German based Cohort
Noah Anderson works as a cultural manager, (program-)curator and creative conceptualist on topics such as anti-Black racism, decolonization, queer futures, and creative event formats in the cultural sector and creative industries. He studied in London, Cologne, and Istanbul (BA & MA). Among several scholarships, he received the annual scholarship for graduates from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to complete his master’s degree in „Arts and Cultural Management“ at King’s College London and Goldsmiths, University of London. Currently, he is on a 6-month professional networking trip to Canada where he builds contacts and ideally sustainable connections with different individuals and organizations in diverse disciplines and fields of activities such as with museums, cultural workers, artists, scholars and NGOs. Recently, he became part of the participatory art project “Monumental Shadows”, which deals with colonial monuments in public space across Europe. He has worked for institutions such as Each One Teach One (EOTO) – one of the largest empowerment platforms by and for Black people in Europe – in projects such as „Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City“ and the international literature and culture festival „Afrolution“. Furthermore, he has worked at the Federal Government’s Center of Excellence for the Cultural and Creative Industries, the Cologne Opera, the West German Broadcasting Cologne (WDR), and the Goethe-Institut.
Dalia Grinfeld dedicated her young career to fighting against antisemitism and hate on a German and European scale as a political Jewish activist. Through advocacy, education, public speaking, and writing, she is a resolute and effective leader in the fight against rising antisemitism and hate. She brings this energy to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) since 2019, currently as the Associate Director of European Affairs. Based in Berlin, she develops and manages ADL’s programs in Europe and supports Jewish communities in their advocacy fighting antisemitism. Within her numerous volunteer leadership commitments, she served two years as the first elected President of the Jewish Student Union Germany (JSUD) of which she is a founding member and is on the board of the LGBTIQ*-Jewish NGO Keshet (Rainbow) Germany, of which she is a founding member as well. In addition, she is a permanent member of the advising expert circle on antisemitism of the Berlin government.
Hannimari Jokinen was born in Helsinki, Finland, and lives in Hamburg. She is a visual artist, curator, author, lecturer, and activist and works in film, photography, spatial installations, performance, community art, participatory and interventionist artwork in public space, and with colonial monuments. She is currently co-curating the exhibitions SPEAKING BACK- Decolonizing Nordic Narratives at Kunsthaus Hamburg and Das Land spricht and Sami Horizonte at MARKK Museum Hamburg. She also leads guided city tours in Hamburg and works with universities on postcolonial issues. For 20 years, she has been a member of the working group HAMBURG POSTKOLONIAL and from 2019-2022 was a member of the Advisory Council for Decolonizing Hamburg at the Ministry of Culture and Media in Hamburg. She has recently been nominated on shortlists for prizes including the Georg Koppmann Prize for the photographic work concept Hamburg Neu Lesen– Koloniale Zeichen im globalisierten Stadtraum; for the book prize by the City and University Archives for co-editing STAND AND FALL– Das Wissmann-Denkmal zwischen kolonialer Weihestätte und postkolonialer Dekonstruktion; by the City of Hamburg for a commemoration monument at the former Gestapo torture center at Stadthaus Hamburg; as well as for a counter monument at the Bismarck monument in Hamburg.
David Ludwig is an art historian and curator. Currently he is completing a scientific traineeship at Kunsthaus Dahlem in Berlin, where he works in the areas of exhibition and outreach. His work focuses on art under National Socialism, European post-war history, and cultures of remembrance and reappraisal. He is currently working on the conception of educational materials and outreach programs for young people and children. Previously, he worked in different contexts in the conception and implementation of workshops and tours such as for documenta 13, Berlinische Galerie and Jugend im Museum. He studied art history, cultural studies, and art and image history in Leipzig and Berlin. His scientific focus is specifically the fields of history of science and epistemology.
Justice Mvemba is the founder of deSta- Dekoloniale Stadtführung in Berlin. deSta offers decolonial walking tours of the African Quarter and Humboldt- Forum on a weekly basis. Her goal is to create the foundations for sustainable and equal opportunities and socio-economic justice through educational work in the areas of colonialism and racism.
Nnenna Onuoha is a Ghanaian-Nigerian researcher, filmmaker, and artist based in Berlin. Her research explores monumental silences surrounding the histories and afterlives of colonialism across West Africa, Europe, and the United States. At its core, her work asks: How do we remember, which pasts do we choose to perform, and why? Centering Afrodiasporic voices, her practice revolves around processes of collective re-membering: putting the past together limb by limb. A second strand of her work focuses on archiving Black experience in the present to understand how, amidst all of this, we practice care and repair for each other. Nnenna’s work has shown at alpha nova & galerie futura, the Brücke-museum, the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the Galerie im Körnerpark, and the Museum of Modern Art Shanghai. She is currently a doctoral researcher in Media Anthropology at Harvard University, and Global History at the University of Potsdam. She is also a 2023-4 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellow and a 2023 Flaherty Film Seminar Fellow.
