Doris Posch

Research

Doris Posch is Associate Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at the Department of Geography, Media and Communication at Karlstad University, Sweden. She is Deputy Head of the Focus Area Society & Sustainability | Contemporary Art and Cultural Production and Senior Scientist at the Inter-University Organization Arts & Knowledges at Paris Lodron University Salzburg and Mozarteum University Salzburg, Austria.

Doris is Co-Founder of the curatorial collective CineCollective and served as Co-Director and Co-Manager of the International Film Festival Kaleidoskop in Vienna (2019–2024). She is Director of the international multi-day symposium WORLDMAKING MATTERS. Sustainable Fashion, Design and Arts (Salzburg, 2025–2026), Co-Director of the Transforming Passions – International Geomedia Conference (Karlstad, 2025), and Director of the Invited Talk Series Creating & Working Together: COLLECTIVE AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES IN ARTS AND CULTURE (Salzburg, 2024). 

She holds a PhD in Theatre, Film and Media Studies from the University of Vienna. She completed Diploma Studies in Theatre, Film and Media Studies (Mag. phil., with distinction) and Diploma Studies in Romance Studies (French and Francophone Studies) (Mag. phil., with distinction) at the University of Vienna, with study periods at Université de Montréal and Université Libre de Bruxelles, and studied Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Her doctoral research, Cinema of Relations: Emerging Film Cultures of Haiti (2021), examined aesthetics, imaginaries, and transgenerational knowledge transmission in Caribbean and diasporic visual cultures. Her current research focuses on collective practices and relational agencies in film, visual cultures, and the arts from transcultural, intersectional, and decolonial perspectives.

Previous Academic Positions and Education

Doris Posch has held academic positions at the University of Vienna, the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and the University of Art and Design Linz, where she taught film studies, media studies, transcultural studies, gender studies, postcolonial theory, and decolonial thought. She was Postdoctoral Fellow at the Research Platform Mobile Cultures and Societies (University of Vienna) and Research Project Staff Member in the project Spaces of Cultural Democracy (Paris Lodron University Salzburg and Mozarteum University Salzburg), and Doctoral Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). 

She was Visiting Scholar at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, New York University (NYU), Research Scholar at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and Visiting Researcher at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Montreal.

Areas of Research and Expertise

·      Global Film and Media Cultures and Aesthetics

·      Collective and Relational Practices in Arts and Culture

·      Curatorial Studies, Film Festival Research, and Cultural Infrastructures

·      Contemporary Art, Visual Cultures, and Cultural Production Processes

·      Film Historiography, Audiovisual Archives, and Memory Cultures

·      Caribbean and Black Atlantic Cultural Theory

·      Mobility, Migration, and Diaspora Studies in Visual and Media Cultures

·      Decolonial, Transcultural, and Intersectional Perspectives

·      Gender and Feminist Media Studies

·      Cultural and Social Sustainability in Contemporary Artistic Practices

·      Participatory and Public-Oriented Cultural Production and Communication

·      Artistic and Transdisciplinary Research Methods in Theory and Creative Practice

Professional Activities

Doris Posch’s professional activities bridge academic research, curatorial practice, and public cultural engagement. She has served as jury member, moderator, and invited speaker at international film festivals including Viennale, Diagonale, Crossing Europe, Tricky Women/Tricky Realities, this human world, Porn Film Festival Vienna, International Film Festival Innsbruck, Vues d’Afrique Montreal, and ethnocineca, and has collaborated with museums and contemporary art institutions such as Kunsthalle Wien, Belvedere 21 – Museum of Contemporary Art Vienna, the Austrian Film Museum, Film Archive Austria, and Wien Museum.

She is an active peer reviewer and academic referee and co-supervises doctoral research within the Inter-University Doctoral School Cultures in Transformation. She has organized international symposia and workshops on collective practices, decolonial media theory, and sustainable cultural production. Her work fosters knowledge exchange between universities, cultural institutions, and public audiences, strengthening international research collaboration and societal engagement in contemporary art, film, and media cultures.

