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Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst

Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst

Professorship in Dance Studies with a Focus on Choreography and Performance

©Nada Zgank

Contact

T +49 (0)641 99-31225
Gutenbergstr. 6, Raum 110b

Website: https://intima.org/kunst

Short Biography

Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Ljubljana and is a full professor at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies (ATW – Institut für Angewandte Theaterwissenschaft), Justus Liebig University Giessen. She was previously employed as a researcher at the University of Ljubljana until 2009, served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp (2003–2004), and was a DAAD guest professor at the University of Hamburg (2009–2011).

Her primary research interests lie in contemporary performance, theatre, and dance, with a particular focus on developments in the late 20th and 21st centuries. She explores the political and social dimensions of performance and dance, and engages in philosophical and theoretical inquiries into the relationship between aesthetics and politics. She is recognized as an expert in contemporary dramaturgy, especially in dance and performance.

Over the past decade, her research has concentrated on artistic labor and the changing roles of artists in contemporary society. She has critically examined collaborative and collective artistic processes, institutional dynamics of art production, and the role of art institutions today. Her work also addresses how artists form and sustain institutions, and how they present themselves within cultural politics and broader social frameworks. Her approach is deeply rooted in feminist political analysis, philosophy of politics, and the intersections of aesthetic and political thought.

Kunst is the author of several monographs, including Impossible Body (Maska, Ljubljana, 1999) and Dangerous Connections: Body, Philosophy, and Relation to the Artificial (Maska, 2004). Her book Artist at Work: Proximity of Art and Capitalism (Zero Books, 2015) has been translated into six languages. Her most recent publication, The Life of Art: Transversal Lines of Care (Maska, 2021), investigates the evolving discourse of care in art, highlighting the proximity of artistic labor to reproductive labor and is currently existing in Slovene, Croatian and German language.

She has lectured widely at universities in Europe and internationally, delivered keynote lectures at major conferences, and supervised numerous doctoral and postdoctoral researchers. She has supervised Ph.D. candidates at Justus Liebig University Giessen, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the University of Ljubljana, the University of Primorska, and Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj. She has also served as a mentor to postdoctoral researchers at Justus Liebig University Giessen.

From 2017 to 2019, she was the director of the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies at Justus Liebig University Giessen, and since 2012, she has been the director of the International Master’s Program in Choreography and Performance.

Her broader research interests also include gender studies, performance theory, and the philosophy of contemporary art. She is a member of the editorial boards of Maska Magazine, Amfiteater, and Performance Research. In addition to her academic work, she regularly leads seminars, workshops, and laboratories within universities, theaters, and artistic institutions across Europe, and collaborates closely with independent artistic initiatives, collectives, and activist groups.