Since May 2025, Katja Leifheit is an external PhD student at the Media Management Department at the Bauhaus-University Weimar, Faculty of Media. The supervisors of her doctorade are Prof. Dr. Reinhard Kunz (Chair of Innovation Management and Media) and Prof. Dr. Uwe Eisenbeis (Stuttgart Media University). In parallel, she works as a research associate in the Journalism/Public Relations program at the Faculty of Electronic Media at Stuttgart Media University. Her doctoral research focuses on the adoption of artificial intelligence in companies within the film and television industry.
Alongside her research activities—among others in the project Zukunftswerkstatt KI: Generative AI in Corporate Communications (led by Prof. Dr. Swaran Sandhu)—she teaches the courses “AI Literacy” and “Social Network Analysis” at Stuttgart Media University.
Katja completed her studies at Hochschule der Medien, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Media (B.Eng.) and a Master’s degree in Media Management (M.A.). She also spent two semesters abroad at California State University, Fullerton, studying Cinema and Television Arts (B.A.). Before starting her PhD, she worked for two years as a project manager at the public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.
In her free time, Katja enjoys cultivating her growing collection of houseplants.