The seminar “Decolonizing Communication Studies” engaged students with current debates on artistic ownership, cultural representation, and institutional responsibility.

Students in Prof. Dr. Hanan Badr’s seminar visited Schloss Leopoldskron for an excursion exploring contested cultural heritage. The focus was the Venetian Salon – a historically significant room that has become the center of contemporary debates on colonialism, cultural appropriation, and the perspectives of European elites.

Building on the continuous partnership between the University of Salzburg and Salzburg Global, Faye Hobson, Director of the Culture Program Pillar at Salzburg Global, Iman Albertini and Benjamin Glahn, Deputy CEO and Managing Director, guided the group through the palace and discussed key questions with students: Whose history is being told? How can institutions respond constructively to critique and protest? How can preservation and reinterpretation be reconciled?

The excursion demonstrated how decolonization works in practice as an ongoing negotiation between historical preservation, aesthetic claims, and political responsibility.