Evan Torner

Evan Torner defended his dissertation on race representation in East German genre cinema at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2013, and spent 2013-2014 at Grinnell College as an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow. He has published several articles pertaining to East Germany, critical race theory, DEFA Indianerfilme, science-fiction, transnational genre cinema, and game studies, as well as co-edited several books. His volume Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Role-Playing and Participatory Media co-edited with William J. White was published with McFarland Publishing in 2012, and he is one of the founding editors of the Analog Game Studies journal (http://analoggamestudies.org). His major projects underway include the Handbook of East German Cinema: The DEFA Legacy, co-edited with Henning Wrage and under contract with Walter De Gruyter, and a monograph entitled A Century and Beyond: Critical Readings of German Science-Fiction Cinema.

B.A. with honors: Grinnell College Grinnell, IA, 2004 (German, Second Language Education Grades 7-12)

M.A.: University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA, 2008 (German Studies)

Ph.D.: University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA, 2013 (German Studies with Film Studies Certificate)

Primary Research Interests
East German (DEFA) cinema
Transnational genre cinema
Critical Race Theory / Postcolonialism
Science-Fiction (1871 - Present)
Game Studies
Marx and the Global Left

Additional Areas of Interest
Technology and Masculinity
Works of Alfred Döblin
European Film History
Digital Archival Practices
18th-20th Century Literature and Drama
Electronic Music
DaDa and Surrealism
Second-Language Acquisition
Asexuality in the Media
Role-playing Game Theory
Live-Action Role-Playing (Larp)
Analog Game Studies
Digital Adventure Games
Translation

2014 -2020 Assistant Professor of German Studies, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

2013 -2014 Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in German, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA

2012 -2013 Visiting Lecturer in German, Smith College, Northampton, MA

2009 -2010 Fulbright Research Fellow, Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen "Konrad Wolf", Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany

2006 -2009 Program Assistant, DEFA Film Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA

2010 -2011 College of Humanities and Fine Arts Dean's Fellow, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA

2010 -2011 Translator of the permanent exhibition Dream Factory – 100 Years of Babelsberg, Filmmuseum Potsdam, Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany

2018 -To Present Affiliate Faculty in Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

2020 -To Present Associate Professor of German and Film & Media Studies, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

2013 -2014 Grinnell College Committee on Support for Faculty Scholarship Grant (declined for Cincinnati position) Type:Grant Level:College

2012 DAAD Stipend for DAAD Summer Seminar in German Studies at Cornell University Type:Grant Level:National

2012 DAAD Funding for “Sensing Senses” Graduate Conference Type:Grant Level:National

2011 DEFA-Stiftung Publication Grant, “Die HFF ‘Konrad Wolf’ im globalen Kontext” with Barton Byg Type:Grant Level:International

2011 DEFA-Stiftung Project Grant, Summer Film Workshop “Cold War, Hot Media: DEFA in the Third World,” Type:Grant Level:International

2010 -2011 University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts Dean’s Fellowship Type:Fellowship Level:College

2009 -2010 Fulbright Graduate Research Fellowship Type:Fellowship Level:National

2009 -2010 DAAD Graduate Fellowship (declined for Fulbright) Type:Fellowship Level:National

2008 -2009 University of Massachusetts Amherst Graduate Fellowship Type:Fellowship Level:University

2015 -2016 University of Cincinnati, Charles Phelps Taft Research Center Speaker Funding for "Counterpublics after German Unification" Completed Type:Grant Level:College

2017 UC International Faculty-Led Study Abroad Mentoring Grant Role:Mentee Completed Type:Grant

2019 University of Cincinnati Charles Phelps Taft Research Center Speaker Funding for "Lutz Dammbeck: Art & Power." Active Type:Grant

Grant: #R40527 Investigators:Bastos, Flavia Maria Cunha; Blevins, Jeffrey; Hughes, Sean; Iversen, Kristen; Lind, Amy; Torner, Evan 10-01-2019 -03-31-2020 UC's Urban Futures Digital Futures Anchor Development Program Story-telling & Social Justice Role:Collaborator $10,000.00 Active Level:Internal UC

Peer Reviewed Publications

Torner, Evan (2011. ) “The Red and the Black: Race in the DEFA Film Osceola.” .New German Review, , 25 ,61-81

