Prof. Dr. Julius Heinicke

Julius Heinicke is Professor of Cultural Policy and holder of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policies for the Arts and Transformation. He has been Dean of the Faculty since April 2025.

Julius Heinicke is a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in Canada and the University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia. He currently heads several work packages in Horizon Europe research projects (IN SITU, D@rts, Intracomp) and, together with Wolfgang Schröer, the BMBF project “Cultural Self-Sufficiency: Young People's Right to Cultural (Self-)Education.”

From 2017 to 2020, he was Professor of Applied Cultural Studies at Coburg University and headed the Science and Culture Center. Prior to that, he researched and taught at the Institute for Theater Studies at the Free University of Berlin. After studying cultural and theater studies/cultural communication, he received his doctorate from Humboldt University in Berlin on theater, art, and politics in Zimbabwe with a scholarship from the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Jan. 2025 – Dec. 2027, EU Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program: Intracomp – Intercultural and Transcultural Competence through Collaborative Cultural Expression, (Lead WP6)

Jan. 2024 – Dec. 2026, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF): Cultural Self-Sufficiency: Young People's Right to Cultural (Self-)Education, (project management together with Wolfgang Schröer, Institute for Social and Organizational Education)

01.2024 – 06.2027, EU Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme: Dialoguing@rts – Advancing Cultural Literacy for Social Inclusion through Dialogical Arts Education, (Lead WP7)

09.2023 – 12.2027, Franco-German University (DFH): PhD Track Program (together with Prof. Yannick Butel, Aix Marseille Université)

07.2022 – 06.2026, EU Horizon Europe Research Programme 2020: IN SITU: Place-based Innovation of Cultural and Creative Industries in Non-urban Areas” (Lead WP5)

09.2022 – 02.2024, Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony (MWK), Consortium: EU application Post-colonial Cultural Practices: Local Acting and global South North Exchange, (project management)

01.2021 – 12.2025, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): Graduate School “Performing Sustainability” (in collaboration with the Center for World Music, University of Hildesheim; University of Cape Coast, Ghana; and University of Maiduguri, Nigeria)

June 2020 – June 2021, German Society for International Cooperation (GiZ), Federal Foreign Office: Donko ni Maaya – Crisis prevention and strengthening social cohesion by promoting the Malian cultural sector in Bamako (Mali), (project management)

03.2018 – 01.2022 Bavarian Ministry of Culture, Education, Science and the Arts: Interfaces between high culture and cultural education, (project management)
 

Monographs and publications

• Heinicke, Julius; Crückeberg, Johannes; Kalbhenn, Jan; Landau-Donelly, Friederike, Lohbeck, Katrin; Mohr, Henning (eds.): Handbook of Cultural Policy, Wiesbaden: Springer, 2024 (print). Available online at: https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-658-34381-1?fbclid=IwAR0TKsHUDvVTb6v9Yg6ar1EK3p4jDPpjkwBV38Q13cXwa7sl0CyMDAWyD9A
   
• Heinicke, Julius; Nonoa, Koku Gnatuloma (eds.): Transcultural Theater Arena: Borders and the Odyssey of Refugees – Interdisciplinary Reflections, Esch-sur-Alzetee, Luxembourg: Melusa Press, 2024.
   
• Heinicke, Julius (sub-ed.): Applied Performance in Western Europe, in: Prentki, Tim; Breed, Ananda (eds.): The Routledge Companion to Applied Performance Volume 1. London / New York: Routledge, 2021.
   
• Heinicke, Julius; Lohbeck, Katrin (eds.): Ivory Tower or Culture for All? Cultural Policy Perspectives and Artistic Formats between Cultural Institutions and Cultural Education, Munich: Kopaed, 2020.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: Concern for the Open: Negotiating Diversity in and with Theater. Berlin: Theater der Zeit, 2019.
   
• Heinicke Julius; Kalu, Joy Kristin; Warstat Matthias (eds.): Art and Everyday Life. Paragrana – International Journal for Historical Anthropology 2, (2017).
   
• Heinicke, Julius; Warstat, Matthias et al.: Theater as Intervention: Politics of Aesthetic Practice. Berlin: Theater der Zeit, 2015.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: How to Cook a Country: Theater in Zimbabwe in the Political-Aesthetic Field of Tension. Trier: WVT (LuKA Literaturen und Kunst Afrikas, Vol. 6), 2013.
   

