Elana Shapira

Cultural and design historian; lectures at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the University of Vienna; specialist in the study of Viennese modernism; research interests include design and media in the 20^th century, Central European cultural networks, women’s modernisms, and diaspora aesthetics; She has organized major international symposia and workshops on such diverse topics as nationalism and modernism, art and psychoanalysis, émigré design cultures, Jews and cultural identity in Central European modernism, and women designers and artists in Vienna and Central Europe; forthcoming interdisciplinary international symposia are “Trauma and Dialogue” (Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna, 2026) and “Design and Dance in the 20th and 21st century” (working title, 2026; to be announced).

Selected Publications: Style and Seduction: Jewish Patrons and Modern Architecture, and Design in Fin de Siècle Vienna (2016); co-editor of: Émigré Cultures in Design and Architecture (2017); editor of: Design Dialogue: Jews, Culture and Viennese Modernism (2018); co-editor of: Freud and the Émigré (2020); editor of: Designing Transformation: Jews and Cultural Identity in: Central European Modernism (2021); co-editor of: Gestalterinnen: Frauen, Design und Gesellschaft im Wien der Zwischenkriegszeit (2023); editor of: Austrian Identity and Modernity: Culture and Politics in the 20th Century (2025); editor of: Eine Wiener Schule in Berlin 1900-1933 (forthcoming 2025); co-editor with D. Finzi It Hurts! Violence against Women in Art and Psychoanalysis (forthcoming 2025); co-editor with D. Stratigakos of: E. Briggs: An Unconventional Architect (forthcoming 2025); co-editor with A.-K. Rossberg Crossing Borders: Central European Women in the Arts (forthcoming 2026).