Anne Hemkendreis

About me

Dr. Anne Hemkendreis is an art historian whose work bridges visual culture, environmental humanities, and science communication. She is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellow at the Greenhouse Centre for Environmental Humanities at the University of Stavanger, Norway, where she investigates Sámi cosmologies and sustainability conflicts in the Arctic through interdisciplinary research. 

Her second book, forthcoming with Transcript in 2027, examines the revival of Romantic aesthetics in contemporary ecological art, with a particular focus on Arctic landscapes. She is also the editor of Communicating Ice in Popular Art and Aesthetics (together with Anna-Sophie Jürgens, 2024) and a range of other publications exploring the intersections of art, environment, and climate. 

A member of both the German Young Academy and the Young Academy for Sustainability Research, Anne actively co-curates exhibition projects, including Infinity, Emptiness, Liveliness at the Planetarium in Hamburg (2025) and Tracing Human Relations at the Medical Historical Museum in Berlin (2026/27). 

When not at her desk she enjoys to perform aerial arts in the demanding environments of the Circumpolar North, exposing herself to the distinctive landscapes she studies.

My research

Sámicosmologies: Exploring Indigenous Knowledge Cultures and Practices of Star-Gazing 

The project "Sámicosmologies: Exploring Indigenous Knowledge Cultures and Practices of Star-Gazing" offers increased understanding of Arctic Indigenous cosmologies as a form of environmental knowledge and traces their significance for communities in times of environmental crisis. With a special focus on traditional Sámi cosmologies and Sámi contemporary art, the goal is to explore and trace the appearance of human and non-human protagonists within Indigenous stories and their resonance in present-day artistic practices. While star-related narratives of the polar night provide an important entry point into these cosmologies, the project is not limited to them; rather, it seeks to examine how such stories and motifs travel, transform, and gain meaning across cultural and geographic contexts. Special attention is given to the transnational and transcultural relations between Scandinavia and Germany, where the reception of Sámi art and cosmologies opens up spaces for dialogue on environmental knowledge, decolonial critique, and cultural memory. 

Publications (selected)

ORCID: 0000-0002-2638-7704

Monographs and Edited Volumes

• Romanticism in Contemporary Art: Rückenfiguren before Arctic Landscapes (habilitation thesis, submitted to Ruhr University Bochum, October 2024)
• Aesthetics of the Heroic: Representation, Affect, Society (with Achim Aurnhammer et al., synthesis monograph of SFB 948), Wallstein: 2024
• Infinity, Emptiness, Liveliness (exhibition booklet), Planetarium Hamburg: 2024
• Communicating Ice in Popular Art and Aesthetics (with Anna-Sophie Jürgens), Palgrave: 2024
• Queering Arctic History: Questioning the Heroic in Circumpolar Art, Heroische Gesten. E-Journal – helden. heroes. héros, special issue edited by Ulrich Bröckling and Barbara Korte, 2024, pp. 31–42, peer-reviewed
• The Monochrome Interior Paintings of Vilhelm Hammershøi: Refused Insights – Exhibited Interiors, Fink: 2015 (dissertation)

Publications in Preparation

• 404 not found: Documentary Ends (with Lena Demary, Anna Grelik, Catherin Persing, Ying Sze Pek and Anne Küper), Transcript: 2026
• Greta from Ice: Social and Artistic Figurations of the Climate Debate (with Tobias Schlechtriemen), KWZ: Affektive Praktiken im digitalen Klimaaktivismus: Gesellschaftliche Ansprache, Figuration und Aushandlung im Netz, special issue edited by Steffen Krämer and Susan Reichelt, 2025, peer-reviewed (accepted, in publication)
• Bedrohte Vielfalt: Aufmerksames Zuhören in Ursula Biemanns “Acoustic Ocean”, Phin: Philologie im Netz, special issue edited by Evi Zemanek and Tanja van Hoorn, 2025, peer-reviewed (accepted, in publication)
• Nachhaltigkeit, Transformation und Verlust in der samischen Gegenwartskunst, Nachhaltig vergänglich: Zur Materialität des Verfalls, edited by Yorick Berta and Jasmin Mersmann, Turia + Kant: 2025 (in press)

