Dr Birgit Johler studied European Ethnology and Romance Studies in Vienna (M.A. 1998), where she completed her doctorate in 2017 with a thesis on the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in times of political change.

After completing her studies, she worked as an editor and assistant director and as a freelance exhibition curator, including for the Jewish Museum in Vienna; from 2008 to 2017, she worked as a curator at the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in Vienna and edited the Österreichischen Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. She was a curator in the team for the new Austrian exhibition at the State Museum Auschwitz Birkenau, curator at the House of Austrian History and in 2019 moved to the Ethnological Museum Graz – Universalmuseum Joanneum as lead curator. In addition to her research and curatorial activities, she has repeatedly held teaching positions in Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck and Münster and has recently served on several juries for cultural remembrance projects.

Johler's research interests range from the Alltagsgeschichte (history of everyday life) of the 20th century, material culture and historical costume research to commemoration and remembrance practices, Jewish history and National Socialism as well as museum research.

A selection of her publications and exhibitions is available at https://www.uni-muenster.de/Kulturanthropologie/Institut/Johler.html.