Jessica Ullrich (born 1969) has been an interim professor for Prof. Dr. Nina Gerlach in aesthetics and art science since 2021. She had already been an honorary professor at the University of Fine Arts Münster since 2019. Previously, she was a visiting lecturer in art education at the Berlin University of the Arts, a research associate in human-animal studies at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and in art sciences at the Berlin University of the Arts, as well as curator for education and communication at Kunstpalais Erlangen, project manager at the Tempelhof/Schöneberg museums and a research volunteer at Georg Kolbe Museum.

In recent years, she has also had a number of teaching assignments in art history, art education, comparative literature, German studies as well as film and media studies, including at the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Europa-Universität Flensburg.

She has published widely on contemporary art, curated international exhibitions and video screenings (including in Berlin, Utrecht and Sao Paulo) and organised interdisciplinary conferences (including in Berlin and Erlangen). She has also worked in museums (such as Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin), galleries (such as Leo Castelli, New York) and for art magazines (kunst-texte.de and others). She is the editor of animal studies published by Neofelis Verlag and a member of the advisory board of “Antennae. The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture”, the “Zeitschrift für Kritische Tierstudien” (Journal of Critical Animal Studies), the “Cultural Animal Studies” book series published by Metzler Verlag and the book series “Numanities. Arts and Humanities in Progress” published by Springer Verlag. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Culture & Animals Foundation and of the advisory board of METIBE (Office for Human-Animal Relations). Jessica Ullrich is a (founding) member of various Animal Studies groups such as Forschungsinitiative Tiertheorien (FITT; Research Initiative on Animal Theories), IRI (Individual Rights Initiative), Animals in History, CLAS (Cultural Animal Studies), IFCEAS (Interfaculty Forum for Cultural Environmental and Animal Studies) and EACAS (European Association for Critical Animal Studies). She is also a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ästhetik (German Society for Aesthetics), of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA), of Synapse International Curators Network and of Genshagener Kreis e. V. Berlin. Jessica Ullrich has been a representative of Minding Animals Germany since 2010.

Her current research work especially focusses on living animals in contemporary art and the associated aesthetic, (art) philosophical, ethical and ecological discourses. She is also concerned with the agency of non-human actors, gender issues and the decolonisation of art history.

• Animal studies, multispecies studies, Numanities (new humanities)
• Material aesthetics, new materialism
• Critical posthumanism and transhumanism
• Ecocriticism, ecocinema, environmental art, critical plant studies, bioart, land art
• Performance art
• Art history and aesthetics of the 19th to 21st centuries
• Film and media studies
• Empathy research, affect research, care ethics, feminist ethics
• Decolonisation of art history

2017

• Videoscreening zum 3. Seminário Internacional Arte e Natureza, Universität Sao Paulo (mit Hannah Israel und Hugo Fortes)

2014

• "Second Nature", Videoausstellung Universität Sao Paulo (mit Hugo Fortes)

2012

• Videoscreening "Animals and Aesthetics", Universität der Künste Berlin
• Videoscreening "Contact Zones. Minding Animals in Contemporary Video", Konferenz Minding Animals, Universität Utrecht

2011

• Videoscreening "Arte e natureza", Mathila Cultural, Sao Paulo (mit Hugo Fortes)

2009

• "Tier-Perspektiven. Animalisches in der Bildhauerei der Gegenwart", Georg-Kolbe-Museum (mit Friedrich Weltzien)
• "Tier-Werden/Mensch-Werden", NGBK Berlin (mit Heike Fuhlbrügge, Kassandra Nakas, Antonia Ulrich, Sévèrine Maguin und Friedrich Weltzien)
• Videoscreening "Becoming Animal. Animalische Identitäten", NGBK Berlin
• Videoscreening "Tierperspektiven. Das Tier im Blick", Georg-Kolbe-Museum Berlin

2004

• "Floris Neusüss. Fotogramme", Georg-Kolbe-Museum Berlin

2003

• "Georg Kolbe, Freunde und Kollegen", Georg-Kolbe-Museum Berlin

2002

• "Wächserne Identitäten. Figürliche Wachsbildnerei am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts", Georg-Kolbe-Museum Berlin
• "Georg-Kolbe-Preisträger Reinhard Kühl", Georg-Kolbe-Museum Berlin
• "Georg Kolbe. Aus den Beständen des Museums", Georg-Kolbe-Museum Berlin

2001

• "Warten. Fotografien von Bernd Wolf", Georg-Kolbe-Museum Berlin

2017 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (master’s theses) in German:

• "Zwischen Mythologie und modernem Kino. Die filmische Darstellung eines Gestaltwandlers und der Mensch-Tier-Verwandlung anhand der Figur 'Beorn' in der Hobbit-Trilogie"
• "Das Faultier hinter dem Schalter. Die filmische Darstellung von Diskriminierung und menschlichen Stereotypen in 'Zootopia'"
• "Mensch und Tier im Genremix: Die Rollenverteilung am Beispiel von 'The Cove' und 'Blackfish'"

2016 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (bachelor’s thesis) in German:

• "Pferdedarstellungen bei Franz Marc"

2015 University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (bachelor’s thesis) in German:

• "Keine Angst vor dem Publikum! Interkulturelle Vermittlungsarbeit in öffentlichen Kunstmuseen"

2004–2014 Berlin University of the Arts (bachelor’s theses) in German:

• "Albrecht Dürer. Die Veränderung des Selbstverständnisses des Künstlers durch das Selbstbildnis"
• "Paris und der Impressionismus. Das impressionistische Parisbild"
• "Die Entwicklung der türkischen Gegenwartskunst im Fokus der kulturellen Identität"
• "Alfred Kubin: Bildgestalterische Strategien der Angst"
• "Verbergen und enthüllen' - Motive verborgener Identität in den Caprichos von Goya"
• "Die Mutter-Kind-Darstellungen von Paula Modersohn-Becker" (Zweitgutachterin)
• "Inszenierte Identitäten in der Postmoderne: Cindy Sherman" (Zweitgutachterin)
• "Das Prinzip der Serie bei Roy Lichtenstein" (Zweitgutachterin)