Research

Exploring how museums transmit cultural identity: Dr Sabine Wieber

Issued: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 10:50:00 BST

Sabine Wieber History of Art Lecturer Dr Sabine Wieber is used to being called a nomad. Born and raised in Germany, she studied as an undergraduate in Canada and the US, completed her PhD in Chicago, took up a postdoctoral post at Birbeck and was a lecturer at Roehampton before arriving in Glasgow in 2010. Few places had a bigger draw for Dr Wieber, and at last she has found herself putting down roots in Scotland.

‘The University of Glasgow is one of the few places where I can practice as a design historian within the parameters of a History of Art department,’ says Dr Wieber. ‘That Glasgow was the most highly rated History of Art department in the country in the last Research Assessment Exercise was another wonderful enticement.

‘I was also very attracted to the cultural geography of the city. Although my focus is Central Europe from 1890 to 1918, Glasgow was also very progressive at that time, and it’s the only Art Nouveau city in the UK to have so many buildings from that era still standing.’

Dr Wieber has published on notions of national identity in Germany and the Habsburg Empire, and on gender identity and the history of science. She welcomes the shift from studies of medical history to ‘medical humanity’: an area to which she contributes via her research into female body ideals. International networks and migration comprise another area of interest – one that’s led to Dr Wieber’s involvement in the European Museums and Libraries in the Age of Migration (MeLa) Project.

With funding of EUR 2.5 million from the European Commission, the MeLa Project brings together nine European partners to investigate and compare the role of major public museums and libraries in addressing contemporary challenges such as globalization, European integration and new media.

The University became involved when Dr Wieber’s colleague, Ms Perla Innocenti, was invited to be the project’s Principal Investigator. Dr Wieber’s own contribution is to consider the physical and ideological structure of museums in accommodating and also representing the changing make-up of society.

For Dr Wieber, one of Glasgow’s greatest strengths is its museums – in part because of the work placements they can potentially offer students. ‘Postgraduate study is both about the intellectual journey that you’ll be undertaking and the kind of pastoral environment you’ll immerse yourself in. As a student you should think very carefully not only about working with a particular person in the department but also about the kind of resources available to you,’ she advises.

‘The library, archives and special collections here are incredible. We are forever competing with London, but as a much smaller city, Glasgow has more tightly knit cultural communities. Opportunities to build relationships in the art world are much more readily available to our students.’

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