Previously, Denise has worked as an assistant curator at the contemporary art museum Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Germany, where she co-organised two large-scale exhibitions including their accompanying publications.

She obtained both her bachelor’s degree (BA Arts & Culture) and her master’s degree (MSc Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology) from FASoS, and graduated cum laude in both programmes. After completing a research internship at Tate Gallery, London, during her studies, Denise's master thesis focused on the conservation of performance art, more specifically the role of documentation in shaping the ‘lives’ of performative artworks in museums. For this work, she was awarded the student prize for best master theses of 2016 by Maastricht University.

Recent publications include: 

• Spronck, V., & Petzold, D. (2017). For the Sake of Experiencing: Technological Mediation between Installation Artworks and their Visitors. Kunstlicht, 38(4), 100-107.

• Petzold, D. (2018). Documents of Contemporary Cuban Performance Art: Pasts, Presents and Futures in Dialogue. In: Beitin, A. (Ed.). Art x Cuba. Contemporary Perspectives since 1989 (pp. 206-213). Aachen: Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst. Cologne: Wienand Verlag.