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Torner, Evan; Sarah Lynne Bowman, William J. White (2018. ) "Special Issue – Living Games 2018." .International Journal of Role-Playing, , 9 ,

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Torner, Evan (2015. ) "Bodies and Time in Tabletop Role-Playing Game Combat Systems." .WyrdCon Companion Book 2015, , 160-176

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Torner, Evan (2016. ) "The Self-Reflexive Tabletop Role-Playing Game." .The Italian Journal of Game Studies, , 5 (1 ) ,

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Torner, Evan (2016. ) "Teaching German Literature through Larp: A Proposition." .International Journal of Role-Playing, , 7 ,

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Published Books

Torner, Evan and Victoria Lenshyn (Eds.) (2009. ) MYTH: German & Scandinavian Studies .Newcastle, UK , Cambridge Scholars Press (Co-Editor)

Torner, Evan and William J. White (Eds.) (2012. ) Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Role-playing and Participatory Media .Jefferson, NC , McFarland (Co-Editor)

Wedel, Michael, Barton Byg, Andy Räder, Sky Arndt-Briggs u. Evan Torner, hrsg. (2013. ) DEFA International: Grenzüberschreitende Filmbeziehungen vor und nach dem Mauerbau .Wiesbaden , VS Springer Verlag (Co-Editor)

Wrage, Henning and Evan Torner The Handbook of East German Cinema: The DEFA Legacy. Berlin , Walter De Gruyter (Co-Editor)

Torner, Evan A Century and Beyond: Critical Essays on the German Science-Fiction Film .

Trammell, Aaron, Evan Torner and Emma Leigh Waldron; (2016. ) Analog Game Studies Vol. 1 .Pittsburgh, PA , ETC Press (Co-Editor)

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Torner, Evan, Aaron Trammell, and Emma Leigh Waldron (2017. ) Analog Game Studies Vol. 2 .Pittsburgh, PA , ETC Press (Co-Editor)

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Waldron, Emma Leigh, Aaron Trammell, and Evan Torner (2019. ) Analog Game Studies Vol. 3 .Pittsburgh, PA , ETC Press (Co-Editor)

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Book Chapter

Torner, Evan (2007 ) “To the End of a Universe - A Brief History of the DEFA Science Fiction Film” From Weimar to Christiania. .(pp. 89-106).Cambridge, MA, Cambridge Scholars Press

Torner, Evan (2010 ) “Civilization's Endless Shadow: Time of the Wolf.” The Blackwell Companion to Michael Haneke .(pp. 532-550).Malden, MA, Wiley-Blackwell

Torner, Evan (2012 ) “The Poles of Wantonness: Asexuality in Alan Moore’s Film Adaptations” Sexual Ideology in the Works of Alan Moore .(pp. 111-123).Jefferson, NC, McFarland

Byg, Barton and Evan Torner (2013 ) “Divided Dirigisme: Nationalism, Regionalism and Reform in the German Film Academies” The Education of the Filmmaker in Europe, Australia, and Asia .(pp. 105-126).New York, Palgrave-Macmillan (Co-Author)

Torner, Evan (2015 ) “Adventures in Stagnation: Gottfried Kolditz’s Unfilmed DEFA Project Zimtpiraten” German Television: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives .(pp. 183-199).New York, Berghahn Books (Author)

Torner, Evan (2015 ) “Nation and Adventure in Die Jagd nach dem Schatz der Nibelungen (2008)" Televising the Past: Small Screen Medievalisms .(pp. 78-96).Jefferson, NC, McFarland (Author)

Torner, Evan and Victoria Rizo Lenshyn (2015 ) "Imposed Dialogues: Joerg Foth and Tran Vu's GDR- Vietnamese Co-Production Dschungelzeit (1988)" Comrades of Color: East Germany and the Varieties of World Socialism .(pp. 243- 264.).New York, Berghahn Books (Co-Author)

Torner, Evan (2016 ) “The DEFA ‘Indianerfilm’: Narrating the Postcolonial through Gojko Mitic" Re-imagining DEFA. East German Cinema in its National and Transnational Context .(pp. 227-247).New York, Berghahn Books (Author)

