Following an education as a film, photography, and multimedia professional, she worked for several film and television productions in Germany. Turning from practice to theory, Vanessa studied Sociology and Economics of Media Culture at the University of Cologne, as well as Germanic Languages and Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis.

In 2019, she finished her doctoral thesis “Sleeping Threats: The Sleeper Agent in Post-9/11 Media” at the Collective Research Center “Threatened Order – Societies under Stress” in Tübingen. Her thesis discusses the representation of sleeper agents as enemies in the ‘War on Terror’ and argues for their relevance in narratives of Hollywood cinema, US television series and mainstream comic books. 

From 2020 to 2021 she worked at the University of Cologne as adjunct teacher and conference manager for the 11th Clash of Realities. 

From 2020-2022 she also worked as lecturer for media studies at Amsterdam University.

Media and Game Studies

Participatory Culture

Comic Book Fandom

Fictional Characters in (Digital) Fan Communities

ISEDA (Innovative Solutions to Eliminate Domestic Abuse)
The project aims to produce, test, evaluate, and upscale innovative solutions against domestic violence and abuse in Europe. Find out more here.

Monographies

The Sleeper Agent in Post-9/11 Media. London: Palgrave Macmillan 2022.

Edited Volumes 

Gaming the Metaverse ,together with Benjamin Beil, Gundolf S. Freyermuth, and Isabelle Hamm, Bielefeld: transcript (forthcoming 2024).

Comics & Agency: Actors, Publics, Participation, together with Jan-Noël Thon and Lukas R.A. Wilde, de Gruyter 2022.  

Themed Section: “Comics/Fandom: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Intersection of Fan Studies and Comics Studies” together with Sophie Einwächter, Véronique Sina and Sven Stollfuß. In Participations. Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 2020. 

Threat Communication and the US Order After 9/11: Medial Reflections, together with  David Scheu and Lukas R.A.Wilde, London/New York: Routledge 2020. 

Playful Participatory Practices. Theoretical and Methodological Reflections, together with Pablo Abend und Benjamin Beil, Wiesbaden: Springer 2020. 

Paper 

“Dreaming the Metaverse,” in: Benjamin Beil et al. (eds.): Gaming the Metaverse. Bielefeld: transcript (forthcoming 2024).

“Fandom, Algorithm, Prompting: Reconsidering Webcomics,” an Interview with Nicolle Lamerichs, in: Studies in Comics 14 (Comics Strike Back! Digital Forms, Digital Parcrices, Digital Audiences, July 2023), pp. 137-149, https://doi.org/10.1386/stic_00101_1

“Comic Readership between Conflict and Cooperation—A View from a Fan Studies Perspective” (orig. title: “Comicrezeption zwischen Konflikt and Kooperation. Eine Perspektive aus Sicht der Fan Studies”), together with Sophie G. Einwächter, in: Closure. Kieler e-Journal für Comicforschung 10 (2024), pp. 158.183, http://www.closure.uni-kiel.de/closure10/einwaechter/ossa. 15.03.2024.

“Playing with Batman (De-)Constructing Transmedial Characters in THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE,” together with Hanns Christian Schmidt, in: Joachim Friedmann (ed.): Narratives Crossing Boundaries. Storytelling in a Transmedial and Transdisciplinary Context. Bielefeld: transcript 2023,  pp. 149-170.

“9/11 and the medial imaginary of the threat of terrorism” (orig. title: “9/11 und das mediale Imaginäre terroristischer Bedrohungen“), together with Anne Ulrich and Lukas R.A, Wilde, in: Ewald Frie and Mischa Meier (eds.): Krisen anders denken. Wie Menschen mit Bedrohungen umgegangen sind und was wir daraus lernen können. Berlin: Propyläen 2023, pp. 366-380.

“To Create a Montage” (orig. title: “Montieren”), together with Melanie Mika and Kiron Patka, in: Heiko Christians, Matthias Bickenbach, and Nikolaus Wegmann (eds.): Historisches Wörterbuch des Mediengebrauchs III. Köln/Weimar/Wien: Böhlau-Verlag 2022, pp. 254-277. 

 “9/11 als Narrativ und Bild – vom Sagbaren zum Unsichtbaren“. In: Carolin Führer and Antonius Weixler (Hrsg.): Umbruch – Bild – Erinnerung. Relationen einer globalen zeithistorischen Narration. Berlin: de Gruyter 2020, 215-230.  

“Introduction: Playful Participatory Practices,” together with Pablo Abend and Benjamin Beil, in: idem (eds): Playful Participatory Practices, Wiesbaden: Springer 2020, pp. 1-14.

“Introducing Medial Reflections: Threat Communication and the US-American Order after 9/11,” together with Lukas R.A. Wilde, in: Vanessa Ossa, David Scheu, and Lukas R.A. Wilde (eds.): Threat Communication and the US Order after 9/11: Medial Reflections, London/New York: Routledge 2020, pp. 1-17.

 “On the Intersection of Fan Studies and Comics Studies: Contextualization and Introduction”, together witht Sophie G. Einwächter, Véronique Sina and Sven Stollfuß. Participations. Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 17 no. 2 (Nov.) 2020, 148-60.  

 „The Sleeper Agent as Ambivalent Figure in Post-9/11 Threat Communication“. In: Vanessa Ossa, David Scheu and Lukas R.A. Wilde (ed.): Threat Communication and the US Order After 9/11: Medial Reflections. London/New York: Routledge 2020, 54-79.  

“Metalepsis in Participatory Culture: Playing with Limits of the Storyworld in Fan Discourses About the Marvel Cinematic Universe” (orig. title: “Metalepsen in der Partizipationskultur: Das Spiel mit den Grenzen der storyworld im Fandiskurs zum Marvel Cinematic Universe”), in: Johannes C. P. Schmid,  Andreas Veits, and Wiebke Vorrath (eds.): Praktiken medialer Transformationen Übersetzungen in und aus dem digitalen Raum. Bielefeld: transcript 2018, pp. 151-172.

Reviews

Book Review: “Comic – Film – Gender: Zur (Re-)Medialisierung von Geschlecht im Comicfilm von Véronique Sina,” in: Medienobservationen, 12.07.2019, URL: https://www.medienobservationen.de/2019/0712-ossa.

Book review: “Adrienne Lynne Massanari: Participatory Culture, Community, and Play: Learning from Reddit,” in: Medienwissenschaft no. 2 (2017), pp. 295-97.