Associate Professor Cecilia Novero Profile, Our people, Languages and Cultures

Office Arts 3S6
Tel +64 3 479 8694
Email cecilia.novero@otago.ac.nz

Cecilia Novero has a PhD in German Studies from the University of Chicago (USA). After positions held at the University of Michigan, Vassar College and Penn State University (UP), she joined the University of Otago (NZ) in 2008.

Her book entitled Antidiets of the Avant-Garde: From Futurist Cooking to Eat Art (UMP 2010) examines the temporal relations between the historical Avant-garde and the Neo-Avant-Garde, through the lens of material consumption. She has published essays on the German cultural history of food, Italian Futurism, Dada, Walter Benjamin, Viennese Actionism, artists Daniel Spoerri and Antoni Miralda, Eat Art, travel writing, and German and European film and photography. Most recently Cecilia has co-edited two issues of Antennae (www.antennae.org.uk), devoted to animals and photography, as well as the 28th volume of Otago German Studies, on material ecocriticism. An essay on artist Daniel Spoerri, Natural History Museums and archives appears in Seminar 53:3 (2017), and an article on Futurist cooking is forthcoming in G. Berghaus's Handbook of International Futurism (De Gruyter, 2018).

Research / Supervision Interests

Cecilia's research and teaching interests are the interdisciplinary fields of Food Studies, Animal Studies and the Environmental Humanities. She pursues these interests by focusing on Visual Culture, mostly 20th and 21st-century European cinema and the art and texts produced by the historical Avant-garde and the Neo-Avant-garde movements. In her scholarship Cecilia has also explored the material role that nature and non-human animals play in literary and philosophical texts, in particular post-humanism. She examines all texts, whether art, film or literature, comparatively and cross-culturally. Cecilia has an abiding interest in the literature and art from the former German Democratic Republic, travel literature, adaptation theory, gender and queer theory, as well as critical theory – especially but not limited to the works of Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse and Theodor W. Adorno. She is an advocate of the public humanities, both as theoretical approach and as practice.

Cecilia has co-supervised several theses and dissertations, ranging from the work of individual authors or artists (Christa Wolf, Jean Cocteau, Franz Marc) to periods, genres, and/or theoretical issues (Weimar Republic fairy tales; GDR novels and the mother figure; masculinity and German contemporary novels; space and gender in film; graffiti art in post-1989 Berlin, among others). Cecilia welcomes postgraduate students interested in any of the above fields.

Cecilia's profile can also be found here

Publications

Novero, C. (2023). Striking (up) interspecies collaborations with crows and falcons. Junctures, 23, 85-106. doi: 10.34074/junc.23007 Journal - Research Article

Novero, C. (2022). Amicizie particolari e toccanti: L'arte di creare in collaborazione con falchi e corvi [Striking multispecies friendships: Creative collaborations with crows and hawks]. Proceedings of the Tenth Convegno Societa Italiana Antropologia Applicata (SIAA). (pp. 84-87). Retrieved from http://www.antropologiaapplicata.com/x-convegno-siaa-2022/ Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Novero, C. (2021, September). To look at art with a dog's nose or learning to smell in the company of ghosts.... Dunedin School of Art Lunchtime Research Seminar Programme, [Online]. [Research Presentation]. Other Research Output

Novero, C. (2021, June). To look at art with a dog's nose: Learning to distill the materiality of (invisible) ghosts. Invited lecture as part of "Smell it! The fragrance of art" project at Künstlerhaus Bremen, Germany, [Online]. [Public Seminar]. Other Research Output

Novero, C. (2021). Spirited away! Distilling avant-garde art. In Korpys/Löffler/Schmal, K. Bremen, F. Gonella & N. Quante (Eds.), Korpys/Löffler/Schmal: Geist. (pp. 47-76). Bremen, Germany: nomen nominandum buch. Chapter in Book - Research

2023

Journal - Research Article

Novero, C. (2023). Striking (up) interspecies collaborations with crows and falcons. Junctures, 23, 85-106. doi: 10.34074/junc.23007

2022

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

2021

Chapter in Book - Research

Other Research Output

2020

Edited Book - Research

Novero, C. (Ed.). (2020). Imperfect Recall: Re-collecting the GDR [Otago German Studies vol. 30]. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago, 402p. doi: 10.11157/ogs-vol30id424

