Mr. Marcel Strobel

Professional Background

Marcel Strobel is a Ph.D. candidate in comparative literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research engages with 19th and 20th-century German media and cultural history, specializing in queer German studies, modernism, and mass media during the German interwar period. He draws from urban studies, queer studies, and spatial literary studies to analyze the relationship between queer identities, space, and place, to understand how literature produces spatial sexual imaginaries and physical realities in urban and rural environments.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Mr. Strobel received dual bachelor's and master's degrees in Anglophone and Francophone literature and linguistics with a specialization in second-language teaching from the University of Mannheim, Germany. During this time, Mr. Strobel also studied at the Sorbonne University and participated in the Harvard Institute for World Literature.

Over the last two years, he has visited several archives in Germany, including the Gay Museum (Schwules Museum) in Berlin, the Hamburg State Archive (Staatsarchiv Hamburg), and the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) in Frankfurt, to locate sources about queer culture and queer identities during the German interwar period. Mr. Strobel draws upon a broad variety of sources that testify to the culture and lived experiences of queer individuals, including print magazines, film, and diaries, and sources with a broader policy view, such as criminal records and state documents. He uses sources in German, French, and English.

Fellowship Research

Mr. Strobel was awarded a Duane Rath Endowment Fellowship for his research project, “Queering the Archive: Homosexuality, Transvestitism, and Sex Work during the German Interwar Period.” This project, which was funded by the Max Kade Foundation and the Stuart Atkins Fellowship Fund, investigates the subjectivities of male and transgender sex workers during the German interwar period. Mr. Strobel’s research examines the relationship between the archive, queer sex work, and traditional historical writing. He presupposes that the interrelationship of the archive and queer sex work is pivotal to gaining new meaning of queer German history and culture. Through a detailed analysis of conventional archival sources, which serve as a guided theoretical framework for his study, Mr. Strobel seeks to illuminate the lived experiences of queer subjectivities, specifically those of male and transgender sex workers during the interwar period, and to apply this knowledge to reframe contemporary discourses on queer German studies.

This fellowship allows Mr. Strobel use of the museum's archival collections, including photographs, diaries, prison documents, and the vast collection of criminal records pertaining to “homosexuality” that contain personal accounts of queer perspectives that add a critical understanding to the history of queer sexuality in Germany. Accessing the collections will help to gain insight into the destinies of male and trans sex workers and their suppressed subjectivities during the Nazi Regime.

Residency Period: January 1–April 31, 2024