Lecture series Family Matters
Until Juli 2026
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The interdisciplinary lecture series opened a space for reflection and exchange in December 2024, introducing the annual theme Relational Families. Starting from the question of what family means today, renowned scholars from a range of disciplines have since been discussing current research on alternative family and kinship models and their creative, ethical, and innovative potentials.
With the launch of the annual programme in October 2025, this exploration will be taken further and developed along the programme’s thematic focuses. In January, the lecture series continues with the focus Family Secrets and comprises five sessions through April. It then shifts its attention to alternative ways of living and diverse family concepts in a subsequent thematic focus.
Focus Family Secrets
The focus Family Secrets turns its attention to hidden dimensions of family relationships, where intimacy, protection, and conflict intersect. At the centre are practices of concealment and disclosure that shape individual life stories as well as social orders.
Secrets are more than concealed information: they condense needs for protection and intimacy, as well as feelings of shame, fear of exposure, and the pressure of social norms. As part of biographical experience, family secrets deeply affect personal life narratives. Practices of telling and withholding make visible how relationships are formed, boundaries drawn, and social orders negotiated — revealing how secrets extend far beyond the private sphere to create belonging, mark boundaries, and stabilise or unsettle social structures.
Participants
Prof. Dr. Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt University of Berlin, Hermann von Helmholtz Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, Berlin)
Prof. Dr. Petra Anders (Humboldt University of Berlin, Institute for Educational Sciences)
Prof. Dr. Tatjana Thelen (University of Vienna, Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology)
Prof. Dr. Anette Fasang (Humboldt University of Berlin, Institute for Social Sciences)
Dr. Andrés F. Castro (Center for Demographic Studies, Barcelona)
Prof. Dr. Nadja-Christina Schneider (Humboldt University of Berlin, Institute for Asian and African Studies)
Prof. Dr. Janet Carsten (School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh)
Prof. Dr. Aparecida Vilaca (Postgraduate Program in Social Anthropology, National Museum, São Paulo)
Dr. Michael Slepian (Columbia Business School, New York)
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Annette Schad-Seifert (Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Department of Modern Japanese Studies, Düsseldorf)
Bert Rebhandl (Freier Filmforscher, Berlin)
Dr. Lotte Warnsholdt (MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum, Hamburg)
Prof. Dr. Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt University of Berlin)
Dr. Alia Rayyan (Humboldt University of Berlin)
Dr. Laura Goldenbaum (Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss)
The lecture series is being held as part of a collaboration between all institutions of the Humboldt Forum.
Head Curator for the Programme year 2025-26: Dr. Laura Goldenbaum
