“Von Ökosystemen und verkabelten Kartoffeln. Maschinenkünste im Argentinien der 1970er Jahre,” Institut Experimentelle Design- und Medienkulturen (IXDM), Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, FHNW, Basel, Switzerland (via Zoom due to Covid). June 2020.

“Visual Natural Metaphors of Cybernetics in Arts and Popular Culture,” International Conference on Genealogy of Popular Science: From Ancient Ecphrasis to Virtual Reality, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany. June 2018.

Courses commonly taught

Fliegende Frauen (Flying Women), primary course instructor, Goethe University Frankfurt/Germany, 2024-25
Lesen auf Augenhöhe (Reading of Eye Level), primary course instructor, Goethe University Frankfurt/Germany, 2024
Choreographien des Schreibens (Choreographies and Writing), primary course instructor, Goethe University Frankfurt/Germany, 2023
Holocaust in Film and Literature, teaching assistant, UCLA, 2023
History of Berlin, teaching assistant, UCLA, 2023
Media Ecologies in Postcolonial Contexts, primary course instructor, Goethe University Frankfurt/Germany, 2022
German language, level 1-3, primary course instructor, UCLA, 2021
Systemtiere, primary course instructor, Goethe University Frankfurt/Germany, 2019
Methodology of Art History, teaching assistant, Goethe University Frankfurt a. Main, 2013-15.

Honors and Awards

Dissertation Year Award, University of California, Los Angeles, 2025-2026.
Harry and Yvonne Lenart Graduate Travel Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles, 2025-2026.
Hessen Film & Medien, film production award, 2024.
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, University of California, Los Angeles, 2021.
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, University of California, Los Angeles, 2020.
Marum Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles, 2019-2020.
Programa de Apoyo a la Investigación, Centro de Estudios y Documentación MACBA, Barcelona (Fellowship Program for the Support of Research from the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona), 2019.
Deutschlandstipendium (Germany Fellowship), Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2014-2015.

Professional Activities

Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2024-present. Research assistant in Photography Department.
Goldmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2019-2020. Art education and public engagement.
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2018-2019. Art education and public engagement.
Max Planck Institute of Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2019. Database development.
Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany, 2015-2017. Curatorial assistant and digital communications.
German Film Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2013. Internship in curatorial research and editorial assistance.

Academic Service

Leadership of AG EcoMedia working group, German Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft), Germany. 2025-present.
Panelist at “The Landscape of Higher Education is Changing—Let’s Talk about it! A Panel Discussion with Current Grad Students and Postdocs,” TA & Postdoc Teaching Conference, University of California, Los Angeles. September 2025.
Graduate Student Representative, Graduate Student Association of the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. 2023-2024.
Event Coordinator, Graduate Student Association of the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. 2022-2023.
Respondent for “Media of Microanalysis,” international conference The Movement Movement. Histories of Microanalysis at the Intersection of Film, Science, and Art, Phillips-Universität Marburg, Germany (via Zoom due to Covid). June 2021.

Affiliations

Modern Language Association (2021-present)
German Studies Association (2020-present)
Society for Media Studies, Germany (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft) (2018-present)
Society for Cinema and Media Studies(2022-Present)

CURATORIAL PROJECTS, EXHIBITIONS, AND FILM AND MEDIA PRODUCTIONS

“Wake the Flies. Humanitarian Crisis in Nigeria’s Plateau State” Film Producer. Directed by Longgul Dakwom and Lawunna Yilwada. Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, 2024-2025
“Collage and Film” Screening Organizer. In cooperation with the Archive for German Experimental and Avant-Garde Film by Women, University of Paderborn and Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany, 2016.
“Love Sounds” Curator of Sound Installation. Directed by Masha Tupitsyn. Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany, 2015
“This is all you are – 540min” Film producer and Exhibition Curator. Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, 2012.
“Kunst – Erkenntnis – Problem. Möglichkeiten emanzipatorischer Kunst heute” Organizer of Graduate Student Conference. Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, 2012.