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Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology

Courses

Syllabus summer term 2026
KVV_Stand 13.02.2026.pdf (210.8 KB)  vom 18.02.2026

(Re)Turning to the Human?_23.02.2026

Roundtable “(Re)Turning to the Human?” – Hybrid Event from Zurich with Participation from Halle

On 10 March 2026, the roundtable “(Re)Turning to the Human? Legalities, Normativities, and Questions of Justice” will  take place at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zurich. The event  brings together contributions by Olaf Zenker (MLU Halle-Wittenberg),  Michaela Schäuble (University of Bern), Margot Michel (University of  Zurich), Yoan Hermstrüwer (University of Zurich) and Alice Margaria  (University of Zurich) and will be moderated by Andreas Thier. The  discussion addresses current questions concerning the role of the human  in legal and normative orders — particularly at the intersection of  planetary justice, religion, animal rights, artificial intelligence and  human rights. The roundtable will take place in person in Zurich and  will also be streamed in a hybrid format. Online participation is  possible upon prior registration. The event forms part of a two-week  visiting professorship of Olaf Zenker (2–13 March 2026) at the  University of Zurich. There he teaches, within the module Legal Anthropology of the Postcolonial World,  a course on transformative constitutionalism in post-apartheid South  Africa, thematically linked to his recent work on planetary justice and  postliberal constellations of contemporary legal orders.

Registration for online access: https://shorturl.at/mq6oH   

Nur Pflegen ist schöner

Vortrag im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung" von Janne von Seggern

Am 3. November 2025 findet im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Bildung für nachhaltige  Entwicklung" (Ringvorlesung im Rahmen LSQ und Zertifikatskurs) ein Vortrag von Janne von Seggern zum Thema "Indigene Perspektiven: ʻāina-based education in Hawaiʻi" statt. Der Vortrag ist aufgezeichnet und für MLU Studierende und Mitarbeitende über StudIP einsehbar.

Prof. Olaf Zenker-Reckoning with Law in Excess_2025

New Open Access Publication on the Rise & Fall of Law as a Modality of Social Transformation

The volume Reckoning with Law in Excess: Mobilization, Confrontation, Refusal, co-edited by Mark Goodale and Olaf Zenker, was recently published in open access and in print. It offers a new approach to understanding the relationship between law and social and political transformation in a changing and uncertain world. The book's authors examine a wide range of case studies in which social movements pursue justice and social change within, against, and beyond the law. The interdisciplinary research at the heart of the volume reveals patterns in the ways in which law and legality are invested with heightened importance during certain historical moments, a process of over-loading that most often gives way to disenchantment with the ultimate limits of law. In reflecting critically and synthetically on these complicated dialectics of reckoning with law, the book shines a light on one of the most important, and consequential, dynamics in an era of climate crisis, rising populism across the political spectrum, and social conflict. Besides contributions by the editors, the volume features chapters by Lynette Chua, Julia Eckert, Kiri Santer, Matthew Canfield, Arzoo  Osanloo, Nitzan Shoshan, Penelope Anthias, Agathe Mora, Rachel Sieder and Kamari Clarke. Check out the freely available chapters here    

Lehrfoschungsprojekt POLY! Endpräsentation

POLY! ist eine  Kollaboration zwischen dem Seminar für Ethnologie an der MLU und dem  Studiengang Textildesign an der BURG im Rahmen des MA-Seminars  "Cheoethnographie: Textile und textliche Außeinandersetzungen mit der  Chemiefaser in Wolfen“. Die textil-textlichen Projektergebnisse werden  präsentiert am:

Dienstag, 8. JULI 2025 um 14 Uhr

Campus Design der Burg Giebichenstein

Neuwerk 7

Lehrklassengebäude

Raum 105 im Erdgeschoss

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Just Out: The New Open Access Reader “Public Anthropology”

Today, anthropologists are expected to take a position on current social problems and debates. This freely available German-medium reader offers, for the first time, an overview of the diverse practices, formats, and approaches with which the project of "public anthropology" is being implemented at anthropological institutes in Germany today. In five sections – Publics, Collaborations, Positionings, Transformations, and Mediation – authors at various career stages discuss practical examples  of public anthropological work. They highlight both the academic and  societal benefits of public anthropology and the associated challenges.

Our institute also contributed two chapters: „Public Anthropology im Spätkapitalismus“ (Janine Hauer & Asta Vonderau) and „Strategische Netzwerke inmitten konfligierender Positionalitäten: Public Anthropology  in der südafrikanischen Landreform“ (Olaf Zenker).

Click here to get the reader for free   

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Forschungsbasierter Masterstudiengang Ethnologie / Social and Cultural Anthropology

MA Social and Cultural Anthropology Halle

Der zweisprachige Masterstudiengang MA Ethnologie 120 beinhaltet neben dem sozial- und kulturtheoretisch fundierten Studium auch die angeleitete Konzeption und Durchführung eines individuellen empirischen Forschungsprojekts weltweit. Beispiele studentischer Masterforschungsfelder gibt es hier.

Alle weiteren Infos finden sich hier. Allgemeine Informationen zur Bewerbung während der Corona-Epidemie finden sich hier.

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