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Members of the SIEF Working Group on Museums and Material Culture

 

Members list

Charlotte Engman, Umeå University,
Dr. Hester Dibbits, Amsterdam University of the Arts,
Dr. Lizette Gradén, University of Washington,
Inkeri Hakamies, University of Helsinki,
Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Malmö University,
Stefanie Mallon, University of Goettingen,
Susannah Eckersley, Newcastle University,
Uta Karrer, Fränkisches Museum Feuchtwangen,
Vaishnavi Krishnan Vadakke Madam, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University,
Willow Mullins, University of Edinburgh,
Yohannes Mula Mekonnen, University of Bonn, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum,

 

Chairs

Inkeri Hakamies, University of Helsinki,
Inkeri Hakamies is a Finnish museologist with a background in ethnology. Currently, she's working as a postdoctoral researcher in a project called Touching Collections (2024-2028) at the University of Helsinki. The project is concerned with the affective practices and emotion work around museum collections and the role feelings play in policymaking in the heritage field. Hakamies is involved in the journals Suomen Museo - Finskt Museum and Nordisk Museologi as an editor, and from the beginning of the year 2025, she's also one of the editors-in-chief of Ethnologia Fenncia.

Vaishnavi Krishnan Vadakke Madam, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University,
Vaishnavi Krishnan V. M is a museologist and cultural researcher currently pursuing an MA in Museology at Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Madhya Pradesh. With an academic background in History and Politics from Queen Mary University of London, her work explores participatory museology, inclusive heritage practices, and the role of emotion and community engagement in museum interpretation. She is particularly interested in how museums can serve as spaces for dialogue, critical reflection, and alternative ways of knowing. Her recent research focuses on museums as platforms for activism and social change, especially within South Asian contexts.

 

Board members

Charlotte Engman, Umeå University,
Charlotte Engman is a culture analyst, doctor in Ethnology and postdoc in Museology, focusing culture and processes of democracy. Her research interests concern museums, democracy, heritage, colonialism and decoloniality. Her teaching mainly includes ethnographic methods, norm criticism, difficult heritage, museum education, ethnic diversity, and supervision.

Stefanie Mallon, University of Goettingen,
Stefanie Mallon is an empirical cultural analyst with research interests in Material Culture, Fashion and Sustainability and Museum at the University of Göttingen. Her project ‘Genealogy of Village Youth Culture’ explores village adolescence over the course of one century and its representation in a local museum. Recent work includes a jointly edited anthology by the title of ‘Decentering Fashion on the Silk Roads’ in 2024 and another jointly edited anthology on 'textiles in the context of death’ by the title ‘Der Tod und das Ding’ (‘Death and the Thing’) in 2020. For her PhD thesis ‘Das Ordnen der Dinge’ (‘The Ordering of Things’) in 2018 she received two awards.

Yohannes Mula Mekonnen, University of Bonn, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum,
Yohannes Mula Mekonnen is a Visual Anthropology Fellow at the Global Heritage Lab, University of Bonn, and a Gerda Henkel Research Fellow at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne. His research interests focus on critical media studies, the politics of representation, and decolonial methodologies. By integrating his background in visual arts and visual anthropology, he aims to develop critical working methods that address the complex political and epistemological inconsistencies inherent in representation, particularly within the context of ethnographic museums.

Dr. Hester Dibbits, Professor (lector) of cultural heritage at Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam University of the Arts,

Willow Mullins, University of Edinburgh,

 

Secretary

Dr. Stefan Hartmann, University of Augsburg,