About

The Cultural Industries in Times of Acute Crisis Project is led by Dr. Sarah Anne Ganter and brings together students, academics and organizations of the arts and cultural industries. We study emerging questions addressing the short- and long-term consequences of concrete, challenging situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, for the sector, its organizations, workers, and citizens, as well as related policy initiatives and processes.

Our work links insights from media and communication studies, political sciences, sociology and economics and combines empirical and conceptual work. Some of the questions we are interested in are: How has the pandemic shaped the sector in the short and long term? What have been models of resilience resulting from the pandemic, and which factors help shape resilience in the cultural industries? Which impact has the pandemic had on community building and outreach activities in the sector? How has the community responded, and how have patterns of cultural activities been shaped throughout the pandemic? What role has cultural consumption and engagement with culture had in young adults’ pandemic everyday lives? Through these questions we explore links between cultural economy, cultural policies, community and cultural democracy as important pillars in society.

Current and past team members

Dr. Sarah Anne Ganter (Principal Investigator)

Thomas Wilson (MA student, Research Assistant)

Mahyar Sharafi Laleh (Work-Study Student, Research Assistant)

Marie Sophie Reichhardt (Research Assistant)

Nitish Gupta (Work-Study student, Research Assistant)

Katrina Weesies (Research Support)

Kimia Nafar (Work-Study Student)

Halima Moola (Work-Study Student)

Maira Cristina Castro (Research Assistant)

Jennifer Yakamovich (Research Assistant)

Tvine Donabedian (Research Assistant)

Doug Preyser (Work-Study Student)

Arsh Gill (Work-Study Student)

Abdelrahmen Fakida (Research Assistant)