Published Articles

• Heroische Leerstellen in der Historienfotografie: Innere Versenkung und leeres Pathos, in Ästhetiken des Heroischen: Darstellung, Affizierung, Gesellschaft, edited by Achim Aurnhammer, Anne Hemkendreis et al., Wallstein: 2024
• Leid und Triumph in Matthias Grünewalds “Isenheimer Altar”: Affektive Kontrastrelationen als Bedingung der Heroik (with Achim Aurnhammer), in Ästhetiken des Heroischen: Darstellung, Affizierung, Gesellschaft, edited by Achim Aurnhammer, Anne Hemkendreis et al., Wallstein: 2024
• Queering Arctic History: Questioning the Heroic in Circumpolar Art, Heroische Gesten. E-Journal – helden. heroes. héros, special issue edited by Ulrich Bröckling and Barbara Korte, 2024, pp. 31–42, peer-reviewed
• Sehen mit Bildern: Romantische Ästhetiken in den Chorfenstern des Greifswalder Doms, in Fenster für bewegtes Licht: Olafur Eliassons Ostfenster im Greifswalder Dom, edited by Isabelle Dolezalek, Schnell + Steiner: 2024, pp. 79–93
• Held:innen und ihr Publikum: Zur Wahrnehmung und Wirkung bildmächtiger Figuren, in Prinzip Held: Von Heroisierungen und Heroismen*, edited by Ralf von den Hoff and Katja Widmann, Hatje Cantz: 2024, pp. 26–45 (exhibition catalogue of SFB 948)
• Normalitätssimulation: Von scheinbaren Banalitäten im Werk Swaantje Güntzels, exhibition booklet Galerie Holthoff, 2024
• Communicating Loss: Ice Research, Popular Art and Aesthetics (with Anna-Sophie Jürgens), in Communicating Ice in Popular Art and Aesthetics, edited by Anne Hemkendreis and Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Palgrave: 2024, peer-reviewed
• On the Aesthetic Facets of Ice Urgency: Some Final Reflections (with Anna-Sophie Jürgens and Karina Judd), in Communicating Ice in Popular Art and Aesthetics, edited by Anne Hemkendreis and Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Palgrave: 2024, peer-reviewed
• Frozen Balloons: Aeronautic Heroism and Scientific Knowledge Production, in Communicating Ice in Popular Arts and Aesthetics, edited by Anne Hemkendreis and Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Palgrave: 2024, peer-reviewed
• Im Unterwassersalon von Jason de Caires Taylor, in Ins Bild kommen: Spielräume der Kunstkritik, edited by Ania Hosseini, Anna Kipke and Holger Kuhn, Brill: 2023, pp. 40–45
• Die Wiederentdeckung der Romantik: Eislandschaften im Klimawandel, in Caspar David Friedrich: Kunst für eine neue Zeit, edited by Markus Bertsch and Johannes Grave, Hatje Cantz: 2023, pp. 65–73
• Tückische Paradiese: Kunst in Zeiten der Krisen, in Swaantje Güntzel: Instant Paradise, edited by Kristin Knebel, exhibition catalogue Villa Dessauer Bamberg, pp. 5–12
• Isaac Julian’s “True North”: Bewahrende, verweigerte und schmelzende Gesten der Heroisierung, Heroische Gesten. E-Journal – helden. heroes. héros, special issue edited by Vera Marstaller and Dorna Safajan, 2023, pp. 31–40, peer-reviewed
• Humour for Change? Melting Ice and Environmental Fragility in the Animated Film Comedies “Ice Age: The Meltdown” and “Happy Feet Two” (with Parth Thaker et al.), Journal of Science and Popular Culture 2023, pp. 95–114, peer-reviewed
• Nature Cosmologies Sámi Knowledge and Aesthetics in Sissel M. Bergh’s Hovren Gåetie, Niche: Network in Canadian History & Environment, 2023
• Jellyfish from Outer Space. Tentacular Creatures and Cosmic Responsibility in Environmental Art and Pop Culture(with Anna-Sophie Jürgens), in Outer Space and Popular Culture, edited by Annette Fröhlich, Springer: 2023, pp. 17–23
• Who owns the Arctic? Polar Heroism and Climate Criticism in Mariele Neudecker’s Tankwork “Cook and Peary”, 21: Inquiries into Art, History and the Visual 4, 2022, peer-reviewed
• Heroes in Miniature: Wandering Images of Thule between Greenland and Denmark (1935–36), Nordlit 6, 2022, pp. 1–13, peer-reviewed
• Can one estimate aerosol optical depths from Colour Painting? (with Christian von Savigny et al.), Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Climate of the Past 8/10, 2022, peer-reviewed and selected as ‘highlight article’
• Affizierungsästhetiken, Compendium Heroicum (with Andreas Gelz et al.), online encyclopaedia SFB 948
• Ausbalanciert. Der Traum vom Fliegen in den Zirkusbildern Edgar Degas und James Tissots, in Manegenkünste. Zirkus als ästhetisches Modell, edited by Margarete Fuchs and Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Transcript: 2020, pp. 253–263
• Balancierend Pfeife rauchen: Der Elefant in den Zirkusbildern Henri de Toulouse-Lautrecs, in Mit Pauken und Trompeten. Der Elefant in der Geschichte, Literatur und Kunst, edited by Theresia Raum and Frank Jacob, Büchner: 2018, pp. 215–241
• Inner and Outer Realms: Opaque Windows in Vilhelm Hammershøi’s Interior Paintings, in Interiors and Interiority, edited by Ewa Lajer-Burcharth and Beate Söntgen, De Gruyter: 2016, pp. 297–311
• The Essence of Things: Hammershøi as seen through the eyes of Rainer Maria Rilke, in Hammershøi and Europe, edited by Kasper Monrad and Maryanne Stevens, Prestel: 2014, pp. 164–179

