Hon.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Johler studied European Ethnology and Romance Studies in Vienna (M.A. 1998), where she completed her doctorate in 2017 with a thesis on the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in times of political change.

After completing her studies, she worked as an editor and assistant director and as a freelance exhibition curator, including for the Jewish Museum in Vienna; from 2008 to 2017, she worked as a curator at the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in Vienna and edited the Österreichischen Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. She was a curator in the team for the new Austrian exhibition at the State Museum Auschwitz Birkenau, curator at the House of Austrian History and from 2019 until early 2026, she was curator at the Volkskundemuseum Graz – Universalmuseum Joanneum. Since February 2026, she is head of the Exhibitions Department at the Museum of Military History in Vienna.

In addition to her research and curatorial activities, she has repeatedly held teaching positions in Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck and Münster and has recently served on several juries for cultural remembrance projects. She has been an honorary professor of European Ethnology at the University of Vienna since March 2025.

Johler's research interests range from the Alltagsgeschichte (history of everyday life) of the 20th century, material culture and historical costume research to commemoration and remembrance practices, Jewish history and National Socialism as well as museum research.

A selection of her publications and exhibitions is available at https://www.uni-muenster.de/Kulturanthropologie/Institut/Johler.html.