I am generally interested in historical and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of modern German culture. Within this framework I also have a number of more specific interests--including visual culture, the various technologies and institutions that produce it, and the historical experiences associated with them. I have published on various forms of nineteenth-century display culture, including zoological gardens, ethnographic exhibitions (Völkerschauen), and Wild West shows in Germany. I have also published on the interrelationship of science, technology, and popular culture in specific situations--namely, the vital importance of the phonograph and the archive to the formation of ethnomusicology in Germany, and the cinema’s function as an instrument of cultural power in the writings of Hugo Münsterberg. My latest publications concern the films of Werner Herzog. I am co-editor of Germany’s Colonial Pasts (Nebraska, 2005), and author of Carl Hagenbeck’s Empire of Entertainments (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2009). Currently, I am writing a research monograph on Werner Herzog, with particular focus on questions of documentary, knowledge, and performance. My course offerings span the history of German cinema, including early silent film, Weimar cinema, film noir (German filmmakers in exile), New German Cinema, East German cinema, and nonfiction film. In addition, I regularly teach courses in German cultural studies.