Kathrin Pieren

(Dr James Moore, Professor Derek Keene & Dr Cathy Ross) Ph.D.
Migration and identity constructions in an imperial metropolis: the representation of Jewish heritage in London between 1887 and 1956

Kathrin Pieren read Italian language and literature (major), sociology and politics (minor) at the University of Berne (CH) and at the Istituto universitario orientale in Naples (I). She gained the title of 'Licentiata philosophae' (MA degree equivalent) 'magna cum laude' with a dissertation on the relation between individual and society in the novels of Guido Morselli. She went on to work for the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, an academic think-tank and umbrella organisation to 50 learned societies, first as scientific secretary and later as deputy secretary general.

Ready for a career change after some years, she decided to go back to university. She undertook an MA in Museum Studies at the University of Newcastle from where she graduated with a distinction. Her dissertation examined the representation and perception of Jewish identity at the Jewish Museum Berlin. She worked for two years in museums in the North East of England, first as curatorial assistant, then as evaluation co-ordinator for the North East Regional Museums Hub.

In 2006, Kathrin was awarded an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award for a project under the wider remit of 'London on Display: Civic Identities, Culture and Industry, 1851-1951' at the Centre for Metropolitan History, Institute of Historical Research in partnership with the Museum of London. Kathrin examines the construction of Jewish identities through heritage initiatives and historical writing. Focusing primarily on specific temporary exhibitions and museums in London between the 1880s and the 1950s, her research looks into the public negotiation of Jewish identities through material culture over time, taking into account the often neglected contribution of audiences to meaning-making in museums. The aim of her study is to identify different strategies to construct identities in relation to changing political and social contexts, shifts in the structure of the communities represented as well as trends in the heritage industry. Kathrin is Treasurer of the Museums and Galleries History Group.

Teaching

  • 18 March 2010, ‘Researching 70 years of Jewish exhibitions and museums in London – questions, motifs, results’, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, 18 March 2010 (extra-curricular lecture for BA and MA students)
  • 11 November 2009, ‘Perspectives’ Seminar, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester on the use of Bourdieu's concept of field for Museum Studies (extra-curricular lecture for MA students)
  • 2007-2008 Visiting Lecturer at Westminster University (Course on London in the 19th Century)
  • Summer 2008 Visiting Lecturer at the London Liberal Arts summer school (Course on Jack the Ripper's London)

Publications

  • '"Being Jewish is More than the Holocaust Experience": What People See at the Jewish Museum Berlin', Social History in Museums, Volume 29 (2004).

Seminar papers

  • ‘Investigating the pre- and early history of London's Jewish museums in the light of Bourdieu’s concept of field (1887-1930s)’, Heritage Study Group Seminar, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 11 March 2010
  • 'From Ost und West to East and West End: London's role in the discourse on Jewish art at the beginning of the 20th century', Metropolitan History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, 19 November 2008
  • 'The "craze for Anglo-Jewish history" in the late 19th c: negotiating Jewish identity through artefacts and history writing', Postgraduate Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 18 October 2007.

Conference papers

  • 'Filling the void between museum displays and cultural identities: My London - a project to empower museum visitors', Materiality-Intangibility Conference, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, 14-15 December 2009 (joint paper with Mary Lester, Joanna Marchant and Elena Miles)
  • 'The legacy of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition and the Jewish museums of London', 15th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2-6 August 2009
  • 'Local, national and transnational identities in exhibitions of Jewish art and history in London at the turn of the 20th century', 'Metropolitan History: Past, Present Future' Conference, Goodenough College, London, 30-31 October 2008
  • 'The negotiation of art as Jewish: museum narratives and identity discourse in London exhibitions (1887-1906-1927)', 'Art, Religion, Identity' symposium, University of Glasgow, 23-24 September 2008
  • 'Cultivating Jewish Britons in the Edwardian period: Jewish youth work between the call to empire and the home cinema', conference 'Cultivating Britons: Culture and Identity in Britain, 1901 to 1936, Oxford Brookes University, 19 September 2008
  • 'From West to East (London) and back: the negotiation of Jewish identity through the display of art at the turn of the 20th century', 'Whatever happened to British Jewish Studies?' Conference, University of Southampton, 15-16 July 2008
  • 'The Dilemma of Minority Museums between Group Identity and Public Recognition: A Comparison of Jewish Displays in the Diaspora', Public History Conference, University of Liverpool, 10-12 April 2008.
  • 'Negotiating Minority Identities through the Public Display of Material Culture', European Social Science History Conference', Lisbon, 26 February to 1 March 2008.
  • 'Making Sense of Material Culture: Meaning Making and Identities at the Jewish Museum, Berlin' held at the Annual Conference of the Social History Society, University of Reading, 31 March to 2 April 2006.

Awards

  • AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award, 2006-2009
  • Newcastle International Taught Postgraduate Studentship, 2003-2004