Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Binter

Argelander Professor for Critical Museum and Heritage Studies
University of Bonn

Research professorship of the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Present Pasts" of the University of Bonn.

Plurifying the formation of knowledge across museums and heritage

I am a social anthropologist with a background in theatre, film, and media studies, specialising in material culture, critical museum and heritage studies. I have worked in numerous transdisciplinary settings, including art, historical and ethnological museums, and with a variety of stakeholders from academia, art, activism, and cultural heritage communities. A key focus of my academic and curatorial work is analysing the colonial entanglements of museums and their collections and to develop innovative ways of bringing the stakeholders’ diverse modes of knowledge formation with and about museum collections into dialogue. Moreover, I understand museums as a prominent and powerful form amongst many heritage practices. I therefore also study more broadly how people engage with things, understood as images, artefacts, bodies, and the environment, to relate to the past, create presents and envision possible futures.

In my previous research, I have analysed how heritage is negotiated in museums, film, theatre, visual arts, funerals and fashion in Nigeria, Namibia, Great Britain, and Germany, and how it is shaped by dynamic, historically grown political economic relations.

I strive to put postcolonial theory in practice and, consequently, my research not only reflects on cultural, political, and economic entanglements past and present, but also seeks to reshape them in collaborative film and exhibition projects.

I am currently co-leading the collaborative research, curation and restitution project Confronting Colonial Pasts, Envisioning Creative Futures on collections from Namibia at the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin. Funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, this project develops new, more equitable and sustainable ways of returning cultural goods from colonial contexts and reconnecting them with artists, scholars, communal knowledge keepers and creators and the wider public in Namibia.

Related to this, I am also co-leading the project Artistic Research and Communal Knowledge. Building Trust for a Better Future. Funded by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, this project brings together contemporary artists and communal knowledge keepers and creators to strengthen dialogue across urban-rural as well as generational divides in Namibia, plurifying the formation of knowledge with and about ‘cultural belongings’ from colonial contexts.

I am currently developing two lines of research:

The Heritage of Mission asks about the colonial entanglements and future affordances of missionary collections. In particular, it examines the impact of missionization on the body, ranging from changes in religious practices to clothing styles, gender norms, and healing practices.

The Heritage of Water takes the current global water crisis, ranging from extreme floods to drought, as a starting point to examine the relationships between people and water in global, comparative perspective.

Avatar Binter

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Binter

Argelander Professor for Critical Museum and Heritage Studies, Transdisciplinary Research Area "Present Past" of the University of Bonn

Affiliation (zB Institut)
Affiliation 2 (zB Department)
Affiliation 3 (zB TRA)


Curriculum Vitae

I studied social and cultural anthropology as well as theatre film and media studies at the University of Vienna and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Supported by an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award and a Wiener-Anspach Doctoral Fellowship, I received my DPhil in Anthropology from the University of Oxford in 2020. I also trained as assistant curator in the Africa department of the Weltmuseum Wien from 2010 to 2013. In 2016/2017, I was curatorial fellow of the German Federal Cultural Foundation at the Kunsthalle Bremen, where I curated the exhibition ‘The Blind Spot. Bremen, Colonialism and Art’. From 2018 to 2023, I worked as research associate for postcolonial provenance research at the Ethnologisches Museum/ Zentralarchiv of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. I have been lecturing at the University of Vienna since 2009. In May 2023, I joined the University of Bonn as Argelander Professor for Critical Museum and Heritage Studies.

Networks

I am the co-founder of the transdisciplinary research network ‘Colonial Ports and Global History’ at The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH). I am also a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie (DGSKA) and the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and contribute to the AG Koloniale Provenienzen of the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung and the EASA Network Anthropology of History.


Third-Party Funded Projects

Duration: 2023-2024

Principal Investigator: Julia Binter, Ndeenda Shivute (National Art Gallery of Namibia), Golda Ha-Eiros (National Museum of Namibia)

Funder: Heinrich Böll Foundation

Duration: 2018-2024

Principal Investigator: Julia Binter, Kristin Weber-Sinn (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Ndapewoshali Ashipala (Museums Association of Namibia)

Funder: Gerda Henkel Foundation

Duration: 2016-2017

Principal Investigator: Julia Binter

Funder: Curatorial Fellowship 'Internationales Museum', Kulturstiftung des Bundes

Duration: 2016-2017

Principal Investigator: Julia Binter

Funder: Caird Short-Term Research Fellowship, Royal Museums Greenwich

Duration: 2013-2016

Principal Investigator: Julia Binter

Funder: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award


Monographs, edited books and special journal issues

Binter, J.T.S., Howald, C., Labischinksi, J., Sporleder, B., Weber-Sinn, K. (eds.)

