Susanne Hagemann
Susanne Hagemann studied German philology / modern German literature, sociology, and media and communication studies in Göttingen and Berlin. From 2002 to 2015 she worked as a freelance scholar, advisor, and project coordinator for various museums and exhibitions, associations and foundations. In 2005 she was a lecturer at the University of Constance and taught on “the museum as a place of memory culture.” From 2015 to 2016 she has been a research assistant and doctoral candidate at the Europäisches Kolleg Jena.
Research project
Memory Gaps: The Current Portrayal of the 1930s and 1940s in German Local History Museums (working title)
The project attempts to outline the varied forms of expression and narrative used by present-day local-history museums to present the historical period of National Socialism and the Second World War to the general public. Using the tools of literary studies, the effectiveness of museum narratives will be examined while asking to what extent museum exhibits contribute to the development of historical consciousness.
Research interests
Exhibition theory and practice
Memory research
Apocalypticism in film, literature, and historical narratives
Violence and peace as “anthropological constants”
Select publications
Essays
„Leere Gesten“? Darstellungsmuster in Ausstellungen zur NS-Zeit, in: Museumsverband des Landes Brandenburg (ed.): Entnazifizierte Zone? Zum Umgang mit der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus in ostdeutschen Stadt- und Regionalmuseen, Bielefeld 2015, pp. 77-92.
The Bomb and the City: Presentations of War in German City Museums, in: Muchitsch, Wolfgang (ed.): Does War belong in Museums? The Representation of Violence in Exhibitions, Bielefeld 2013, pp. 131-141.
Museale Narrationen lokaler NS-Geschichte – „Auch in Paderborn kam es zu antisemitischen Ausschreitungen“ und „Männer starben als Soldaten bei der Wehrmacht“, in: schnittpunkt, Charlotte Martinz-Turek / Monika Sommer-Sieghart (eds.): Storyline. Narrationen im Museum, Vienna 2009, pp. 93-110.
Volksempfänger, Bombe, Salatsieb – Geschichtsnarrative in deutschen Museen, in: Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie 12 (2004), vol. 3/4, pp. 391-411.