Valentina Roether

• Since October 2026: Research Associate in the Department of Romance Linguistics (postdoc)
• April 2021 – September 2026: Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics (summa cum laude)
  • Thesis title: “Negotiating Knowledge: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Spanish-Language Menstruation Discourse on Social Media” (submitted in July 2026, under review) Advisor: Prof. Dr. Angela Schrott
  • Funded by a doctoral fellowship from the German National Academic Foundation (Link) (2022–2026)
  • October 2024:
    Visiting lecturer position as part of the Erasmus+ program and research stay in cooperation with the Instituto Interuniversitario de Lenguas Modernas Aplicadas (IULMA) at the University of Alicante (Spain)
  • June 2023:
    Visiting lecturer at the Universidad de Guadalajara (Mexico) as part of the Erasmus+ program in cooperation with the CALAS Research Center
• April 2020 – February 2022:
  Research assistant in the Department of Romance Linguistics under Prof. Dr. Angela Schrott, University of Kassel (parental leave replacement)
• 2019–2020:
  Continuing education program and qualifying examination in German as a Foreign and Second Language at the University of Kassel
• 2013–2019:
  Teacher training program for French and Spanish at high schools, University of Kassel
  • Degree: First State Examination for Teaching at High Schools
  • Thesis for the First State Examination: “Text Complexity and Text Adaptation in Linguistics: Exemplary Analyses of Spanish Texts,” awarded the Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker Prize in 2019
  • 2018–2020: Student member of the jury for the Hessian University Award for Excellence in Teaching, presented by the Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts
  • 2014–2019: Student assistant in the Department of Romance Linguistics; tutor for the courses “Introduction to Spanish Linguistics” and “Fundamentals of Romance Linguistics”

Roether, Valentina (in press): Who menstruates? Inclusive naming as a form of social positioning in Spanish and English podcasts about menstruation. In: Vargas-Sierra, Chelo (ed.): Women’s Health. Analyzing Linguistic Dynamics Across English and Spanish. Berlin, et al.: De Gruyter Mouton.

Böhm, Felix; Reszke, Paul; Roether, Valentina (eds.) (2024): #Klima. Special issue of Aptum. Journal of Language Criticism and Language Culture 20(3).

Roether, Valentina; Reszke, Paul; Böhm, Felix (2024): #Klima – Media Logics of a Discourse. In: #Klima. Special issue of Aptum. Journal of Language Criticism and Language Culture 20 (3), 241–257.

Roether, Valentina (2024): “La sangre no es azul.” The Menstruation Discourse on Instagram as Empowerment. In: JournaLIPP 9 , 54–76 .

Roether, Valentina (2023): Climate Protests in Analog and Digital Discourse Spaces. In: Böhm, Felix; Böhnert, Martin; Reszke, Paul (eds.): Climate Thinking – A Living Handbook. Kassel: University of Kassel.

Roether, Valentina (2023): How Menstruation Is Explained on Instagram. In: Podcast “Analytischer Kaffeeplausch” by Rebecca Bachmann and Paul Reszke.

Roether, Valentina; Falero Morente, Ángela (2023): Understanding Digital Texts—The KastELE Text and Task Database. In: Schrott, Angela; Pflüger, Christine; Wolf, Johanna (eds.): Text Complexity and Text Competence. Berlin, et al.: De Gruyter.

Roether, Valentina; Wieders-Lohéac, Aline (2022): “ ” #JusticiaClimáticaYa—A multimodal analysis of Fridays for Future protest posters. In: Höllein, Dagobert; Wieders-Lohéac, Aline (eds.): Fridays for Future. Linguistic Perspectives on a Global Movement. Tübingen: Narr, 167–191.

Schlaak, Claudia; Schrott, Angela; Dziuk Lameira, Katharina; Falero Morente, Ángela; Roether, Valentina (2021): KastELE. Kassel Text and Exercise Database for Spanish as a Foreign Language. University of Kassel. Funded by the BMBF as part of the Quality Initiative for Teacher Education.

