Dr Regina Seiwald

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2021)
• PhD in English Literature, Birmingham City University (2018)
• PGCert in Research Practice, Birmingham City University (2015)
• Mag. phil. in General and Applied Linguistics, University of Innsbruck (2013)
• Mag. phil. in English and American Studies, University of Innsbruck (2012)
• Mag. phil. in German Philology, University of Innsbruck (2011)

Since 2014, I have been teaching German at the University of Birmingham across the full range of language levels, academic as well as Open Access and Free for All. I greatly enjoy teaching languages because in my opinion they allow us to gain an insight into a culture’s sentiments and people’s unique characteristics. I believe that learning languages is more than learning grammar and vocabulary – it is about experiencing the other in all its facets. 

I am a native speaker of German and come from a village just outside of Innsbruck, Austria. I completed my MPhil. degrees in German Philology (2006–2011), English and American Studies (2006–2012), as well as General and Applied Linguistics (2008–2013) at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. I have then joined Birmingham City University as a PhD student in the context of a research project on a comparative study of narratology in September 2014, and I have been awarded my PhD in April 2018. In the past, I have held a post-doctoral research fellowship at Birmingham City University, where I worked on narrative structures in and the textuality of video games.

As a researcher, I am highly interested in the relationship between literary theory and narratology across the languages. My focus thereby lies with the Anglo-American and Germanic tradition. In my PhD thesis, I researched metafiction in the postmodern British novel to determine how texts communicate the relationship between fiction and reality. The insights generated in my thesis have subsequently been applied to video games and digitalisation more generally (also XR/AI/MR), particularly in the context of paratextuality and Cold War narratives.

I teach German across all levels, from beginners to proficient speakers. Although my central focus is on language learning, my students also gain an insight into German, Austrian, and Swiss culture, day-to-day life, history, politics, and literature. I also support students regarding their Year Abroad choice and language summer schools in German-speaking countries.

I have also taught several modules on literary theory in the School of English at Birmingham City University and have been a specialist supervisor in digital humanities at King’s College London and Coventry University. In the past, I have also supervised a PhD student in game studies at Birmingham City University.

In 2024/25, I teach the module "Medievalism in Video Games" for the MA Digital Heritage and the Medieval Past. I am the module lead and developer for the module "Games, Gamification, and the Player as Consumer" for the distance learning MA Digital Media and Global Communications, which launches in September 2025.

I welcome enquiries from prospective students studying in the following areas:

Video game studies (narratology, textuality, policies, history, etc.)
Germany and/in the video game
History of digital practices
Cold War and computing technology
Paratextuality
Gaming at the grassroots level, the demoscene, hacking, cracking, and tinkering
Localisation in video games
The UK and video games

My research interest lies with video game studies as well as literary theory and narratology in English and German literature. In my PhD thesis, I have researched metafiction in the postmodern British novel based on a comparative analysis of English-speaking and German-speaking theories of narratology. During my three-year post-doctoral fellowship at Birmingham City University, I researched the textuality of video games and Cold War narratives in games. I am an active member of the Historical Games Network and the Canadian Game Studies Association.  

Dissemination of research

• Co-I for the DAAD-funded research project "Towards an authentic (German) language classroom", with PI Dr Ruth Whittle and partners at the University of Liverpool, the University of Nottingham, and the University of Koblenz (Germany). The project will run between January 2025 and December 2027.
• Researcher for the EU-funded COST Action GRADE - Grassroots of Digital Europe. My research focus within this project is computing in East Germany during the 1980s.
• Organiser of several international conferences, the latest being the German Network Meeting
• Keynote and invited speaker at several international conferences, such as History of Games and Leisure Electronics
• Several podcast interviews, the latest being with Critical Distance (November 2023) and New Books in Communication (May 2024)
• Goethe Institut examiner and centre lead for Birmingham
• DAAD Ortslektorin
• Panel reviewer for the Video Games and History strand for DiGRA 2025

Professional memberships

• DiGRA
• GRADE
• History of Games (affiliated)