Heiner Schulze is a social scientist living in Berlin. Heiner is an alumni of Humboldt University in Berlin and had additional study and research stays in Paris, New York City, and Kristiansand (Norway). After having worked at the Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences as well as teaching at Humboldt University in Berlin, Heiner is currently working as a researcher and project manager at the Gender and Technology Centre of the Berlin University of Applied Sciences and Technology. Heiner’s work centres on social structures and inequality, processes of diversification in institutions, as well as questions of memorialisation, in particular in relation to East Germany, queer histories, and HIV/AIDS. Since 2016 Heiner has been serving as member of the board of directors of the Schwules Museum in Berlin, the largest institution worldwide for documenting and exhibiting queer history, culture and everyday life. In this capacity, Heiner’s focus at the museum has been supporting the archive and library as well as the museum’s extensive event program, seeing the museum as important social space that is brought to life through events and workshops. Heiner has furthermore been project manager and curator for several exhibitions, the most recent one being „arcHIV. A Search for Traces“ which explored the diversity of the museum’s HIV/AIDS collections, looking for „traces of groups, topics and narratives and experiences of HIV and AIDS that have received little or less attention in the practices of collecting and exhibiting.
Lydia Stötzer studied history, political science, and communication science at Freie Universität Berlin, as a guest student at Technische Universität Berlin, and at the University of Potsdam. Her focus of work and areas of interest are the history of medicine and science, especially the role of medicine in National Socialism, the history of National Socialism in its transnational entanglements, the history of anti-Semitism, and the history of Spain. She has worked for various research projects, including on the history of medicine in the GDR (on GDR drug studies commissioned by Western pharmaceutical industry, and on the establishment of genetic counselling in the GDR) as well as on political imprisonment in the GDR and Colonia Dignidad in Chile. Since 2014, she has been active in historical-political educational work at memorial sites and museums such as the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum, the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the Forum Willy Brandt Berlin. Currently she works as a research associate in the memorial project “GeDenkOrt.Charité – Wissenschaft in Verantwortung” at Charité Berlin. Until now, the project has focused on the history of the Charité and the Berlin medical faculty in National Socialism as well as on the reflection upon the inherent dangers of modern medicine. In the future, the project team plans to expand the content focus and to include the history of the hospital in the GDR and in the colonial period.
U.S. based cohort
Robin Cammarota is the Program Director and Digital Strategist for the American Council on Germany (ACG). She manages the ACG’s Fellowships, Leadership Missions, and Study Tours. She serves as the lead organizer for all programs related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility for the Council, including the Working Group on DEIA in German-American Relations and Study Tour on Social Cohesion. She is the key point person for conferences in the United States and abroad. In addition, she maintains the ACG’s digital presence, including the Council’s website and social media. She joined the staff of the American Council on Germany in June 2009 as Fellowship Coordinator, later becoming the Fellowship Manager in 2013. She was previously the Associate Director of Recruitment at Mercy College, where she worked as the New York City recruiter for the undergraduate and graduate admission department. She holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Mercy College and a bachelor’s degree in German language and literature with a focus on women’s studies from CUNY Hunter College. During the pandemic, she completed an advanced certificate in Social Impact Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania, among other certificate programs. She has also studied the German language at Europa-Kolleg in Kassel, Germany, and Deutsches Haus at NYU.
Mariaelena (Maria) DiBenigno, Ph.D. is the Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at James Monroe’s Highland, a historic site located in Charlottesville, Virginia and a part of William & Mary (W&M), a university located in Williamsburg, Virginia. After several years as a public school teacher, she completed her MA in English at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Maria received her PhD from the American Studies Program at W&M, where her dissertation studied the relationship between popular culture, public history, and the power of place. Maria has worked with several history organizations in Virginia, including the Mariners’ Museum Library and Menokin Foundation. She has also instructed courses for W&M’s American Studies Program and National Institute of American History and Democracy. Before joining Highland’s staff, she was a staff member at W&M Libraries Special Collections Research Center where she designed exhibits and worked with new collections. Maria’s expertise is in historic house museums in Virginia and sharing polyvocal histories with academic and general audiences. Maria contributed to the recent and upcoming new exhibitions at Highland and teaches public humanities at W&M. Her work identifies the plural strands of history that shape our current understandings of the past and ourselves. Maria’s approach to interpretation can be seen as a dialogue between museum and visitor, both of whom are actors in the experience of history.
Sara Furr, Ph.D. is the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. In this position, Sara develops, directs, and evaluates the impact of the Field’s diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion strategies and practices. Sara is also the Founder and CEO of Mayari Coaching and Consulting, a full-service consulting and coaching company that embodies an identity conscious approach to our work and situates growth and development within the context of larger systems of privilege and oppression. Sara most recently served as the Dean of Students, Inclusion and Equity at The Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at The University of Chicago where she oversaw the outside of the classroom experience for graduate students studying social work including recruitment, admissions, and student affairs. Over the past 20 years as a professional in Student Affairs, Sara has been actively engaged in all aspects of college life and has specifically led and served in the functional areas of residential life and housing operations; multicultural affairs and intercultural development; and student conduct. Sara holds her PhD in Higher Education from Loyola University Chicago. She received her bachelor’s degree in public policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s in higher education and student affairs from the University of South Carolina.
