Speakers and Team

Ala Younis (Amman)

Ala You­nis is a research-based artist. Col­lab­o­ra­tion forms a big part of her prac­tice, as do curat­ing and joint book projects. Using objects, film and print­ed mat­ter, You­nis often seeks instances where his­tor­i­cal and polit­i­cal events col­lapse into per­son­al ones. She holds a BSc. in Archi­tec­ture from Uni­ver­si­ty of Jor­dan and MRes in Visu­al Cul­tures from Gold­smiths, Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don. She is a recip­i­ent of the Bel­la­gio Cre­ative Arts Fel­low­ship, as well as two art prizes from Cairo Youth Salon (2005) and Jor­dan­ian Artists Asso­ci­a­tion (2005). She is co-founder of the pub­lish­ing ini­tia­tive Kay­fa ta, on the advi­so­ry board of Berlinale’s Forum Expand­ed, and mem­ber of  the Acad­e­my of Arts of the World (Cologne).

Alexander Brust (Basel)

Alexan­der Brust is cura­tor for The Amer­i­c­as at the Muse­um der Kul­turen Basel. His work focus­es on Muse­ol­o­gy, Edu­ca­tion and Mate­r­i­al and Visu­al Cul­ture in South­ern Mex­i­co and Cen­tral Brazil. Since 1991 he has assist­ed indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties in Latin Amer­i­ca in the preser­va­tion of cul­tur­al her­itage and expres­sions of local memories.

Bärbel Küster (Zurich)

Bär­bel Küster stud­ied art his­to­ry, phi­los­o­phy, and edu­ca­tion in Kiel, Ham­burg, Berlin, and Frank­furt am Main. After receiv­ing her doc­tor­ate in 2000, she was a research assis­tant at the Insti­tute for Art His­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Stuttgart from 2001 to 2009. From 2007 to 2009 she held a post­doc­tor­al fel­low­ship at the Cen­tre alle­mand d’his­toire de l’art Paris. In 2009 she rep­re­sent­ed the pro­fes­sor­ship of con­tem­po­rary art his­to­ry, aes­thet­ics, and art the­o­ry at the Kun­stakademie Stuttgart. From 2010 to 2011 she rep­re­sent­ed a pro­fes­sor­ship at the Hochschule für Gestal­tung Karl­sruhe. From 2012 to 2014, she was a fel­low in the Wrangell Excel­lence Pro­gram Baden-Würt­tem­berg. From 2014 to July 2017, she rep­re­sent­ed Pro­fes­sor­ship of Mod­ern Art His­to­ry, Insti­tute of Art His­to­ry and His­tor­i­cal Urban Stud­ies at the TU Berlin. After her habil­i­ta­tion in 2015 at Goethe Uni­ver­si­ty, she has held the chair of Mod­ern and Con­tem­po­rary Art at the Art His­to­ry Insti­tute of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich since August 2017.

Her research focus­es on the the­o­ry and his­to­ry of the muse­um, col­lec­tion and exhi­bi­tion his­to­ry, tran­scul­tur­al art his­to­ry, mod­ern art, prim­i­tivism, recep­tion of non-Euro­pean art, copy and orig­i­nal art in pub­lic spaces and pho­tog­ra­phy, and con­tem­po­rary art in African countries.

Felicia Meynersen (Berlin|Amman)

Feli­cia Meyn­ersen stud­ied Archae­ol­o­gy, Byzan­tine Stud­ies and Pre­his­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ties of Mainz and Berlin. An archae­ol­o­gist by train­ing, she holds a PhD from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mainz. Feli­cia was assis­tant pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Saar­bruck­en (2006–2012), worked as a research fel­low in the “Syr­i­an Her­itage Archive Project” (SHAP) at the Ger­man Archae­o­log­i­cal Insti­tute (2013–2015, DAI Berlin) and in the Spe­cial Research Pro­gram in the Human­i­ties “Cul­tur­al and Lin­guis­tic Con­tacts” (Uni­ver­si­ty of Mainz); she coor­di­nat­ed the multi­na­tion­al EU-project “Preser­va­tion of Cul­tur­al Her­itage Train­ing Pro­gram” at the Ori­ent Depart­ment of the Ger­man Archae­o­log­i­cal Insti­tute (2003–2005) and was sci­en­tif­ic coor­di­na­tor of the first joint project of the Archae­o­log­i­cal Her­itage Net­work “Zero Hour – A Future for the Time after the Cri­sis” (Ger­man Archae­o­log­i­cal Insti­tute Berlin, 2016–2018).

Her research and teach­ing focus­es are phe­nom­e­na of con­tact and change in the MENA region, the his­to­ry of emo­tions, ani­mal images as well as crit­i­cal her­itage and muse­um studies.