• Heinicke, Julius; Heister, Hilmar; Klein, Tobias; Prüschenk, Viola (eds.): Kuvaka Ukama - Building Bridges: A Tribute to Flora Veit-Wild, Heidelberg: Kalliope Paperbacks, 2012.

   

Contributions to journals and anthologies

• Heinicke, Julius: "Institutions of foreign cultural work as moderators of diversity and the danger of
  political influence," in: Goethe-Institut, IFA, DeZIM: Diversity, Stuttgart: Ifa Edition Kultur und Außenpolitik, 2025, pp. 16-35.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “The Glocal Self: Cultural Policy Concepts Between Heritage and Future Using the Example of Berlin's Humboldt Forum,” in: Wulf, Christoph (ed.): Handbook on Intangible Cultural Practices as Global Strategies For the Future, Wiesbaden: Springer, 2025, pp. 451-458, (open access).
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Prudence Instead of Agitation: The Dichotomous Debates of Contemporary Cultural Policy Are Poison for Democratic Freedoms and Promote Extremist Strategies,” in: Politics and Culture 4/2024. Online at https://politikkultur.de/inland/besonnenheit-statt-hetze/
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Reconfiguring Postcolonial Cultural Policy,” in Igweonu, Kene: Routledge Handbook of African Theatre and Performance, London / New York: Routledge, 2024, pp. 103-113.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Freedom after Death. Aesthetic Scope and Cultural-Political Impact of Ignorance,” in: Bernecker, Roland; Wulf, Christoph: Freedom in the Planetary Space of the 21st Century, Paragrana Volume 31, 2023, Issue 1, pp. 71-84.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: "Community in Diversity? Cultural Education and Cultural Mediation as a Space for Reflection in a Diverse Society," in: Constanze Kirchner, Nicola Pauli, Ernst Wagner (eds.): Transcultural Visual Worlds – Multiperspective Approaches in Art Education, Practical Examples and Conceptual Considerations, Munich: Kopaed 2023, pp. 227-237.
   
• Heinicke, Julius (interview by Jack Engel and Milena Valeva): “Cultural Education for Sustainability in Peripheral Areas – Impulses from South Africa,” in: Valeva, Milena; Nitschmann, Kathrin: Sociocultural Sustainability in the Periphery, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2023, pp. 143–169.
   
• Heinicke, Julius; Lohbeck, Katrin: “Cohesion through, with, and by Culture” and “Culture Module,” in: Hassel, Holger (et al.) (ed.): Social Cohesion. Promoting Togetherness through Food and Culture. A Practical Handbook, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2023, pp. 29–34 and pp. 155–176.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “The Competence of Culture in Crisis. The Global Self.” In: Stadtkultur Magazin, 61, December 2022. Link: www.stadtkulturmagazin.de/2022/12/die-kompetenz-von-kultur-in-der-krise-das-glokale-ich/
• Heinicke, Julius: “Postcolonial Cultural Policy.” In: Sharifi, Azadeh; Skwirblies, Lisa (Eds.): Theater Studies Postcolonial / Decolonial. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2022, pp. 177-196. Online at: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839455531-013/html
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “The Perfidious A Priori of Racism. Cultural-Political Visions Beyond Polar Differences,” in: Politics and Culture, 708, 2022. Online at: https://politikkultur.de/themen/rassismus/das-perfide-apriori-des-rassismus/
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “The Transformation of a Solid Foundation into a Flexible Sphere: The Transformative Power of Art and Culture and the Consequences for Cultural Policy Goals and Cultural Laws,” in: Flexibility. Annual Report 2021 Lower Saxony Foundation, 2022, pp. 8-15. Online at: https://www.stnds.de/ueber-uns/publikationen/jahresberichte
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Culture as a Sustainable Development Goal?”, in: kubi – Magazine for Cultural Education, 22, 2022, pp. 7-11, online at: https://www.kubi-online.de/index.php/artikel/kultur-sustainable-development-goal
   