Torner, Evan (2014 ) “Casting for a Socialist Earth: Multicultural Whiteness in the East German/Polish Science- Fiction Film Silent Star.” Liverpool Companion to World Science Fiction Film. .(pp. 130-149).Liverpool University Press, Liverpool University Press (Author)

Torner, Evan (2012 ) “Where the Game Begins: Kid Nation and Systemic Violence” Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Role-playing and Participatory Media .(pp. 127-146).Jefferson, NC, McFarland

Torner, Evan (2018 ) "Volatile Intimacies and Queer Polyamory in GDR Film." Gender and Sexuality in East German Film: Intimacy and Alienation. (pp. 104-125).Rochester, NY, Camden House (Author)

Torner, Evan (2018 ) "1968 Leftist Utopianism in The Young Girls of Rochefort and Hot Summer." Popular Music and the Moving Image in Eastern Europe. (pp. 25-43).London, Bloomsbury UK (Author)

Torner, Evan (2019 ) "The Socialist Dionysian in Late East German Film." 25 Years Berlin Republic: Reflections on/of German Unification (1990-2015) .(pp. 183-199).Paderborn, Germany, Wilhelm Fink Verlag (Author)

Torner, Evan (2011 ) “Rassenpanik in naher Zukunft: Die nihilistische Moderne und imperialistische Sittenlehre in Carola von Eynattens Pereat Austria!” Literatur und Wissenschaft zwischen 1850 und 1910 im Fokus aktueller Theoriebildung. (pp. 166-187).Basel, germanistik.ch

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Torner, Evan (2014 ) “A Future-History Out of Time: The Historical Context of Döblin's Expressionist Dystopian Experiment, Mountains Oceans and Giants.” Detectives, Dystopias and Poplit: Studies in Modern German Genre Fiction .(pp. 90-118).Rochester, NY, Camden House (Author)

Torner, Evan (2017 ) "1980s German Cyberpunk Cinema: Kamikaze 1989 and Nuclearvision." Cyberpunk and Visual Culture .(pp. 195-212).New York, Routledge (Author)

Torner, Evan (2020 ) "German Cyberpunk" Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture .New York, Routledge (Author)

Torner, Evan (2019 ) "Documents of Colonialism and Racial Theorizing in the German Classroom." Diversity and Decolonialization in the German Curriculum .New York, Palgrave-Macmillan (Author)

Torner, Evan "Posthumanism and Object-Oriented Ontology in Sharon Dodua Otoo's Synchronicity (2014) and Herr Gröttrup setzt sich hin (2016)." Minorities and Minority Discourses in Germany Since 1989 .New York, Berghahn (Author)

Torner, Evan (2011 ) “The Theory and Practice of Larp in Non-Fiction Film.” Think Larp .(pp. 104-123).Copenhagen, Bymose Hegn (Author)

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Torner, Evan (2012 ) "Futurity and Larp." WyrdCon Companion Book 2012 .(pp. 70-84).Los Angeles, CA, WyrdCon (Author)

Torner, Evan (2013 ) "Air Castles Built on Concrete." The Official Book of Knutepunkt 2013: Crossing Physical Borders. (pp. 9-20).Oslo, Fantasiforbundet (Author)

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Torner, Evan (2013 ) "Transparency and Safety in Role-Playing Games." WyrdCon Companion Book 2013 .(pp. 14-17).Los Angeles, CA, WyrdCon (Author)

Torner, Evan and Katherine Castiello Jones (2014 ) "The Parlor Sandbox: Counter-Players and Ephemera in American Freeform." WyrdCon Companion Book 2014 .(pp. 69-75).Los Angeles, CA, WyrdCon (Co-Author)

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Sanna Koulu, Katherine Castiello Jones, and Evan Torner (2016 ) "Playing at Work: Labor, Identity and Emotion in Larp." Solmukohta 2016: Larp Realia and Larp Politics .(pp. 122-132).Helsinki, Finland, Solmukohta (Co-Author)

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Torner, Evan (2017 ) "Tensions Between Fandom and Live-Action Role-Play." The 2017 Knutepunkt Book .(pp. 297-303).Oslo, Knutepunkt (Author)

