Category Archives: Event

Event, Knowledge Exchange, News, Object Lab

Talk Series on the Archive “The Fifth Wall – Navina Sundaram”

In collaboration with professionals from the fields of education, film and archival practice, the seminar “The Fifth Wall – Navina Sundaram. Working with a Digital and Material Archive” led by Prof. Dr. Nadja-Christina Schneider, reflects on theoretical and methodological approaches to archives. The work is based on the archive „The Fifth Wall – Navina Sundaram“, which brings together journalistic, cinematic and personal materials on topics including migration, feminism, decolonization and media criticism.

The public event series, moderated by Prof. Dr. Nadja-Christina Schneider, offers insights into the online archive, into working with selected original materials, and into discourses surrounding archives as sites of societal knowledge production:

(Please note that the events will be in German. Please register in advance at wissensaustausch.zfk@hu-berlin.de to attend.)

Archival Practice Between Online Archive and Collection: “The Fifth Wall – Navina Sundaram”

April 29, 2026, 4:00 p.m., ZfK Object Lab

Presentation and discussion with Merle Kröger, crime novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker, artist and producer. Together with Mareike Bernien and in close collaboration with Navina Sundaram, she conceived and implemented the online archive “The Fifth Wall.”

Curated Memory in the Digital Space: Concept, Approach, and Implementation of the Online Archive “The Fifth Wall – Navina Sundaram”

May 6, 2026, 4:00 p.m., ZfK Object Lab

Presentation and discussion with Mareike Bernien, artist, filmmaker, and lecturer. In her work, she focuses on the politics of memory, media archaeology and critical archiving practices. Together with Merle Kröger and in close collaboration with Navina Sundaram, she conceived and implemented the online archive “Die fünfte Wand.”

From “The Fifth Wall” to “WHO CARED.” Creating Visibility Through Digital Archives

May 20, 2026, 4:00 p.m., ZfK Object Lab

Presentation and discussion with Urmila Goel, cultural anthropologist and visiting professor of European Ethnology at Humboldt-Universität. Since the late 1990s, she has been researching migration from India to Germany. The digital archives “The Fifth Wall” and “WHO CARED” bring visibility to various migration movements from India to West Germany in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.

Seeing, Categorizing, Thinking Ahead: Educational Work on Media Practice, History, and Counter-Public Sphere in the Navina Sundaram Archive

June 3, 2026, 4:00 PM, ZfK Object Lab

Interactive workshop with Rubaica Jaliwala, freelance editor and translator of literary, artistic, and cultural texts and books. She lives in Mumbai and Berlin. As a trainer and educational consultant, she has led workshops on intercultural learning and diversity, anti-racism, and gender on four continents.

Exploring Archives: Student Research Projects in the Context of the Navina Sundaram Archive and Beyond

June 10, 2026, 4:00 PM, ZfK Object Lab

Short presentations and discussion with HU students about completed or ongoing research projects that emerged from their engagement with the Navina Sundaram Archive.

Beyond Media Work: On the Significance of Navina Sundaram’s Documentary Films

July 1, 2026, 4:00 p.m., ZfK Object Lab

Presentation and discussion with Nadja-Christina Schneider, Professor of South Asian Societies and Cultures at Humboldt Universität. Her research and teaching focus on gender, media and the city, among other topics.

(Please note that the events will be in German. Please register in advance at wissensaustausch.zfk@hu-berlin.de to attend.)

Photo: Franziska Blume

Chair Theory and Practice of Curating, Lecture Series, News, Theorie und Praxis des interdisziplinären Kuratierens

Lecture series “Beziehungsweise Familie” (Family Matters) – March 18, 2026 with Dr. Lotte Warnsholdt

Cultural practices of silence as modes of care

Dr. Lotte Warnsholdt

The lecture draws on 20th-century literature to examine various cultural techniques of silence and analyzes them with regard to their forms of (self-)care. Self-determined, sovereign silence preserves secrets and provides protected spaces for the development of new attitudes. However, not every silence is self-determined, not every silence sovereign. Alongside sovereign silence, there are forms of silence that signify self-denial or a breakdown of communication. For example, the author Audre Lorde writes of the desire to see one’s own fear in proper proportion and to be able to translate silence into language. Lorde does not speak of a life without fear, but rather of a relationship to fear that depends on the ways in which one practices silence. It would mean not allowing silence to turn into tyranny or catastrophe, but instead finding a measure between speaking and remaining silent—one in which silence can also function as a “mode of resistance to power” (Wendy Brown, 2005).

