Lea Marie Nienhoff
PhD candidate
Curriculum Vitae
Lea Marie Nienhoff is a cultural worker and Ph.D. candidate in Urban Studies at the University of Basel. Her doctoral project documents the rebuilding of Schwedt/Oder, highlighting the profound influence of both oil and cybernetics on shaping socialist life and aesthetics in the 1960s and 1970s. Recasting the political stakes and technological means that guided the reconstruction not only unveils the intricacies of the process but also sheds light on the imagery and debates surrounding a socialist petro-modernity actively sought in Schwedt/Oder.
Lea is part of the SNF-funded research project “Decolonizing Socialism: Entangled Internationalism. An Intersectional Study of Cold War Projects from East Germany in Cinema and Cybernetics with Relevance for the 21st Century”, based at HEAD Genève.
In her research practice and teaching she integrates creative methods, using film and storytelling, to foreground interrelations between the archive, oral history, and visual culture.
Lea studied History, Political Science, and Cultural Studies at the Universities of Freiburg and Warsaw. In 2020 she graduated from the M.A. Critical Urbanisms.