Research
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Research
Ongoing learning and teaching project
Project title: "Wearing the Prize Papers. Analogue and digital (re-)staging of historical clothing"
SQM-funded project applied for by Prof Dr Dagmar Freist, Dr Sarah Thompson, Dr Christopher Sommer and Dr Klara von Lindern
From summer semester 2026, the Textile Everyday Culture Collection will be a cooperation partner in the project 'Wearing the Prize Papers. Analogue and digital (re)stagings of historical clothing'. The aim of the project is to undertake a critical (re)staging and critical (re)reading based on specific materials and descriptions of historical clothing in the Prize Papers. What do descriptions of men's clothing from the 18th century say about contemporary ideas of masculinity? What global interdependencies of materials, production and consumption can be identified in relation to textiles then and now? How can marginalised positions be made visible, for example, by examining the clothing of enslaved people?
The project addresses these and other questions as part of an international series of lectures and an interdisciplinary project seminar. Based on historical materials and descriptions, students will create contemporary interpretations of historical clothing and develop a virtual exhibition with VR elements in which the designs can be digitally explored together with the historical sources and placed in relation to each other. The project is funded by Study Quality Funds (SQM) and is being carried out together with the academy project 'Prize Papers' (School 4/Instituteof History); the applicants are Prof Dr Dagmar Freist, Dr Sarah Thompson, Dr Christopher Sommer and Dr Klara von Lindern.
DFG project "The 'tamed' war"
Project title: "The 'tamed' war: Representation-critical perspectives on military history exhibitions"
DFG-funded project carried out by Dr Christopher Sommer
"With the memoralisation of the First World War as a welcome starting point, the military history museum wants to position itself as a forum for discussion and take on current geopolitical challenges through new exhibition strategies. Central to these new strategies is the proverbial scale of war: in an innovative way, a form of representation believed to be outdated - the diorama - is being rediscovered, as in combination with multimedia elements and large exhibits it offers an affective space for experience that favours discussion and reflection, but is no longer aimed solely at reconstructing the experience of war. At the same time, these museums are under political pressure and can only implement a change of paradigm gradually and over the long term. However, how visitors perceive the attempts to update the diorama - especially the use of new technologies - and new exhibition strategies for large exhibits has not yet been the subject of either visitor research or museum studies. [...] The project aims to compare the perception, impact and affective potential of this current form of military history exhibition transnationally through qualitative visitor research. [...] At the same time, curators, designers and modellers will be included in the study (...) [as has] only been pursued in isolated cases to date."
Source: Internal page of the German Research Foundation (DFG) - "The 'tamed' war - On current exhibition strategies and patterns of perception of visitors in military history museums".
Available online at: https: //gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/426340978?context=projekt&task=showDetail&id=426340978& [Accessed: 08/02/2023]
Detailed information on the project can be found here.
DFG project "Textile Minimalists"
'Textile minimalists'. Pioneers of sustainable practice?
Project team
Prof Dr Heike Derwanz (project leader)
Niklas Reinken (research assistant, editing - final publication)
Verena Strebinger (research assistant, field research)
Hannah Evers (research intern)
Project description
In the DFG-funded study, Prof. Dr Heike Derwanz and Verena Strebinger use the example of minimalists to investigate how sustainable housekeeping and economic activity is implemented and morally reflected upon. To answer the question of how textile minimalism is practised in everyday life, they conduct wardrobe interviews and participant observations with people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland who describe themselves as minimalism enthusiasts or minimalists. Short questionnaires, textile diaries and group discussions are also part of the project's repertoire of methods.
From a cultural studies perspective, the study is primarily concerned with the value of textiles, care and repair routines and the role of sustainability in everyday textile minimalist life. It provides fundamental information on the constitution and consumption of clothing in the age of fast fashion.
Results/publications
Verena Strebinger (2019): Of colour fans and standard combinations. Everyday practices in the context of the capsule wardrobe.
Heike Derwanz and Verena Strebinger (2019): Assessing sustainability through the wardrobe.
→ Download link
Heike Derwanz (ed.) (2022): Minimalism - A Reader (Bielefeld 2022).