Chapter in Book - Research

Novero, C. (2020). The GDR: Thirty years on, incidentally. In C. Novero (Ed.), Imperfect Recall: Re-collecting the GDR [Otago German Studies vol. 30]. (pp. iii-xlviii). Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago. doi: 10.11157/ogs-vol30id426

Chapter in Book - Other

Novero, C. (2020). A tête-à-tête about Willenbrock Christoph Hein and Cecilia Novero in conversation (2008). In C. Novero (Ed.), Imperfect Recall: Re-collecting the GDR [Otago German Studies vol. 30]. (pp. 141-173). Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago. doi: 10.11157/ogs-vol30id433

2019

Chapter in Book - Research

Novero, C. (2019). Cuisine. In G. Berghaus (Ed.), Handbook of international futurism. (pp. 116-128). Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Novero, C. (2019). Captive ghosts, im/mobile animals: Filming natural history. Proceedings of the Australasian Animal Studies Association (AASA) Conference: Decolonizing Animals. (pp. 83). Retrieved from https://aasa2019.org

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2019, June). A cosmopolitics of grievable bodies: Michael Haneke's Code Unknown (2000). Verbal presentation at the 26th International Conference of Europeanists: Sovereignties in Contention, Madrid, Spain.

Other Research Output

Novero, C. (2019, February). A cosmopolitics of grievable bodies: Michael Haneke's Code Unknown (2000). Lecture co-hosted by the Department of Germanic Studies and Department of Moving Image Arts, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. [Research Presentation].

Novero, C. (2019, February). The radical vulnerability of agency: Grievability in Michael Haneke's Code Unknown (2000) [Invited lecture]. Co-hosted by the German Department and the Cinema Studies Program, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA. [Research Presentation].

Novero, C. (2019, February). Interdisciplinary and public humanities: How to make thinking matter in everyday life [Invited lecture]. Postcolonial Performances and Questions, Department of English and the Graduate Program in American Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, USA. [Invited Presentation].

Novero, C. (2019, February). Aging in the age of the Chthulucene: Spoerri's fossils and monsters. Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA. [Research Presentation].

2018

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2018, October). Take a walk on the wild side: Spoerri's collaborations in and with nature. Verbal presentation at the Topographies de Daniel Spoerri: l'artiste en ses réseaux [Daniel Spoerri's Topographies: Networks of Exchange], Paris, France.

Other Research Output

Novero, C. (2018, October). Daniel Spoerris Eat-Art installationen [Invited lecture]. Dipartimento di lingue e letterature straniere e culture moderne [Department of Foreign Languages, Literature and Modern Cultures], University of Turin, Turin, Italy. [Invited Presentation].

2017

Edited Book - Research

Novero, C., Obermayer, A., & Barton, P. (Eds.). (2017). Of rocks, mushrooms and animals: Material ecocriticism in German-speaking cultures [Otago German Studies vol. 28]. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago, 225p. doi: 10.11157/ogs-vol28id362

Novero, C., Obermayer, A., & Barton, P. (Eds.). (2017). Of rocks, mushrooms and animals: Material ecocriticsm in German-speaking cultures. Dunedin, New Zealand: Department of Languages and Cultures, University of Otago, 225p.

Chapter in Book - Research

Novero, C. (2017). Echoes of ecocriticism: An introduction. In C. Novero, A. Obermayer & P. Barton (Eds.), Of rocks, mushrooms and animals: Material ecocriticism in German-speaking cultures [Otago German Studies vol. 28]. (pp. 7-40). Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago. doi: 10.11157/ogs-vol28id362

Chapter in Book - Other

Novero, C. (2017). Artists and friends: Daniel Spoerri's eat art gallery. In S. Bottinelli & M. d'Ayala Valva (Eds.), The taste of art: Cooking, food, and counterculture in contemporary practices. (pp. 191-210). Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press.

Journal - Research Article

Novero, C. (2017). Art in the archives of natural history: The temporalities of Spoerri's Ein Inkompetenter Dialog? Seminar, 53(3), 251-274. doi: 10.3138/seminar.53.3.05

Journal - Research Other

Novero, C. (2017). Tom Denlinger's more-than-human photography [Interview]. Antennae, 41, 6-24.

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2017, November). Photographic land-marks in Christoph Hein's Der fremde Freund. Verbal presentation at the Borders of the Visible Conference: Intersections between Literature and Philosophy, Turin, Italy.

