Dr. Nora Heidorn
T: +43-1-4277-42455
Summer term 2026
124265 KO Critical Media Analysis - 'Marie Stopes' 1920s Birth Control Campaign: Contraception, Feminism, and Eugenics
Winter term 2025
124265 KO Critical Media Analysis - Marie Stopes' 1920s Birth Control Campaign in Britain: Contraception, Feminism, and Eugenics
Heidorn, N. (2026). Being Horizontal: A Visual Essay. In F. Johnstone, A. Morehead, & I. Wiltshire (Eds.), Art & the Critical Medical Humanities (pp. 279 - 288). Bloomsbury Academic. https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph-detail?docid=b-9781350506367&pdfid=9781350506367.ch-28.pdf&tocid=b-9781350506367-chapter28
Heidorn, N. (2025, Aug 1). Slowing, Stillness and Sedentarism: Insights from a Cross-Disciplinary Moving Bodies Lab Workshop. Durham University. https://thepolyphony.org/2025/08/01/slowing-stillness/
Heidorn, N. (2025, Jun 1). Reckoning with the necropolitics of reproduction: On the concomitance of care and violence in two artefacts of reproductive healthcare. https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/6499/
Heidorn, N. (2025). Reading Munch’s Madonna through the Lens of Contraception. In A. Morehead (Ed.), Lifeblood: Edvard Munch (pp. 229-239). MUNCH Publishing.
Heidorn, N. (2025). Touching Matters of Care: A Visual Approach to the Care and Violence in Dr. Marie Stopes’ Birth Control Campaign. In M.-L. Cenedese, & C. Nicastro (Eds.), Violence, care, cure: self-perceptions within the medical encounter (pp. 27-46). Routledge, Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032660165-4
Heidorn, N. (2024). Birth Rites Collection: Imagining an Activist Art Collection. In B. Sliwinska (Ed.), Transnational Visual Activism for Women’s Reproductive Rights: My Body, My Choice (pp. 63-75). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003411642-5
Heidorn, N. (2024). Dear Jade: Drawing Care from the Work of Jade de Montserrat. In J. McIntosh (Ed.), The Time of Our Lives: Drawing and Feminism (pp. 39-48). Drawing Room.
Heidorn, N., & Crispiani, G. (2022, Jun 1). Laying Horizontal: On vulnerability, interdependence and resistance, or on reclining, collapsing, reversing and lounging. https://www.neroeditions.com/laying-horizontal/
Heidorn, N. (Ed.), Blackshaw, G. (Ed.), Fraser, M. (Ed.), Hermon, R. (Ed.), & Baluch, S. (2022). I care by... Royal College of Art. https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/5316/
Heidorn, N. (2021). Care Labels: A Tool for Cultivating a Politics of Care. In G. Blackshaw, & S. Kivland (Eds.), Care(less): a supplement to On Care (pp. 47-51). Ma Bibliothèque.
Heidorn, N. (2019). Sick and Desiring. In Actually, the Dead are Not Dead. Bergen Assembly 2019 (pp. 148-159). Bergen Assembly.
Heidorn, N. (2018). Working a Double Shift: The Biopolitics of Hormonal Time. In M. Asriningtyas, N. Heidorn, & K. Rittenbach (Eds.), Coming Soon NERO, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.
Nora Heidorn
Postdoc
- Department of English and American Studies
Research interests
I am an interdisciplinary scholar, writer, and curator with a background in curating contemporary art. I explore the complex politics of health, sexual reproduction, and care ethics with an intersectional approach. My work combines the history of medicine, science and technology with feminist philosophy, art and visual culture. I employ curatorial and artistic research methods. Through exhibitions, publications, workshops, and talks in academic and cultural contexts, I make my research accessible to expert audiences and the broader public.
Employment
Postdoc
Department of English and American Studies
University of ViennaWien, Austria
1 Oct 2025 → present
Kuratorische Assistenz, Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité
Charité – Universitätsmedizin BerlinBerlin, Germany
www.noraheidorn.com
Profile
Nora Heidorn is an interdisciplinary scholar, writer, and curator with a background in curating contemporary art. She explores the complex politics of health, sexual reproduction, and care ethics with an intersectional approach. Her work combines the history of medicine and technology with feminist philosophy, art and visual culture. She employs practice-led curatorial and artistic research methods. Through exhibitions, publications, workshops, and talks in academic and arts contexts, Nora Heidorn makes her research accessible to expert audiences and the broader public.
Academic Publications
Nora Heidorn and Helena Reckitt. “Care Labels and Access Riders: Micro-Political Practices of Care in Curating” in Towards a Planetary Perspective: Socially Engaged Art, Its Politics, Publics and Infrastructures, eds. Karen van den Berg, John Roberts (under review).
“Being Horizontal: A Visual Essay” in Art & the Critical Medical Humanities, eds. Allison Morehead, Fiona Johnstone, Imogen Wiltshire, London: Bloomsbury Academic (forthcoming, early 2026).
“Reckoning with the necropolitics of reproduction: On the concomitance of care and violence in two artefacts of reproductive healthcare”, PhD thesis, School of Arts & Humanities, Royal College of Art, London, 2025.
Jen Airlie, Chloe Asker, Meridith Griffin, Nora Heidorn, Cassandra Phoenix, Arya Thampuran, and Emily Tupper. “Slowing, Stillness and Sedentarism: Insights from a Cross-Disciplinary, Moving Bodies Lab Workshop”, The Polyphony, Institute of Medical Humanities, University of Durham [online], 1 August 2025.