Roether, Valentina (2020): Text Complexity and Text Adaptation in Linguistics. Exemplary Analyses of Spanish Texts. Kassel: university press. Thesis submitted as part of the First State Examination, awarded the Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker Prize in 2019.

“Negotiating Knowledge: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Spanish-Language Menstruation Discourse on Social Media” Presentation given as part of the conference of the Doctoral College for Humanities and Cultural Studies (GeKKo), Hofgeismar, May 8, 2026.

“Negotiating Knowledge: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Spanish-Language Menstruation Discourse on Social Media” Presentation as part of the linguistic colloquium hosted by Prof. Dr. David Römer, University of Kassel, January 15, 2026. (invited)

“Multimodal Knowledge Dynamics in Social Media—How Menstruation Is Explained on Instagram” Presentation as part of the Summer School of the German Association of Romance Studies (DRV), FAU Erlangen, September 1, 2025.

“Seeing Red: Menstruation as a Taboo (and Its Breaking)” Lecture as part of the annual conference of the Society for Applied Linguistics (GAL), TU Dresden, September 13, 2024. (invited)

“Explicar as Co-Construction: Epistemic Negotiations on Social Media Regarding Menstruation.” Presentation as part of the International Congress of the Network for Digital Communication Studies (RECoD), Birkbeck University of London, September 5, 2024.

“A Call to Break Taboos: Activism in the Digital Menstruation Discourse.” Presentation as part of the Politolinguistic Colloquium for Young Scholars, University of Kassel, March 20, 2024.

“Peaceful Protest as Common Ground: On Communication Between German- and Spanish-Speaking Climate Activists on Social Media.” Presentation co-delivered with Felix Böhm as part of the conference “Understanding and Communication in the Digital Space,” KIT Karlsruhe, February 29, 2024.

“Multimodal Explanation: The Spanish-Language Menstruation Discourse on Instagram.” Chair of a data session as part of the 7th Conference of the International Network for Health Communication, University of Hamburg, October 20, 2023.

“Bloody Hell: Multimodal Perspectives on the Spanish-Language Health Discourse on Instagram.” Presentation at the 28th LIPP Symposium “Language in the Digital World,” Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, November 30, 2022.

“Linguistic Perspectives on Language Patterns in the Climate Change Discourse in Romania.” Moderator and co-organizer of a session as part of the lecture series “Apocalypse and Apathy—Capacity (or Inability) to Act in the Context of Climate Change,” IAG Climate Thinking, University of Kassel, November 9, 2022.

“To Explain Is to Empower? Health and Well-Being in Social Media.” Poster presentation as part of the conference “Challenges of Sustainability Research,” Kassel Institute for Sustainability, September 15, 2022.

“Sustainable Thinking—Thinking Sustainable: Stories of the Past, Thoughts about the Present, Languages for the Future.” Panel organized by the IAG Climate Thinking as part of the “Challenges of Sustainability Research” conference, Kassel Institute for Sustainability, September 14, 2022.

“#VivaLaMenstruación: Techniques of Explanation on the Internet.” Presentation of the dissertation project at the conference of the Doctoral College for Humanities and Cultural Studies (GeKKo), Hofgeismar, October 29, 2021.

“The Joy of Reading Instead of Frustration: Working with Authentic Texts in Spanish Class Using the KastELE Database.” Digital professional development for teachers in the State of Hesse, in collaboration with Ángela Falero Morente, October 5, 2021.

“Techniques of Explanation.” Presentation of the planned dissertation project as part of the Romance Studies Research Colloquium, University of Kassel, March 9, 2021.

“Thinking Dynamically About Texts: Authentic Texts and Materials in the KastELE Database.” Digital professional development for pre-service teachers at the Kassel Teacher Training College, in collaboration with Ángela Falero Morente, March 1, 2021.

“Making Difficult Texts Easy: Working with Authentic Texts in Spanish Class.” Online professional development for teachers in the state of Hesse, co-presented with Ángela Falero Morente, January 19, 2021.