• Heinicke, Julius: "More essential than systemically important: The cultural policy impact of cultural and artistic creators in times of crisis," in: Wulf, Christoph: Paragrana – International Journal for Historical Anthropology 2, 2021.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Politically dependent, yet essential: Cultural policy observations of the art landscape in times of crisis.” In: Ethics and Society, Journal for Social Ethics, Tübingen, 2021, 1. Online at: https://www.ethik-und-gesellschaft.de/ojs/index.php/eug/article/view/1-2021-art-5
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “As vital as death: Cultural policy considerations on the power of art in times of crisis,” in: Kulturelemente. Journal for Current Issues, 154/2020, 1-2.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Applied Cultural Theory: Concern for the Open. Transcultural Moments in the Arts and the Cultural-Political Urgency to Preserve Them,” in Theater heute 5, (2020). 64.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Creating Counter Public Sphere(s): Performances in Zimbabwe between Mugabe and Western NGOs,” in: Seda, Owen; Ravengai Samuel (eds.): Performance in Zimbabwe, Basingstoke: Plagrave MacMillan, 2020 (forthcoming).
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Aesthetics and Art as a Space for Knowledge and Reflection in the Anthropocene,” in: Schwinger, Elke (ed.): The Anthropocene in Interdisciplinary Discourse, Marburg: Metropolis, 2019.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Transculturality and De-similarization,” in: Journal of Theater Education, 74, 2019, 7-8.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “The Ideal of a Rainbow Nation – What European Theater and Cultural Policy Can Learn from Southern Africa,” in: Schneider, Wolfgang; Nawa, Lebogang Lance (eds.): Theatre in Transformation: Artistic Processes and Cultural Policy in South Africa, Bielefeld: Transcript, 2019, 157-172.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Ein Zauberberg oder viel Lärm um nichts? Kulturhauptstadt Europa 2025” (A Magic Mountain or Much Ado About Nothing? European Capital of Culture 2025), in: Kulturpolitische Mitteilungen, 163, IV (2018), 32-33.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Spheres of Twilight: On the Asymmetrical Otherness of Knowledge in Aesthetic Practice in the Social Field,” in: Hinz, Melanie (et al.) (ed.): Research Theater in the Social Field. Munich: Kopaed, 2018.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Oxen and Bulls: Theater in the Provinces,” in: Theater heute, 6 (2018), 68-69.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Entanglements between Everyday Life and Art: (Inter)cultural Potential or Restriction of Aesthetic Freedom?” in: Heinicke Julius; Kalu, Joy Kristin; Warstat Matthias (eds.): Art and Everyday Life. Paragrana - International Journal for Historical Anthropology 2, (2017), 42-56.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “South Africa and the Concern for Openness: The Assitej World Congress in Cape Town,” in: Theater heute, 8 (2017), 54-56.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Elsewhere is usually not the same: How theater gives us access to other worldviews,” in: Closed Society: Artistic Interventions on Cultural Diversity. (Yearbook Ixypsilonzett 2017), 23-25.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Recognizing and avoiding colonial pitfalls: Perspectives for intercultural theater work from financing to aesthetics to evaluation,” in: Warstat, Matthias et al. (eds.): Applied Theater: Frameworks and Positions. Berlin: Theater der Zeit, (2017), 111-136.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Theatre in Transformation: What Germany Can Learn from South Africa,” in: Theater heute, 5 (2016), 75-76.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Borders (on) Stage: Refugee Theater in South Africa and Germany,” in: Theater heute, 2 (2015), 26-31.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “The Rediscovery of Theatricality. A Return to The Dead as the Power of the Living,” in: Budde, Antje (ed.): Fiebach. Theater. Wissen. Machen. Berlin: Theater der Zeit, 2014, 25-34.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Performing the Public Sphere,” in: Amine, Khalid and George F. Robertson (eds.): Intermediality, Performances, and the Public Sphere. Tangier: International Collaboration Services, 2014, 158-162.
• Heinicke, Julius: “Burning Migrants, Stupid Europeans, and Corrupt Politicians: Cape Town's Theaters Negotiate South Africa's Conflicts,” in: Theater heute, 3 (2014), 42-46.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “Pizza or Chicken Leg? Theater in Zimbabwe between Resistance and Innovation,” in: Theater heute, 6 (2013), 50-54.
   
