“Modern Medicine Had to Start Somewhere:” Performing Health and White Privilege in The Knick

Claudia Trotzke is an assistant at the American Studies Department at the University of Regensburg. She completed her M.A. at the University of Regensburg with a thesis entitled “‘One of the most expensive zip codes in the world’: The Performance of the Hamptons as a Space of White Privilege in ABC’s Revenge“,“ for which she received the Dr.-Katharina-Sailer-Award. Her research interests include performance studies, visual culture studies, critical whiteness studies, critical race theory, U.S.-American television series, and, more recently, health discourses. Inspired by her academic stays abroad at Wesleyan University (2009-2010) and the University of Kansas (2012) as well as through her work at the American Studies Department in Regensburg she is especially interested in combining performance studies with the field of American Studies. Currently, she is developing her PhD thesis on performances and visualizations of health in U.S.-American culture.