Anne Ring Petersen

Anne Ring Petersen

Professor

Primary fields of research

The visual arts from 1850 until today, particularly contemporary art; the interrelations between globalisation, migration and culture, and their transformative impact on the arts.

Fields of interest

  • Contemporary art, particularly installation art and ‘global art’
  • The interrelations between globalisation, migration and culture
  • Cross-cultural perspectives on art and culture
  • Urban studies, in particular the relationship between art and the city
  • Art in public spaces
  • Cultural Theory

Teaching

Main areas: cultural theory, cultural and visual studies, visual arts and theories of art, performance theatre, globalisation and migration as formative contexts of contemporary art and culture, cross-cultural issues

Special interest in the visual arts from 1850 until today, particularly art after 1960: installation art and its connections to performance theatre and digital media; connections between art and urban culture; art in public spaces; painting in the expanded field; the interrelations between globalisation, migration and art; as well as theoretical and political issues relating to these topics.

Current research

My primary field of research is the visual arts after 1960 explored in relation to their cultural and historical contexts and in a transnational perspective. This field includes the connections between the visual arts and other artistic disciplines and cultural forms. I have focused particularly on installation art and on the connections between installation and theatre, and between installation art and digital media (the subject of my book and post-doctoral dissertation (dr.phil.) Installationskunsten mellem billede og scene (2009)/ Installation Art between Image and Stage, revised edition in English, 2015). I have also written extensively about contemporary artists from Denmark as well as painting in an expanded, intermedial field (the subject of the anthology Contemporary Painting in Context, 2010). Since 2010, I have engaged with studies in migration and culture. I explore the connections between society, migration and the arts - in particular, how migration has transformed the conditions and roles in society, as well as how migration surfaces as a politicised subject in art. My studies in migration and culture also has a focus on transnational and transcultural relations, and on issues of globalisation, postcoloniality, structural discrimination, cultural translation and diversity as well as the renegotiation of identity, history and memory under the transformative impact of migration. Last, but not least, my research explores the relationship between 'migration' and 'aesthetics'.

Since the fall of 2019, I have worked on the research project “Togetherness in Difference: Reimagining Identities, Communities and Histories Through Art” (Investigator Grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation's Committee for Research in Art and Art History, Grant NNF19OC0053992). In times of fierce struggles over immigration and integration in Europe, when profound geopolitical shifts are restructuring the international power balances and transcultural relations of the world, this project explores how contemporary art can renegotiate identities and histories, and create new narratives of what national self-understanding, collective memory and social communities can be and embrace. The project is based on the idea of postmigration. In recent years, this concept has paved the way for a new understanding of migration and diversity as integrated aspects of any society. Specifically, the project examines how artistic and curatorial practices negotiate the societal conflicts created by the need to learn how to live together in conditions of socio-cultural diversity and difference, and how they contribute to greater inclusion and recognition of immigrants and their descendants as equal participants in democratic societies. The project explores - through art - how these processes unfold in 'post-migrant' public spaces, and it focuses primarily on Denmark, Germany and the UK.

From 2016 through 2018, I have participated in the collaborative research project "Art, Culture and Politics in the 'Postmigrant Condition',” funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research (Forskningsrådet for Kultur og Kommunikation). Based on the German concept of postmigration, the project developed a new understanding of and approach to some of the cultural changes that post-World War II population movements have brought about in European societies.For the project’s homepage, see: https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/ikv/forskning/forskningsprojekter/postmigration

From 2010 through 2014, I was the coordinator of the interdisciplinary research network Network for Migration and Culture (formerly, Netværk for kulturvidenskabelige migrationsstudier). It was funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research (Forskningsrådet for Kultur og Kommunikation) from 2011 to 2014.

These projects and collaborations, along with participation in international research applications, have provided me with substantial experience in collaborative research projects and network management as well as in securing external funding and cooperation on research applications on both a national and an international level.

Selected publications

  1. Published

    The Culture of Migration: Politics, Aesthetics and Histories

    Moslund, S. P. (ed.), Petersen, Anne Ring (ed.) & Schramm, M. (ed.), 2015, London og New York: I.B. Tauris. 346 p.

    Research output: Book/ReportAnthologypeer-review

  2. Published

    Mining the Museum in an Age of Migration

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2014, The Postcolonial Museum: The Arts of Memory and the Pressures of History. Chambers, I., De Angelis, A., Ianniciello, C., Orabona, M. & Quadraro, M. (eds.). 1 ed. Farnham: Ashgate, p. 125-136 12 p. 9

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

  3. Published

    The locations of memory: Migration and transnational cultural memory as challenges for art history

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2013, In: Crossings. 4, 2, p. 121-137 17 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  4. Published

    Identity Politics, Institutional Multiculturalism, and the Global Artworld

    Petersen, Anne Ring, Mar 2012, In: Third Text. 26, 2, p. 195-204 10 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  5. Published

    Installation Art: Between Image and Stage

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2015, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum. 507 p.

    Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

  6. Published

    Installationskunsten mellem billede og scene

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2009, København: Museum Tusculanum. 518 p.

    Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

  7. Published

    Contemporary Painting in Context

    Petersen, Anne Ring (ed.), Bogh, M. (ed.), Christensen, Hans Dam (ed.) & Larsen, P. N. (ed.), 2010, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum. 220 p. (The Novo Nordisk Art History Project).

    Research output: Book/ReportAnthology

  8. Published

    Navigation, immersion og interaktion i videoinstallationen

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2008, Kroppen: hinsides posthumaniteten. Ekman, U. & Fetveil, A. (eds.). 1 ed. http://www.turbulens.net: Turbulens.net, p. elektronisk publikation (anslået 43-61) 19 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearch

  9. Published

    Realism, theatricality, ritual: Aspects of the aesthetics of the installation

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2008, Reality Check. Bjerkof, S. (ed.). København: Statens Museum for Kunst, p. 44-61 17 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearch

  10. Published

    Between image and stage: The theatricality and performativity of installation art

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2005, Performative Realism: Interdisciplinary Studies in Art and Media. Gade, R. & Jerslev, A. (eds.). København: Museum Tusculanum, p. 209-34

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearch

  11. Published

    The Artist as Migrant Worker? Framing Art in an Age of Intensified Globalisation and Migration

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2013, In: ARKEN Bulletin. 6, p. 42-49 8 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  12. Published

    Film som kunst: Yinka Shonibare and Black British film

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2013, In: Passepartout. 18, 34, p. 66-86 21 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  13. Published

    Kulturel erindring i migrationens splintrede spejl

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2012, In: Passepartout. Skrifter for kunsthistorie. 18. årgang, 33, p. 16-30 15 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  14. Published

    Storbyens billeder: fra industrialisme til informationsalder

    Petersen, Anne Ring, 2002, København: Museum Tusculanum. 363 p.

    Research output: Book/ReportPh.D. thesis

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