Dr. Barbara Hans appointed as new Professor of Media and Cultural Management

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The Hamburg University of Music and Drama (HfMT) is expanding the Institute for Culture and Media Management (KMM) and strategically developing it further. Dr. Barbara Hans, a journalist, communication scholar, and consultant, has been appointed as the new full-time professor. Hans is considered one of Germany’s most renowned journalists and editorial managers. She served as editor-in-chief of SPIEGEL ONLINE and, in 2019, became editor-in-chief of SPIEGEL’s merged editorial department. There, among other achievements, she established the successful subscription model and designed the editorial teams’ transition to a merged, joint editorial department. In 2017, *Medium Magazin* honored her as Editor-in-Chief of the Year.

“I am very much looking forward to contributing my academic expertise and practical experience to teaching and research, and to working with my colleagues to further develop the programs offered by the KMM Institute,” says Barbara Hans. As a communications and media scholar, she has worked at the Universities of Hamburg and Sussex, as well as on an academic fellowship at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. Her research focuses on trust, digitalization, media representations, and diversity. She was a fellow of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), worked as a research assistant at the University of Hamburg, and earned her Ph.D. with a multidisciplinary dissertation on trust in politics and the media. Barbara Hans currently works as a facilitator and consultant for executives, companies, and teams. Since 2006, she has volunteered with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, based at Columbia University in New York; since 2021, she has served as volunteer director of the Dart Center Europe, where she focuses in particular on leadership and organizational psychology.

Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp Sprick, President of the HfMT: “For the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, the Institute for Culture and Media Management is a key element of our strategy to be an arts university that makes a diverse impact within and for society. With the appointment of Barbara Hans, the university gains a colleague who will provide important impetus both externally and internally.”

Prof. Dr. Martin Zierold, Director of the KMM Institute: “Barbara Hans is the ideal choice for the KMM Institute because she not only represents key academic fields relevant to our degree programs but is also an experienced leader who has impressively demonstrated how organizations can be successfully shaped in times of transformation and crisis. There is currently no more important area of expertise for the arts, culture, and media. As the home of Germany’s first degree program in cultural management, the KMM Institute is committed to continuing to play a leading role today to ensure the relevance and impact of art and culture on society well into the future.”

The “Cultural Management” degree program was established at the HfMT in 1987—it was the first of its kind in Germany. In 2000, it gave rise to the Institute for Cultural and Media Management. With approximately 500 students in on-campus and distance learning programs, it is one of the largest institutes for cultural and media management in Europe. The establishment of an additional full-time professorship at the KMM Institute was also made possible by generous seed funding from the Hamburg-based Zajadacz Foundation, which has been funding an endowed professorship since 2017—a position that has now been made a permanent part of the institute’s structure.
The HfMT offers artistic and academic training in all areas of Music and Drama. With approximately 1,300 students, it is one of Germany’s leading arts universities and, as a research-intensive institution, also has the right to award doctoral degrees.