The lecture will be held in German.

Participation is possible without pre-registration and is open to all interested parties.

Organiser:

Prof Dr Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr Alia Rayyan (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr Laura Goldenbaum (Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace)

Place and time:

18. March 2026,

6 to 8 pm

in Room 3 (Saal 3), ground floor,
Humboldt Forum, Schlossplatz.

Further information

Lotte Warnsholdt
Lotte Warnsholdt, © Paul Schimweg

Lotte Warnsholdt is a cultural and media scholar in Hamburg. She studied European Ethnology in Copenhagen as well as Philosophy and Law in Hamburg. She completed both her master’s degree and her PhD in Cultural and Media Studies at Leuphana University Lüneburg. She works at Museum am Rothenbaum, World Cultures and Arts, she is, among other roles, co-curator of the temporary exhibition CATS! (2025–2026).

Her research focuses on forms and practices of care within institutions of knowledge. She publishes on the materiality and violence of archives, understood both in situ and in digital contexts. Her book Im Schatten des Schweigens (transcript 2024) explores the role of silence and secrecy in shaping social and historical processes.

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Collection, Event, News

Visit from Lund University to the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik and the Humboldt Lab

On Friday, 13 February 2026, the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik welcomed colleagues from Lund University to the Gerlach-Bau and the Humboldt Lab. Following a brief orientation on campus, the programme commenced at 9:15 a.m. with a working session in the Objekt-Labor.

Collections in Research, Teaching, and Societal Engagement

The discussions focused on university collections, addressing their administration, institutional coordination, and especially their integration into teaching. Sarah Elena Link introduced the Coordination Centre for Scientific University Collections, Nina El Laban Devauton and Martin Stricker presented the project Teaching with Objects, and Oliver Zauzig outlined his role as Central Collections Coordinator at HU.

The Lund delegation provided insights into current developments at their university, particularly concerning research, teaching, and societal engagement in relation to collections. The exchange revealed numerous parallels alongside structural differences. It also became evident that the German model—characterised by a central coordination office and an extensive collections network—represents a widely recognised framework that has attracted considerable international interest.

Networking and Institutional Exchange

Given the strong interest in the Berlin University Alliance and the Berlin collections network, participants visited the anatomical collection of the Charité prior to lunch; it is currently the only publicly accessible collection on Campus Nord.

In the afternoon, the group toured the exhibition On Water. WasserWissen in Berlin at the Humboldt Lab. The visit was guided by Anna-Lisa Dieter and followed by a concluding discussion in the seminar room, joined by Sharon Macdonald. The guests expressed particular interest in the institutional possibilities opened up by the Humboldt Lab.

Perspectives for Continued Collaboration

The visit underscored that HU’s collections and exhibition platforms function as important reference points within the field, while also highlighting the necessity of sustainable resources to support their continued development. The intensive discussions provided valuable impulses for all participants, and both institutions agreed to continue the exchange, recognising the mutual benefits of strengthening a European network.

Participants from Lund University:
Sara Virkelyst (Central Contact for Museums and Archives), Charlotta Sokulski Bateld (Coordinator, Cultural Forum for Art and Science), Louice Cardell Hepp (Communications Officer, Cultural Forum), Frida Stenmark (Museum Coordinator, Museum for Artistic Processes and Public Art), and Anki Wallengren (Pro Vice-Chancellor for Culture and Educational Development).

From the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik:
Sarah Elena Link, Nina El Laban Devauton, Martin Stricker, Anna-Lisa Dieter, Sharon Macdonald, and Oliver Zauzig.

Special thanks to Xenia Muth and Eileen Klingner for their support.

Chair Theory and Practice of Curating, Lecture Series, News, Theorie und Praxis des interdisziplinären Kuratierens

Lecture series “Beziehungsweise Familie” (Family Matters) – February 18, 2026 with Prof. Dr. Annette Schad-Seifert

An interdisciplinary lecture series on contemporary family forms and concepts of kinship

Singles under pressure – “solo weddings” as the secret to happiness in Japan

Prof. Dr. Annette Schad-Seifert (Professor of Modern Japanese Studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

Lifelong singlehood is a social experience that affects more and more people in Japan.

