Karen Jacobs

Karen Jacobs is Associate Professor at the Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, University of East Anglia. Her research spans art history, anthropology, and museum studies with a focus on the Pacific region, particularly Fiji and West Papua. She leads major international research projects and is actively involved in exhibitions, publications, and public engagement.

Her research interests include Pacific art, museum anthropology, decolonisation of ethnographic museums, female tattooing (veiqia), fibre skirts (liku), missionary heritage, urban youth culture, and climate change. She applies interdisciplinary methodologies to explore how cultural objects and identities are shaped through colonial and postcolonial encounters.

Her recent publications reflect a strong trend toward re-evaluating museum collections, emphasizing Indigenous agency, cultural resilience, and the role of art in sustainable development. Themes of transnationalism, visibility, and heritage repatriation are central across her work.

• CHASE PGR Engagement Pilot Project
• Transforming Education Awards: PhD Research Supervisor of the Year (2024)
• UEA Engagement Awards – Special Recognition (2022)
• UEA Innovation and Impact Awards – Finalist (2018)

She supervises PhD students globally and has contributed to curatorial projects such as Pacific Encounters and Fiji: Art and Life in the Pacific. She is Principal Investigator on the British Academy-funded Urban Pathways: Fiji. Youth. Arts. Culture project, which explores sustainable employment in cultural heritage for youth. Her editorial roles include membership on the board of Journal de la Société des Océanistes and participation in the AHRC Peer Review College.

Her work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to sustainable communities, quality education, and climate action. She is actively involved in networks focused on cross-cultural heritage and museum ethics.