Who we are

Amparo (“Ampis”) Leyman Pino is a Fulbright Specialist and a learning expert specializing in leadership, education, and inclusion. After a number of years in the education field, she co-founded a school in Mexico City using the hippest educational philosophies to create an inclusive model for all children. In 2007 she moved to California and strategically applied her pedagogical experience in the educational field creating high impact in schools, community colleges, universities, museums, and other cultural institutions. There she developed content and programs and moved into institutional leadership and administration roles managing staff and overseeing budgets. Ampis is an active alumna of the prestigious Noyce Leadership Institute program where she has honed her leadership style and engaged with leaders from around the world. In early 2025 she became the Director of Interpretive Programs at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She enjoys traveling, dancing, music, and is an amateur standup comedian.

Anna Sara Dias (she/her) is a Latin American interdisciplinary researcher from Brazil living in Berlin. She is trained as a historian (Rio de Janeiro) and as a social and cultural anthropologist (Berlin). Currently, she is a PhD Candidate at the Freie Universität Berlin. Recently, Anna Sara Dias completed her master thesis research on collaborative work between the Humboldt Forum and the Global Cultural Assembly (2022 – 2024). Her interests include community museums, decolonial pedagogies, migration, and critical approaches to postcolonial museum practices. She is particularly interested in collective decision-making and how the GCA can effectively help shape a new museum grammar that responds to 21st-century social demands, respects the societies of origin of cultural belongings, and actively engages with Berlin’s local communities in their everyday challenges.

Arazu Hassan Mohammed, born in Iran in 1984 and originally from Sulaymaniyah Iraqi Kurdistan, is a cultural project manager, environmentalist, and advocate for Kurdish art and women’s empowerment. Based in Kurdistan, she founded Kurdistan Outdoor Ecotourism, the region’s first ecotourism agency, promoting sustainable tourism that connects people to nature and Kurdish culture. Her work combines hiking, heritage, and community development, especially with rural women. A visible female leader in a male-dominated field, she inspires women to reclaim public space and leadership. As a calligrapher and cultural ambassador, she promotes Kurdish art locally and internationally. She is establishing a  new NGO which aims to foster environmental awareness, eco-business, and artistic sustainability. Rooted in deep love for her homeland, her mission is to revive and evolve Kurdish identity through creativity, nature, and collective resilience, specifically in the post-war villages.

Greta de León, originally from Mexico City, is a cultural diplomat, curator and researcher with a background in Art History and Museology. As Executive Director of The Americas Research Network (ARENET), based in Mexico City and  Washington, DC, she leads interdisciplinary research initiatives, fosters cross-cultural collaboration, and develops programs that bridge academic scholarship with ethical engagement, inclusive representation, and the arts across the Americas. Her work explores the intersections of museums, academic research, cultural institutions, and contemporary artistic practice, integrating digital technologies to expand access and participation. In 2025, she was named a Senior Fellow at the University of Münster’s Center for „Advanced Study on Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Transformation“. She is also a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and a board member of IBEROARTE.

Lisa Hilli (she/her) is a descendant of the Tolai (Gunantuna) people of Papua New Guinea and an artist, museum professional, and researcher specialising in Pacific lens-based practices and decolonial museum methodologies.
As an international research fellow at the German Maritime Museum in 2021, Hilli conducted extensive research on the enslaved labour histories of Melanesian people and children recruited by Deutsche Handels- und Plantagen-Gesellschaft during the German colonial era. Her investigation culminated in the co-curated exhibition „Points of View: Artistic and Scientific Perspectives on German Colonial History in the Western Pacific“, a collaborative project between the German Maritime Museum, Leibniz Institute for Maritime History, and the Harbour Museum Bremen in 2024.
Hilli has recently submitted her PhD in Pacific Studies at the Australian National University, examining mixed-race Papua New Guinean women’s visualities and visibilities through creative practice. With two decades of experience creating exhibitions and managing collections across Australia and internationally, her museum career includes roles as Collection Manager for Access to Indigenous / First Peoples Collections and Experience Developer in Exhibitions at Museums Victoria. Her artwork is held in the collections of the Australian War Memorial and Art Gallery of New South Wales. She is based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia.

Website: www.lisahilli.com 

Marcella Katjijova holds a BA in Psychology and serves as the Head of Intergenerational Trauma and Recovery of the Global Ovaherero Genocide Foundation. As a descendant of the Ovaherero Genocide survivors, her work focuses on the transformation and healing of the intergenerational trauma caused by colonialism. She conducts free workshops in rural areas on generational trauma, parenting skills, addictions, goal setting, and various mental health issues. The aim is to impact society at the roots and provide understanding on why we react to certain situations the way we do and to create a safe space for healing, thus breaking the stigma on mental health. She also does radio interviews pertaining to understanding mental health challenges caused by trauma, for example rape, self-harm, workplace or religious trauma, and the effects of divorce, to mention but a few. Her focus areas include group sessions, online conversations, seminars and presentations, and one-on-one sessions. She has co-researched a systematic review: “Duty-related Stressors, Adjustment, and the Role of Coping Processes in First Responders: A Systematic Review” in the Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy Journal.

Tara Devi Rai is a PhD candidate from Nepal at Freie Universität Berlin. Rai has a Master’s degree in South Asian studies from Pondicherry University, India. She was a lecturer in „International Relations“ at National Law College, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a journalist for Nepal Republic Media associated with the International Herald Tribune. She is one of the founding members of the Human Rights Film Center in Kathmandu, and served as vice-president until 2020. Born into an Indigenous family, she has been actively engaged in Indigenous Peoples rights and human rights advocacy. Rai is the recipient of academic grants from the „SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence“ 2019, „Young Journalists fellowship“ in South Asia 2012, and „South Asia Foundation Madanjeet Singh Scholarship“ 2012.

Lien Heidenreich-Seleme is Advisor on International Relations, Manager of the Cluster on “Property and Heritage” and in charge of the cooperation with the Goethe-Institut at the Stiftung Humboldt Forum in Berlin. She was Director of the Goethe-Institut Afghanistan from 2006 until 2008, then the Regional Head of Cultural Programmes Sub-Saharan Africa at the Goethe-Institut South Africa and subsequently Director of the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. She joined the Stiftung Humboldt Forum in May 2023.

Sonja Mohr has been curator of the South and Southeast Asian collections at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin since May 2024. After completing her studies at the University of Cologne, she worked at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne, where she coordinated provenance research as well as the sustainability working group and, from 2018, was curator of the collections from Insular Southeast Asia.

Katharina Kepplinger is Executive Dramaturge at the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss. Trained in Cultural and Social Anthropology, Romance Studies, and Museology, she has worked for the Stiftung Humboldt Forum since 2019. Her work focuses on developing artistic and discursive formats that engage with social issues and foster dialogue between diverse communities and perspectives. Among her key projects are the major openings of the Humboldt Forum in 2021 and 2022, the Global Cultural Assembly (since 2021), Vinyago (2022), and the Mexican Day of the Dead (2023, 2025).

Uta Kornmeier is an art and cultural historian with an expertise in the history of science and museum studies. She has been curator for science and research at the Academy of the Stiftung Humboldt Forum since 2020. Previously, she worked at the Leibniz Centre for Literary and Cultural Research in Berlin, the Centre for Visual Studies, University of Oxford, and the Berlin Museum of the History of Medicine in various research and exhibition projects.

Regina Knapp is Curator of Visual Anthropology at the Media Department of the Ethnologisches Museum/Museum für Asiatische Kunst Berlin. She is an anthropologist and filmmaker with extensive research and filming experience in Papua New Guinea, where she has been conducting research projects since 1997. Her research topics include culture change and exchange (PhD, Australian National University), language documentation (VW-Foundation/Max Planck Institute Leipzig), concepts of person, time and value (University of Regina, Canada). In her research, she applies audiovisual documentation as key method and she has produced a number of ethnographic films and topical clips. Her first film Big Mama Daisy (1997) was produced by the IWF Göttingen and awarded as best student’s film at the Ethnofilmfest Berlin (1997). Her more recent film Voices of Kula (Wenner Gren Foundation) had its premiere at FiFo Tahiti 2022 and was screened at various festivals (GIEFF 2022, RAI 2023). Although her regional interest concerns the whole South Pacific, Regina has been working  most of the times with the Napamogona, a community in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Her long-term relationship with the Napamogona made it possible for her to collect a large body of ethnographic footage that is partly used in her current project A Slice of Life, the pilot for the country’s first community-telenovela. As curator for visual anthropology in the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, her aim is to establish new forms of collaboration through media productions – such as A Slice of Life. The regular screening of ethnographic film series is another focus of her work. Every two years, she holds the filmdays “Slices of Life” (SoL) at the Forschungscampus Dahlem. In September 25 she hosted the Film series “Shared Histories: Collaboration in Ethnographic Film”. As curator she is further in charge of the museum’s partly problematic photo and filmarchive. Her approach is to collaboratively work on the colonial collections with partners from the affected communities, and in doing so transform the archive’s narrative.

