"Building Bridges between the Museum and the City"
Alice Hertzog has taken office as Director and Professor
As of August, Dr. Alice Hertzog has assumed her new position as Director of the Ethnographic Museum UZH and Assistant Professor with tenure track in Social Anthropology at the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies ISEK UZH. She holds a BA in Social Anthropology from Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge, an MA in Social Sciences from the École Normale Supérieure d'Ulm and in Urban Studies from Sciences Po in Paris. In 2020, she completed her PhD at ETH Zurich in 2020 with her doctoral thesis "The Lagos Abidjan Corridor. Migration Driven Urbanisation in West Africa" (download PhD thesis). Dr. Hertzog joined the Ethnographic Museum UZH in May 2023 as a provenance researcher. In spring 2025, she was appointed Director and Professor, succeeding Prof. Dr. Mareile Flitsch, who led the museum and held the chair for 16 years until her retirement in January 2025.
Alice Hertzog is dedicated to further strengthening the Ethnographic Museum’s position at the intersection of science and society, expanding accessibility and developing collaborations with various stakeholders. She aims to unlock the collections' potential and make their relevance more visible – through careful handling, digitisation, joint research and communication. "Our museum is located in the Old Botanical Garden in the center of Zurich; however, it is surrounded by the waters of the Schanzengraben, a former fortification," she explains. "We want to build bridges, invest in networks and establish the museum as a place of encounter and dialogue – for Zurich’s post-migrant population as well as for the source communities from around world whose objects are preserved here."
A central priority for Dr. Hertzog is to create meaningful links between her academic chair and the museum’s leadership. Museum-based teaching will be integrated into the curriculum; students will actively participate in museum projects.In her teaching and research, she will connect her work at the museum with broader theoretical and methodological discussions. This includes contested cultural heritage, restitution, and the evolving roles of museums in post-migrant societies. She is commited to the relevance of ethnographic museums in an interconnected world shaped by global mobility.
Last but not least, she will continue the critical discussion around the museum’s current German name ("Völkerkundemuseum") – and in the Spring Semester 2026 will offer a seminar on the Anthropology of Naming which will lead into an exhibition on naming.
The exhibition "Benin Dues", which Alice Hertzog co-curated as the museum's provenance researcher, will run until 8 March 2026. She is looking forward to engaging in conversations with visitors during regular guided tours.
Team Völkerkunde?museum UZH