Academic background

I am currently working as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Stavanger, Norway, within the European Horizon program, based at The Greenhouse – Center for Environmental Humanities and collaborating with the Arctic University of Tromsø and the Sámi Center for Contemporary Art in Karasjok. 

Since September 2024, I have been a member of the Young Academy for Sustainability Studies at FRIAS, University of Freiburg, and since March 2024 a member of the German Young Academy (Leopoldina and BBAW). From May 2024 to May 2025, I was Research Associate at the Graduate School 2132 “The Documentary: Excess and Privation” at Ruhr University Bochum and submitted my habilitation thesis (second book) in 2024. From April 2022, I have been Senior Lecturer at the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University in Canberra and was editor of the peer-reviewed online journal w/k – Zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst / Between Science and Art. Previously, I worked as Research Associate at the Collaborative Research Center 948 “Heroes – Heroizations – Heroisms” at Freiburg University (2020–2024), held a fellowship at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg (2020–2021), and was active as a physical theatre artist and lecturer at the University of Arts Berlin (2017–2019). 

I completed my doctorate summa cum laude at Leuphana University Lüneburg in 2013, where I also received an award for Outstanding Early-Career Researchers, following a Master’s degree in Art History with distinction from Ruhr University Bochum in 2010 and Bachelor studies at the same institution. I have taught at Freiburg University, the University of Arts Berlin, and Leuphana University, focusing on art history, philosophy, and interdisciplinary approaches linking arts and environmental humanities. Last but not least, I am usually busy with curating exhibition projects such as "Liveliness, Emptiness, Infinity" at the Planetarium in Hamburg (2024) and "Tracing Relations: Dem Menschlichen auf der Spur" (Medical-History-Museum Charité, Berlin, upcoming).