In recent years, so-called solo weddings have attracted media and academic attention in Japan. These are staged wedding ceremonies in which single women without partners hold a wedding with professional clothing, photography, and ritual elements. The lecture examines solo weddings as a cultural phenomenon at the intersection of the individual search for happiness, consumer culture, and changing marriage and gender norms in Japanese society.

Solo weddings are just one phenomenon among a variety of solo activities in Japan’s consumer culture that have emerged in recent years. The lecture explores how these activities can be classified in a society that traditionally places a high priority on the group.

Based on quantitative data, media analyses, and case studies, it shows that solo weddings should be understood less as an expression of social isolation and more as an ambivalent practice of self-affirmation in a society in which traditional family norms are increasingly disappearing.

The lecture will be held in German.

Participation is possible without pre-registration and is open to all interested parties.

Organiser:

Prof Dr Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr Alia Rayyan (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr Laura Goldenbaum (Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace)

Place and time:

18. February 2026,

6 to 8 pm

in Room 3 (Saal 3), ground floor,
Humboldt Forum, Schlossplatz.

Further information

Annette Schad-Seifert has been a university professor at the Institute for Modern Japan at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf since 2006. She studied Japanese Studies and Religious Studies at the Free University of Berlin, as well as Philosophy and Political History of Ideas at Keio University in Tokyo. Her work focuses on family policy, single society, gender relations, demographic change, and new forms of social differentiation. She has worked as a research assistant at the Free University of Berlin, the University of Leipzig, and the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. In 2018, she was a specially appointed professor at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo. She is the editor (with Uta Meier-Gräwe and Miyoko Motozawa) of the book Family Life in Japan and Germany (Springer Verlag 2019).

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Lecture, Lecture Series, News, Theorie und Praxis des interdisziplinären Kuratierens

Lecture series “Beziehungsweise Familie” (Family Matters) – February 11, 2026 with Dr. Michael Slepian

Having and Keeping Secrets 

Dr. Michael Slepian (Associate Professor at Columbia Business School)

Common wisdom suggests that secrecy harms relationships and well being because active concealment is hard and stressful work. Multiple studies of thousands of participants keeping tens of thousands of secrets reveals otherwise. The problem with having secrets is often not that we have to hide them, but rather that we have to think about them, and live with them alone in our thoughts without others’ help and perspectives. Whereas instances of concealment can be construed as effective goal pursuit (i.e., successful secret keeping), having secrets intrude upon one’s thoughts is taken as a signal of relational and personal problems, including reduced relationship quality and reduced authenticity. At the same time, secrets can improve well-being, when managed well and kept for the right reasons. Secrets kept on behalf of collectives can foster feelings meaning, confiding secrets in others and being confided in can bring feelings of closeness and intimacy, and keeping positive secrets can enhance feelings of autonomy and vitality. The multifaceted nature of secrets will be discussed, including how to cope effectively, and how to thrive while carrying them.

The lecture will be held in English.

Participation is possible without pre-registration and is open to all interested parties.

Organiser:

Prof Dr Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr Alia Rayyan (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr Laura Goldenbaum (Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace)

Place and time:

11. February 2026,

6 to 8 pm

in Room 3 (Saal 3), ground floor,
Humboldt Forum, Schlossplatz.

Further information

Michael Slepian

Dr. Michael Slepian is an Associate Professor at Columbia Business School, and author of the Secret Life of Secrets. The leading expert on the psychology of secrets, his research examines how keeping secrets shapes trust, relationships, and well-being, in social and organizational life. He has authored more than fifty scholarly articles on secrecy, truth, and deception, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and NPR. Slepian earned his Ph.D. from Tufts University, was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, received the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and is an elected fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology.

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Event, Exhibition, News

Paula Doepfner, ‘Out in front of a dozen dead oceans’

Exhibition in the Object Lab

At first glance, Paula Doepfner’s drawings appear abstract, like veils of mist or delicate branches. Only upon closer inspection can one discern the fine lettering that the artist has applied to delicate tracing paper. They are passages from poems by Paul Celan, but also from the Istanbul Protocol. Trauma, torture, traces, memory – all of this is condensed and interwoven, but not only present through the text references. The works are based on sketches that Paula Doepfner made as an observer during brain operations at the Charité hospital.

Located in the Object Lab of the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik on the North Campus, not far from the Charité hospital, a selection of these works will be presented in discussions designed to highlight their special impact. In addition to an afternoon devoted to the works of Paula Doepfner in conversation with the artist, another evening discussion will focus on the topics of migration, flight, expulsion and the (psychological) consequences of torture and violence. We would be delighted if you would accept our invitation.

