Marie-Therése Holzer works at the department “Bildung und Diskurse” at the Goethe-Institut in Munich, with a focus on projects of cultural education and civil society. She studied German studies, history and media culture studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.
Having completed her training as a bookseller with Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft in Ulm/Donau, Stefanie Kastner studied library administration at the Hochschule für Bibliothek und Information in Stuttgart. Having headed the Public Library in Stadtlohn in Westphalia, she started working as a local staff member for the Goethe-Institut in Rotterdam. Afterwards, she was seconded head of the Information Departments in Algeria and Côte d’Ivoire before she became information and library head in Sao Paulo for the South American region. During this period, she acquired a Master of Media Research degree at the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart. Recently, Stefanie Kastner was responsible for the Region of Sub-Saharan Africa as head of information with a regional assignment (LIR) to Johannesburg. Her focal areas are the fields of Digital Literacy, Gaming, Metaverse, Cultural and Creative Economics and Promoting Reading.
Dr Katharina L. Ochse is responsible for Youth Education, including Cultural Education, at the Languages Department of the Goethe-Institut headquarters. She did her doctorate at Freie Universität Berlin (Cornell-University, Ithaca, NY.) and subsequently obtained a Master’s degree in school management and a Master’s degree in mediation ab. Until 2020, she headed the Goethe-Institut Montevideo. She had previously worked in the international culture and education field at the Deutsche Welle Akademie (for the Middle East/North Africa area), the Foreign Office (Cultural Affairs Department), the German Academic Exchange Service (Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bonn), the United Nations (Kosovo), Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin (for Bulgaria and Romania), the Freie Universität and Humboldt University Berlin.