KATHRIN PABST – META-MUSEUM

Dr. Kathrin Pabst is a cultural scientist with a Master’s degree in European Ethnology, and a PhD in professional ethics. She has more than 20 years of experience from the museum and cultural sector, combining research, leadership and extensive international collaboration.

Pabst has led research and dissemination departments and initiated a wide range of socially engaged exhibition and research projects, including large-scale EU-funded collaborations between museums and universities across seven European countries. Her work focuses particularly on migration, intergenerational trauma, ethical dilemmas and the societal role of museums.

She has published more than 30 academic and popular science works and delivered over 100 lectures and workshops in more than 15 countries. Pabst has held central roles within the International Council of Museums (ICOM), including as founding chair of the International Committee for Ethical Dilemmas and as a current board member of ICOM’s Standing Ethics Committee (ETHCOM). She is also actively engaged in the European Museum Academy and serves as an evaluator for EU-funded projects.

Kathrin Pabst’s reflections on the META-MUSEUM:

“META-MUSEUM is particularly compelling because it places empathy at the centre of how we understand and engage with cultural heritage. After more than two decades working with the role of emotions in heritage processes—often closely tied to identity, family history and local belonging—I have come to see how profoundly individual interpretation is shaped by emotional experience.

Emotions are never isolated; they emerge through lived experiences and in interaction with others. They are shaped by social contexts, relationships and the environments we are part of—and in turn, they shape how we perceive, interpret and attribute meaning. This dynamic is especially visible when working with sensitive or contested histories, where empathy can both open pathways for understanding and create tensions that must be navigated carefully.

A META-MUSEUM perspective invites us to take these complexities seriously. By acknowledging emotions as integral to knowledge production and meaning-making, and by including multiple voices and experiences, we move closer to a more nuanced and responsible understanding of heritage—not as something fixed, but as something continuously shaped in relation between individuals, communities and institutions.”

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