Former Fellow

Feng-Mei Heberer

Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies, New York University, New York, NY

Research Project Title
Asian German Media Activisms

Research abstract
This project proceeds from the question, what can we learn about conflict and trust-building from the activist media practices of marginalized groups, in particular when conceived through an intersectional grassroots perspective? With a focus on the Asian Film Festival Berlin as a nodal point of different generations of Asian German activism, it seeks to explore overarching questions of representational practices, collective organizing, and the particular role of distinct media formats in articulating minority politics and advancing a social justice agenda, including film, podcasts, and social media.

Events
16 December 2022 Workshop: Asian German Cultural Activism: Media, Representation, Generations

  • Biografische Angaben

    Feng-Mei Heberer is Assistant Professor in Cinema Studies at New York University. Her research spans transnational media, ethnic studies, feminist and queer studies, with particular focus on Asian diasporic media cultures. Her work has appeared, among others, in Camera Obscura, Sexualities, and the edited volume Asian Video Cultures. Her book, Asians On Demand: Mediating Race in Video Art and Activism, is forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press. Complementing her academic work, she has been a programmer for several film festivals, including the Asian Film Festival Berlin.
  • Publikationen

    2023. Asians On Demand: Mediating Race in Video Art and Activism (University of Minnesota Press). 2020. “Scaling Down Workload, Upping Co-Presence. Reflecting on Teaching in the Time of Corona.” Open Media Studies Blog. 2019. “Sentimental Activism as Queer-Feminist Documentary Practice, or How To Make Love in a Room Full of People,” Camera Obscura (Best Publication Award Gender and Media 2020,Gender-/Queer and Media Studies Interest Group, Society for Media Studies). 2017. “The Asianization of Heimat – Ming Wong’s Asian German Video Works,” in Asian Video Cultures: In the Penumbra of the Global (Duke University Press), ed. Bhaskar Sarkar and Joshua Neves (Society for Cinema and Media Studies Award for Best Edited Collection, 2019).

News from the research center

News
04.12.2025

The crisis of democratic theory from a sociological perspective

Sociologist Jenny Brichzin's lecture "Crisis of Democratic Theory? A sociological intervention" opened our lecture series "At the crossroads? On the future of democratic theory". The sociologist criticized the fact that social coexistence has so far been insufficiently addressed in democratic theory. A follow-up report

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Publication
21.11.2025 | Anthology

Handbook of Leadership. Applied Business Psychology for Managers

Felfe, Jörg; Dick, Rolf van (eds.) (2025): Handbook of Leadership. Applied Business Psychology for Managers. Springer.

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News
20.11.2025

Voluntary or compulsory? Military service, peace and democratic responsibility

Review of the 58th "Römerberggespräche". The topic of compulsory military service and the question of what a democratic state is allowed to demand of its citizens were at the center of the 58th "Römerberggespräche" "Conditionally ready for action? Military service and the duty to serve the state", which took place on November 15 in cooperation with the Research Centre Normative Orders in the Chagallsaal at Schauspiel Frankfurt.

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News
13.11.2025

Goethe Lecture Offenbach on ableist discrimination

Regina Schidel hat im Rahmen der Goethe Lectures Offenbach eine Kritik ableistischer Diskriminierung präsentiert. In ihrem Vortrag „Ich kann, also bin ich?“ diskutierte sie praktische Ausprägungen und philosophische Herkünfte von Ableismus.

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Event
10.02.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Satanic Politics. Democracy after Liberalism

Lecture, Lecture Series

Lecture by Michael Rosen (Harvard University) as part of the lecture series "At the Crossroads? On the crisis of democracy" in the winter semester 2025/2026

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Event
04.02.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Demokratien verteidigen. Zur Aktualität des Gewaltbegriffs bei Camus und Derrida

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Christine Abbt (Universität St. Gallen) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Am Scheidepunkt? Zur Krise der Demokratie" im Wintersemester 2025/2026

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Event
29.01.2026 | Frankfurt

Civil Geopolitics and the Dilemmas of the Democratic State

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von David Owen (Universtiy of Southampton) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Am Scheidepunkt? Zur Krise der Demokratie" im Wintersemester 2025/2026

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Event
14.01.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Vom Retten der Welt zum Vorbereiten auf den Kollaps: Neuorientierungen in katastrophischen Zeiten

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Christine Hentschel (Universität Hamburg) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Am Scheidepunkt? Zur Krise der Demokratie" im Wintersemester 2025/2026

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Event
10.12.2025 | Frankfurt am Main

How Democracy Relies on the Future

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Jonathan White (LSE) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Am Scheidepunkt? Zur Krise der Demokratie" im Wintersemester 2025/2026

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