Adelheid Mers

Adelheid Mers is Professor and Chair of Arts Administration and Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her interdisciplinary practice explores facilitation as creative methodology through performative diagrammatics and collaborative workshops.

Research examines embodied meaning-making, epistemic diversity, and systemic elasticity through instruments like The Braid and Performative Topologies. Her work intersects artistic research, pedagogy, and performance studies with influences from sociology and media ecology.

Publications consistently address diagrammatic systems as tools for critical engagement, with recent work focusing on micro-practices for affirmative critique. Current projects develop facilitation frameworks through international working groups with Performance Studies international and Society for Artistic Research.

Leads workshops globally and maintains collaborative studio practice developing diagrammatic instruments.