Studied art history, economic history, and literary studies. In 1986, received a doctorate in Bonn with a dissertation on the reception of Naturalism in German-speaking art criticism at the end of the 19th century. After working in museums from 1989 to 1995, served as a university assistant and from 1996 to 1998 as a university lecturer at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. In 1995, completed habilitation with a thesis on the role of the academic artist in modern Germany. Since 1998, she has been a professor of art history at the University of Leipzig. Her research focuses on concepts of identity, memory culture, and the history of science.