Charlotte Lerg is a professor for North American history and culture at the LMU Amerika Institut.

With a background in visual cultures of the past, she is particularly interested in the contexts that lead to the emergence of documentary drawing practices and the kind of “work” these images did (and do). Her approach to the project is shaped by her previous work in the history of knowledge and a keen interest in the epistemics of history and visual narratives. Moreover, as a historian of North America, she also focuses on the challenges of representation and the mediation of power structures, especially in her sub-project on courtroom drawing.

Before this project, Charlotte worked on transatlantic revolutionary cultures, Cold War ideologies, and the link between universities, diplomacy, and society. A recurring theme in her work is the connection between the practices of studying and representing the past and the way historical understanding shapes societies and identities in the present.

Subject: Court Sketches

Christina Heflin is an art historian and postdoctoral researcher at the LMU Amerika Institut.

Her previous projects have examined the relationship between post-World War I trauma and the presence of marine fauna in surrealist art, the work of British Surrealist artist Eileen Agar and her connection to the natural world, as well as the impact of Arturo Schwarz’s passion for French Surrealism on the post-war Italian art scene.

Her sub-project looks at 20th-century documentary drawing related to war, with an aim to focus on the capturing of maritime events and scenes, which is part of a larger project examining art, the ocean, and technology.

Subject: War Art(ists)