Melanie Sindelar is an art anthropologist, translator, and editor, as well as an academic career coach and university teacher. At Charles University, she is conducting a research project titled “Decolonizing the Ethnographic Museum in Central Europe”, a comparative study of three ethnographic museums in Vienna, Prague, and Budapest. The project is supported by the Fond Junior Postdoctoral Program. She is also teaching courses in art anthropology and decolonizing museums; her teaching approach is interdisciplinary, encompassing history, anthropology, philosophy, art, and the social sciences. Her previous research has focused on contemporary art production in the United Arab Emirates, Germany, and Austria.
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PhD |
University of Vienna: Social & Cultural Anthropology (with distinction), 2019 |
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MSc |
University of Oxford: Social Anthropology, 2013 |
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BA |
University of Vienna: Prehistoric & Medieval Archaeology, 2011 |
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2022 |
Visiting Professor in Visual Theory and Practice, Central European University, Vienna, AT (Apr-Jun 22) |
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2021 |
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Ruhr University Bochum, GER (Aug 21-Jan 22) |
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2019 |
When Workers Toil Unseen, Artists Intervene: On the In/visibility of Labor in the Arabian Gulf States. Visual Anthropology 32 (3-4): 265–86. DOI: 10.1080/08949468.2019.1637672.4. |
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2017 |
Land Art as a Means to Negotiate Natural and Cultural Heritage in the United Arab Emirates Český lid 104 (2): 213–30. DOI: 10.21104/CL.2017.2.03. |
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2016 |
Local, Regional, Global: An Investigation of Art Dubai’s Transnational Strategies. Arabian Humanities (7). DOI: 10.4000/cy.3250. |
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2022 |
Dissertation award for outstanding dissertations, Dr. Maria Schaumayer Foundation for Austrian female scholars |
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2021 |
Visiting Post-Doc Grant, DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) |
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2020 |
Translation grant for B. Noys, Accelerationism and Capitalism, into German; Literar Mechana, Austrian Copyright Collecting Society |
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2023 |
FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Department of Political Science, Contemporary Art and Politics in the United Arab Emirates, July 11th |
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2019 |
Österreichische Orient-Gesellschaft Hammer-Purgstall, Die Vergangenheit in einem Gemälde: zeitgenössische Kunst und die Vorstellungswelten lokalen Kulturerbes in den VAE, May 28th |
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2018 |
London School of Economics, Middle East Centre, Artistic responses to local heritage in the United Arab Emirates, Workshop National Identity and the Emirati State, October 5th |
Panels Organized & Chaired
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2022 |
Hopeful Chronopolitics: Contemporary Art and Ethnography, with Jennifer Clarke, Maxime LeCalve, European Association for Social Anthropology, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 26th-29th July. |
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2020 |
Provoking Visuals: Creative Engagements with Borders, Wars, and Conflicts, with Katja Seidel, Patrick Naef, European Association for Social Anthropology, Peace and Conflict Studies in Anthropology Network, 20th-24th July. |
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2018 |
Beyond Resistance and Complicity: New Approaches to Middle Eastern Art Production and Circulation, with Kyle Craig, American Anthropological Association, San Jose, CA, 14th-18th November. |
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2015 |
Projects & Artists-in-Residence exhibition team, Art Dubai, UAE (Jan-Apr 15) Curatorial assistance and exhibition organisation |
Charles University
Faculty of Humanities
Pátkova 2137/5
182 00 Praha 8 - Libeň
Czech Republic
