Ulrike Weiss

After twelve years of working as a museum curator in various institutions in Germany and the UK, I joined the Museum & Gallery Studies team within the School in January 2009.

My research focuses on the ‚long eighteenth century’, material culture and gender studies. My PhD, published in 1998, investigated the role of relief sculpture in South German Rococo churches and the workshop practices of the sculptors and stuccoists. My work as exhibitions curator at the History Museum in Hannover led me to explore Hanoverian court culture and political iconography, with a particular focus on the medals celebrating the Hanoverian succession to the British throne in 1714 both as tools of political propaganda and as entrepreneurial merchandise. I acted as deputy chair of the academic advisory board for a major exhibition (“Landesausstellung”) held across five venues to celebrate the anniversary of the Succession in 2014.

My current project concerns female riding practice and its representation. I proposed and co-curated an exhibition of art at the National Sporting Library and Museum in Virginia (co-founded by Paul Mellon) which scrutinized the history of the side-saddle as represented in works of art, and was opened in 2018. A publicly accessible version of my contribution to the catalogue can be found here: Sidesaddle: 1690-1935.

In 2020, I have been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to further explore “’Fair amazons’: female equestrians and the performance of gender, 1770 to 1820”.

The sculptor's workshop and the "Gesamtkunstwerk" in the 18th century,

the Hanoverian court and its iconography,

baroque medals as an instrument of propaganda and the role of 'medal-publishers',

horsewomen and huntresses (and their representations) in the 18th century.

curatorial expertise, 12 years experience in developing and setting up exhibitions and permanent displays and in all aspects of museum and collections management.

The sculptor's workshop, the Hanoverians (portraits, political iconography),

the "room kenotaph" and forms of mourning at the time of the Empfindsamkeit,

the female equestrian portrait in the 17th and 18th century.