Email: katja.mueller@zirs.uni-halle.de
Website: www.katjamueller.org
Main fields of interest
Visual Anthropology, Photography, Museum Anthropology, South Asia, Environmental Anthropology, Energy Anthropology, Coal Mining and Renewable Energy
Research Projects
•Postcolonial Digital Connections” – Sociocultural Impacts of Digitization Processes in the Cultural Heritage Sector
•Decarbonising Electricity
•The Coal Rush and Beyond
Curriculum Vitae
| Since 2021 | Visiting Professor at the University of Technology Sydney |
| Since 2021 | Privatdozentin for Social Anthropology at MLU Halle |
| 2021 | Senior Researcher at Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) Potsdam |
| 2018-2021 | Partner Investigator at the University of Technology, Sydney |
| 2017 | Research Fellow at Centre for Digital Anthropology, University College London |
| 2015-2021 | Researcher and academic coordinator at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, ZIRS |
| 2014-2017 | Research Associate at the University of Technology, Sydney |
| 2013-2015 | Lecturer at Leipzig University, Institute of Anthropology Lecturer at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences |
| 2011-2014 | PhD Candidate at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Thesis title: “Die Eickstedt-Sammlung aus Südindien. Differenzierte Wahrnehmungen kolonialer Fotografien und Objekte “) |
| 2009-2011 | Scientific research assistant at GrassiMuseum für Völkerkunde, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden |
| 2008 | Magister Artium, Leipzig University (Cultural Studies / Indian Studies / Philosophy) |
Publications
| 2023 | Contested Futures of/with Energy Generation |
| 2023 | Digitisation and Low-Carbon Energy Transitions |
| 2022 | Climate Camps and Environmental Movements: Impacting the Coal Industry and Practicing ‘System Change’ |
| 2022 | Postcolonial Digital Collections: Instruments, Mirrors, Agents |
| 2021 | Digital archives and collections. Creating online access to cultural heritage. Oxford, New York: Berghahn. open access |
| 2021 | with Hahn, Hans Peter, Oliver Lueb and Karoline Noack. Digitalisierung ethnologischer Sammlungen: Perspektiven aus Theorie und Praxis. Bielefeld: Transkript. open access |
| 2021 | Heat pipelines and climate camps: Coal mining’s in/visible infrastructure, The Extractive Industries and Society |
| 2021 | with Morton, Tom. The space, the time, and the money: Wind energy politics in East Germany, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 40: 62-72. |
| 2021 | with Endres, Kirsten and Charlotte Bruckermann (eds.). Feature: The political power of energy futures, FocaalBlog: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. |
| 2021 | with Endres, Kirsten and Charlotte Bruckermann. Introduction: The political power of energy futures, FocaalBlog: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. |
| 2020 | Zugang zu wissenschaftlichen Sammlungen: Rechtliche, ethische und politische Dimensionen, in: Andraschke, Udo (ed.): Objekte im Netz, Transcript: 205-219. |
| 2020 | with Morton, Tom, James Goodman, Riikka Heikkinen: Forest Wind and Australia’s renewables revolution: how big clean energy projects risk leaving local communities behind, The Conversation August 23, 2020. |
| 2020 | with Goodmann, James, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Linda Connor, Devleena Gosh, Kanchi Kohli, Jonathan Marshall, Manju Menon, Tom Morton, Rebecca Pearse, Stuart Rosewarne. Beyond the Coal Rush. A turning point for global energy and climate policy? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
| 2020 | with Morton, Tom, James Goodman, Jonathan Marshall, Riika Heikkinen: People need to see the benefits from local renewable energy projects, and that means jobs, The Conversation June 19th, 2020. |
| 2020 | with Everts, Jonathan. Riskscapes, Politics of Scaling and Climate Change: Towards the Post-Carbon Society? Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 13 (2): 14 pages. |
| 2020 | with Morton, Tom, Jonathan Marshall, Linda Connor und Devleena Ghosh. From Coal to Renewables: Changing Socio-Ecological Relations of Energy in India, Australia and Germany, in: Renn, Ortwin, Frank Ulmer und Anna Deckert (eds.): The role of public participation in energy transitions, Academic Press: 93-104. |