Winter Semester 2026/27

• Orientation Course: Introduction to French Linguistics

Summer Semester 2026

• Workshop Series: “Tackling the Final Writing Phase of Your Studies: Writing Coaching for Teacher Education Students” [Teaching assignment at the Center for Teacher Education]

Winter Semester 2025/26

• Workshop Series: “Tackling the Final Writing Phase of Your Degree: Writing Coaching for Teacher Education Students” [Teaching assignment at the Center for Teacher Education]

Summer Semester 2025

• Workshop: Thesis—Tackling the Final Writing Phase of Your Degree, including individual coaching sessions for students in FB02 [Teaching assignment as part of the writing and educational coaching program]

Winter Semester 2024/25

• Master’s Seminar: The Pragmatics of Explaining [Visiting lecturer at the University of Alicante (Spain) with Prof. Dr. Francisco Yus]
• Bachelor’s Seminar: Terminology of Menstruation [Visiting lecturer at the University of Alicante (Spain) under Prof. Dr. Chelo Vargas Sierra]
• Teaching project as part of Diversity Week: Climate Crisis and Cultural Contexts – An exhibition of research posters by students from FB02 [presented by Climate Thinking in collaboration with Martin Böhnert, funded by QSL funds]
• Workshop: Thesis—Tackling the Final Writing Phase of Your Studies, including individual coaching sessions for students in FB02 [Teaching assignment funded by QSL funds]

Summer Semester 2024

• Workshop: Thesis – Tackling the Final Writing Phase of Your Degree, including one-on-one coaching.

Winter Semester 2023/24

• Workshop: Thesis – Tackling the Final Writing Phase of Your Degree, including one-on-one coaching [Event funded by QSL funds from the “Booster Romanistik” program]

Summer Semester 2023

• Applied Seminar: Menstruation in Mexican Society: Between Taboo and Visibility [Interdisciplinary course at the University of Guadalajara (Mexico) in collaboration with Dr. Rosario Ramírez Morales]

Winter Semester 2022/23

• Interdisciplinary Lecture Series: Apocalypse and Apathy. Capacity (or Inability) to Act in the Context of Climate Change [Organized in collaboration with IAG Climate Thinking]

Winter Semester 2021/22

• Advanced Seminar: Linguistic Perspectives on the Digital Text World – The KastELE Database
  [Course offered as part of the Media Literacy Skills Portfolio]

Summer Semester 2021

• Orientation Course: Introduction to French Linguistics
• Proseminar: Multilingual Kassel – What Interviews with Spanish-Speaking Migrants Can Tell Us About Their Concepts of Identity
  [Course with service learning supported by Uni Kassel Transfer]
  As part of Intercultural Week 2021, students adapted the insights from the seminar for an Instagram channel. Feel free to follow us @mehrsprachiges_kassel

Winter Semester 2020/21

• Orientation Course: Introduction to French Linguistics
• Proseminar: The Romanian Community in Kassel—Students Conduct Empirical Research on Language Contact, Multilingualism, and Identity

Summer Semester 2020

• Orientation Course: Introduction to French Linguistics

• Text and Discourse Linguistics
• Knowledge
• Multimodality
• Digital Texts
• Taboo Discourses
• Climate Discourses

Since October 2026: Coordination of the iAG Climate Thinking (Link) together with Dr. Kirsten Behr

December 2025 – October 2026: Adjunct lecturer at the ZLB

Since March 2022: Member of the iAG Climate Thinking, University of Kassel

Since January 2021: Member of the German Association of Romance Studies

Since June 2021: Member of the Doctoral College for Humanities and Cultural Studies (GeKKo), University of Kassel

2020–2025: Member of the Kassel Institute for Sustainability

• Since December 2025: Adjunct instructor at the Center for Teacher Education
• October 2023 – October 2025: Adjunct instructor in writing and educational coaching at FB02
• June 2022 – December 2023: Director of the Booster Romanistik—a QSL project for the evaluation and improvement of academic conditions, in collaboration with Annika Rink.
• April 2021 – February 2022: Elected mid-career faculty representative for the Department of Romance Studies
• August 2020 – February 2022: Contact person for the recognition of academic credits earned abroad
• April 2020 – April 2021: Academic advisor for the French Teacher Education program