Full name: Dr. Corinna Erckenbrecht
Role in the project: Senior Research Associate
Brief background bio: I’m a cultural anthropologist based in Cologne, Germany, with many years of work experience at ethnological museums, foremost at the Museum of Ethnology in Cologne. Ever since beginning with my studies at university in the 1980’s I became interested in Aboriginal culture and travelled to Australia for the first time in 1986 doing research for my M.A. Thesis (about land rights). I returned in 1989-90 conducting fieldwork for my Ph.D. thesis (about gender relations) and in 1992 I finished my Ph.D. at Freiburg university.
From 1994 to 2007 I was involved in several different projects at the Museum of Ethnology in Cologne, for instance the special exhibition about gender relations in cross-cultural perspective (“Sie und Er. Frauenmacht und Männerherrschaft“, 1997), the documentation and re-organization of the 20 000-item collection from Oceania and the research project concerning the collection from Aboriginal Australia from the German (physical) anthropologist Hermann Klaatsch in connection with his newly available historical documents. This research from 2004-2007 was financed by the Fritz Thyssen Research Foundation in Cologne.
Since 2008 I have been involved in the research project “Histories of collecting Cultural Artefacts in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area” at the JCU and from 2011 to 2013. I am a Senior Research Associate in the present ARC-funded research project. I conduct research at German and European museums, archives and scientific institutions concerning artefact collections from the Wet Tropics, relevant collectors (mainly Klaatsch), his publications, historical documents and photographs, and the historical, political and scientific background of artefact collecting, display and documentation at German and European museums.
For more information see www.erckenbrecht.com
Recent publications:
2011
Person – Land – Eigentum: südslawisches, britisches und australisches Recht gegenüber indigenem Aboriginesrecht in Australien. Eine vergleichende Studie zur Rechtsethnologie. In: Spomenica Valtazara Bogišića. Gedächtnisschrift für Valtazar Bogišić. Hrsg. Vom Institut für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft der Universität Belgrad. Serbien. Bd. 2, S. 233-280. JP Službeni Glasnik, Belgrad.
2010
(Together with Maureen Fuary, Shelley Greer, Rosita Henry, Russel McGregor und Michael Wood) Artefacts and Collectors in the Tropics of North Queensland. In: The Australian Journal of Anthropology (TAJA), Vol. 21, Nr. 3, S. 350-366. Sydney.
2010
Auf der Suche nach den Ursprüngen. Die Australienreise des Anthropologen und Sammlers Hermann Klaatsch 1904-1907.Ethnologica N.F. Bd. 27. Wienand-Verlag, Köln.
2010
Zur wissenschaftlichen Rezeption des Fremden – Die australischen Aborigines in den Augen der Anthropologie und Ethnologie im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert.
In: Anthropos, Internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- und Sprachenkunde, Bd. 105 (1), S. 13-27. St. Augustin.