N. Engelen (Ninge)

The American Underground (mostly 20th Century):
- i.e., countercultures (mods, hippies, punks), countercultural figures/icons (Muhammad Ali, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan), grassroots resistance movements (Malcolm X, James Baldwin), avant garde/bohemia (Beat Generation, New Journalism), queer and feminist scenes in New York City (the Factory, Women's Lib, Stonewall) independent filmmaking (New Hollywood, Black Independent Movement);
- But also more mythological pop culture underground 'scenes' such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, teenage mutant ninja turtles, Batman (and his villains), rebel alliances--and many other 'underdogs' in American literature, cinema, music, pop culture, etc.

Semiology and Poststructuralist Theory:
- As a semiologist, I am interested in the 'crises' or 'unsettling processes' that operate within dominant discourses--focussing on questions such as "How is it possible for outcasts to express themselves in mainstream/dominant structures?" "How can artists create something 'new' within old, restrictive systems?" or "How do discursive systems limit/augment peoples' experience of reality?"
- These interests are mostly informed by the concepts and theories of Julia Kristeva (Semiotic versus Symbolic, Intertextuality); Gilles Deleuze (Minor Literatures, Rhizomes); and Roland Barthes (Pleasure, Sociolectology)