Other Research Output

Novero, C. (2017, Decemeber). Daniel Spoerri's art and its relation to natural history. Department of History, Kassel University, Kassel, Germany. [Research Presentation].

Other - Edited Journal

Aloi, G., Brower, M., & Novero, C. (Eds.). (2017). Antennae, 41 [Special issue: Exposing Animals, Part 2]. [Guest Editors].

Aloi, G., Brower, M., & Novero, C. (Eds.). (2017). Antennae, 40 [Special issue: Exposing Animals, Part 1]. [Guest Editors].

2016

Journal - Research Other

Novero, C. (2016). Interview with Mustafa Sabbagh [Interview]. Antennae, 38(1), 77-93.

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2016, October). Daniel Spoerri's art of natural history: Ein inkompetenter Dialog? Verbal presentation at the Art and Future Symposium: Energy, Climate, Culture, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Novero, C. (2016, November-December). No clash, only bodies that grieve and grievable bodies (Haneke's Code Unknown). Verbal presentation at the German Studies Association of Australia (GSAA) Conference: Cosmopolitan Imaginings in the German-Speaking World, Canberra, Australia.

Other Research Output

Novero, C. (2016, May). Daniel Spoerri's art of natural history: Ein inkompetenter Dialog? Department of Languages and Cultures Research Seminar Series, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. [Department Seminar].

Novero, C. (2016, September). Phantasmagorias and awakenings in Borderland Europe: Christoph Hochhäusler's Film: This Very Momemnt. Department of Languages and Cultures Research Seminar Series, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. [Department Seminar].

2015

Chapter in Book - Research

Novero, C. (2015). Bear images: Human performativity and animal touch in Grizzly Man. In M. Lawrence & L. McMahon (Eds.), Animal life & the moving image. (pp. 238-253). London, UK: Palgrave.

Novero, C. (2015). Eat art and fluxus. In G. Celant (Ed.), Arts & foods: Rituals since 1851. (pp. 596-613). Milan, Italy: Electa.

Journal - Research Article

Novero, C. (2015). Following in the tracks of a dog: "The Beggarwoman of Locarno" revisited. German Studies Review, 38(3), 491-508. doi: 10.1353/gsr.2015.0123

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2015, November). Recollecting in natural museums: Spoerri and other artists in Vienna. Keynote presentation at the Aotearoa New Zealand Human-Animal Studies Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Novero, C. (2015, October). Re-collecting in natural history museums: Art meets the zoological ark/archive (Vienna and Berlin). Verbal presentation at the 39th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association (GSA), DC, USA.

2014

Journal - Research Article

Radner, H., & Novero, C. (2014). From hypnosis to animals by Raymond Bellour: Introduction. Cinema Journal, 53(3), 2-8.

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2014, January). Zooming in on Accaio: Pirandello and German cinema. Verbal presentation at the Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention, Chicago, IL.

2013

Journal - Research Article

Novero, C. (2013). Posthuman animals and the avant-garde: The case of Daniel Spoerri. Antennae, 26, 59-77.

Novero, C. (2013). Birds on air: Sally Ann McIntyre's radio art. Antennae, 27, 31-44.

2012

Chapter in Book - Research

Novero, C. (2012). Daniel Spoerri's Carnival of animals. In J. B. Landes, P. Y. Lee & P. Youngquist (Eds.), Gorgeous beasts: Animal bodies in historical perspective. (pp. 151-166). University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Novero, C. (2012). Eat Art Multiples: Daniel Spoerri and friends. Proceedings of the Art & Food Symposium. Retrieved from http://www.otago.ac.nz/foodscience/pdfs/foodandartprogramme.pdf

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2012, January). History as eaten by the neo-avant-garde. Verbal presentation at the 127th Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention: Language, Literature, Learning, Seattle, WA.

Novero, C. (2012, January). For the love of animals: Companion-species stories and posthumanist history in Haushofer, Lange-Müller, and Kronauer. Verbal presentation at the 127th Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention: Language, Literature, Learning, Seattle, WA.