| 2019 | with Aich, Rajkamal. Indian post-digital aesthetics. Visual Ethnography 8 (2): 155-168. read it online 2019. with Geismar, Haidy (eds.): Postcolonial Digital Connections. Web publication, Halle (Saale) www.zirs.uni-halle.de/pdc-proceedings/ |
| 2019 | Vom Nutzen digitalisierter Sammlungen. Museumskunde 1/2019: 12-17. |
| 2019 | Digitalisierung von kulturellem Erbe: Potentiale und Schwächen. Bedrohte Völker – pogrom 311_2: 14-15. |
| 2019 | India’s digital archives: Online spaces for cultural heritage. Asiascape: Digital Asia 6: 84-109. |
| 2019 | with Wille, Boris: Materiality and Mobility: Comparative notes on heritagisation in the Indian Ocean World, in: Schnepel, Burkhard and Tansen Sen (eds.): Travelling Pasts: The Politics of Cultural Heritage in the Indian Ocean World, Brill: 81-106. |
| 2019 | review. Photography in India: From Archives to Contemporary Practice, ed. by Aileen Blaney and Chinar Shar. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 41(4): 927-929. |
| 2019 | The Eickstedt archive: German anthropology in colonial India. Indian Historical Review 45(2): 213-232. |
| 2018 | Exhibition Review for ‘Another India: Explorations & Expressions of Indigenous South Asia’ at Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, 8 March 2017-22 April 2018. Museum Anthropology Review 12 (2): 153-155. |
| 2018 | Mining, time and protest: Dealing with waiting in German coal mine planning. The Extractive Industries and Society 6(1): 1-7. read it online |
| 2018 | Digitale Objekte – subjektive Materie. Zur Materialität digitalisierter Objekte in Museum und Archiv, in: Hahn, Hans-Peter (ed.): Dinge als Herausforderung, Transcript: 49-66. free download |
| 2017 | Der böse Blick: Sehen und Gesehenwerden in Südindien, in: Münster, Ursula, Claudia Lang, Jens Zickgraf und Philipp Zehmisch (eds.): Ästhetik, Atmosphäre, Medialität: Beiträge aus der Ethnologie, Lit: 133–142. |
| 2017 | Heimat, Kohle, Umwelt. Argumente im Protest und der Befürwortung von Braunkohleförderung in der Lausitz. Zeitschrift für Umweltpolitik und Umweltrecht 2017(3): 213–228 |
| 2017 | Online Documents of India’s Past: Digital Archives and Memory Production. Museum Worlds: Advances in Research 5: 149–161. |
| 2017 | Writing into the Archive: Digitizing ethnographic collections, in: Noack, Karoline und Ihde, Beatrix (eds.): Potentials of Museum-Ethnology: Aparai-Wayana and other indigenous groups of the Guyanas as reflected in museum collections, Shaker: 269-282. |
| 2017 | Reframing the Aura: Digital Photography in Ancestral Worship, in: Museum Anthropology, 40(1): 65-78. |
| 2017 | Between Lived and Archived Memory: How Digital Archives Can Tell History, in: Digithum, 19: 11-18. |
| 2017 | Picturing Culture: The Photography of Muttappan teyyam between 1920 and Today, in: Visual Anthropology, 30(2): 147-165. |
| 2016 | mit Morton, Tom: Lusatia and the Coal Conundrum: The Lived Experience of the German Energiewende, Energy Policy 99: 277-287. |
| 2015 | Die Eickstedt-Sammlung aus Südindien. Differenzierte Wahrnehmungen kolonialer Fotografien und Objekte, Europäische Hochschulschriften, Band 84. Peter Lang, Frankfurt et al. (Ph.D. thesis) |
| 2015 | review. The Coal Nation. Histories, Ecologies and Politics of Coal in India, by Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt (ed.), South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 38: 3, 541-542. |
| 2015 | review. Colour, Art and Empire. Visual Culture and the Nomadism of Representation, by Natasha Eaton, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 38: 1, 132-134. |
| 2014 | with Rycroft, Daniel: The Future of Anthropology’s Archival Knowledge: an International Reassessment (FAAKIR), in: Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Ethnographischen Sammlungen Sachsen Bd. 46, pp. 221-226. |
| 2014 | Eickstedt in Südindien, in: Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Ethnographischen Sammlungen Sachsen Bd. 46, pp. 227-236. |
| 2013 | Koloniale Fotografien im Dialog. Rückführung und Erschließung des Eickstedt-Archivs, in: Rundbrief Fotografie 20, pp. 5-10. |
| 2011 | Schädelträger und das zornige Opfer der fünf Sinne – zur Verwendung von Schädeln im Hinduismus und Buddhismus, in: Schädelkult. Kopf und Schädel in der Kulturgeschichte des Menschen, Regensburg, pp. 125-131. |