George Arbid (Beirut)

George Arbid is an architech and a found­ing mem­ber and direc­tor of the Arab Cen­ter for Archi­tec­ture in Beirut. He holds a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures en Archi­tec­ture from ALBA and a Doc­tor of Design degree from Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty. He taught design stu­dios and cours­es in the his­to­ry and the­o­ry of archi­tec­ture at ALBA and AUB. Dr. Arbid has lec­tured wide­ly about mod­ern archi­tec­ture in Lebanon and the Arab world. Among his pub­li­ca­tions are Urban­iza­tion and the Chang­ing Char­ac­ter of the Arab City a Con­sul­tan­cy Report he edit­ed on Amman, Beirut and Dubai, and the award-win­ning book Archi­tec­ture from the Arab World, 1914–2014, a Selec­tion, pub­lished at the occa­sion of the Venice Archi­tec­ture Bien­nale in 2014 where he co-curat­ed the Pavil­ion of Bahrain. George Arbid was elect­ed May­or of Maass­er el Chouf in 2016.

Lisa Blackmore (Essex)

Lisa Black­more is a Lec­tur­er in Art His­to­ry and Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Essex. After obtain­ing her PhD in Latin Amer­i­can Cul­tur­al Stud­ies from Birk­beck Col­lege in 2011, she taught at uni­ver­si­ties in Venezuela and the UK and was Post­doc­tor­al Researcher on the project “Moder­ni­ty and the Land­scape in Latin Amer­i­ca: Pol­i­tics, Aes­thet­ics, Ecol­o­gy” at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich from 2014–17. She is the author of Spec­tac­u­lar Moder­ni­ty: Dic­ta­tor­ship, Space and Visu­al­i­ty in Venezuela 1948–1958 (2017), co-edi­tor of Down­ward Spi­ral: El Helicoide’s Descent from Mall to Prison (2017) and Natu­ra: Envi­ron­men­tal Aes­thet­ics After Land­scape (2018), and co-direc­tor of Después de Tru­jil­lo (2016). Work­ing at the inter­sec­tions of prac­tice and research, Lisa com­bines her cur­rent writ­ing on the arts, ecol­o­gy and mem­o­ry with cura­to­r­i­al projects and audio­vi­su­al production.

Paul Lowe (London)

Paul Lowe is a Read­er in Doc­u­men­tary Pho­tog­ra­phy and the Course Leader of the Mas­ters pro­gramme in Pho­to­jour­nal­ism and Doc­u­men­tary Pho­tog­ra­phy at the Lon­don Col­lege of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts, Lon­don, UK. Lowe is an award-win­ning pho­tog­ra­ph­er, whose work is rep­re­sent­ed by Panos Pic­tures, and who has been pub­lished in Time, Newsweek, Life, The Sun­day Times Mag­a­zine, The Observ­er and The Inde­pen­dent amongst oth­ers. He has cov­ered break­ing news the world over, includ­ing the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nel­son Mandela’s release, famine in Africa, the con­flict in the for­mer Yugoslavia and the Siege of Sara­je­vo, and the destruc­tion of Grozny. His research inter­est focus­es on the pho­tog­ra­phy of con­flict, and he has con­tributed chap­ters to the books Pic­tur­ing Atroc­i­ty: Pho­tog­ra­phy in Cri­sis (Reak­tion, 2012) and Pho­tog­ra­phy and Con­flict. His most recent books include Pho­tog­ra­phy Mas­ter­class pub­lished by Thames and Hud­son, and Under­stand­ing Pho­to­jour­nal­ism, co-authored with Dr. Jen­ny Good, pub­lished by Blooms­bury Aca­d­e­m­ic Press.

Sarah Vanagt (Brussels)

Sarah Vanagt stud­ied His­to­ry at the uni­ver­si­ties of Antwerp, Sus­sex and Gronin­gen, and attend­ed the Nation­al Film and Tele­vi­sion School in Bea­cons­field, UK. Her short film The Wave (2012), direct­ed togeth­er with Katrien Ver­meire, received an hon­ourable men­tion at IBAFF Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val. With her niece Katrien Vanagt, she direct­ed In Wak­ing Hours (2015), which won the Audi­ence Award at IndieLis­boa. Every Tear (2018) pre­miered at Visions du Réel, and Div­ina­tions (2019) pre­miered at DOClis­boa. The way chil­dren deal with his­to­ry and war plays an impor­tant role in her doc­u­men­taries, pho­tog­ra­phy and installations.

Stephenie Young (Salem, Mass.)