Exhibition: 24–27 February 2026, open 12 noon–2 p.m.

Accompanying events:
23 February 2026, 4pm–6pm: Opening with introduction by the artist

26 February 2026, 6pm–8pm: TRACES OF PAIN. Art, trauma and flight. Interdisciplinary discussion evening with Paula Doepfner – artist, Berlin
Ulrike Kluge – Professor & Senior Psychologist/Group Analyst, Charité Berlin/BIM
Julia Manek – Psychologist & Human Geographer, medico international
Moderator: Pauline Endres de Oliveira – Professor of Law & Migration (HU/BIM)
In cooperation with: Christina Kuhli – Curator HU

Contact: Christina Kuhli, christina.kuhli@hu-berlin.de

 

Chair Theory and Practice of Curating, Exhibition, News

Memory, identity, transmission: an artistic diorama at the Humboldt Forum

How does personal experience become collective knowledge? And what traces do family biographies leave on our identity?

These questions were addressed in a ten-week social workshop held as part of the Beziehungsweise Familie (Family Matters) cluster at the Humboldt Forum. As a collaborative project combining artistic, therapeutic and scientific perspectives, knowledge was not imparted as finished teaching content. Rather, it emerged as a collaborative process in which the participants were involved in a transversal production of knowledge as equal experts and active contributors. The starting point was personal memories, mementos and everyday rituals as carriers of knowledge that is often passed down through generations.

This intensive collaboration resulted in an artistic diorama and an audio work that bring mementos to life. Together, they reveal the complex interrelationships between individual trauma, transgenerational narratives and the influence of political contexts on personal life paths. At the same time, they invite us to take a fresh look at the interplay between identity and origin.

With Florian Hermes, Honorata Nawrocki, Marisol Ozomatli Malinalli, Leila G., Franziska Pierwoss, Diana Krämer, Alia Rayyan.

The result can be experienced from 24 January to 12 July 2026 in the ‘living room’ of the Humboldt Forum, the special exhibition foyer on the ground floor.

Interested parties are cordially invited to visit the exhibition and gain an insight into this special form of knowledge work.

Besuchende vor dem Diorama
© Alia Rayyan 2026
Knowledge Exchange, News, Third Mission, Workshop

Public Engagement Training for Researchers

The Humboldt Graduate School (HGS), in cooperation with the HU Office for Knowledge Exchange with Society and the Berlin School of Public Engagement and Open Science, is offering a Public Engagement workshop for early career researchers:

In this workshop, we will explore the basics of public engagement (PE) and its value for research and practice. Participants will be guided through a combination of theoretical inputs and practical exercises that will help them integrate PE into their work. The first part of the day will focus on the building blocks of PE and identifying the participants’ individual purpose for working with different target groups. In the afternoon, the workshop will delve deeper into the practical aspects of designing PE interactions, including planning and tracking their impact.

  • Time:  February
  • Place: Humboldt Graduate School, Luisenstraße 56, 10117 Berlin, Room 220
  • Format: In-person workshop in English
  • Target Group: Researchers in their final phase of the doctoral studies or postdoc phase

Registration: to participate please register until Feb. 11, 2026, at https://hu.opencampus.com/de/node/12744

Photo: Philipp Plum

Chair Theory and Practice of Curating, Lecture Series, News, Theorie und Praxis des interdisziplinären Kuratierens

Lecture series “Family Matters”: Further Dates during Winter Semester

Focus Family Secrets

The focus Family Secrets turns its attention to hidden dimensions of family relationships, where intimacy, protection, and conflict intersect. At the centre are practices of concealment and disclosure that shape individual life stories as well as social orders.

Secrets are more than concealed information: they condense needs for protection and intimacy, as well as feelings of shame, fear of exposure, and the pressure of social norms. As part of biographical experience, family secrets deeply affect personal life narratives. Practices of telling and withholding make visible how relationships are formed, boundaries drawn, and social orders negotiated — revealing how secrets extend far beyond the private sphere to create belonging, mark boundaries, and stabilise or unsettle social structures.

Geheimnisse sind dabei mehr als verborgene Informationen: In ihnen verdichten sich Bedürfnisse nach Schutz und Intimität ebenso wie Scham, Angst vor Bloßstellung oder der Druck sozialer Normen. Als Teil biografischer Erfahrungen wirken Familiengeheimnisse tief in persönliche Lebensgeschichten hinein. Erzählen und Verschweigen machen sichtbar, wie Beziehungen gestaltet, Grenzen gezogen und soziale Ordnungen verhandelt werden – und wie Geheimnisse weit über das Private hinaus Zugehörigkeiten stiften, Grenzen markieren und gesellschaftliche Strukturen stabilisieren oder irritieren.

