Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Binter

Investigator

University of Bonn
Argelander Professor for Critical Museum and Heritage Studies
Transdisciplinary Research Area "Present Pasts" 
Global Heritage Lab
Bischofsplatz 1
D-53111 Bonn
julia.binter@uni-bonn.de
Julia Binter
© Julia Binter

Academic Profile

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. Through the organisation of international, inter- and transdisciplinary conferences, such as A Laboratory for Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue? Missionary Collections at the Interface of Religion, Science and Global Society and Interwoven Dependencies. Redressing Fashion and the Heritage of Mission, I explore legacies of Christian missionisation alongside scholars and artists from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The co-curated exhibition Dressing Resistance. Fashion and the Heritage of Mission takes this inquiry further, investigating the impact of missionisation on the body—from shifts in religious practices to transformations in clothing styles and gender norms. The exhibition highlights how contemporary cultural practitioners creatively engage with and reinterpret these complex legacies. I am especially grateful to be engaged in a long-term collaboration with the Societas Verbi Divini. Together, we are exploring possible futures for their museum, Haus Völker und Kulturen, and its collections in Sankt Augustin, through teaching, workshops, and joint funding applications. Since 2025, I have also been a member of the Working Group Umgang mit dem kolonialen Erbe (“Addressing the Colonial Past”) of the German Commission of Justitia et Pax.

The research line Heritage Ecologies takes a relational approach to examining how humans engage with the environment through practices of collecting, preserving, and caring for plants, animals, land and waterscapes. Within the research and teaching project Botanic Futures, I am currently investigating new methods for researching and curating colonial entanglements and biodiversity conservation in botanic gardens, together with scholars, students and artists. This collaboration with the Botanic Gardens emerged from the exhibition Global Entanglements in the Collections of the University of Bonn, which I co-curated with students for the launch of the Global Heritage Lab’s exhibition space in 2024. Both projects reflect a long-term commitment to the university’s collections and their transdisciplinary exploration at the intersection of academic research, artistic practice, and societal engagement.

 

2020
PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, UK

2003–2009
MA in Theatre, Film and Media Studies, University of Vienna, Austria

2003–2009
MA in Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria

since 2023
Argelander Professor of Critical Museum and Heritage Studies, University of Bonn

2019–2023
Research Fellow, Ethnological Museum/Central Archive, State Museums of Berlin-Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Germany

2018–2019
Research Fellow, Ethnological Museum, State Museums of Berlin-Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Germany

2017–2018
Wiener-Anspach Doctoral Fellow, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

2016–2017
Curatorial Fellow, International Museum, German Federal Cultural Foundation, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany

2016–2017
Caird Short-Term Research Fellow, National Maritime Museum, UK

2010–2013
Assistant Curator, Weltmuseum Wien, Austria

2010–2012
Lecturer, Institute for Theatre, Film and Media Studies, University of Vienna, Austria

2009–2023
Lecturer, Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria

  • Africa
  • Anthropocene
  • Gender
  • Heritage
  • Material Culture
  • Postcolonialism
  • Temporality/Spatiality

2024–2026
Academic Advisor, Provenance Research for Museum Audiences, Royal Museum for Central Africa Museum, Tervuren

since 2023
Investigator, Cluster of Excellence Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn

since 2023
Deputy Director, Global Heritage Lab, Transdisciplinary Research Area Present Pasts, University of Bonn

2021–2026
Academic Advisor, ERC Project: 'Repatriates and New Originals. Artistic Research in Museums and Communities in the Process of Repatriation from Europe,' Central European University, Vienna

since 2018
Member, Royal Anthropological Institute, London

since 2018
Co-founder of the transdisciplinary network Colonial Ports and Global History (CPAGH), University of Oxford

since 2011
Member, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie (DGSKA)

since 2008
Member, European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)

  • 2022. As editor. With C. Howald, I. Labischinksi, B. Sporleder, and K. Weber-Sinn. Em II power II relations. A Booklet on Postcolonial Provenance Research in the Permanent Exhibitions of the Ethnologisches Museum and Museum für Asiatische Kunst at the Humboldt Forum. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
  • 2020. "Becoming Imperial. The Politicization of the Gift in Atlantic Africa." In On Materiality and Connectivity in Anthropology and Beyond, edited by P. Schorch and M. Saxer, 53–71. UCL Press.
  • 2020. With J. Fine and L. Förster. "Historische Forschung und kreative Praktiken. Ein Kooperationsprojekt zu Objekten aus Namibia im Ethnologischen Museum Berlin." In Provenienz und Forschung 2: 46–51.
  • 2020. With J. Fine. "'Eure Konzepte versus meine Philosophie' – Cynthia Schimmings künstlerische Auseinandersetzung mit den Sammlungen aus Namibia." In Baessler-Archiv 66: 179–188.
  • 2019. "Beyond Exhibiting the Experience of Empire? Challenging Chronotopes in the Museum." In Third Text 33(4–5): 575–593.
  • 2017. As editor. The Blind Spot. Bremen, Colonialism and Art. Reimer Verlag.
  • 2017. "Blind Spots. Bremen's Global Trade and Patronage in the Colonial Period." In The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art, edited by J. Binter, 10–27. Reimer.
  • 2017. "The Art of Colonial Contact Zones." In The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art, edited by J. Binter, 117–119. Reimer.
  • 2017. "Contemporary Perspectives on Bremen's Colonial Heritage. Ngozi Schommers, (Un)Framed Narratives, 2017. Hew Locke, Cui Bono, 2017." In The Blind Spot. Bremen Colonialism and Art, edited by J. Binter, 162–175. Reimer.
  • 2014. "Unruly Voices in the Museum. Multisensory Engagement with Disquieting Histories." In The Senses and Society 9(2): 342–360. Reprinted in The Auditory Culture Reader, edited by M. Bull and L. Back. Bloomsbury, 2015.
  • 2014. "Vermittler zwischen Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft. Ethnographische Museen im Spannungsfeld von Orten der Repräsentation und 'glokalen' Kontaktzonen." In Ethnohistorie. Rekonstruktion und Kulturkritik. Eine Einführung, edited by W. Zips and K. Wernhart, 80–100. Promedia Verlag. 
  • 2013. "Radioglaz and the Global City. Possibilities and Constraints of Experimental Montage." In Transcultural Montage, edited by R. Willerslev and C. Suhr, 183–197. Berghahn Books.
  • 2011. "Globalization, Representation, and Postcolonial Critique. Austrian Documentary Film Auteurs' Take on Globalism." In Global Studies. Mapping Contemporary Art and Culture, edited by H. Belting, J. Birken, A. Buddensieg, and P. Weibel, 158–173. Hatje Cantz. 
  • 2009. We Shoot the World. Österreichische Dokumentarfilmer und die Globalisierung. LIT Verlag.