Doctoral Researcher Anita Markmiller

In her dissertation project, Anita Markmiller explores the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the early modern period from an art historical perspective. She is interested in how human contacts and conflicts with and on vast bodies of water, which can be both hostile and nurturing, have shaped artistic practices and how, in return, the circulation of such visual representations has affected people’s understanding of maritime spaces.

Anita Markmiller holds a B.A. in Art History, Film Studies and Psychology (University of Jena) and an M.A. in Art History and Transcultural Studies (Heidelberg University). During her studies, she worked as a student assistant and tutor for methods in art history as well as in various cultural and research institutions such as the Kunstsammlung Jena and the KHI in Florence, having gained professional experience in the fields of scientific research, cultural project management, curating, and art education. Her research interests lie in maritime painting of the 16th and 17th centuries as well as artistic creations from the 20th/21st centuries with a focus on ecology and materiality. In her MA thesis (2023) she examined the representation of the Roman goddess Venus in contemporary artworks made from plastic waste collected on the beach and their art historical, ecological, economic, and socio-political relations. Situated in the RTG’s focus “Knowing the enemy”, Markmiller concentrates on learning from and adapting to maritime environments. By delving into the processes that have shaped the artistic portrayal of such human experiences, her research contributes to both the study of cultural and ecological aspects within the field of ocean studies and to an understanding of enmity in human-nature relations.