Creative non-fiction & Academia

Daniella’s main project is a serious inquiry into her obsession with the crazy, queer German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder — and the mystery of why his ghost has been haunting her for over a decade.

She’s adapting her PhD into a book on his life and films for Faber (part biography, part memoir, part ghost story), and is in post-production on an autofictional documentary about him.

Papers & Publications

  • 'It's much more fun to work with women': Gendering Emotions in Fassbinder's Women's Films

    Paper given at the Society for the Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image annual conference, June 2021

  • Novelty Effects: A Third Reich Film and its Technicolor Muse

    (Forthcoming)

  • 'The Translation of Films, 1900-1950', ed. Carol O’Sullivan and Jean-François Cornu

    Book review for Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation journal, September 2019

  • 'Echte, nackte, konkrete Lebenshilfe': Fassbinder's love for Franz Biberkopf

    Paper given at the German Studies Association annual conference, Indianapolis, September 2021

When she’s not thinking about Fassbinder, Daniella teaches other topics in film, languages, and literature.

She’s given lectures and seminars for Oxford’s Modern German Literature paper and Cambridge’s Comparative Film paper, which are much more exciting than they sound.

She’s taught on a wide range of subjects including Kafka’s insomnia, Freud’s cocaine habit, Maya Deren’s hair, and Adorno’s grumpy critique of the culture industry.

Scholarships & Prizes

  • Doctoral thesis at Cambridge University fully funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s prestigious OOC DTP scholarship.

  • Awarded for the Highest First in Oxford’s languages and linguistics faculty, and for achieving a First in every exam (BA in German, Finals).

  • Awarded for the Highest First in Oxford’s languages and linguistics faculty, and for achieving a First in every exam (BA in German, Preliminary Examinations).

  • Awarded for achieving the Highest First across all Arts subjects.

  • Awarded for achieving a First in every exam (BA in German, Oxford, Finals).

  • Awarded for the highest-scoring Oral Examination.

  • Awarded by Worcester College, Oxford, for achieving the best results in preliminary examinations in the languages and linguistics faculty.