Elisabet Garcia is a Research Analyst and Marketing Specialist with MC² Education with a background in writing, research, and marketing. She also has a career as a Global Education DEI Specialist working in international education. In all cases, she pursues her mission to better support historically underserved students access more equitable education and learning opportunities. Elisabet attained her B.A. in Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz and has conducted ethnographic work in the U.S., Mexico, and the Dominican Republic on the impacts of immigration and language across borders and generations. She has also studied topics of dictatorship, immigration, and human rights violations in Chile. In addition to this, she has worked on-site experiential education programs in each of these countries supporting students across a diverse range of racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Elisabet and her work have been featured by Go Overseas, Best Colleges, Terra Dotta, the U.S. Department of State ExchangeAlumni, the National Association of International Educators (NAFSA), Diversity Abroad, and so much more. She is also an official Youth Ambassador of Mexico City and the co-founder of the ExchangeAlumni Ambassador Program, a nationwide outreach program that promotes international exchange to historically underserved communities throughout the U.S.
Thomas Haakenson, Ph.D. currently serves as Treasurer, Chair of the Finance Committee, and Co-Chair of the Development Committee of the German Studies Association, the largest such international professional society dedicated to the study of the German language and culture. He is Associate Professor (tenured) in the graduate Critical and Visual Studies Program, as well as in the undergraduate Critical Studies Program and the History of Art and Visual Culture Program at the California College of the Arts. He holds a doctorate in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, as well as graduate-level minors in German and the History of Science and Technology (2006). After earning his doctoral degree, he completed a Certificate in Program Evaluation from the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (2014). His current book projects include the monograph Decolonizing the European Avant-Garde, as well as a collaborative project and series of publications with the title Dada Studies as Countercultural Practice with Brett M. Van Hoesen (University of Nevada Reno) and Kathryn Floyd (Auburn University).
Erika Hirugami, MA, MAAB is a first-generation transnational Japanese Mexican immigrant, formerly undocumented. She holds an MA in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, in conjunction with the Drucker School of Management and Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University. As well as an MA in Chicanx Studies from UCLA and BAs in the fields of Art History, Chicano Studies, and Mexican Studies. She is currently a teaching associate and doctoral candidate at UCLA, where she epistemologically braids the aesthetics of undocumentedness to challenge immigration policy and politics through contemporary art. Hirugami is the founder and CEO of CuratorLove, Co-founder of the UNDOC+Collective, the ED at AHSC, a Professor at CBMArts and SMC, Arts for LA Fellow, NALAC Fellow, and CCI Catalyst. As a Getty and Kress Foundation Fellow, she developed curatorial statements at museums across Mexico and the United States. After being a Public Art Curator for the Department of Cultural Affairs in the City of Los Angeles, Hirugami directed various commercial galleries. She has curated exhibitions across the globe, and her written work has been published internationally.
Lynn Mie Itagaki, Ph.D. is an award-winning educator and writer who researches and speaks about interracial relations. As an Associate Professor of English and Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of Missouri, she is a nationally recognized expert on interracial civility and conflict who has been interviewed by NPR, PBS, Time, and other local and national podcasts and radio shows. She regularly speaks about Asian American history, law, and politics to academic and popular audiences. Her research and teaching interests include interracial ethics and twentieth- and twenty-first-century U.S. literature by writers of color, and her 2016 book, Civil Racism: The 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion and the Crisis of Racial Burnout, examines the post–civil rights era in terms of the 1992 Los Angeles interracial conflict. Professor Itagaki’s next book projects examine the aesthetics and politics of the media bystander in the post-9/11 era and race and economics in literature after the Great Recession. Recently, she has published essays in law reviews such as “The Long Con of Civility” and on compromise and trust, and discussed the challenges to the Voting Rights Act through multiculturalism and “racial laundering” in the 2013 Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder. Her forthcoming analysis of intersectionality’s impact on Asian American experiences appears in Jennifer Nash and Samantha Pinto’s Routledge Companion to Intersectionalities. Professor Itagaki was a 2018-2021 Visiting Fellow at Northumbria University, England, and a 2019 Visiting Professor at Saarland University, Germany. She serves as the co-editor for the book series Since 1970: Studies in Contemporary America at the University of Georgia Press.
Elizabeth Harrington Lambert, Ph.D. leads the Fellowships Team at Vanderbilt University. A third culture kid, she wrote her dissertation, “Between Bauhaus and Buchenwald: Landscape and Memory in Postwar Weimar” while serving as a Fulbright Scholar to Bauhaus-Universität-Weimar, a DAAD Scholar to the Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig and as an Erasmus Fellow to the Technische Universität Dresden. Dr. Lambert holds an MA and PhD in Modern European History from Indiana University and a BA from Agnes Scott College. Her research explores intersections of public history, architectural and urban studies and war and society in the transatlantic sphere. She actively contributes to historic preservation efforts of the Prater’s Mill Foundation, Vann House, Historic Charleston Foundation and SC Hunley Project. She has studied, taught, and conducted research in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK.