Melanie Garland

I am a Berlin-based artist, heritage restorer-conservator, researcher, and lecturer. I hold a PhD in European Ethnology from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. My research explores (post)migrant and postcolonial cities, critical archival practices, multispecies studies, and postcolonial oceans through sonic practices, archipelagic thinking, and seascape epistemologies. Working at the intersection of art, anthropology, and critical museum studies, I engage with object-based installations, critical sonic walks, sonic-field recordings, and performative and curatorial processes grounded in feminist ethics of care. My postdoctoral projects and guest fellowships include Water Narratives, developed in collaboration with the curators of the Malta Biennale 2024 and the marine biology organization EcoMarine Malta (2025-2026); Anarchiving Ocean Margins at the Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum, Leibniz Institute for Maritime History (2025); and A Toolbox for Para-Archival Mediation: Practices for Navigating Difficult Heritage at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Landesstelle für Alltagskultur, in cooperation with the Institute for European Ethnology and the Centre for Cultural Technique at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2026). My recent publications include Sounding a Speculative Past, HUB Journal Resonance (2026); Making Places Inbetween (book), Transcript Verlag (2026); Traces of Counter-Mapping (with Carla Maier, Nicole Person, and hn.lyonga), in The (Counter) Atlas, De Gruyter (2026); Sounding the Maltese Archipelago Frequencies, High Pitch Magazine (2025); and Sensing the City (with Carla Maier and Adela Taleb), in Owned by Others, K. Verlag (2024). www.melaniegarland.com