Educational and professional background:

Aya was brought up and educated in Berlin, where she studied Art History, Classical Archaeology and Literature (Humboldt-Universität, 1994 - 1997). She then went on to complete a PhD in History of Art at the University of Cambridge (King's College, 1997 - 2001) where she also held a Research Fellowship (New Hall, 2001 - 2005), and a Temporary Lectureship at the Department of History of Art (2003 - 2004). At Cambridge she taught at undergraduate (B.A.) and graduate level (M.Phil.), and was Director of Studies for various Cambridge colleges. Aya started teaching for ECLA as a visiting lecturer in 2002, and joined the faculty in October 2005. Her main area of research interest lies in the field of German Expressionism, European Modernism and Avantgarde Art and Culture. Contact: a.soika@ecla.de

Classes Taught:

Electives:

Platonic concepts in Art
The Cult of the Artist
The challenge of the Avantgarde
Words and Images: Manifestos of the Avantgarde (co-taught with literature historian Laura Scuriatti)
Paths to the Absolute: Abstraction in Art.
German Visual Culture, 1900 - 1937
What is (modern) Art?
Romantics, Realists, Revolutionaries: Nineteenth Century Art
Representation

Aya has also lectured for ECLA's core courses, and is the coordinator of the extracurricular Berlin Programme. She organized  ECLA's annual State of the World Week in 2008 ("The Politics of Cultural Ownership") and 2011 ("What shall we eat?").
In 2011 Aya was in charge of the art history component of the International Summer University Prussia: Philosophy, Rebellion and the State.

General Teaching Interests:

Modernism and  its Theories; Theories and Manifestations of the European Avantgarde; German visual Culture in the 19th, 20th and 21st Century; Berlin: Architecture, Urban Space, Memorial Culture; The Berlin Museums and their History

Research & Publications:

Aya's research interests include early twentieth-century European art, in particular German Expressionism. Among her publications are articles on the Expressionist group Brücke, the history of art reception and reviews of various monographs and catalogues. She has written a biography of the Expressionist painter Max Pechstein (together with her husband, the historian Bernhard Fulda) and has recently completed the Catalogue Raisonné of Max Pechstein's oil paintings.

Books:

Max Pechstein. Das Werkverzeichnis der Ölgemälde. Munich (Hirmer Verlag) 2011, Vol. 1: 1905 - 1918. Vol. 2: 1919-1954 Catalogue Raisonné of Max Pechstein's paintings. Ca. 1.200 pages in total, including 1243 entries, as well as essays on reception history, collectors and Œuvre of Max Pechstein  

Max Pechstein. The Rise and Fall of German Expressionism. Part of the Series: Interdisciplinary German Cultural Studies. Berlin/New York (De Gruyter), forthcoming in 2012 (together with Bernhard Fulda)

Exhibition Catalogue: 

Max Pechstein, Ein Expressionist aus Leidenschaft. Retrospektive. Ed. together with Peter Thurmann and Andrea Madesta. Exh.-Cat. Kunsthalle zu Kiel (19.9.2010 - 9.1.2011), Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg (6.3. - 26.6.2011), Kunstmuseum Ahlen (10.7. - 30.10.2011). Munich (Hirmer Verlag) 2010.

Edited volumes:

Expresionismo Brücke. Symposium No 4, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid 2005.

100 Jahre Brücke. Neueste Forschung. Jahrbuch der Dresdner Gemäldesammlungen, ed. together with Birgit Dalbajewa and Konstanze Rudert. Berlin and Dresden, 2007

Articles:

Max Pechstein und die Literatur, in: Almanach der Brücke 2, ed. Hermann Gerlinger and Katja Schneider. Forthcoming publication to accompany exhibition on German Expressionism and Literature in Stiftung Moritzburg, Kunstmuseum des Landes Sachsen Anhalt, Halle, 2012 (forthcoming)

Max Pechsteins letzter „Erinnerungsdank an die versunkene Pracht der Südsee", in: Bilder des Anderen: Die Brücke und der Exotismus, ed. Ralph Melcher/Christoph Wagner. Berlin 2010, pp. 83-91 (forthcoming)

