Dr Kerstin Hacker

Courses taught:

• Photography (Undergraduate)

Kerstin Hacker is a Senior Lecturer in Photography at Cambridge School of Art and her creative critical practice research investigate methods of unlearning and decolonial knowledge creation. Her research challenges (neo)colonial visual representations of low-income countries through collaborative artistic practices.

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Background

Kerstin received a BA and MA from FAMU, University of the Applied Arts in Prague, Czech Republic. She received numerous awards including Female Photojournalist of the Year and Alexia Foundation Award. Kerstin received funding from British Council Educational Partnership in Africa Grant and has conducted critical creative practice research over the last two decades with the wider Zambian photographic community. Most recently her research was recognised through the Affect and Colonialism Web Lab Fellowship (2022) at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Cambridge Visual Cultures Fellowship (2023) at the University of Cambridge.

Kerstin is a passionate educator and mentor and has extensive experience in course leadership, curriculum development and external examinership. She has been awarded Student Union Made a Difference Awards for her outstanding supervision and for creating an inclusive and supportive student community.

Spoken Languages

• English
• German
• Czech

Research interests

• Visual Self-Governance
• Photographic narration of self in low income countries
• North-South artistic collaborations
• Photographic Practice-Based Research
• Collaborative and decolonising research methods and methodologies
• Decolonising art and design curricula
• Diversifying and expanding the visual library

Areas of research supervision

• North-South artistic collaborations
• Methodologies of unlearning and decolonial knowledge creation
• Art and design education on the African continent
• New photographic movements and institutions in Africa
• Decolonising photographic practice
• Politics of representation
• Under-investigated material like family albums and lost, damaged or forgotten archives

Current PhD supervision: Caribbean Artist Movement (2^nd Supervisor)

Teaching

Kerstin currently teaches on the following modules:

Level 5:

• Photographic Portfolio Practice
• Media Process Situation

Level 6:

• Major Project (Photography)

Teaching Awards and Fellowships

• Dean’s Award Joint CSA course leader award for innovative employability strategies, Anglia Ruskin University, January 2018
• Made a Difference Award ‘Outstanding Supervisor’ Anglia Ruskin University 2017
• Made a Difference Award ‘Learning Community’, Anglia Ruskin University 2017
• Made a Difference Award, Anglia Ruskin University 2014
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy 2005

External Examiner Duties

• University of Hertfordshire
• Falmouth University
• Derby University

Qualifications

• PhD, Photographic Practices and Decolonial Approaches to Unlearning, ARU, 2024
• Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Higher Education), Thames Valley University, 2007
• Research Methods Post Graduate Diploma, Thames Valley University, 2005
• MA Photography, Faculty for Film and Television, Academy for Performing Arts, (FAMU) Prague, Czech Republic. Title: Osameli ve Vlasti/Einsame Heimat – Photographic Essay of Sudenten Germans in Czech Republic
• BA Photography, Faculty for Film- and Television, Academy for Performing Arts, (FAMU) Prague, Czech Republic

Memberships, editorial boards

• Honorary Fellow of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP)
• UK proposer of Photo of the Year Award – UNICEF
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Fellow of the German Photography Society (DGPh)

Peer Reviewer

• Journal of African Cultural Studies, Routledge
• Visual Communication, Sage Publishers
• Celebrity Studies, Routledge

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Sabbatical Research scheme (£15000), Anglia Ruskin University, February to May 2024
• Cambridge Visual Cultures Fellowship (£3000) University of Cambridge, UK (collaboration with Sana Ginwalla) 2022/23
• External Advisor. Royal Commonwealth Society Southern Africa Project (£2.000.000 funding by Carnegie Foundation), University of Cambridge Library and University of Cape Town, 2022-24.
• Affect and Colonialism Web Lab Fellowship (€ 12000) Freie Universität Berlin, Germany (in collaboration with Edith Chiliboy and Patrick Chilaisha) 2021/22
• Research and Innovation Collaboration Fund, ARU (£1500) - PhotoCovidZambia, March 2020
• Co-Investigator Ecosystems for Healthy Ageing Communities Network Grant led by Prof Carol Brayne, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, 2020/21
• Research and Innovation Collaboration Fund (£4000), Anglia Ruskin University, 2019
• Sabbatical Research scheme (£10000), Anglia Ruskin University, February to May 2017
• Research Assistant funding / UG Researcher Scheme, Anglia Ruskin University, 2014 – 2017, 2019
• Educational Partnerships in Africa Grant (£60000), British Council, Sep 2009
• Educational Partnerships in Africa Travel Grant (£3000), British Council, March 2009

Selected recent publications

Publications

Hacker, K. (2022) Us in Relation to the Universe: Collaborative North-South Photographic Practice Research in Radical Pedagogy and the Photographic Image, London.

Hacker, K. (ed.)(2020). Stories of Kalingalinga, Ruskin Arts Publications, Cambridge.

Hacker, K. (2019). In Pictures: Zambia’s New Generation. BBC News. [online] 16 Dec. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-50265927 [Accessed 10 February 2022].

Hacker, K. (2019). Generation Z in Uncertain States: Issue X, London.

Hacker, K. (2018) Generation Z: Visual Self-Governance through Photography. In Lam, C.and Raphael, J. (Ed.) Personas and Places Waterhill Publishing: New York.

Solo Exhibitions

Generation Z: Art at ARB, CRASSH, Cambridge, UK. October - December 2018.

Inspire Dialogue: Magdalene College, Cambridge, UK. September 2017.

Generation Z: Henry Tayali Gallery, Lusaka, Zambia. August 2017.

Curated Exhibitions:

Stories of Kalingalinga: Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge: February 2020 – present.

Stories of Kalingalinga: Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge: January - February 2020.

The Archive and the Contested Landscape: Festival of Ideas, Cambridge: October 2018.

Group Exhibitions:

Festival der Fotografischen Bilder, Regensburg, Germany: October 2021.

Festival der Fotografischen Bilder, Regensburg, Germany: October 2017 - March 2018.

Henry Tayali Gallery, Lusaka, Zambia: Konse Konse (European Union): May 2017.

Recent presentations and conferences

• AHSS Research Conference, co-organiser, Anglia Ruskin University (21/06/2022)
• Africa-Europe: Reciprocal Perspectives (VAD22), Verein für Afrikawissenschaften in Deutschland, Albert Ludwig University Freiburg im Breisgau (7-10/10/2022)
• Telling our Tales through Ambiguous Photography: Decolonizing the Visual Library of the African Continent, Symposium Initiation and Organization, Anglia Ruskin University (31/01/2020)
• AHSS Research Conference, co-organiser, Anglia Ruskin University (15/07/2019)
• European Conference of African Studies, Panel Convener and presenter, Edinburgh University (11-14. June 2019)
• Contested Discourses of Africa Rising: The struggle for control of the image of the foreign partner British Academy symposium, University of Leeds (10/12/2018)
• Post-representative Participations: Engaging with Civic Action in Times of Digital Citizenship Conference, University of Brighton (16/11/2018)
• ASAUK (African Studies Association) 2018 Biannual Conference, Media and Politics stream, University of Birmingham (11-13/09/2018)
• Bridging Gaps Conference, Fostering Visual Self-Governance in Zambia, University of Western Australia, CMCS Research Group, Perth (10/12/2017) - Best Paper Award

Media experience

• The Conversation
• BBC World Service
• Zambian Broadcast Corporation
• Interviews for Podcasts