Louise Adams

Research Associate |
SP3: Cowries in Space and Time

Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg

Contact details

Email

Website Institution
Institute for Art and Visual Culture | CvO Uni Oldenburg

Research Project

In my project and doctoral dissertation “Cowrie (Re-)Collections”, supervised by Prof. Dr. Petra Löffler, I am analysing visual representations of cowrie shells in photographs taken in colonial contexts, as well as their remediations. For this, I am compiling a photographic corpus based on research in archives, databases, and publications, and exchanging ideas with experts, source communities, and the Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch.

I consider cowrie shells as connecting elements of multiple stories and as traces in documents and visual culture. In many photographs, they appear incidentally. However, as parts of clothing, jewellery, ritual objects, or status symbols, they are entangled with the material culture, social worlds, and identities of the people depicted. These apparently incidental appearances serve as case studies and entry points into histories of trade, colonialism, slavery, resistance, resilience, representation, material and visual culture, as well as the problematic legacy of colonial visual regimes, archives, and museums.

My work also involves a critical reflection on the colonial gaze, epistemic biases, Western knowledge production, and text–image relations. Another focus is on contemporary remediations—such as digitisations, 3D visualisations, or artistic projects and exhibitions—where I am exploring the potential for shifts in meaning, transcultural translations and decolonial activations.

CV

Feb.-July 2026 Research Assistant (parental leave cover) in the Department of Theory and History of Contemporary Media, Lecturer of the seminar ‘Remediating the Past – Photography and the Troubling Legacy of Colonialism’, Institute of Art and Visual Culture, University of Oldenburg

Since Nov. 2024 PhD Researcher in the project ProSaDi, Institute of Art and Visual Culture, University of Oldenburg

Dec. 2023 – June 2025 Research Coordinator in the project DiViAS, Institute of History, University of Oldenburg

Winter Semester 2024 Lecturer “Memory Activism and Postcolonial Memory Cultures in Namibia”, Institute of History, University of Oldenburg

2021–2023 Associate for International Affairs and Project Manager and Research Member of the project “future.film.education – Online Teaching and Diversity in European Film Schools”, ifs International Film School Cologne

2020 M.A. Media Culture Analysis (trinational master at the University of Düsseldorf, Vienna and Nantes)

2015 B.A. Media and Cultural Studies (Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf)

Publications

Adams, L., de Boer, V., Kahmen, O., Möhrle, F., & Ziemer, D. (2025). The Digitisation of Ethnographic Objects Featuring Cowrie Shells in the Research Cluster ProSaDi: A Case Study of a 'Cartridge Pouch' from Togo. Digital Turn. Collections – Provenances – Markets (Digital Turn), Berlin. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17532752
Ungeheilte Wunden – Erinnerungskultur zum Völkermord an den Herero und Nama in Namibia. Masterarbeit, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, 2021. URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:061-20210127-090534-5. Online veröffentlicht im Publikationsserver der HHU [CW: Die Arbeit enthält historische Fotografien von Gewalt als Quellenmaterial. Heute gehe ich mit größerer Sensibilität an die Frage heran, wie solche Bilder dargestellt und rezipiert werden, und reflektiere diese Aspekte stärker in meiner Forschung.]