Teaching

Doris teaches in Media and Communication Studies and related interdisciplinary programs with a strong emphasis on research-based and practice-oriented pedagogy. Her teaching integrates global film and media cultures, collective and relational practices in arts and culture, decolonial media theory, and audiovisual and artistic research methods. Drawing on her research in transcultural media, diasporic visual cultures, and collaborative artistic practices, she has developed courses on postcolonial and decolonial film theory, African and Caribbean and diasporic film cultures, collective practices in curation, arts and culture, sustainable fashion and design, and cinema and human rights. She also teaches courses in digital aesthetics, visual communication and design, strategic communication, and intercultural communication, linking critical theory with applied media practice and cultural production. Her teaching spans Karlstad University, University of Vienna, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Paris Lodron University Salzburg, Mozarteum University Salzburg, and the University of Art and Design Linz.

Selected Publications

Posch, D. (2025). Feminist worldmaking through collective curating: Kaleidoskop’s relational urban aesthetics. Open Cultural Studies, 9(1), 20250079. https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2025-0079

Posch, D., Moderbacher, C. (2024). Mein liebster Feind? Jean-Louis Comolli [1995] Mon ennemi préféré? German first translation from the French. Montage AV, Zeitschrift für Theorie und Geschichte audiovisueller Kommunikation, 33(02), 93–104. Berlin: Schüren.

Egger, B., Posch, D., Prlić, S. (Eds.) (2023). WANDLE! Reflexion des transdisziplinären und künstlerisch-forschenden Labors Wandeln, p/art/icipate – Kultur aktiv gestalten :: p/art/icipate – Producing culture actively, Issue 14. Salzburg: Focus Area Contemporary Arts & Cultural Production, Paris Lodron University / Mozarteum University Salzburg. Online access: https://www.p-art-icipate.net/issue/14-wandle/

Zobl, E., Anzengruber, K., Kobel, S., Pachner, T., Reiterer, S., Posch, D. (2023). Zukunft mit Zukunft, Klima, Kunst, Kultur – Experimentierräume und Vermittlungsformate. Praxis-Handbuch Räume kultureller Demokratie (2019–2023). Salzburg: Focus Area Contemporary Arts & Cultural Production, Paris Lodron University / Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Hurbon, L. (2023). The figure of the zombie and the memory of slavery across the Atlantic. Atlantic Studies, 20(3), 400–408. (Translation by Doris Posch). https://doi.org/10.1080/14788810.2022.2146958

Posch, D. (2022). TWO PALERMO (Antoinette Zwirchmayr). In Film Catalogue, New York Anthology Film Archive, New York, 06/2022.

Posch, D. (2022). ECHODROM – Nachts im Bach (Gudrun Krebitz). In Festival Catalogue, Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film, Czernin, Graz, 04/2022.

Posch, D. (2021). “I’m hungry for connection” – Artistic collectivity and ceremonial encounters in African-Caribbean relations. In B. Englert, B. Gföllner, & S. Thomsen (Eds.), Human, intellectual and cultural mobilities between Africa and the Caribbean – From the late 19th century to the present (pp. 83–113). Routledge.

Posch, D. (2019). Exiled gaze – Der exilierte Blick, filmisch-künstlerische Positionen zu aktuellen Exilgeschichten / Exiled gaze – La mirada exilada, posiciones fílmicas y artísticas respecto a historias de exilio actuales. In B. Molden (Ed.), Gekreuzte Geschichten – Erfahrungen des Exils in Mexiko und Österreich / Historias cruzadas – Experiencias del exilio en México y Austria (pp. 89–123). Vienna: bahoe.

Posch, D. (2018). Emerging film cultures: Spotlight on post-disaster Haiti. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 21(1), 27–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877917704490

Posch, D. (2018). Guérilla Kino & Eat My Body: Filmkulturen in Haitis Diasporas. In A. Huber, T. Glaser, & A. Silberbauer (Eds.), Performing Translation, Praktiken des Wissens in/um Musik – Theatre – Film (pp. 101–114). Vienna: Hollitzer.

Posch, D. (2018). Oral storytelling, the gaze and the everyday: Documentary filmmaking in Haiti. In U. Fendler & C. Vatter (Eds.), Cultural dynamics in African cinemas of the 21st century. Agents, formats, genres / Dynamiques culturelles dans les cinémas africains du XXIe siècle (pp. 113–128). Saarbrücken: universaar, Saarland University Press.

Posch, D. (2017). Cultural heritage and popular cultures: The revolution won’t be televised and its global reception. Critical Interventions, Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture, 11(3), 301–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/19301944.2017.1401384