Prof. Dr. Christina Thurner

Professor for Dance Studies and Executive Director

Phone
+41 31 684 38 29
E-Mail
christina.thurner@unibe.ch
Office
Büro 194, 1. Stock
Postal Address
University of Bern
Institute of Theatre Studies
Mittelstrasse 43
3012 Bern
Consultation Hour
by arrangement

Research Focus

  • Dance History and Aesthetics (18th to 21st Century)
  • Contemporary Dance and Performance (Switzerland, Europe, USA)
  • Historiography
  • Dance Criticism
  • Autobiography

Christina Thurner studied German language and literature, education and history at Zurich University and the Freie University Berlin. She received her PhD in 2001 and her Habilitation in 2008 from Basel University. From 1997 to 2006, she was research assistant with a teaching assignment in the German department at Basel University, and then led the SNF project “Sprechende Körper – Bewegte Seelen”. In addition, she taught at the ITW and in the postgraduate program TanzKultur at the University of Bern as well as at the HGK Basel. She has worked as a dance journalist, mainly for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

In 2007, Christina Thurner was appointed Assistant Professor at the Institute of Theatre Studies (ITW), in 2011 Associate Professor, and in 2020 Associate Professor with a focus on Dance Studies.

Since then, she has led several SNF-projects and given international guest lectures. She was also responsible for the doctoral program lnterdisciplinary Cultural Studies at the Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities at the Walter Benjamin Kolleg of the University of Bern, chair of program management of the MAS Dance/Performing Arts program, member of the steering committee of the Graduate School of the Arts, and served on the research and junior staff committee, and the doctoral committee of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Bern. She was a member of the national jury for the Swiss Dance Prize, the expert jury of the Dance Heritage Fund of the Federal Cultural Foundation (Germany), the research advisory board IPF of the ZHdK Zurich and a member of the council Pro Helvetia (Department of Theatre and Dance).

She currently leads the SNF-Projekt „Auto_Bio_Grafie als Performance. (German)

Current Research Projects:

(German) Auto_Bio_Grafie als Performance. Ein tanzhistoriografisches Innovationsfeld (SNF, Projektleitung) http://p3.snf.ch/project-192436  

Past Research Projects:  

(German) Offene Manipulation. Figurentheater als Movens spartenübergreifender Theater-, Tanz- und Musiktheaterforschung (SNF: Co-Leitung) http://p3.snf.ch/project-169272  

Dancing Together. An analysis of entrainment and subjectivity in William Forsythe's choreography 'Duo' (SNF: Projektleitung) http://p3.snf.ch/project-165770  

(German) Fliessende Welten. Aneignung japanischer Kunst und Kultur im europäischen Bühnentanz (SNF: Projektleitung) http://p3.snf.ch/project-149693  

(German) Körperarchive in Bewegung. Zur Vergegenwärtigung des Vergangenen im zeitgenössischen Tanz (SNF ProDoc: Teilprojektleitung) http://p3.snf.ch/project-137138  

(German) Zeitgenössischer Tanz und postdramatisches Theater zwischen Präsenz und Absenz (SNF ProDoc: Teilprojektleitung) http://p3.snf.ch/project-129429  

(German) Intermediale Ästhetik. Spiel - Ritual - Performanz (SNF ProDoc: Co-Leitung) http://p3.snf.ch/project-127058  

(German) Original und Revival. Geschichts-Schreibung im Tanz (SNF: Tagung und Publikation) http://p3.snf.ch/project-129345http://p3.snf.ch/project-121352 

(German) Sprechende Körper - bewegte Seelen. Zum Diskurs der doppelten Bewegung in Tanztexten (SNF: Projektleitung) http://p3.snf.ch/project-111952