Ethnographic objects from colonial-era contexts are being researched in eight subprojects at the Braunschweig, Göttingen, Hanover, Hildesheim, and Oldenburg sites part of the Lower Saxony Provenance Research Collaborative Project PAESE. The project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (2018-2022). You can reach the PAESE homepage here.

Within the framework of PAESE, two doctoral projects (working titles) deal with holdings from the Ethnographic Collection of the University of Göttingen:

Many Roads Lead to Göttingen. The Ethnographic Collection of the Georg-August-University of Göttingen and International Trade Routes and Networks in the 19th and 20th Century (Sara Müller, MA)

Colonialism as It was Taught – the Teachings of Colonialism. Colonial Holdings of the Ethnographic Collection Göttingen and their Academic Utilisations (Hannah Stieglitz, MA)

The Ethnographic Collection is participating in the Research Training Group "Exhibiting Knowledge| Knowledge in Exhibitions. A Knowledge History of Exhibitions in the Second Half of the 20th Century". The research training group is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Lisa Ludwig, MA, is doing her doctorate on the topic of "Research and Exhibiting in Anthropology" (working title) at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

One focus of the project is the investigation of objects from colonial contexts from western Africa. In addition, further research on the existing object holdings of the Ethnological Collection in preparation for the new permanent exhibition are among the project goals. The project was approved within the framework of the Pro*Niedersachsen funding line (1.4.2021-31.3.2023). The research assistant is Ndzodo Awono, M.A., DEA.

is a project financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Culture of the state of Lower Saxony that aims at designing digital interactive teaching units with specific reference to the Ethnographic Collection in Göttingen. In the units, students will learn about central methods and issues of museum anthropology in the 21st century via objects held in Göttingen. The project aims to include students in the ongoing research on the Ethnographic Collection by enabling them to undertake their own object centred research and make a significant contribution to the further development and indexing of the collections (project team: Dr. Christiane Falck, Dr. Michael Kraus (principal investigators), Katharina Farys (research assistant)).

The project researches the provenance of Australian Tjurungas in the Ethnographic Collection of the Georg-August-University Göttingen. It is funded by the German Lost Art Foundation (12.2020 - 02.2021). Project collaborator is Josefine Wartenberg, MA.

www.proveana.de

The project explores objects from Australia that may be considered sacred in their cultures of origin and questions traditional European attributions. It is funded by the German Lost Art Foundation (01.08.21 - 31.01.22). The project collaborator is Josefine Neef, M.A

www.proveana.de