Dr Jana Riedel

Biography

Dr Jana Riedel is a cultural historian and XR Project Manager at the Fashion, Textiles and Technology Institute (FTTI) at the University of the Arts London. She leads the development and research activity of a specialist XR Lab focused on the digital rendition of textiles and dress for real-time, screen-based, and live performance contexts. Her current work explores how immersive technologies can foster meaningful public engagement with cultural heritage—particularly through object-based storytelling, spatial design, and dress-centred interaction.

Jana’s academic background lies in nineteenth-century cultural history. She completed her PhD as part of an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership award with Queen Mary University of London and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her research examined Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a key agent of European cultural transfer, tracing his influence on collecting practices, exhibition-making, and the institutional foundations of London’s South Kensington museums quarter. Her interest in transnational networks, visual culture, and the materiality of objects continues to inform her present-day investigations into XR heritage experiences.

With a professional background spanning film production, curatorial practice, and digital innovation, Jana has delivered projects across national museums and research institutions in the UK and Germany. She has curated and co-curated exhibitions such as Behind the Scenes – The Untold Stories of Prince Albert’s German Household and Living Memory, a digital exhibition project exploring British-German memory culture which was later exhibited at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg as part of the Horizonte/Horizons exhibition (2023). She has held research and project management roles at institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Historic Royal Palaces, and Queen Mary University of London, the latter included managing the UK’s Creative Industry Knowledge Exchange Hub, Creativeworks London.