Falk Rößler, M.A.

Personal details

• Research Areas

  •    Humor and comedy as spaces of social imagining in the Polycrisis
  •    Democratic civil society engagement in times of democratic backsliding and new authoritarianism
  •    Post-dramatic theater aesthetics; aesthetic and media strategies of the 20th and 21st century
  •    Popular Theater (cabaret, variety shows, comedy, magic, artistry, etc.) and its relationship to performance art
  •    Rhythm in audiovisual media and performance art
  •    Artistic Research (concepts, possibilities, limitations)
  •    Concepts of the “art of living” and their media structures in Late Antiquity and today
  •    Social participation in education and theater

• Curriculum Vitae

  2026-present
  Doctoral Researcher at the Cluster of Excellence Imaginamics: Practices and Dynamics of Social Imagining, Friedrich Schiller University Jena

  2012-present
  Freelance Director, Author, Musician for Theater and Radio.
  Theater Productions at Munich Kammerspiele, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Schauspiel Leipzig, Schauspielhaus Vienna, HAU Berlin, Mousonturm Frankfurt, Gessnerallee Zurich, Theater Oberhausen, Theater Bremen Teatre Lliure Barcelona, Théâtre National de Strasbourg.
  Radio Plays and Essays for Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
  (for further details: www.falkroessler.com) 

  2014-present
  Freelance Scholar and Publicist.
  Journalist for theater magazines and blogs; Editor, producer and host of podcasts on social sciences and theater.

  2023-2025
  M.Sc. in Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, Sweden

  2014-2022
  Research Fellow, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Berlin; Project: “Further education and further education policy in a society of longevity”

  2009-2015
  M.A. in Applied Theater Studies, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany

  2005-2009
  B.A. in European Media Studies, University of Potsdam, Germany

  2004-2005
  Social Worker for Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, Soltun Folkehøgskole Norway.

• Publications

  Monographs
  
  Falk Roessler. 2025. German Fall: Organized Democratic Civil Society in East Germany in the Autumn of 2024, Stockholm: diva.
  
  Edited volumes
  
  Fischer, Evelyn, Sarina Keiser, Falk Rößler, Sylvia Sparschuh (Eds.). 2022. Weiterbildung und Weiterbildungspolitik in einer Gesellschaft des langen Lebens: Verständnisse zentraler Begriffe. Berlin: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung.
  
  Articles
  
  Falk Rößler. 2020. “Informelles Lebenslanges Lernen?! Probleme der Anerkennung”. In Bernhard Schmidt-Hertha, Erik Haberzeth, Steffen Hillmert (Eds.), Lebenslang lernen können: Gesellschaftliche Transformation als Herausforderung für Bildung und Weiterbildung. Bielefeld: wbv, pp. 171-184.

  Schulte, Philipp & Falk Rößler. 2018. “Against Functionalization: On Artistic Research”. In Aisha-Nusrat Ahmad, Maik Fielitz, Johanna Leinius, Gianna Magdalena Schilchte (Eds.), Knowledge, Normativity and Power in Academia: Critical Interventions. Frankfurt: Campus, pp. 150-163.

  Falk Rößler. 2015. “Eierlegende Wollmilchsäue? Anmerkungen zu Künstlerischer Forschung”, Frankfurt in Takt: Magazin der Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main 15(2): 96-99.

  Falk Rößler. 2010. “Benjamins taktiles Paradies: Zum Politischen in Walter Benjamins Kunstwerk-Aufsatz”. In Kristin Flade, Sascha Förster, Rafael Ugarte Chacón (Eds.), Paradiese am Rand. Studentisches Denken: Marginalie an der Universität? München: Kleine Verlag, pp. 223-251.

  Falk Rößler. 2008. “Musikvideos: Rhythmus wohin man hört und schaut”. In Hans-Joachim Laabs (Ed.), Multimedies 2007: Wir gehen multimedial. Kommt ihr mit? Potsdam: Universitätsverlag, pp. 137-143.

• Further Activities

  Presentations
  
  “The Defense Dilemma: Organized Democratic Civil Society in East Germany in the Autumn of 2024”, Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA): Possibilities in a Polarised World, University of Poznań, July 2026.

  “Defense and/or Intervention: Organized Democratic Civl Society in East Germany in the Autumn of 2024“, Annual Conference of the Swedish Anthropological Association (SANT): Interventions, University of Gothenburg, April 2026.

  “Liberation through Conspiracy: Conspiracy Thinking and the Disdain for Democracy in East Germany and in Ourselves“, International Conference Engaging with Conspiracy Theories, Fostering Democracy: Dynamics, Drivers, and Defences, Charles University Prague, April 2026.

  “Gateway and Getaway: Reframing Post-War Northern Euroean Identity-Making with the Helsinki-Stockholm Cruiseferry”, EC2U Doctoral Workshop Lingustic and Cultural Diversity: European Dynamics and Intercontinental Entanglements, Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

  “Podcast & Theaterkritik: Zeitgenössische Herausforderungen für die Theaterberichterstattung“, Laboratory for New Forms of Contemporary Theater Criticism in North-Rhine-Westphalia, February 2021.

  “Eine Frage der Zeit: Vom Aufbruch und Abbruch einer Euphorie“, Conference Implosion der Institution Stadttheater? Geschichte, Analyse, Perspektiven, Goethe University Frankfurt, February 2018.

  (with Philipp Schulte) “Against Functionalization: On Artistic Research“, Keynote Lecture Series Post/Doc Perspectives, International Graduate Center for the Study of Culture, Justus Liebig University Giessen, June 2016.

  “Laste dich aus! Über das Unbehagen an der gegenwärtigen Lebenskunst“, Conference APPLAUS, European Media Studies, University of Potsdam, October 2009.

  “What the hell can we learn from that? About the conflation of contemporary artistic configuration modes in music videos“, EMERGANDSEE Short Film Festival Berlin, February 2008.

  Theater Reviews and Essay

  “Phantomschmerz: Vom Sprechen über ungesehenes Theater”, Critique Blog of the Berliner Theatertreffen 2019, 16 May 2019,
  https://theatertreffen-blog.de/blog/phantomschmerz-vom-sprechen-ueber-ungesehenes-theater/External link. 

  “Differenz und Wiederholung: Über Anta-Helena Reckes ‘Mittelreich’-Schwarzkopie”, Critique Blog of the Berliner Theatertreffen 2018, 18 May 2018,
  https://theatertreffen-blog.de/blog/differenz-und-wiederholung/External link. 

  “Heimatlieder: Über Anna-Sophie Mahlers Inszenierung ‘Mittelreich’”, Critique Blog of the Berliner Theatertreffen 2016, 19 May 2016,
  https://theatertreffen-blog.de/blog/heimatlieder/External link.
  
  Podcasts

  2018-2023
  Klima der Angst, podcast series with Falk Rößler & Janis El-Bira on contemporary theatre and performance, www.klimaderangst.deExternal link, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, etc.

  Artistic Works

  www.falkroessler.comExternal link