My name is Susanne Boersma and my academic and professional career took shape across various countries until I settled in Berlin, Germany. I have been involved in various curatorial, editorial and educational projects after which I found a PhD position at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen that combined my interests. As a PhD Fellow as part of the EU H2020 project POEM on Participatory Memory Practices, I conducted research on the aftermaths of participatory projects with forced migrants in museums. My thesis on this topic was submitted to the University of Hamburg in July 2022, and successfully defended on 28 October 2022. The book compiled from this thesis was published with Transcript Verlag and is Open Access available.
Next to my thesis, I worked on curatorial projects, organised a conference and edited two publications. My curatorial work at the museum continues in my new role as the coordinator of the new semi-permanent exhibition at the MEK.
Please find a short overview of my professional history below or download my full academic CV here.
Photo – Susanne Boersma © Juliane Eirich 2020
Current
Coordinator and curator of the new semi-permanent exhibition at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen (Berlin, DE).
Previous
Curator of exhibitions and events for the European Cultural Days at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen (Berlin, DE); PhD Fellow at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen and the Universität Hamburg (DE) as part of the EU H2020 POEM Project; Exhibitions Manager at Atelier Van Lieshout (Rotterdam, NL); Programme Assistant at S1 Artspace (Sheffield, UK); Curator at the School of Life Sciences – Dundee University (Dundee, UK); Dutch Teaching Assistant at the University of Sheffield (Sheffield, UK); Curatorial Assistant at LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery (Dundee, UK); Workshop Facilitator at Attenborough Arts Centre (Leicester, UK); Office Assistant at Het Balletorkest (Amsterdam, NL); Marketing & Communications Assistant at ICKamsterdam (Amsterdam, NL).
Education
PhD Anthropological Studies in Culture and History at the Universität Hamburg; MA Art Museum and Gallery Studies at the University of Leicester; BA Theatre Studies at the University of Amsterdam; BA Cultural Studies at the University of Amsterdam, with a minor in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Bologna.
Skills
Languages Dutch (native), English (native), German (fluent), Italian (intermediate), Swedish (basic) and Norwegian (basic); Design Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator; Databases Filemaker Pro, MuseumPlus, MuseumPlus RIA, Adlib and EMu Collection Management System; Online WordPress, Squarespace, Google Analytics, Mailchimp and social media.
Contact
Currently based at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Im Winkel 8, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
Susanne Boersma | Curator and researcher 