“Touching Matters of Care: A Visual Approach to the Care and Violence in Dr. Marie Stopes’ Birth Control Campaign” in Violence, Care, Cure: (Self)Perceptions within the Medical Encounter, eds. Marta Cenedese, Clio Nicastro, London: Routledge, 2025.
“Birth Rites Collection: Imagining an Activist Art Collection” in My Body, My Choice: Transnational Visual Activism for Women’s Reproductive Rights, ed. Basia Sliwinska, London: Routledge, 2024.
“Curating Inclination: Vulnerability, Care, and Resistance” in Research as Practice Study Day, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, 2022, pp. 5–11.
“Care Labels: A Tool for Cultivating a Politics of Care” in CARE(LESS), eds. Sharon Kivland and Gemma Blackshaw, London: Ma Bibliotheque, 2021.
“The Biopolitics of Hormonal Time", Æffect: Journal of Innovation Management, University of the Arts London, Issue 2: Reshaping Concern, June 2019, pp. 88-95.
“App+Hormones”, transl. Anna Martinelli, Nero On Theory, NERO, Rome, 9 July 2018.
“Being Horizontal: A Visual Essay” in Art & the Critical Medical Humanities, eds. Allison Morehead, Fiona Johnstone, Imogen Wiltshire, London: Bloomsbury Academic (forthcoming, early 2026).
“Reckoning with the necropolitics of reproduction: On the concomitance of care and violence in two artefacts of reproductive healthcare”, PhD thesis, School of Arts & Humanities, Royal College of Art, London, 2025.
Jen Airlie, Chloe Asker, Meridith Griffin, Nora Heidorn, Cassandra Phoenix, Arya Thampuran, and Emily Tupper. “Slowing, Stillness and Sedentarism: Insights from a Cross-Disciplinary, Moving Bodies Lab Workshop”, The Polyphony, Institute of Medical Humanities, University of Durham [online], 1 August 2025.
“Touching Matters of Care: A Visual Approach to the Care and Violence in Dr. Marie Stopes’ Birth Control Campaign” in Violence, Care, Cure: (Self)Perceptions within the Medical Encounter, eds. Marta Cenedese, Clio Nicastro, London: Routledge, 2025.
“Birth Rites Collection: Imagining an Activist Art Collection” in My Body, My Choice: Transnational Visual Activism for Women’s Reproductive Rights, ed. Basia Sliwinska, London: Routledge, 2024.
“Curating Inclination: Vulnerability, Care, and Resistance” in Research as Practice Study Day, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, 2022, pp. 5–11.
“Care Labels: A Tool for Cultivating a Politics of Care” in CARE(LESS), eds. Sharon Kivland and Gemma Blackshaw, London: Ma Bibliotheque, 2021.
“The Biopolitics of Hormonal Time", Æffect: Journal of Innovation Management, University of the Arts London, Issue 2: Reshaping Concern, June 2019, pp. 88-95.
“App+Hormones”, transl. Anna Martinelli, Nero On Theory, NERO, Rome, 9 July 2018.
Books & Catalogues
I Care By... Research Communiqués, RCA School of Arts and Humanities, London: Royal College of Art, 2022 (co-editor)
Coming Soon, Turin: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo & Rome: NERO, 2018 (co-editor)
Platform79—the Berlin Project, Curate Projects Collective, Berlin, 2012 (co-editor, self-published)
Coming Soon, Turin: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo & Rome: NERO, 2018 (co-editor)
Platform79—the Berlin Project, Curate Projects Collective, Berlin, 2012 (co-editor, self-published)
Scholarships & Awards
2025 Shortlisted for the Feminist Art Prize, IKOB Museum, Eupen, Belgium
2020–2024 PhD Scholarship from the London Arts and Humanities Partnership, UKRI, UK
2018 Curatorial Residency, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
2017 NEON Curatorial Exchange, NEON Foundation, Athens
2015–2017 Goldsmiths Excellence Fee Waiver, Goldsmiths University, London
2020–2024 PhD Scholarship from the London Arts and Humanities Partnership, UKRI, UK
2018 Curatorial Residency, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
2017 NEON Curatorial Exchange, NEON Foundation, Athens
2015–2017 Goldsmiths Excellence Fee Waiver, Goldsmiths University, London
Exhibitions of Artistic Research
2025 Feminist Art Prize, IKOB Museum, Eupen, Belgium (artistic collaboration with Lynne Kouassi)
2023 Naturkulturpolitik, K19 Studios Berlin (collaboration with Lynne Kouassi)
2022 Labour Orgy, Hotel Noël, Zürich Tourism, Zurich (collaboration with Lynne Kouassi)
Touching Matters of Care ('Prorace' cervical cap, 1915-20), interactive digital edition. Commissioned by Birth Rites Collection, launched at University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
2023 Naturkulturpolitik, K19 Studios Berlin (collaboration with Lynne Kouassi)
2022 Labour Orgy, Hotel Noël, Zürich Tourism, Zurich (collaboration with Lynne Kouassi)
Touching Matters of Care ('Prorace' cervical cap, 1915-20), interactive digital edition. Commissioned by Birth Rites Collection, launched at University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Department of English and American Studies
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 8 (Campus)
1090 Wien
T: +43-1-4277-42455