Max Pechstein in Nidden, in: Exh.-Cat. Max Pechstein, Expressionist aus Leidenschaft, ed. A. Madesta, P. Thurmann, A. Soika. München 2010, pp. 100-109

Erich Heckel im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Exh.-Cat. Erich Heckel. Aufbruch und Tradition. Eine Retrospektive, ed. Magdalena M. Moeller. München 2010, pp. 78-87

Im Kreis von Freunden: Max Pechstein und die Förderer seiner Kunst, in: Gemeinsames Ziel und eigene Wege. Die „Brücke" und ihr Nachwirken. Almanach der Brücke 1, ed. Hermann Gerlinger and Katja Schneider, München 2010, pp. 78-89

„Um die guten Franzosen kennen zu lernen, muß man nach Deutschland gehen!" Max Pechstein und die französische Moerne, in: Exh.-Cat. Deutscher Expressionismus. 1905-1913. Brücke-Museum Berlin. 150 Meisterwerke, ed. Magdalena M. Moeller, Marietta Jansen, München 2009, pp. 45-55 (German and Dutch Edition)

Max Pechstein, der „Führer" der „Brücke", Anmerkungen zur zeitgenössischen Rezeption. In: Neue Forschungen und Berichte, Brücke-Archiv, H. 23/2008, pp. 79-94

Birgit Dalbajewa/Aya Soika/Konstanze Rudert, „Das Kolloquium in Dresden - Gruppe und Individuum in der Künstlergemeinschaft Brücke', in: Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Berichte, Beiträge 2005, Band 32 (Sonderband „Gruppe und Individuum in der Künstlergemeinschaft Brücke. 100 Jahre Brücke - Neueste Forschung), Dresden 2007, pp. 9-11

Ein ungeliebtes Vorbild - Max Klingers Einfluss auf Max Pechstein und die „Brücke", in: Exh.-Cat. Eine Liebe. Max Klinger und die Folgen, ed. Hubertus Gaßner and Hans-Werner Schmidt, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Kunsthalle Hamburg, 2007/08 (Leipzig: 11.3. - 24.6.2007, Hamburg: 11.10.2007 - 13.1.2008), pp. 71 - 74

Ein Südseeinsulaner in Berlin, in: Exh.-Cat. Die Brücke in der Südsee - Exotik der Farbe, ed. Ralph Melcher, Saarlandmuseum (Saarbrücken), 2005 (22.10.2005 -8.1.2006), pp. 71-83

Max Pechstein, „lider" de Brücke. In: Aya Soika (ed.), Expresionismo Brücke, Symposium No. 4, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid 2005, pp. 73-95

Max Pechstein - Außenseiter oder Wegbereiter? In: Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Berichte, Beiträge 2005, Band 32 (Sonderband „Gruppe und Individuum in der Künstlergemeinschaft Brücke. 100 Jahre Brücke - Neueste Forschung), Dresden 2007, pp. 79 - 87

Im Dienste der Architektur: Die Brücke und die Dresdner Raumkunst,  in: Exh.-Cat. Die Brücke in Dresden. 1905-1911, ed. Birgit Dalbajewa and Ulrich Bischoff, Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2001 (20.10. 2001 - 6.1.2002), pp. 272-77

Kandinsky Chronicle, in: Exh.-Cat. Kandinsky: Watercolours and other Works on Paper, ed. Frank Whitford, Royal Academy of Arts, London (Thames and Hudson) 1999. (German edition by Hirmer, Munich)

Reviews:

Feininger (June 2008); Max Beckmann in Amsterdam (December 2007); Utopia and Revolt (September 2007); Kirchner's Self Portraits; Brücke (March 2006); Beckmann (December 2005); Pechstein; (December 2004); German Expressionist Prints; (September 2004); Kirchner (June 2004); Kollwitz (June 2003); Münter (June 2002); The German Woodcut (June 2001); Worpswede (December 2000); The Swiss Graphic Society (December 1999). All published in: Print Quarterly (ed. David Landau, London)