Project Spotlight
Decolonizing the Ethnographic Museum in Central Europe
I am currently undertaking a habilitation project comparing the decolonization strategies of three prominent museums in Central Europe: the Náprstek Museum in Prague, the Weltmuseum in Vienna, and the Néprajzi Múzeum in Budapest. Through my research, I analyze the efforts made by these museums to address their colonial past and shape their current decolonization practices. I employ a comprehensive methodology, including content and visual analysis, interviews with museum directors and curators, and engagement with relevant literature. This project will contribute to the advancement of best practices in the field and promotes cross-museum collaboration.
The project is supported by the Fond Junior Postdoctoral Program at Charles University Prague. The Fond Junior Postdoctoral program recruits high-quality post-doctoral research fellows from abroad to work at top University or faculty centres and contribute to the University’s strong research profile. I am part of the Faculty of Humanities, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Research Interests
Contemporary art
My research in contemporary art focuses on artists who intervene in hegemonic discourses, social injustices and political movements. I am also interested in global art market politics. Most of my experience is with artists working in and from the Middle East, although I have recently focused on artists and artistic movements elsewhere.
Publications:
Total Replication: Contemporary art and heritage in the Arabian Gulf countries
Books manuscript in progress
When Workers Toil Unseen, Artists Intervene: On the In/ visibility of Labor in the Arabian Gulf States. Visual Anthropology 32 (3-4): 265–86. doi: 10.1080/08949468.2019.1637672.4
Local, Regional, Global: An Investigation of Art Dubai’s Transnational Strategies. Arabian Humanities (7). doi: 10.4000/cy.3250
Cultural heritage
My research focuses on three aspects: how states deploy heritage narratives for nation-building purposes, how artists react to exclusive heritage narratives, and how museums adress their colonial past.
Publications:
Land Art as a Means to Negotiate Natural and Cultural Heritage in the United Arab Emirates,
Český lid, the anthropological journal of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 104 (2): 213–30, 2017.doi: 10.21104/CL.2017.2.03.
When Art and Heritage Collide: Artistic Responses to National Narratives in the UAE, LSE Middle East Centre Blog, 13th December 2018
Futurism
My newest research project focuses on Gulf Futurism as an artistic and literary movement in the Arabian/Persian Gulf and compares it to other futuristic movements, including Afrofuturism and Sinofuturism.
Conference Papers:
Gulf Futurism and the (un-)hopeful chronopolitics of art
European Association of Social Anthropologists
July 2022
Past-Present-Future: Time-based artistic practices from the Gulf
Middle East Studies Association
October 2020
The nation takes place in the future: artistic responses to cultural heritage in the Arab Gulf
Horizon 2020 Global Traces Conference: Art Practice, Ethnography, Contested Heritage, University of Oslo, February 2019
