Lilli Kim Schreiber: In the role of the social observer

Lilli Kim Schreiber was of kindergarten age when her parents, who worked in the textile industry, moved to Appenzell from southern Germany, close to the border with Basel. Her mother gave her an artistic and creative streak in the cradle, so to speak, as she used to design fabrics professionally as a textile designer and had spent a lot of time in front of the easel in her youth. "We often visited museums and art exhibitions together when I was very young," Schreiber mentions.

Like her mother, Lilli Kim Schreiber started painting at an early age - and also writing stories. The latter culminated in her school days when she not only edited the school and A-level newspaper, but also wrote a crime novel as part of a book project. Encouraged in everything at her grammar school, she eventually developed a particular soft spot for the humanities and languages. In addition to German, history and art, her favorite subjects included English and French, as well as Latin and Ancient Greek. "I was particularly interested in the historical background of Roman and Greek poetry and epic poetry," adds Schreiber.

Particularly fascinated by Roman law, she switched to the University of Lucerne to study law after completing her federal baccalaureate. "Even though I was quite taken with courses such as History of Law and Philosophy of Law, I had to realize after the first semester that law wasn't right for me. I missed the critical questioning," admits Schreiber.

The joy of writing led her to an internship in the local editorial office of the Appenzeller Zeitung, a small offshoot of the St. Galler Tagblatt. "They threw me straight in at the deep end, had me conducting interviews and publishing articles from day one - but that gave my self-confidence a huge boost," reports Schreiber. The offer of a journalistic traineeship was already on the table at the time. "But first I wanted to acquire more knowledge about communication and media in a degree course," explains Schreiber, whose decision in favor of ZU and the CCM Bachelor's degree was made in the summer before the start of the course in September. "A real stroke of luck", as she says herself. "ZU was the only university in the area that combines culture and communication in one degree program," notes Schreiber.

In practice, she remained loyal to journalism. She completed her first summer internship at the St. Galler Tagblatt again, but this time in the city and culture editorial department. She also worked as a freelance journalist until August last year, initially for the Tagblatt and later for the eastern Swiss culture magazine Saiten. She gained her own curatorial experience by working for a year as an assistant at artsprogram during the week and as a working student at the Kunsthalle Appenzell at weekends, as well as curating the digital poetry exhibition "in|:stag:|e" in cooperation with the Literaturhaus Vorarlberg.

The idea of doing a traineeship in journalism after her bachelor's degree has since receded far into the background. This was because sociology and cultural studies were increasingly becoming her focus. This was triggered by an introductory sociology seminar on the phenomenon of fashion. It was there that she met Franz Schultheis, a sociologist who has accompanied her academically to this day. "Even then, I fell in love with Pierre Bourdieu's sociology," remarks Schreiber. "How a certain clientele behaves in public spaces such as art museums or galleries: Social behaviors and a group-specific habitus, which I frequently observed during my time as a journalist, suddenly became scientifically ascertainable and understandable."

Coincidentally, Franz Schultheis was looking for a new student assistant at the time. "Nothing benefits me more than our conversations, from which I draw almost all of my knowledge about Pierre Bourdieu and his research - the two sociologists were very close due to their work together in Paris," explains Schreiber. She became increasingly involved in her professor's research work, was entrusted with the editing of two publications and was able to participate in a DFG project on the visualization of sociological practice. "It was about analyzing a journal published by Bourdieu that dealt with scientific standards in a very experimental way," says Schreiber.

Pierre Bourdieu took his first sociological steps on his trips to Algeria - with a camera in his luggage. In a comparative study, Lilli Kim Schreiber investigates how the resulting photographs were staged in worldwide exhibitions after his death in 2002 - whether as research material or as photographic art. "Building on this, my bachelor's thesis will analyze the aesthetic reception of the photographs on the part of the visitors to these exhibitions - in other words, how the aura of the photographs is manifested and passed on through public discussion," explains Schreiber.