| 2010 | Kulturelle Veränderungen in Malabar – Forschungsbericht Indien 2009/2010, in: Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Ethnographischen Sammlungen Sachsen Bd. 45, Berlin, pp. 359-363. |
| 2009 | with Krebs, Carola: Ins Innere Indiens – Die Expedition des Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt 1926–1929, in: Auf der Suche nach Vielfalt, Leipzig, pp. 321-328. |
| 2009 | with Wagenknecht, Reinhard/ Krebs, Carola: „Vom Reiten und Jagen, Fischen und Fangen“ Über die Museumspädagogik am Leipziger Völkerkundemuseum, in: Auf der Suche nach Vielfalt, Leipzig, pp. 495-500. |
Exhibitions
| 2014/15 | with Leipzig University / GrassiMuseum für Völkerkunde. Vom Wesen der Dinge. Ethnologische Konstellationen. |
| 2012 | with Museum of Voice / University of East Anglia / Museum of Archeology and Anthropology Cambridge. Purvajo-ni Aankh. |
Grants and awards
| 2020 | Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Open access publishing grant |
| 2020 | Deutscher Akademikerinnenbund, Open access publishing grant |
| 2020 | Forum for the study of the global condition, Grant for international conference ‘Resources and Strukturwandel’ |
| 2019 | Asiascape/Brill, Best Article Award for ‘India’s Digital Archives: Online Spaces for Cultural Heritage’ |
| 2018 | Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Grant for international conference ‘Postcolonial Digital Connections‘ |
| 2018 | CI: James Goodman, ARC grant for project ‘Decarbonising Electricity’ |
| 2014 | DAAD grand for conference participation |
| 2011/12 | DAAD research grant for fieldwork in India |
| 2011 | Grant by the VW-Foundation for International Workshop on Anthropological Archives (FAAKIR) |
| 2009/10 | Research grant by the FAZIT-Foundation for fieldwork in India |
Invited Presentations
| 2020 | Curating the truth as grass-roots history: Digital archives and their relation to postcolonial theory and practice. Digital Truth-Making, Humboldt University Berlin. |
| 2020 | Sammlungen online: Postkoloniale Ideale und digitale Wirklichkeit. Zwischentagung DGSKA AG Materielle Kultur, AG Museum, Cologne. |
| 2020 | Die (Im)Materialität von Objekten im digitalen Raum. Zukunft der Objekte, University of Cologne. |
| 2020 | The futures of visual restitution. EASA, University Lisbon. |
| 2020 | Decarbonising Electricity & Strukturwandel in India, Australia and Germany. Resources and Strukturwandel, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. |
| 2020 | Die Grenzen des rechtlich Machbaren: Urheberrechte bei der Digitalisierung in Museum und Archiv. Sammlungen zwischen Materialität und Medialität, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. |
| 2019 | with Tom Morton. The state of decarbonization in Germany: the “Coal Commission”, climate policy and decarbonization on the ground in the Lausitz. Socio-ecological relations of energy transition in Australia, Germany, and India, IIT Kanpur. |
| 2019 | with Tom Morton. The spatio-temporal politics of wind energy: some initial reflections on fieldwork and energy transition in Brandenburg. Socio-ecological relations of energy transition in Australia, Germany, and India, IIT Kanpur. |
| 2019 | Objekte als rechtliche Grenzmarken der Digitalisierung. DGSKA-Tagung, Universität Konstanz. |
| 2019 | with Boris Wille. Coral Blocks and Binary Code: Moving Matter(s) in the Indian Ocean World. Deutscher Südasientag, Universität Bonn. |
| 2019 | The Meaning of ‘Sharing’ for Online Projects – Analysis of a Changing Term as Applied in Indian Digital Archives. Sharing Society, University of the Basque Country, Bilbao. |
| 2019 | Digital Archives: Postcolonial Ideas and Online Involvement. After-Lives of Photographs in the Digital Age, Pembroke College, London. |
| 2019 | Ethnographisch-journalistische Arbeit in der Lausitz 2014-17 – The Coal Rush and Beyond. Perspektivwechsel im Strukturwandel, IASS Potsdam. |
| 2018 | The Coal Rush and Beyond. Kohlentag: A multi-disciplinary workshop on the past, present, and future of coal use, MPI für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Berlin. |
| 2018 | The Internet as a field for decolonizing Indian cultural heritage. Conference Heritage, Decolonisation and the Field, German Historical Institute London & UCL Institute of Archaeology. |