2011

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Full paper

Novero, C. (2011). Film adaptation as collective enunciation on post-wall GDR literature and film: The case of the two Willenbrock(s). In E. Todd, C. Da Gama, E. Pullar & H. Radner (Eds.), Creative Imitations and Appropriations: From Cinematic Adaptations to Re-makes Research Colloquium: Selected Refereed Papers. (pp. 31-37). Dunedin, New Zealand: Centre for Research on National Identity. [Full Paper]

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Novero, C. (2011). Facing animals on screen: Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005). Proceedings of the Screen Cultures Conference. Retrieved from http://www.otago.ac.nz/languagescultures/screencultures.html

Novero, C. (2011). Adaptation as palimpsest of collective memories. In E. Todd (Ed.), Creative Imitations and Appropriations: From Cinematic Adaptations to Re-makes: Research Colloquium: Programme and Refereed Abstracts. (pp. 10-11). Dunedin, New Zealand: Centre for Research on National Identity, University of Otago. [Abstract]

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2011, July). Reworking the anthropological machine: Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005). Verbal presentation at the 4th Biennial Australian Animal Studies Group Conference, Brisbane, Australia.

Novero, C. (2011, November-December). Bear images: Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005) and animal representation in film. Verbal presentation at the German Studies Association of Australia (GSAA) Conference, Brisbane, Australia.

Novero, C. (2011, February). Adaptation as palimpsest of collective memories. Verbal presentation at the University of Otago Cultures, Histories and Identities in Film, Media and Literature Research Network Colloquium: Creative Imitations and Appropriations: From Cinematic Adaptations to Re-makes, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Other Research Output

Novero, C. (2011, November). Facing animals in recent art: An addendum to Jenny Gillam's dog Frank. Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand. [Public Seminar].

2010

Authored Book - Research

Novero, C. (2010). Antidiets of the avant-garde: From futurist cooking to eat art. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 368p.

Chapter in Book - Research

Novero, C. (2010). Miralda: Turning the tables. In M. Rodriguez & A. Múgica (Eds.), Miralda: De gustibus non disputandum. (pp. 59-69). Madrid, Spain: La Fábrica Editorial.

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2010, June). The braided colors of Miralda's bread: How food empowers art. Verbal presentation at the Food, Power & Meaning in the Middle East and the Mediterranean International Conference, Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Novero, C. (2010, June). Working through the European map with the cinema. Verbal presentation at the European Network for Cinema & Media Studies Conference: Urban Mediations, Istanbul, Turkey.

Novero, C. (2010, September). Of animals, silence, and noise: The power of powerlessness in Kleist's Other language. Verbal presentation at the Kleist and Modernity International Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand.

2009

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2009, July). Futurism biting its tail? Cooking and eating with Marinetti and Fillia. Verbal presentation at the Back to the Futurists Conference: Avant-gardes 1909-2009, London, UK.

Novero, C. (2009, April). Walter Benjamin eats Borsch: Figuring the avant-garde. Verbal presentation at the University of Otago Russian Studies Research Cluster Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand.

2008

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Full paper

Novero, C. (2008). Timeout in post-wall Germany: Christian Petzold's Yella and the phantoms of late capitalism. In C. Miller (Ed.), Proceedings of the Film and History Conference: Film and Science: Fiction, Documentaries, and Beyond. [CD-ROM] Oshkosh, WI: Center for the Study of Film and History, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. [Full Paper]

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2008, October-November). Timeout in post-wall Germany: Christian Petzoid's Yella and the phantoms of late capitalism. Verbal presentation at the Film & History Conference, Chicago, IL.

2007

Journal - Research Article

Novero, C. (2007). Painful painting and brutal ecstasy: The material actions of Günter Brus and Otto Muehl. Seminar, 43(4), 453-468.

Novero, C. (2007). Class and gender anxieties in Weimar nutritional discourse: Max Rubner's Volksernährung. Journal of Popular Culture, 40(1), 109-146.

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2007, December). Benjamin's materialist surrealism: Cannibalizing Breton, Dalí, and others. Verbal presentation at the 123rd Modern Languages Association (MLA) Annual Convention, Chicago, IL.

Novero, C. (2007, October). Adopting adaptation again: The memory of the cinema. Verbal presentation at the 31st Annual Conference of the German Studies Association (GSA), San Diego, CA.

2006

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Novero, C. (2006, March). Carnival of animals. Verbal presentation at the American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting: The Human and its Others, Princeton, NJ.

Novero, C. (2006, September-October). Laboring specters in post-communist European film. Verbal presentation at the 30th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association (GSA), Pittsburgh, PA.

Other Research Output

Novero, C. (2006, September). Bodyanalysis: Violence as vulnerability: Günter Brus's surgical art. Primal Secretions: A Günter Brus Retrospective Lecture, Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, PA. [Public Seminar].