→ Download link
There were also various teaching projects, including
- Students of the Master's degree programme Museum and Exhibition created the online participatory exhibition in the winter semester 2020/21: Enough. Minimalism in the wardrobe was designed. The exhibition, which was initially planned for the Science Communication Centre at The Smart House Oldenburg University, had to be transferred to the digital space due to the pandemic. The exhibition is based on data from the project and introduces the topic of more sustainable everyday practices with clothing through participatory mediation.
→ To the digital exhibition
- In the winter semester 2019/2020, eight scientific posters were created by students as part of the module "Ethnographic Methods of Cultural Analysis" in the Master's programme in Cultural Analysis, which deal with the empirical research of everyday textile practices.
→ To the project results
Detailed information on the project can be found here.
New Local History Museums" project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation
New local history museums as institutions of knowledge production
Project team
Prof. Dr Karen Ellwanger(project leader)
Dr Beate Bollmann (participatory accompanying research)
Dr Smilla Ebeling (senior scientist)
Sebastian Bollmann M.A., Dennis Herrmann M.A., Antje Vogt M.A.
(research assistants/doctoral candidates)
Gabriele Speckels M.A. (senior researcher, co-applicant/museum side)
Bastian Guong B.A. (research assistant)
Project description
Five museums, the Nationalpark-Haus Museum Fedderwardersiel (Lower Saxony), the Handwerksmuseum Ovelgönne (Lower Saxony), the Lötschentaler Museum (Kippel, Switzerland), the Landschaftsmuseum Angeln/Unewatt (Schleswig-Holstein) and the Werratalmuseum Gerstungen (Thuringia), have joined forces with the Institute of Material Culture at the University of Oldenburg to form a research network. What the selected museums have in common is that they see themselves as "new local history museums" and have a special relationship to landscape and its representation in these museums. Over a period of three years, the project aims to investigate specific types of knowledge production that characterise local history museums. Of particular interest are the nature, timing and intention of knowledge production and the associated forms and processes of collection formation.
The specific research objective of the project is to identify and analyse object collections specific to the New Heritage Museums and the associated forms of presentation through which statements on nature, region, homeland, gender and ethnicity are implicitly and explicitly conveyed.
Results/publications
Ellwanger, Karen (ed.): Neue Heimatmuseen. Volume 4: Beate Bollmann (2017): Qualities of small (local history) museums. A guide. Münster: Waxmann, 2017.
→ download link
Ellwanger, Karen (ed.): New local history museums: Volume 3: Smilla Ebeling (2016): Durch die Blume - Geschlechternarrationen in musealen Naturdarstellungen. Münster: Waxmann, 2016.
→ download link
Ellwanger, Karen (ed.): New local history museums. Volume 2 Smilla Ebeling (2016): Museum & Gender. A guide. Münster: Waxmann, 2016.
→ Download link
The symposium "Neue Heimatmuseen als Institutionen der Wissensproduktion" took place from 26-28 June 2014.
Detailed information on the project can be found here.
Trachten" project, sponsored by the Pro*Niedersachsen foundation
'Trachten' in the Lüneburg Heath and Wendland. Dress behaviour of rural classes and forms of its representation since the end of the 18th century
Project team
Prof Dr Karen Ellwanger (project leader)
Dr Andrea Hauser (main researcher)
Gerda Engelbracht
Laura Schnibbe (doctoral student)
Project description
In co-operation with four regional museums (Bomann Museum in Celle, Museum für das Fürstentum Lüneburg, Museumsdorf Hösseringen, Rundlingsmuseum Wendlandhof Lübeln), the project of the Institute of Material Culture conducted basic research on a classic topic of material culture research. Under the working title "'Trachten' in der Lüneburger Heide und im Wendland. Dress behaviour of rural classes and forms of representation since the end of the 18th century", the extensive and valuable costume collections of the participating museums were examined from multiple perspectives and in an interdisciplinary manner. Some of the costumes were documented for the first time. The project was made possible by funding from the ProNiedersachsen foundation (2009-2011/12).
Results/publications
Ellwanger, Karen; Hauser, Andrea; Meiners, Jochen (2015): Traditional costumes in the Lüneburg Heath and Wendland. Münster: Waxmann
→ Download link
The symposium "Trachten in der Lüneburger Heide und im Wendland" took place from 6-8 October 2011.
Detailed information on the project can be found here.
Q+ Digital Literacy" project
Quality Plus - Digital Literacy at the "Material Culture" site
Project team
Prof. Dr Karen Ellwanger (project leader)
Dr Christopher Sommer, Vanessa Barbagiovanni Bugiacca M.A. (project coordination)
Glenn Arthur Ricci, M.A., Tabea Meret Stracke B.A.(research assistants)
Chayenne Lauterbach, Christoph Wollesen, Sabrina Alber (media tutors)
Project description
With the project "Research-based learning as a study programme profile" (Q+FL), the University of Oldenburg has committed itself to the visible and sustainable implementation of research-based learning as a contribution to a change in learning culture. The Institute of Material Culture is one of the research-intensive "small subjects" in School III and favours research-based teaching and learning. However, as an ethnographic cultural studies department with a university collection, it faces particular challenges with regard to a digital infrastructure for teaching and learning.
This applies in particular to the polyvalent BA in Material Culture: Textiles. In the three-year project "Digital Literacy in Material Culture" (01.2019 - 03.2022), the degree programme was further developed and the collection was increasingly incorporated. Research-based approaches were systematically expanded throughout the programme and supported by low-threshold formats.
An important learning objective here is "digital literacy", which is sustainably anchored using tools such as introductions to applications like Photoshop or After Effects or an event format for the digitalisation of knowledge production.
Results/publications
Sommer, C., Barbagiovanni Bugiacca, V., Lauterbach, C., Wollesen, C, Alber, S., & Ellwanger, K. (2021). "Wat mutt, dat mutt" - Teachers' perspectives on ad hoc digitisation in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic at the small subject of Material Culture at the University of Oldenburg. In: Bolten-Bühler, R., Dertinger, A., Ellinger, D., Thielsch, A., Vanvinkenroye, J., & Zender, R. (2021). "Brave new (digital) world?!" Proceedings of the Young Forum Media and Higher Education Development 2019. Young Forum Media and Higher Education Development 2019 (JFMH), Weingarten. Zenodo , pp. 49-61.
→ To the publication
Sommer, Christopher, Barbagiovanni Bugiacca, Vanessa, Alber, Sabrina, Wollesen, Christoph, Ellwanger, Karen: Game on! Enhancing Tertiary Student Engagement Through Co-development of Interactive Treasure Hunts. In: Fotaris, Panagiotis (ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Game Based Learning ECGBL 2020. Supported by University of Brighton, UK, 24-25 September 2020. Reading: Academic Conferences International Limited 2020, 824-827.
Sommer, Christopher, Barbagiovanni Bugiacca, Vanessa, Ellwanger, Karen: X Marks the Spot: A Student-Developed Treasure-Hunt on the Digitisation of Knowledge Production. In: Elbæk, Lars, Majgaard, Gunver, Valente, Andrea, Khalid, Md. Saifuddin (eds.): The Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Game Based Learning ECGBL 2019. Hosted by University of Southern Denmark Odense, Denmark
3-4 October 2019. Reading: Academic Conferences International Limited 2019, 1038-1041.
→ To the learning platform Q+FL
Detailed information on the project can be found here.
Uni Action" project
Uni Action - Digitalisation of knowledge production
Project leader and coordination
Vanessa Barbagiovanni Bugiacca M.A.
Project description
Despite socialisation in a digitalised environment, young people often lack a balanced ability to reflect on the knowledge they have acquired. The digitalisation of knowledge production often means that the standards of academic work in a digital environment are not followed. Unintentional plagiarism or inadequate citation of sources are well-known phenomena, but there is a lack of prevention programmes.
School III - School of Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the CvO Oldenburg is tackling these challenges on an interdisciplinary basis: A new type of two-semester course has been developed and trialled that combines exercise and workshop formats with the development of an interactive scavenger hunt (via the "Achtionbound" app) including audiovisual content (explanatory videos).
Actionbound is intended to educate first-year students about institutions of knowledge production and at the same time teach the basics of ethical scientific work. The results/products will be published on the state's OER portal.
→ To the OER portal
Detailed information on the project can be found here.