Profile
Abstract
My name is Paola Kirchhof. I am currently working as a research assistant at the Institute of Anthropology, where I completed my Master's degree. For my thesis, entitled "Doing the Dishes: The Potential of Collaborative Art in Indonesia for Decolonial Knowledge Production", I was learning from various Indonesian art collectives about their methods of knowledge production and and contextualized this within decolonial practices. Building on this, I am now particularly interested in the field of ´public anthropology´, working at the intersection of science and art. My approach combines ethnographic research with my own artistic and curatorial practice, aiming to make knowledge accessible and tangible, also outside of academia and the arts. Through my work, I aim to contribute to a development of social and cultural anthropology, that helps bridging social divisions through active discourse.
Professional career
- since 05/2025
Research assistant at the Institute of Ethnology, University of Leipzig - 10/2024 - 05/2025
Research assistant at the Institute of Ethnology, University of Leipzig - since 01/2025
Project management in political and artistic education, Kinder und Jugend Kunstwerkstatt Zeitz (KJKW), Kunstverein Zeitz e.V..
Education
- 10/2021 - 05/2025
Master of Arts Anthropology, University of Leipzig, scholarship PROMOS (DAAD) - 10/2018 - 12/2021
Bachelor of Science Geography, Electives poitical science, University of Leipzig
Panel Memberships
- since 07/2023
Member of Kunstverein Zeitz e.V.
My teaching is based on the experience that student knowledge often remains trapped in an academic echo chamber. I want to consciously counteract this through active teaching practice in the spirit of public anthropology.
In the summer semester of 2025, for example, I worked with Dr. Thiago Barbosa in the “Qualitative Research Methods” module for bachelor's students at the institute to develop the idea of presenting student knowledge to the public through an exhibition and making current research topics and discourses more accessible through an artistic approach. In addition, the students were able to strengthen their methodological repertoire through artistic and visual methods. The exhibition we developed together with the students, entitled “Fragments of Leipzig,” opened in July 2025 at Makan Späti.
Building on this and against the backdrop of current debates about a destabilized public sphere, this semester we will explore how art education and curatorial practice can help us understand art not only as an expression of cultural identity, but also as a medium with which to build social bridges, open up discourse, and create new public spheres.
In my seminars, I value low hierarchical, open communication on an equal footing. For me, the seminar room is a place for encounter and exchange, where we can all learn and unlearn from each other.
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Methoden der Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie (03-SKA-0200)
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Practice/Transfer Social and cultural anthropology in professional practice: artistic strategies as a form of mediation in pluralized publics (BA)
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Qualitative research methods BA ( 03-ETH-1022)
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Tutorial Introduction to Regional Ethnology (BA)