Dr. Thomas Sebastian Köhn
Dr. Thomas Sebastian Köhn is a researcher in Sound Studies, Spatial Sociology, and Cultural Memory Studies. His work focuses on how sound and listening shape spatial and mnemonic processes, particularly in the context of Holocaust remembrance and the post-witness era. He is currently affiliated with Leuphana University Lüneburg and has published on sound, space, and memory in journals such as Music & Politics and Popular Music.
Dr. Thomas Sebastian Köhn
Dr. Thomas Sebastian Köhn is a researcher in Sound Studies, Musicology, and Cultural Memory Studies. His work focuses on how sound and listening shape spatial configurations and processes of memory, particularly in contexts marked by histories of violence and trauma.
He is currently affiliated with Leuphana University Lüneburg, where he has been working within the research project Musical and Sonic Memory Spaces in the Post-Witness Era: Remembering the Nazi Era in Lower Saxony. His research explores how auditory practices—such as listening, sound production, and acoustic mediation—structure environments and influence how memory is experienced, negotiated, and transformed.
Köhn’s work is situated at the intersection of spatial sociology, sound studies, and memory research. Drawing on theoretical approaches such as Martina Löw’s sociology of space, he investigates how sound functions as a constitutive element of social space. A central aspect of his research is the development of concepts such as auditory social goods, which describe how sounds, voices, technologies, and acoustic conditions participate in the formation of spatial and social relations.
In a second line of research, Köhn examines cultural memory in popular music, with a particular focus on hip-hop. His doctoral project, Rapping the Shoah, analyses how memories of the Holocaust and National Socialism are articulated in hip-hop from Jewish perspectives. Combining musicological analysis with approaches from ethnomusicology and memory studies, his work highlights how musical and sonic practices contribute to the production and transformation of collective memory.
Beyond his academic work, Köhn engages in artistic and practice-based research, particularly through solo guitar performance and music production. His artistic practice informs his research by foregrounding embodied, material, and affective dimensions of listening and sound.
He has published in journals such as Music & Politics and Popular Music, and his work contributes to ongoing debates on sound, space, and memory in the humanities.
Alongside his academic work, Köhn is an experienced guitarist and works with sound as both an analytical and artistic medium, exploring listening as an embodied and material practice.
Selected Publications
Peer-reviewed Articles
Köhn, Thomas Sebastian. 2021. “Rapping the Shoah: (Counter-)Narratives and Judaism in German Hip-Hop.” Music & Politics 15 (2).
Köhn, Thomas Sebastian. 2023. “A Rapping Witness, Stumbling Stones and Jewish History: Musical Remediations of Memories from the Times of National Socialism.” SAMPLES – Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Popularmusikforschung/German Society for Popular Music Studies (GfPM) 21, 1–23.
Book Chapters
Köhn, Thomas Sebastian. 2023. “›Geschichte spüren‹: Körperlich-materielle Kollisionen und individualisierte Erinnerungen an den Zweiten Weltkrieg im Hip-Hop-Track ›Stolpersteine‹ von Der Reimteufel.” In: Ralf von Appen und Peter Klose (Hg.): „All the Things You Are“ – Die materielle Kultur populärer Musik. Beiträge zur Popularmusikforschung, Band 47. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 225–250.
Schoop, Monika E., Thomas Sebastian Köhn und Martin Ringsmut. 2024. “Musik und Zeug*innenschaft – Erinnern an die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus in der ‚Post-Witness Era‘.” In: Michael Fuhr und Cornelia Gruber (Hg.): Musik, Erinnern und kulturelles Gedächtnis – Music, Remembering and Cultural Memory, 51–86.
Forthcoming
Köhn, Thomas Sebastian. Forthcoming. “Improvising to a Witness: Exploring Sampled Memories of the Holocaust and National Socialism in a Hip-Hop Track Through Artistic Practice.” Popular Music.
Köhn, Thomas Sebastian. Forthcoming. “Auditive Erinnerungsräume: Klang und Stille im Spannungsfeld erinnerungskultureller Bruchstellen und räumlicher Überlappungen in der Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen.” In: Schoop, Monika E., und Thomas Sebastian Köhn (Hg.): Auditive Erinnerungskulturen: Die Rollen von Musik und Sound für das Erinnern an die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.
Schoop, Monika E., und Thomas Sebastian Köhn (Hg.). Forthcoming. Auditive Erinnerungskulturen: Die Rollen von Musik und Sound für das Erinnern an die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.
Schoop, Monika E., und Thomas Sebastian Köhn. Forthcoming. “Auditive Erinnerungskulturen: Klangliche Auseinandersetzungen mit der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus.” In: Schoop, Monika E., und Thomas Sebastian Köhn (Hg.): Auditive Erinnerungskulturen. Die Rollen von Musik und Sound für das Erinnern an die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.