Jochen Krüger is a historian who has worked as a curator on exhibitions at the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial and the Documentation Center for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation, Berlin where he also took on project management responsibilities. He has been with the Stiftung Humboldt Forum since 2021, working as an exhibition project lead, with a brief interruption. He joined the GCA Berlin Team at the end of 2025.

Anna Schäfers is Curator Text and Language with the project “The Collaborative Museum” at the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Together with Katharina Erben, she develops and co-hosts the project’s podcast “Gegen die Gewohnheit” (Going against the grain). Since 2017, Anna has been responsible for editing, translating and producing both museums’ exhibition texts in the Humboldt Forum. Before that she developed science exhibitions and exhibits for Archimedes Exhibitions and also created their content. She studied Comparative Literature, English and German Literature in Bonn, Montpellier, and Berlin.

Andrea Scholz is curator for transcultural collaboration in the Ethnologisches Museum and Museum für Asiatische Kunst in Berlin. She is a trained anthropologist with a focus on Amazonia and has been working in various collaborative projects with Indigenous communities and educational projects, mainly in Latin America.

Julia von Sigsfeld served as Restitution Coordinator at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin / Museum für Asiatische Kunst within the project „The Collaborative Museum“ from September 2023 to December 2025. Before that, she worked as a research assistant to the Director of the Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen. She earned her doctorate at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin as a fellow of the research training group „Minor Cosmopolitanisms“, completing her PhD in 2020.

Achiles Mujunangoma Bufure is currently the Head of Programs, Exhibitions and Development Section within the National Museum of Tanzania. Previously, Bufure served as the Director of the Museum and House of Culture and later the Director of the Village Museum, both based in Dar Es Salaam as main branches of the National Museum of Tanzania. Formerly Bufure served as Head of Collection Management and Conservation Department as well as Head of Ethnography Unit before the substantial positions named above and Senior Curator of Ethnography as well. He is currently a Co-Chair of the Conceptualizing, Designing and Mounting of the „Histories of Tanzanian“ Exhibition displayed in the Humboldt Forum Berlin team. Bufure has also been a Chairperson of the „Museum Art Explosion Projects“ („Against Corruption“, „Against Adolescent Pregnancy“ and „My Trash My Treasure“ (Waste Material Management, etc.) as well as a Project Manager of „Hope Out of Sorrow“ Project. Before joining the National Museum, Bufure was a Site Manager of Isimila Stone Age Site and Kalenga (Mkwawa’s Memorial Museum) based in Iringa as well as Mbozi (Meteorite) in Mbeya Region. He once was also a Member of Kondoa Community Engagement Project. He holds a Master’s Degree in Anthropology from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Feride Funda Gökçimen-Gençaslan, born in Berlin and having studied German language and literature, linguistics, and art history at Freie Universität Berlin, currently teaches literature and German as a foreign language in Zurich. She serves also as Chairwoman and Lecturer at the Sufi-Zentrum Rabbaniyya, the European Centre for Sufism and interfaith encounters based in Eigeltingen. Since 1995, she has been a Naqshbandiyya Aliyyah Order trainee (Istanbul-Turkey, Northern Cyprus), representing the order through lectures, events, and workshops focused on Islam, peace building, environmental awareness, sustainability, and the prevention of violence and extremism. She is actively involved in many international and interfaith organizations, contributing to various projects that promote intercultural understanding and awareness through interreligious initiatives throughout Germany. She has curated an exhibition on the Naqshbandi Order for the Ethnologisches Museum at the Humboldt Forum Berlin and, since February 2023, has led the monthly lecture series, „Die Schatzkammer der Liebe: The Treasury of Love – Mystical Dimensions at the Humboldt Forum.“ Additionally, she chairs the Preparatory Group for the Global Cultural Assembly, which has been in development since 2022.

Fabiano Kueva was born in Quito in 1972. He is an artist as well as a curator and a member of the collectives Películas La Divina (1992 – 1997), Centro Experimental Oído Salvaje (1996 – 2016), Laboratorio Solanda (2016 –) and Global Cultural Assembly (2023 – 2025). His projects span museums, public spaces, and community contexts, including radio, satellite, and web broadcasting. He has published several music albums, books, and articles, and has participated in and organized academic symposiums and international exhibitions across the Americas and Europe. His recognitions include the „Radio Drama Award – 3rd Latin American Radio Biennial“ (Mexico, 2000), the „Paris Award – 9th International Biennial of Cuenca“ (Ecuador, 2007), the „Mariano Aguilera Award“ (Ecuador, 2015), „Best International Feature Film –  Chiloé International Film Festival“ (Chile, 2021), and an „Acquisition Award – 15th International Biennial of Cuenca“ (Ecuador, 2021). He has participated in the 10th Havana Biennial (Cuba, 2009), the Prince Claus Fund Grant  (2010), the 2nd Montevideo Biennial (Uruguay, 2014), and the 56th Venice Biennale (Italy, 2015), and Cisneros Institute – MOMA Artist Research Fellowship (2024). Kueva has participated in art residency programs at APEXART (New York), Villa Waldberta (Munich), Lugar a Dudas (Cali), and OBORO (Montréal).  He lives and works in Ecuador.

