I am a researcher in global history and anthropological studies in culture and history.
My focus are studies in mass media and culture, (post-)colonialism, discourse analysis, and digital
humanities.
In my studies I am combining approaches from digital humanities with discourse analysis and decolonial
studies.
I am currently interested in studying discursive strategies in the production of (counter-)hegemony and
subjects
in visual, textual, and material discourses.
#Media #Culture #Reparation #Restitution #Newspapers #BeninBronzes #DiscourseAnalysis #DigitalHumanities
I am currently finishing my PhD project of a discourse analysis on the Benin bronzes at the research
center 'Hamburg's (post-)colonial legacy,' in the department of history, work area global history, at
the University of Hamburg.
The PhD project and archival research in Nigeria was funded by a three-year dissertation grant and travel grants by the
Gerda Henkel Stiftung.
Since 2021 I am working as a research assistant in the interdisciplinary project 'D-WISE' in the Institute of Anthropological Studies in Culture and History at the University of Hamburg.
In 2022/2023 I offered a seminar on 'Discursive Struggles on (Post-)Colonial Legacies in the 21st century: Discourses on Restitution and the Benin Bronzes' at the University of Hamburg, Institute of Anthropological Studies in Culture and History.
My current main project is the PhD research "Becoming an Emblem. Form Colonial Propaganda to Decolonial Movement. A Discourse Analysis on the Benin Bronzes."
This research is conducted as a transnational and digital discourse analysis on the Benin Bronzes and the process of their iconization in mass media and culture.
This page is planned to offer - at a certain time and as much as possible - open access to research material and highlighted results of the analysis.
The ‘Benin bronzes’ are emblematic of the contemporary disputes over the restitution of art looted in colonial times.
As spoils of war, the thousands of objects looted by British troops in a so-called 'punitive expedition' against Benin City in 1897 have
become an icon of post- and decolonial narratives and movements on restitution and reparation. In the course of their removal, the objects experienced different
semantic attributions ranging from objects of (post-)colonial oppression to iconic symbols of decolonial counter-movement: From spoils of war,
trade goods, art, auction and museum objects, icons of pan-African movements, to an emblem of historical and contemporary restitution debates.
Decisive for the reception, perception, and symbolization of the 'Benin Bronzes' as 'discursive entities' in the general public are discourses in global mass media
and culture.
The discourses on Benin and the process of the Benin bronzes becoming of an emblem serve as a case study within an analysis of public discourses and the study of
hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discursive strategies in the context of the productions of subjects and icons, of alleged 'truths' and fictions, of continuities and ruptures.
This example shows the reports on 'Benin' in digitized Nigerian newspapers from 1882 up to 1922 on basis of the "African Newspapers Collection, Series 1 and 2" offered by Readex/Newsbank.
Find a list of 141 Nigerian newspapers accessible via Nigerian National Archives, Ibadan:
PDF
[Unpublished] Eiser, Isabel. 2023. Dlf Nova - Eine Stunde History. Interview Benin Bronzen.
[Unpublished] Eiser, Isabel. 2023. Fighting Fictions – Producing ‘Truths’: Tracing the Discursive Struggles on the Benin Bronzes. In: [Sammelband]. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Eiser, Isabel, Fischer, Tim, Schneider, Florian, Koch, Gertraud, Biemann, Chris, & Petersen Frey, Fynn. (2023, March 10). Open Science Prinzipien und interdisziplinäre Kollaboration in D-WISE: Zwischen Hermeneutik und Digitaler Methode in der Diskursanalyse. DHd 2023 Open Humanities Open Culture. 9. Tagung des Verbands "Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum" (DHd 2023), Trier, Luxemburg. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7715305.
Fischer, Tim, Eiser, Isabel, Schneider, Florian, Petersen-Frey, Fynn, Biemann, Chris, & Koch, Gertraud. (2023, March 10). D-WISE - Digitale Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse. DHd 2023 Open Humanities Open Culture. 9. Tagung des Verbands "Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum" (DHd 2023), Trier, Luxemburg. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7715313.
Fischer, Tim, Eiser, Isabel, Schneider, Florian, Petersen-Frey, Fynn, Biemann, Chris, & Koch, Gertraud. (2023). D-WISE - Digitale Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse. DHd 2023 Open Humanities Open Culture. 9. Tagung des Verbands "Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum" (DHd 2023), Trier, Luxemburg. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7711504.
Koch, Gertraud, Chris Biemann, Isabel Eiser, Tim Fischer, Florian Schneider, Teresa, Stumpf, Alejandra Tijerina García. 2022. D-WISE Tool Suite for the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse. In: Rauterberg, M. (eds) Culture and Computing. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13324. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05434-1_5.
Eiser, Isabel. 2022. Kunst und Kontext. Benin ausstellen in Zeiten postkolonialer Aushandlungsdebatten. Eine Rezension der Benin Ausstellung im MARKK, Hamburg In: HSozKult Rez: Online.
Eiser, Isabel. 2021. Ikone einer Debatte. Eine Rezeptionsgeschichte der Benin-Bronzen. In: bpb, APuZ: Nigeria, www.bpb.de/apuz/nigeria-2021/337818/eine-rezeptionsgeschichte-der-benin-bronzen.
Eiser, Isabel. 2020. Of Plans and Pandemics: Researching the ‘Benin Bronzes,’ the Control over Archival Records and Access to Digital Knowledge Stocks in Nigeria. In: Ajala, Aderemi et al. (Hg.): African Ethnography, 2nd Issue. Ibadan: African Ethnography Services Ltd.
Eiser, Isabel. 2019. Thoughts about Europe. It’s All in the Name of Science. In: Master of none (ed.): This used to be an Art Gallery. Leimen: ColorDruck Solutions GmbH.
Schrenk, Friedemann, Anke Kuper, Anne Marie Rahn, Isabel Eiser. 2018. Menschen in Sammlungen. Geschichte verpflichtet, 45-61. In: Brandstetter, Anna-Maria, Hierholzer, Vera (ed.): Nicht nur Raubkunst! Sensible Dinge in Museen und universitären Sammlungen. Mainz: Mainz University Press.
Eiser, Isabel. 2015. Die Restitutionsforderungen australischer Aborigines und die Haltung ethnologischer Museen. Magisterarbeit. Goethe Universität Universität Frankfurt.
Eiser, Isabel. 2011. Zé Pelintra & Pomba Gira, 131-133. In: Jebens, Holger (ed.): Herbarium der Kultur – Ethnographische Objekte und Bilder aus den Archiven des Frobenius-Instituts. Frankfurt am Main: Frobenius Institut.