Stephe­nie Young is a pro­fes­sor at the Eng­lish Depart­ment and research asso­ciate for the Salem State Uni­ver­si­ty Cen­ter for Holo­caust and Geno­cide Stud­ies, since 2008. She com­plet­ed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Com­par­a­tive Lit­er­a­ture at the State Uni­ver­si­ty of New York, Bing­ham­ton and earned her B.A. in Art His­to­ry from Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty, Long Beach. She has also stud­ied the prac­tice of pho­tog­ra­phy, which she uses in many pro­fes­sion­al and per­son­al projects. She is also engaged in oth­er projects with artists and aca­d­e­m­ic researchers. One of these is a mul­ti­me­dia project (pho­tog­ra­phy and text) about trav­el­ing the con­tem­po­rary bor­ders of the Cau­ca­sus region from Sochi, Rus­sia to the Caspi­an Sea. With Paul Lowe, she co-orga­nizes the annu­al con­fer­ence, Why Remem­ber? Mem­o­ry and For­get­ting in Times of War and Its After­math, in Sara­je­vo, Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina. In fall 2019 she trav­elled to War­saw, Poland, as a Senior Research Fel­low at the Jew­ish His­tor­i­cal Insti­tute orga­niz­ing an exhi­bi­tion about the Ringel­blum Archive of the War­saw Ghet­to as part of a larg­er study about con­tem­po­rary bor­der pol­i­tics, evi­dence and memory.

Vladimir Miladinović (Belgrade)

Vladimir Miladi­nović Grad­u­at­ed from the Fac­ul­ty of Applied Arts in Bel­grade and has com­plet­ed doc­tor­al lev­el cours­es in the depart­ment of Art and Media The­o­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Arts, Bel­grade. He is a mem­ber of the Work­ing Group “Four Faces of Omars­ka” an art/theory group that ques­tions memo­r­i­al pro­duc­tion strate­gies. Miladinović’s main inter­ests lie with the pol­i­tics of remem­ber­ing, media manip­u­la­tion and the cre­ation and rein­ter­pre­ta­tion of his­to­ry. His work engages with war and post-war trau­ma. It deals with media, foren­sics, polit­i­cal and eth­i­cal iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and the pre­sen­ta­tion of war crimes, but also with cur­rent tran­si­tion­al ide­olo­gies of denial and era­sure. It ques­tions how media and insti­tu­tions in the post-war soci­eties cre­ate pub­lic space, con­se­quent­ly shap­ing col­lec­tive memory. 

Organized by

Liliana Gómez (Zurich)

Lil­iana Gómez is SNSF-pro­fes­sor (Swiss Nation­al Sci­ence Foun­da­tion) at the Insti­tute of Art His­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich, where she directs the research project Con­test­ed Amne­sia and Dis­so­nant Nar­ra­tives in the Glob­al South. Post-Con­flict in Lit­er­a­ture, Art, and Emer­gent Archives. Recent­ly she co-edit­ed with Lisa Black­more Liq­uid Ecolo­gies in Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean Art (Rout­ledge, 2020). She is the author of Lo urbano. Teorías cul­tur­ales y políti­cas de la ciu­dad en Améri­ca Lati­na (Pitts­burgh, IILI, 2014) and A Cam­era in the Lab­o­ra­to­ry of the Mod­ern (diaphanes, forth­com­ing). Her research fields are com­par­a­tive lit­er­a­tures and cul­tures, lit­er­ary, cul­tur­al and media the­o­ry, glob­al art his­to­ry, visu­al cul­tures and human rights, arts/literature and law, arts and ecologies.

Elena Rosauro (Zurich)

Ele­na Rosauro is art his­to­ri­an, Latin Amer­i­can­ist, researcher and cura­tor. She is the coor­di­na­tor of the Latin Amer­i­can Cen­ter of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich, and a post­doc­tor­al researcher. Her PhD dis­ser­ta­tion His­to­ry and Vio­lence in Latin Amer­i­ca. Artis­tic Strate­gies, 1992–2012 was pub­lished by Cen­deac (Mur­cia, Spain) in 2017. She is also co-cura­tor at the inde­pen­dent art space la_cápsula in Zurich. Her work both in research­ing and curat­ing tries to offer some par­tial and sit­u­at­ed com­ments about vio­lence, injus­tice and destruction.

Maria Ordóñez-Cruz (Zurich)

Maria Ordóñez has devel­oped her artis­tic prac­tice focused on col­lec­tiv­i­ty as a way of eth­i­cal engage­ment and shared knowl­edge, most­ly in work­ing with peo­ple affect­ed by vio­lence in Colom­bia, where she comes from. Cur­rent­ly, she is doing her doc­tor­al project about alter­na­tive ecolo­gies and cre­ative forms of recom­po­si­tion relat­ed to forced dis­ap­pear­ance and the tran­si­tion­al con­text in Colom­bia (1958–2016), as part of the team «Con­test­ed Amne­sia and Dis­so­nant Nar­ra­tives in the Glob­al South: Post-con­flict in Lit­er­a­ture, Art, and Emer­gent Archives» direct­ed by Prof. Lil­iana Gomez, in the Depart­ment of Cul­tur­al Analy­sis at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich.