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New Laurenz Professor of Contemporary Art
Art historian Dr. Charlotte Matter is to become the new assistant professor of contemporary art at the University of Basel. The President’s Office appointed her to the professorship, which is funded by the Laurenz Foundation, within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Charlotte Matter initially studied visual communication at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, followed by art history and film studies at the University of Zurich. There, she obtained a doctorate in art history in 2021 with her dissertation “The Politics of Plastics: Feminist Approaches to New Materials in Art, 1960s and 1970s.” She is currently a postdoc and co-director of the research project “Rethinking Art History through Disability” at the Department of Art History at the University of Zurich, where she coordinates the master’s program in Art History in a Global Context. Since last year, she has also been co-editor of Sculpture Journal at Liverpool University Press.
Matter possesses an outstanding track record in research and teaching and is regarded as a methodologically innovative, broad-based art historian with an international reputation. Her research focuses on artistic practices from the 1960s to the present day, materiality, disability studies/crip theory, feminist art and theory, and collectivity in art.
Matter will take up the position of Laurenz Professor in the Department of Arts, Media and Philosophy on 1 February 2025. The appointment is limited to a five-year term.
Laurenz assistant professorship as a springboard
The Laurenz Foundation-funded assistant professorship at the University of Basel was first filled in 2002 and has established itself as an important institution that enables younger researchers in the field of contemporary art to make a name for themselves and gain international visibility.
The professorship benefits in particular from the collaboration with the Laurenz Foundation’s Schaulager in Münchenstein, near Basel. Over the years, this has led to the development of an academic partnership between the University of Basel and the Laurenz Foundation, encompassing teaching, the implementation of projects and collaboration with other institutions.