Birgit Ulrike Münch

Prof. Dr. Birgit Ulrike Münch serves as Professor of General Art History with focus on Dutch Art and Vice Rector for International Affairs at the University of Bonn's Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Her academic leadership includes directorship of the Institute of Art History (2018-2020) and membership in university-wide committees including the Faculty Council and Habilitation Commission.

Her educational background encompasses Magistra Artium in Art History and Medieval/Modern History from Heidelberg University (1995-2003), with additional studies at Paris-Sorbonne and FU Berlin. Her doctoral dissertation Geteiltes Leid. Die Passion Christi in Bildern und Texten der Konfessionalisierung (2007, summa cum laude) and habilitation Jenseits der Académie: Studies on Alternative Art Publics in France and the Netherlands from 1450 to around 1815 (2016) established foundational contributions to Northern European art historiography.

Münch's research spans Flemish, Dutch, German, and French art (15th-18th centuries), with pioneering work on genre painting genesis, proverb visualization, and illness representation. She investigates how emotions like existential anxiety shaped artistic production during crises such as the Reformation, and examines court dwarf agency through interdisciplinary collaborations. Recent projects analyze syphilis's impact on art and colonialism's representation in Dutch still lifes, demonstrating her commitment to methodological innovation at the intersection of art history and medical humanities.

Her publication trajectory reveals increasing engagement with postcolonial frameworks, particularly in re-examining Northern European art's entanglement with slavery and dependency systems. The 2022-2025 works demonstrate sophisticated interdisciplinary approaches connecting visual culture with critical race theory, gender studies, and economic history.

• International Wolfgang-Ratjen Prize (2008) for research on graphic arts
• Nomination for DFG's Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize (2016)
• Senior Global Fellowship at University of St Andrews (2022)
• Membership in Comité International d'histoire de l'Art (CIHA)

As Principal Investigator for the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (2020-present), she directs the project "Prostitution, Serfdom, Slavery: Picturing Female Dependencies in Early Modern Amsterdam." Her leadership in the GOTH Symposium and MeWo Mentoring Program for women at the Centre d'Excellence Denis Mukwege highlights commitment to gender equity. Major grants include DFG Excellence Cluster funding and BMBF research fellowships for collection recontextualization projects.

She co-founded the Kunsthistorisches Forum Irsee (2014-2020), producing 7 edited volumes on premodern art communities. Current leadership includes the "Aby Warburg's Bonn Years" research group and the Crossroads project on Frankfurt's 16th-century art market with North American collaborators. Her curation of the "A Feast for the Eyes? Dutch Still Lifes in Detail" exhibition exemplifies her commitment to public scholarship and decolonial museum practices.