• Heinicke, Julius: “How to Play (with) Politics? Theatre and Socio-Political Engagement in Current Zimbabwe,” in: Performative Trans-Actions in African Theatre 2: Innovation, Creativity & Enterprise in African Theatre, edited by Kene Igweonu, Osita Okagbue. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, 27-39.
   
• Heinicke, Julius; Mörike, Tobias: “Science with a Touch of Poetry.” Humboldt 5 (2012): 7.

• Impulse “The resilient community body or the art of well-being,” #BerlinistKultur, Literary Colloquium Berlin, July 7, 2025.
   
• Keynote “Radical artistic freedom as a guarantor of a resilient democracy,” Kunsthaus Hamburg, May 10, 2025.
   
• Keynote "Transcendence instead of transformation? Impulses from Southern Africa and Global Perspectives for Cultural Education in Rural Areas,“ at the closing conference on cultural education in rural areas, ”RESEARCH RESULTS AND CULTURAL WORK AS A RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGES OF OUR TIME," University of Leipzig, September 20, 2023. (Link: https://www.uni-leipzig.de/projekt-metaklub/metaklub/konferenz)
   
• Discussion with Anemie Vanackere (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) and Dr. Christiane Schenderlein (Member of the German Bundestag) on the topic of “Criticism of power and leadership” as part of the program  #JETZT! What does a young cultural policy need? by KuPoGe, HAU, September 19, 2023.
   
• Lecture “The postcolonial potential of cultural policy: co-creation, negotiation, and the promotion of the global self,” as part of the interdisciplinary lecture series of the Center for Educational Integration: Postcolonial Perspectives, Colonial Continuity, July 5, 2023.
   
• Expert input on the focus topic “Strengthening human rights and sustaining cultural diversity in and across education systems” at the UNESCO regional consultations on January 31, 2023. Link: https://www.unesco.org/en/frameworkcultureartseducation
   
• Genshagen Discussions Wednesday, January 18, 12:30-1:30 p.m.: Culture between transformation and crisis – An exchange on cultural policy in Germany and France
  Julius Heinicke, Institute for Cultural Policy at the University of Hildesheim, and Vincent Guillon, co-director of the Observatory for Cultural Policy, Grenoble, discuss the current state of culture in Germany and France from a cultural policy perspective. Link: https://www.stiftung-genshagen.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungen-2023/gemeinsam/kultur-zwischen-transformation-und-krise-ein-austausch-zur-kulturpolitik-in-deutschland-und-frankreich/
   
• Keynote speech “The Importance of Culture in Crisis,” Hamburger Ratschlag Stadtteilkultur, on November 17, 2022. Link: www.stadtkultur-hh.de/ratschlag/programm/
   
• Impulse Annual Conference Music State of Lower Saxony on November 11, 2022: Alliances. Link: https://musikland-niedersachsen.de/netzwerk-service/jahreskonferenz/programmjko22/
   
• “What do diversity and feminism mean for foreign cultural and educational policy – and how can success be measured?” Panel discussion at the German Center for Integration and Migration Research. Link: https://www.dezim-institut.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungen-detail/auswaertige-kultur-und-bildungspolitik-unter-druck/
   
• Goethe-Institut fears closures. Julius Heinicke in conversation with Nicole Dittmer on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. You can find the interview here: https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/goethe-institut-106.html
   
• Friday, December 12, 2020, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Kyoto: Kamogawa Talk. Dr. Satomi Hiyama and Prof. Dr. Julius Heinicke in conversation. Online.
   
• “Lumbung and the Arts: Paradigm Shift in Cultural Policy,” lecture by Prof. Julius Heinicke as part of the Fundamental Colloquium at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Recording of the lecture from November 26, 2020.
   
• “Culture and Politics in South Africa,” lecture by Prof. Dr. Julius Heinicke as part of the lecture series “Nonprofit Organizations and Sustainable Regional Development” at the Birkenfeld Environmental Campus. Recording of the lecture from October 28, 2020.
   

Member of the Executive Board of the African Theatre Association
Member of the Cultural Policy Society
Member of the Society for Theatre Studies
Member of the Cultural Studies Society
Founding member of Cultrans e.V.
Member of the Contemporary Arts Alliance

Lecturer for the Heinrich Böll Foundation and member of the selection committee
Expert for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Expert for the German National Academic Foundation

For a view of the FAQ, please click here.