Birke Sturm

Birke Sturm is an Assistant Professor of Art and Design Didactics at Mozarteum University since 2021, serving as the institution’s contact for the ZPPS (Center for Practical Pedagogical Studies). She holds a doctoral degree from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2016) on the topic of physical beauty representation in modernism. Previously, she taught art/design and English at Lauder Chabad Campus Vienna for ten years while also lecturing and researching at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Her research focuses on visual culture, critical art education, historical didactics, and the intersection of popular youth cultures with aesthetic practices. Key areas include visual literacy, inclusive education, and digital competency in teaching. She emphasizes bridging art theory and school practice, advocating for participatory and reflective learning processes.

Recent work explores how art education can engage with youth popular cultures (e.g., memes, Netflix) as aesthetic phenomena. Her articles address topics like transmediality in art mediation, beauty politics in early 20th-century medicine, and comic-based pedagogy.

She actively participates in academic events such as the 2023 INDI Diversity Conference and the 2022 WSKMB conference on inclusive art pedagogy. Her teaching and research are deeply informed by dual experiences in academia and school settings.