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Torner, Evan (2018 ) "Emergence, Iteration, and Reincorporation in Larp." Re-Shuffling the Deck: The Knutpunkt 2018 Printed Companion .(pp. 171-180).Pittsburgh, PA, ETC Press (Author)

Torner, Evan (2018 ) "Just a Little Lovin' USA 2017." Re-Shuffling the Deck: The Knutpunkt 2018 Printed Companion. (pp. 53-64).Pittsburgh, PA, ETC Press (Author)

White, William J., Jonne Arjoranta, Michael Hitchens, Jon Peterson, Evan Torner, and Jonathan Walton (2018 ) "Tabletop Role-Playing Games." Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations .(pp. 63-86).New York, Routledge (Co-Author)

Schrier, Karen, Evan Torner, and Jessica Hammer (2018 ) Worldbuilding in Role-Playing Games Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations .(pp. 249-363).New York, Routledge (Co-Author)

Jara, David and Evan Torner (2018 ) "Role-Playing Games and Literary Studies." Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations .(pp. 265-282).New York, Routledge (Co-Author)

Torner, Evan (2018 ) RPG Designer and Player Theorizing Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations .(pp. 191-212).New York, Routledge (Author)

Torner, Evan (2019 ) Planescape: Torment – Immersion How to Play Video Games .(pp. 52-58).New York, New York University Press

Torner, Evan "Actual Play Reports: Forge Theory, Forums, and Early Podcasts." Essays on Actual Play and Tabletop Role-Playing Games .Jefferson, NC, McFarland (Author)

Electronic Journal

Torner, Evan (2010. ) "The Cinematic Defeat of Brecht by Artaud in Peter Brook’s Marat/Sade" .EDGE - A Graduate Journal for German and Scandinavian Studies, 1 (1 ) ,

Torner, Evan (2010. ) “Transnational System Schlock: The Case of Uwe Boll” .kunsttexte, 2 ,

Torner, Evan (2014. ) "The DEFA Indianerfilm as Artifact of Resistance." .Frames Cinema Journal, 4 ,

Bowman, Sarah Lynne and Evan Torner (2014. ) "Post-Larp Depression" .Analog Game Studies, 1 (1 ) ,

Torner, Evan (2016. ) "Uncertainty in Role-Playing Games" .Analog Game Studies, 1 ,

Torner, Evan (2018. ) "Just (the Institution of Computer) Game Studies." .Analog Game Studies, 5 (2 ) ,

Torner, Evan (2018. ) "Brecht, Moreno, and Role-Playing Games." .Communications from the International Brecht Society,

Encyclopedia Article

Torner, Evan (2015. ) German Cinema: A Critical Filmography to 1945. Montreal, Caboose Books

Torner, Evan (2014. ) Routledge Encyclopedia of Films. 94-98London, UK, Routledge

Torner, Evan (2014. ) World Cinema Directory: Germany .2, London, UK, Intellect Books

Torner, Evan (2013. ) Handbuch Nachkriegskultur: Literatur, Sachbuch und Film in Deutschland (1945-1962) .652-4Berlin, De Gruyter

Torner, Evan (2012. ) World Cinema Directory: Germany .1, London, UK, Intellect Books (Author)

Torner, Evan (2012. ) World Cinema Directory: Germany .1, London, Intellect Books (Author)

Torner, Evan (2012. ) World Cinema Directory: Germany .1, London, Intellect Books (Author)

Creative Translation

Torner, Evan (2015. ) Potsdam-Babelsberg, rbb

Torner, Evan (2013. ) Potsdam-Babelsberg, Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen "Konrad Wolf"

Torner, Evan (2012. ) Brookline, MA, Memory Productions

2017 College of Arts & Sciences Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence Status:Recipient Level:College

2015 Award for the Outstanding Published Essay in the Field of Central/East/South European Cinema and Media Studies For the article: “Casting for a Socialist Earth: Multicultural Whiteness in the East German/Polish Science- Fiction Film Silent Star.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Status:Recipient Level:International Type:Monetary

-GRMN-4001 SURVEY GERMAN LIT Survey of German Literature Level:Undergraduate

FOCUS: THEORY 1 Culture After Marx Level:Graduate

Phone: 513-556-2749
evan.torner@uc.edu