First, my name: it is Mandy Tröger but due to having lived in different countries, you can also find me as Mandy Troeger, Mandy Troger or even Mandy Tröjer. I'm still the same person.
I am a researcher (Habilitandin) at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and an affiliate of the Media, Inequality & Change (MIC) Center at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Born and raised in (East) Berlin, I received my PhD from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2018. Since then, I have worked at the University of Munich (LMU) and the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media. From 2023 until 2025, I was a Walter Benjamin Fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
My research focuses on (digital) media markets and communication history, critical theory and the transformation of media industries. At public events, I often talk about media history, issues of representation and (structural) diversity. I also care deeply for social justice issues and have been active in social justice work for years.
Since 2017, I am part of the organizing committee of the Network for Critical Communications Research (krikowi), and since 2022, vice-chair of the Political Economy Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). In 2024, I joined the board of editors of Journalism Research (Journalistik), a bilingual academic journal dedicated to journalism studies. I also work as a public author and speaker, and — until recently — was a (media) columnist at the Berlin newspaper Berliner Zeitung.