Upcoming dates:

    • 11.02.2026: The Secret Life of Secrets
      Dr. Michael Slepian (Columbia Business School, New York)
    • 18.02.2026: “Solo Weddings” as a Secret to Happiness in Japan
      Univ.-Prof. Dr. Annette Schad-Seifert (Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Institut für Modernes Japan, Düsseldorf)
    • 04.03.2026: Substitute/Family – Forms of living together beyond natural descent. Aspects from popular culture
      Bert Rebhandl (Freier Filmforscher, Berlin)
    • 18.03.2026: Cultural practices of silence as modes of care
      Dr. Lotte Warnsholdt (MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum, Hamburg)

The lecture will be held in German. One exception is the lecture by Dr. Slepian, which will be held in English.

Participation is possible without pre-registration and is open to all interested parties.

Organiser:

Prof Dr Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr Alia Rayyan (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr Laura Goldenbaum (Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace)

Place and time:

each at 6 to 8 pm

in Room 3 (Saal 3), ground floor,
Humboldt Forum, Schlossplatz.

Further information

Familie-Tischrunde
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Event, News

Theme days on family secrets – Hide or tell?

Saturday 24 January – Sunday 25 January 2026 as part of the exhibition "Beziehungsweise Familie" (Family Matters)

Silence and whispering, secret relationships, unknown kinships, inherited stories and hidden heirlooms. Are there secrets in your family? Are you grateful for them, or would you rather let them go? Do secrets connect people—or isolate them? Through playful, artistic and performative formats, we explore the most concealed spaces of community.

Performances

Experience Sarah Ama Duah’s living statues – hidden biographies can be glimpsed beneath their latex surfaces.

Chinese artist Li Binyuan invites visitors to contribute their own voices and hear themselves within a unique soundscape: guided by familiar sounds of family members or friends, you become part of the performance Plaza.

The evening programme also brings together two profoundly different approaches to the hidden. The musical reading from Hewa Rwanda by Rwandan actor and director Dorcy Rugamba is authentic and deeply moving: 31 years after the genocide, he reads letters to the absent and speaks about family and hope.

Humor enters the room with Jürgen Kuttner’s video snippets lecture — look forward to Kuttner’s family stories from both East and West.

In Conversation

Author Anne Rabe invites dialogue about her unsparing East German family narrative Die Möglichkeit von Glück.

Shaped by stories of cultural repression in Turkey, a new film by performer and filmmaker ŞOKOPOP reflects on his own outing as queer and how inherited silence can be broken. We also host a conversation on this topic with ŞOKOPOP (Ekim Acun)andtherapist Umut Özdemir.

Tours, Workshops and Children’s Programme

In the free-entry Living Room, a newly designed activity space on the ground floor, you can explore diverse family stories and transgenerational relationships. Here you will also find a library for all, offering a wide selection of books on family, curated by Black Dads Germany. The craft-based workshop series Gift of the Spider takes place here as well: a large-scale wall collage emerges, a collective artwork made from woven and knitted contributions. Stop by and join in!

The historic Berlin Palace also holds its own secrets. A staged tour provides a look behind the façades of patriarchal history and memory, revealing the lesser-known stories of the Hohenzollern family.

In the live role-playing game Broken Archive, you can speculate in a small group about why a family album was torn apart – and then reassemble it.

Children can dive into stories in the Picture Book Cinema, learn about the nature of lies in a live recording of the Kakadu podcast, and record their own family secrets in the Book Dash Workshop. Children and adults alike can explore self-determination and imagination by painting flags based on designs by artist Na Chainkua Reindorf, whose large-format works will adorn the foyer in January.

 

Theme days on family secrets – Hide or tell: 

Sat, 24.1.2026, 10:30–21:00 
Sun, 25.1.2026, 10:30–21:00 

See here for more information on theme days on family secrets – Hide or tell.

© Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss, Exhibition design: Studio Fasson Freddy Fuss / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum und Museum für Asiatische Kunst / (Keyvisual: Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss / Getty Images / The Image Bank / Karan Kapoor) / Trailer: boheifilm, Musik: INPLUSMUSIC