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (2022).

Binter, J.T.S., Howald, C., Labischinksi, J., Sporleder, B., Weber-Sinn, K. (eds.)

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (2021).

Binter, J.T.S. (ed.)

Reimer Verlag (2017).

Binter, J.T.S.

LIT-Verlag (2009).


Journal articles and book chapters

Binter, J.T.S.

In: Collections as Relations. Belonging, Cultural Heritage, and Infrastructures of Knowing

Dilger, H., Göbel, B. von Poser, A. Schütze, S. (eds.)

Routledge (forthcoming).

Binter, J.T.S., Howald, C., Labischinksi, J., Weber-Sinn, K.

In: Tagungsband des Arbeitskreises Provenienzforschung (forthcoming).

Binter, J.T.S., Ha-Eiros, G.

In: Playbook Klimakultur. Strategien für einen nachhaltigen Kulturwandel

Lurz, B., Schlag, W., Wolkinger, T., et al. (eds.)

Bundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten – Sektion für internationale Kulturangelegenheiten, 39-42 (2021).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: Material Relations. On Materiality and Connectivity in Anthropology and Beyond

Schorch, P., Saxer, M. (eds.)

UCL Press, 53-71 (2020).

Binter, J.T.S., Fine, J., Förster, L.

Provenienz und Forschung, 2, 46-51 (2020).

Binter, J.T.S., Fine, J.

Baessler-Archiv 66, 179-188 (2020).

Binter, J.T.S.

Third Text, 33:4-5, 575-593 (2019).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art

Binter, J.T.S. (ed.)

Reimer, 10-27 (2017).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art

Binter, J.T.S. (ed.)

Reimer, 41-43 (2017).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art

Binter, J.T.S. (ed.)

Reimer, 72-85 (2017).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art

Binter, J.T.S. (ed.)

Reimer, 86-97 (2017).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art

Binter, J.T.S. (ed.)

Reimer, 98-101 (2017).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art

Binter, J.T.S. (ed.)

Reimer, 117-119 (2017).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art

Binter, J.T.S. (ed.)

Reimer, 134-145 (2017).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art

Binter, J.T.S. (ed.)

Reimer, 162-175 (2017).

Binter, J.T.S.

The Senses and Society 9/2, 342-360 (2014)

Reprinted: In The Auditory Culture Reader

Bull, M., Back, L. (eds.)

Bloomsbury (2015).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: Ethnohistorie. Rekonstruktion und Kulturkritik. Eine Einführung

Zips, W., Wernhart, K. (eds.)

Promedia Verlag, 2014.

Binter, J.T.S.

In: Ferry Radax. Vision, Utopie, Experiment

Mörth, O. Hirt, I. and Vogt, G. (eds.)

Sonderzahl, 246-255 (2014).

Binter, J.T.S.

In: Transcultural Montage

Willerslev, R., Suhr, C. (eds.)

Berghahn Books, 183-197 (2013).

In: Global Studies. Mapping Contemporary Art and Culture

Belting, H. Birken, J. Buddensieg, A., Weibel, P. (eds.)

Hatje Cantz, 158-173 (2011).


Exhibitions and Film Festivals (selection)

Duration: 2021

Curators: Binter, J.T.S., Ha-Eiros, G.

Venue: Humboldt Forum

Duration: 2017

Curator: Binter, J.T.S.

Venue: Kunsthalle Bremen

Duration: 2010-2013

Curators: Augustat, C., Binter, J.T.S, Blumauer, R., Kuhnt-Saptodewo, J., Plankensteiner, B.

Venue: Weltmuseum Wien

Duration: 2010

Curators: Binter, J.T.S., Dietrich, M.C.

Venue: KosmosTheater


Administrative Staff

Nana Tsiklauri

Office Manager

Mondays - Tuesdays 
From 12 pm to 5 pm

Further Information

TRA Present Pasts

Research on the preconditions and conditions of the emergence of modern societies as well as on negotiation processes of heritage.

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