After my degree in modern history, folklore studies/European ethnology and social anthropology I worked as a research assistant with the Folklore Commission for Westphalia in Münster, where together with Dietmar Sauermann I conceived an exhibition on “Tourism in Sauerland”, which was shown in 1990 in the Arnsberg Sauerland Museum. Since March 1990 I have been working as a scientific adviser to the Folklore Commission and have been its scientific manager since 2005. Among other things, since 1997 I have been responsible for the project for the digitalisation of the image archive here, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. As part of a project supported by the DFG, between 2006 and 2012 I was able to develop further the digital archive of the Folklore Commission. My research interests in publications, lectures and as a lecturer at the Seminar for Folklore Studies/European Ethnology of the WWU are in the fields of photography, tourism and custom from a historical and contemporary perspective. 

I studied geography, landscape ecology and geoinformatics at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. Building on that I completed the master degree in “Humangeographie – Raumkonflikte, Raumplanung, Raumentwicklung” (human geography – spatial conflicts, spatial planning, spatial development). During my studies I focused on questions of rural spatial development, urban development and planning, renewable energy as well as on the markets of real estate and housing. I took part in project work about the future of single-family homes and the consequences of this legacy for cities and municipalities, e.g., “Was wird aus den Traumhäusern?” (What’s going to happen to our dream houses?) in winter semester 2013/2014 under the direction of Dr. Christian Krajewski. I finished my MA studies in July 2017 with a thesis about housing and the housing market in rural regions in the context of demographic changes. Since August 2017 I am responsible for the project “Wie für uns gemacht? Gebrauchtimmobilien und familienspezifische Wohn- und Lebensvorstellungen” (As if made for us? Second-hand property and family-specific conceptions of housing and living) as a research assistant at the Folklore Commission for Westphalia.

From 2010 to 2015, alongside my degree course in modern and contemporary history, folklore studies/European ethnology and medieval history in Münster, I was already working freelance at the Villa ten Hompel Historical place. In the same year I began my advisory work for the Franz-Hitze-Haus Academy in Münster, here focusing in particular on the organisation and realisation of memorial journeys. As an adviser for the mobile consultancy in the government district Münster, in addition, from 2011, I was able to conceive and hold seminars for police officers against right-wing extremism and for democracy. From winter 2013 to spring 2015 I participated in research in Polish archives and through scientific work in the redesign of the long-term exhibition in the Villa ten Hompel. Since April 2015 as research assistant at the Folklore Commission for Westphalia, LWL, I have been working among other things on the project “The Way to Home Ownership” in the BMBF research association.

I am junior researcher at the University of Münster, Seminar for Folklore Studies/European Ethnology since October 2016.

I studied folklore studies/European ethnology, sociology and political science at the University of Augsburg. I completed my master’s degree in 2012 with a work on the life of Augsburg factory workers in the early 20th century. While studying I worked as a scientific assistant on the then developing Augsburg State Textile and Industry Museum under Dr. Karl-Borromäus Murr. This cooperation gave rise to cultural history essays on regional issues.
Following the degree, I worked as a assistant curator at the Landesmuseum Württemberg in Stuttgart. In the specialist department for folklore studies I was involved for two years in the reconception of the long-term exhibition in the Museum for Everyday Culture entitled “Housing Worlds”. In the process, among other things I documented the transformation in housing and curated several thematic areas in the “housing needs” exhibition area.
In 2014 I founded the company Ostritsch & Widholm GbR, which develops as a scientific service-provider exhibition and research projects for cultural history museums.

I have been studying at the Westphalian Wilhelms University since winter term 2011/2012 and as part of my degree on cultural and social anthropology and history have been working as a student volunteer at the Folklore Commission of the LWL. My tasks in the research association on the single-family-home include research work and transcription of interviews.
Currently I am working on my bachelor thesis on the subject “The invisible made visible? Ultrasound images in pregnancy in the historical-cultural context.”