Nicola Groß

Shortbio

Since 12/2023 Registration for the Doctoral Program at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Professorship in Cultural History
Since 2022 Fellow at DFG Research Training Group 2227 “Identity and Heritage”, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
2020 Study abroad at Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
2018–2022, master’s degree in art history at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. Thesis topic: “Utimut. The Danish National Museum’s handling of colonial collection items using the example of the Greenland Repatriation Project (1982–2001) and in the context of current decolonisation debates in museology” supervised by Prof. Dr. Christoph Zuschlag and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Ulrike Saß at the chair “Provenance Research and History of Collecting”
2012–2017 bachelor’s degree in art history and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Contact

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism
DFG Research Group 2227 “Identity and Heritage”
D-99421 Weimar

Seat: Neufert Haus, Rudolstädterstraße 7 | 99428 Weimar-Gelmeroda
nicola.gross@uni-weimar.de

Sápmi in the Depot: Colonial Epistemology of Sámi Cultural Heritage in the Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg
A cultural-historical investigation of the history and policy of intra-European collections in the Europe Department (AT)

In the course of the systematic oppression and forced assimilation of their culture and exploitation of their homeland by the Nordic nation states (Nordic colonialism), which continues to this day, many Sámi cultural assets and human remains from Sámi communities found their way into European museums. Although Germany did not have a territorial colonial empire in Sápmi, German ethnological museums house numerous Sámi objects that were acquired mainly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through “Lapland expeditions” and commissioned collectors. While the discourse on Nordic colonialism in Northern Europe has increasingly found its way into academic debate, albeit not without controversy, and has led to restitutions to Sámi museums, the colonial ties between Germany and Sápmi have so far been largely ignored in research on intra-European knowledge systems and collection policies. The current restitution debates in the context of museum decolonization processes have so far been largely determined by a focus on the Global South. In particular, the European collections of German ethnological museums, into which Sámi cultural heritage was frequently incorporated, have not yet been examined in this context. This dissertation project addresses this research gap and understands the resulting void not only as an analytical starting point, but also as a productive space for expanding and differentiating postcolonial research: As a case study of intra-European colonial history, the thesis examines how German colonial thinking and epistemological orders shaped the collection and presentation of Sámi cultural heritage at the Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg (now MARKK), particularly under the direction of Georg Thilenius (1904–1935), during which the European collection was systematically expanded. Methodologically, the study combines cultural-historical source analysis with ethnological field research and a focus on Sámi perspectives based on museum narratives from central Sámi museums, visual arts, film, activism, and interviews with Sámi actors. The aim is to critically examine dominant colonial narratives using the example of Sámi collections in European discourse, thereby broadening our understanding of cultural extractivism and colonial continuities in the European context by supplementing perspectives from (inner) European cultural history and anthropology with a context of colonial appropriation without German colonial possessions.

Lectures and moderations

Lecture Body-Violence-Instrumentalization of the Sámi: A Scene of Colonial Practices of ‘Othering’, on the occasion of the 8th Annual Conference Bodies in, as, of, with, and ‘Identity and Heritage’ of the DFG Research Training Group “Identity and Heritage”, Berlin 07.11.2024.

Conception and moderation of the 7th annual conference WITH/OUT IDENTITY. On the question of identity constructions in space, heritage and communities of the DFG Research Training Group “Identity and Heritage”, Weimar 23-24.11.2023.

Current Publications

Groß, Nicola: Sámi and the human gaze. A differentiated examination from the perspective of Sámi artists, in: Arnisa Halili, Olga Juutistenaho, Beate Piela, Martín Cornejo Presbítero, Annika Sellmann, Martha Ingund Wegewitz (eds.): Bodies in, as, of, with, and ‘Identity and Heritage’, publication series of the DFG Research Training Group “Identity and Heritage”, Volume VII, [planned publication 2025].

Juan Carlos Barrientos García, Nadja Bournonville, Fridtjof Florian Dossin, Nicola Groß, Wolfram Höhne, Niloufar Tajeri, Olga Zenker (eds.): WITH/OUT IDENTITY. On the Question of Identity Constructions in Space, Heritage and Communities, Series of the DFG Research Training Group “Identity and Heritage”, Volume VI, [planned publication 2025].

Groß, Nicola: Building bridges. The Danish-Greenlandic Utimut Process (1982-2001) as an example of successful bilateral restitution efforts, in: transfer – Zeitschrift für Provenienzforschung und Sammlungsgeschichte, 1/2022, pp. 203-208, https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/transfer/article/view/91528