| 2018 | Following the 1947 Partition Archive – Online community-building beyond kin and borders. Asiascape: Digital Asia Conference, Universiteit Leiden. |
| 2018 | Adivasi Images, Adivasi Voices: The resonance of the Eickstedt collection. 25th ECSAS, Paris. |
| 2017 | Anthropologic Photographs. The Present and (Digital) Future of Images from the Past, FFA, Brno Technical University. |
| 2017 | with Tom Morton. Globalising the Local to Reach the National. Extended Coal Mines in Lusatia, Germany. The Coal Rush and Beyond: A Workshop on Coal Contestation and Advocacy for Energy Transition, IASS Potsdam. |
| 2017 | Digitale Fotografien – Erweiterte Erinnerungen, erweiterte Identitäten. Symposium Augmented Identites, ZIS Universität Mainz. |
| 2017 | Online Archives of Indian Photography. Towards an Accessibility of Visual Cultural Heritage, Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi. |
| 2017 | Colonial Photography by Egon von Eickstedt. A German anthropologist’s camera view on India in the 1920s, Sahapedia Baithak Talks, Delhi. |
| 2017 | Digital Future of Anthropological Archives? Memory Making on the Indian Past, Seminar Series Material, Visual and Digital Culture Research, University College London. |
| 2017 | with Boris Wille. Materiality and Mobility. Comparative notes on heritagisation in the Indian Ocean World, Conference Travelling Pasts: The Politics of Cultural Heritage in the Indian Ocean World, Max Planck Institute, Halle. |
| 2016 | Digitale Objekte. Subjektive Materie, Zwischentagung AG Materielle Kultur der DGV, Frankfurt/M. |
| 2016 | with Tom Morton. At the coalface. A case study between anthropologist and journalist, Australian Anthropological Society Conference, Sydney. |
| 2016 | Waiting for the pre-cut conveyor belt. How time shapes mining protest forms, Australian Anthropological Society Conference, Sydney. |
| 2016 | The (post)digital future of anthropological archives: Memory-making and heritage in cyberspace, 17th AoIR Annual Conference, Berlin. |
| 2016 | Linking museum- and community-based archives in a postdigital world, 14th EASA Biennial Conference, Milano. |
| 2016 | Opening archives. Digital photographs between India and Europe, India International Centre, New Delhi. |
| 2016 | Erinnern online. Museum- und Community-basierte Fotoarchive in Indiens postdigitaler Welt, Ringvorlesung Museum 4.0, Halle. |
| 2016 | Von 0 und 1 zum Koraj Hill. Digitalisiertes Erbe in Ahnenverehrung und Erinnerung, Mitteldeutscher Südasientag, Leipzig |
| 2015 | Dialogue through Digitisation. Herrenhäuser-Symposium „Positioning Ethnological Museums in the 21st Century“, Hannover. |
| 2014 | Indifference and fetishizing. Modes of visual appropriation without reciprocal value, Conference „Anthropology and Photography”, Royal Anthropological Institute, London. |
| 2012 | Vom möglichen Umgang mit ethnologischen/anthropologischen Archiven. Perspektiven des Eickstedt Archivs, Symposium „Koloniale Portraitfotografie“, Museum of Photography, Berlin. |
| 2011 | The Egon von Eickstedt Collection, Conference “Objects and Words: Writing on, around and about things”, Museums Ethnographers Group, Oxford. |
Courses
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
- WiSe 2020/21 ETROD – Environmental and Transition Research Online Dialogues
- SoSe 2020 Media practice – Podcasts and photo essays as output of science and research
- SoSe 2019 Lecture Series at MPI Halle: “Towards (the Anthropology of) the Future”
- WiSe 2018/19 Energie und Klima
- SoSe 2018 Lecture series at MPI Halle: “Fueling the Future: Energy, Resources & Environment”
- SoSe 2016 Lecture Series “museum 4.0. challenges for cultural heritage in the digital world”
- WiSe 2015/16 Visual Anthropology – Photography and Image
Leipzig University
- WiSe 2013/14 and 2014/15 Economic Anthropology
- SoSe 2014 and 2015 South Asia
Anhalt University
- WiSe 2013/14 – SoSe 2015 German as a Second Language, DSH-level
Memberships
Deutscher Museumsbund
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie
EASA European Association of Social Anthropologists – Convenor if the Energy Anthropology Network
AoIR Association of Internet Researchers
EASAS European Association for South Asian Studies