Web: https://fabianokueva.net/

Laibor Kalanga Moko is an anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Hamburg. He was born and grew up in Oltukai, a Maasai pastoralist village in northern Tanzania. Laibor Kalanga Moko works on topics such as decolonization of museums, provenance research, restitution of cultural belongings and repatriation of human remains. He works with different communities in Tanzania, including his own, the Maasai, the Meru, the Chagga, the Hehe, and the Ngoni.

Filmmaker, producer, and independent researcher, Augustine Moukodi positions her work at the intersection of cinema, history, and African memories. Trained in management and administration in Cameroon and later online in HEC Morocco, she turned to film and audiovisual production in 2008, driven by the need to interrogate social structures inherited from colonialism and the silences of official history and the aim of tackling sensitive social issues and promoting her research. Since 2017, she has led the production companies Zili Jungle Studios and Racines Mboa, platforms through which she develops, in collaboration with partners, an engaged cinema shaped by a visual approach attentive to collective narratives and intimate experiences. Within these structures, she produces and co-produces historically grounded works, including „Our Wishes“ by filmmaker Jean-Pierre Bekolo, presented at the Leopold Museum during the Vienna International Festival. Her career includes the production of a children’s TV series, “Game Over Show”, broadcast in the Central African sub-region from 2012 to 2014. In 2022, she co-produced „Walaandé, The Art of Sharing a Husband“, an adaptation of the novel by Djaïli Amadou Amal, a major work exploring social dynamics and women’s trajectories in the Sahel. Her films and co-productions — among them her feature „NEMA“, in which she explores the tensions between tradition, modernity, and invisible forms of resistance, and the co-production „Minimal in the Titanic World“ by Rwandan filmmaker Samuel Ishimwe have screened at international festivals such as Göttingen and the Berlinale. Alongside her filmmaking practice, Augustine participates in conferences and professional gatherings focused on the place of women in cultural policies and on postcolonial memory issues. She is also the initiator of „MWANO“, a decolonial exploration of photographic and sound archives from the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. This collaborative project between Cameroon and Germany, carried by a team of six women, will culminate in 2026 with an exhibition held in both countries. She has also been a member of the Global Cultural Assembly since the 2022 gathering.

Deepak Tolange is a filmmaker, photographer, and researcher from Nepal who is interested in innovation, history, culture, the environment, and social justice. Deepak Tolange completed his MA in Visual and Media Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin with a DAAD scholarship (2014 – 2016). After graduation, Deepak worked as a freelance filmmaker and photographer in Germany and Tanzania for two years. Since 2018, he has served as a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu University, where he teaches two courses: „Photojournalism“ and „Film Production“. Deepak has also completed two professional programs with The VII Foundation in France: „Level 1 in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography“ (2023) and „Level 2 in the Visual Journalism Program“ (2025). His creative work, spanning painting, photography, and documentary film, has earned him multiple major awards. Some of his films are exhibited in the Museum für Asiatische Kunst housed in the Humboldt Forum in Berlin and the Patan Museum, Nepal. He has been voluntarily curating the „Film Room“ at the Patan Museum since 2025. Currently, Deepak is working on two research-cum-film projects: „Raute, the last nomadic hunters and gatherers in Nepal“ and „Shiva Linga: A Visual Quest on the provenance and meaning of a sacred artefact from Nepal“.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a visual artist, and author whose work has been exhibited in public spaces, museums, galleries, and private collections around the world. His art is held in major institutional collections such as the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Humboldt Forum.

Diana Guzmán (Mirigõ) and Orlando Villegas (Majã Piria) live in Mitú, Vaupés, Colombia, and work at the Escuela Normal Superior Indígena Maria Reina. As teachers for Spanish and Indigenous languages (Diana) and sports / physical education (Orlando), they are strongly engaged in the implementation of Indigenous education, and Diana also runs a small community museum at the school with its own collection. Both are committed to preserving and promoting Indigenous languages and culture in their traditional territory and have been in contact with the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin since 2014. As part of a long-term cooperation project, several collection visits and workshops have taken place, in Berlin, Mitú and Macucu, Orlando’s community of origin.