Konstantina Maria Serjannis, BA MA
About the Person
Since 06/2026 Fellow in the Doctoral College „Dynamics of Inequality and Difference in the Age of Globalization", Research Focus "Cultural Encounters - Cultural Conflicts", University of Innsbruck
Since 04/2026 University Assistant at the Department of History and Empirical Cultural Analysis, University of Innsbruck
Dissertation project: doing migration archive - The institutional, discursive and material production of ‘migration archives’, Supervisors: Silke Meyer, Dirk Rupnow
Since 03/2026 Doctoral Studies, Faculty of Philosophy and History, University of Innsbruck
09/2025 – 02/2026: Student Assistant in the Bachelor’s program European Ethnology, University of Vienna
01/2024 – 10/2025: Mitarbeiterin im Archivierungsprojekt „Flucht braucht Archiv“, Kooperation asylkoordination österreich und Dokumentationsarchiv Migration Tirol
09/2023 – 02/2024: Student Assistant in the Master‘s program European Ethnology, University of Vienna
Since 10/2023: Master‘s program European Ethnology, University of Vienna
2022-2025: Master‘s program Expanded Museum Studies, University of Applied Arts Vienna
03/2022 – 12/2025: External Staff Member, Collection Department, Musuem of Folk Life and Folk Art Vienna
2019 – 2022: Bachelor’s program European Ethnology, University of Vienna
PhD Project
Doing migration archive – The institutional, discursive and material production of ‘migration archives’
My dissertation project focuses on the institutionalisation of 'migration archives' and investigates their multifaceted and interpretatively open categorisation by looking at case studies in Austria. The case studies are situated within various institutional frameworks such as city archives, associations, or museums and are examined from the perspective of doing migration archive. The research integrates the institutional, discursive, and material construction of these archives.
Theoretically, the project is grounded in critical archive studies, which view archives both as epistemic instruments of power and as sites for enacting strategies of 'liberatory archival work'. Employing a practice-theoretical, qualitative mixed-methods approach, the study combines methods for analysing institutional and organisational structures, discursive practices, and material dimensions to explore the processes involved in doing migration archive. The aim of the dissertation is to not only address a gap in academic discourse by providing an empirically based cultural studies perspective but also to develop practical guidelines for archival work in the context of migration. By doing so, it seeks to contribute to a 'community in practice' within the field. Moreover, the examination of the Austrian case study will be expanded to include European and international comparisons, enabling a broader understanding of the phenomenon of 'migration archives' within its ongoing developments on a larger scale.
Activities and Memberships
- Member of the Austrian Network of Migration History (ÖNM) Netzwerk für Migrationsgeschichte
- Member of the Commission on Human-Environment-Relations, DGEKW Mensch-Umwelt-Beziehungen
- Member of the arts-based research collective et art. et art. – künstlerische Übersetzungen wissenschaftlicher Publikationen
Publications
- Konstantina Serjannis / Ines Birke (exp. 2026): Lost in Translation: Between heard and written storytelling, in: Friedrich Cain / Dietlind Hüchtker (ed.): Zwischenstände: Women’s Studies im Gespräch (Aether 10).
- Konstantina Hornek (2025): Museums, Polarization and Multiple Crises, in: neues museum 25(1/2), pp.72-73.
- Konstantina Hornek (2024): "Alle Kinder fürchten sich vor...", in: Nachrichtenblatt ÖMV 59(4), pp.42-43.
- Katharina Enzinger, Tamara Hauer & Konstantina Hornek (2024): "Rosalia Rothansl – 'Professor' und Kunstgewerblerin, in: Stefanie Kitzberger & Eva Klimpel (eds.): Collecting, Appropriating, Translating. Rosalia Rothansl, Mileva Stoisavljevic-Roller and the Modern Domestic Industry. Vienna: New Toni Press, pp.37-41.
- Konstantina Hornek (2023): "Speculation of Human-Robot Relationships", in: Therese Bauer (ed.): The Last Days of Human Thinking. Essays on Artificial Intelligence. Vienna: Academic Press, pp.153-162.
- Konstantina Hornek (2022): "To my beloved tripods", in: Nachrichtenblatt ÖMV 57(3), pp.42-43.
Conference Contributions
- 24/04/2026: “Between lecture hall and stage: Doing career of Viennese pop music students”, Professorship Sociology (Technik – Arbeit – Gesellschaft), Prof. Dr. Sabine Pfeiffer, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg in cooperation with the DFG priority programme “Digitalisation of Working Worlds” 2267 „Digitalisation of Working Worlds”
- 24/04/2026: “Between lecture hall and stage: Doing career of Viennese pop music students”, Professorship Sociology (Technik – Arbeit – Gesellschaft), Prof. Dr. Sabine Pfeiffer, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg in cooperation with the DFG priority programme “Digitalisation of Working Worlds” 2267 „Digitalisation of Working Worlds”
- 01/12/2025: "Civil Society Records in Migration Archives – A Cooperation between the asylkoordination österreich and the Dokumentationsarchiv Migration Tirol", lecture at workshop "Archives of Migration I. Participation, Knowledge Production and Collaboration", in preparation with Christina Hollomey-Gasser, University of Innsbruck / Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe, GWZO) / Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
- 24/10/2025: Lecture at workshop "Who remembers? Who preserves? Civil Society Traditions in the Archiving Process", asylkoordination österreich in cooperation with the Documentation Archive Migration Tyrol.
- 07/06/2025: "From Tape to Mp3 File – Between Accessibility and Loss of Sense of Digitized Cassettes in the Archive", lecture at DGEKW Student Conference, Ludwig Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Tübingen.
- 12/11/2024: Brief intervention at NEMO European Museum Conference "Can we talk? Museums facing polarisation", Network of European Museum Organisations, Sibiu.
- 07/09/2024: "Collecting Escape Objects' – A Critical Look at Collection Strategies in Austrian Museums and Archives", lecture at the symposium Future Lab MUSEUM: Museum of the Future, University of Düsseldorf.
- 30/05/2024: "Object(ive) Care!? – A Case Study on Practices and Politics of Care in Museum Conservation", lecture at First Step Conference, Etnografického ústavu Moravského zemského muzea, Brno.
Scholarships
- 03/2024: Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme „Spring School: Opening the Archive”, Bauhaus University Weimar
- 07/2023: Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme „Sonic Garden Sound Art Workshop", MASSIA / Estonian Academy of Arts
- 03/2023: Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme „Spring School: Listening with Eyes, Seeing with Ears”, Bauhaus University Weimar
- 2019-2022: Merit Scholarships, University of Vienna
Research Interests
- Museum and Archive
- Mobility and Migration
- Material Culture
- Collection
- Ethnographic Methods
- Arts and Science
- Human and Environment