The Department of

Social and Cultural

Anthropology

Content

The Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Cover: The king of Akyem Abuakwa,

southern Ghana, at the Ohumfestival.
Photo: Gabriel Klaeger, 2007

Content
The Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology
Faculty and Staff
1. Professors
2. Adjunct, Assistant, and Honorary Professors
3. Lecturers and Research Fellows

3-5
6-14
6-7
8
9-12

4. Affiliated Teaching and Research Staff

13

5. Administrative Staff

14

Affiliated Institutions and Study Programmes

15-17

Studying at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

18-25

The Department of
Social and Cultural
Anthropology
The Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the
Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main is concerned primarily
with the study of non-European cultures, whereby both
contemporary and historical topics are reflected in the
curriculum and research programme. The following regions
feature in the curriculum as well as in on-going research:
Africa, Southeast Asia and Melanesia, and native North
America. Thematic focus areas include: the history of
anthropology, cultural change, the anthropology of kinship
and religion, economic anthropology, political anthropology,
oral traditions, visual anthropology, anthropology of the
media and culinary anthropology. The broad spectrum of
topics, which is reflected in the departments research and
programme of study, is circumscribed by five thematic fields:
1. Diffusion Appropriation Innovation

1. Bachelor of Arts Programme in

Social and Cultural Anthropology
2. Master of Arts Programme in
Social and Cultural Anthropology
3. The Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Student Council
4. PhD Projects
Contact

18
19

2. Conflict Mobility Migration

3. Popular Culture, Media and Thing Culture / Material Culture
4. Transformation of Postcolonial Societies
and the Formation of Normative Orders
5. Transcultural Historical Research

19
20-25
26-27

Muslim party
activist praying,
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Photo: Dominik
Mller, 2009

The Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

1. Diffusion - Appropriation - Innovation

The diffusion of innovations should not be regarded as simply the
result of the adoption of cultural elements from other regions, cultures
and societies. Rather, innovations are subject to cultural interpretation
through everyday use and new insights. The anthropological approach
goes beyond the mere description of diffusion by examining the
conditions under which newly introduced institutions, ethical norms,
material goods, ideas and conceptions are transformed, localised and
thus appropriated.

Market in Pisaq, Peru.

Photo: Iris Gareis, 1978

2. Conflict - Mobility - Migration

Migrations between regions and continents determine the patterns
of action of present-day societies. The causes for the genesis and
formation of various forms of migration lie in the cultural preferences
and the biographical trajectories of the migrants themselves. However,
mobility is also the outcome of contradictions in value systems, of
pressures from the society of origin, or of environmental changes.
Anthropologists study both migration and its resulting practices of
transnationality in their cultural contexts as well as the consequences
for the migrants themselves.

4. Transformation of Postcolonial Societies

and the Formation of Normative Orders
In postcolonial states, as well as in the diaspora, universal values
and collective particularities have begun to be debated. Cultural and
political actors present their views of state, society and community
which contain reinvented local traditions, adaptations of global
discourses and utopias often religiously grounded in expectations of
salvation. Of particular interest are processes by which new norms
and values are formed, negotiated and implemented, as well as their
legitimisation and the resulting implications for local communities,
translocal networks and nation-states.

3. Popular Culture, Media and Thing Culture (Material Culture)

The term popular culture is generally defined with respect to its
counterpart high or elite culture. However, this dichotomy is
not appropriate to the societies that are the focus of anthropological
study. Instead, popular culture best describes the production and
reproduction of culture in every-day contexts it is therefore both
process and product. One might ask whether popular cultures
counterpart is to be found in urban culture, the culture of village
elites, state culture as it emerged from the colonial context, court
culture or in the cultures of secret societies. By looking to media
and thing culture, popular culture can be studied diachronically
and culturally, since both mediate and spread the contents of
popular culture.

5. Transcultural Historical Research

Ethnographic accounts differ from other historical sources by virtue
of their transcultural nature. Their authors are members of a culture
different from the one they are describing. On the one hand, these
are unique accounts regarding societies without a written historical
tradition of their own. On the other hand, such accounts also
document how the members of each culture perceived each other,
to what extent cultural preconceptions hindered communication,
how existing power relations were manipulated and under which
circumstances conflicts or mutual exchange ensued. Transcultural
historical research contributes to a general theory of Fremdverstehen
which is germane to contemporary circumstances.

Faculty and Staff

Faculty and Staff

1. Professors

Susanne Schrter (Managing Director)

Prof Dr Susanne Schrter holds the chair for
the Anthropology of Colonial and Postcolonial
Orders and is Principal Investigator in the
Cluster of Excellence The Formation of
Normative Orders. Her regional focus is on
Indonesia, Germany and the Islamic world. Her
research interests include models of collective
identity, the anthropology of religion, the
anthropology of rituals, conceptions of nonWestern modernity; constructions of gender,
sexuality and morality, and the Islamic world.

Faculty and Staff

Hans Peter Hahn

Prof Dr Hans Peter Hahns regional
focus is West Africa, including Burkina
Faso, Ghana, Togo. Among his research
interests are material culture, economic
anthropology, consumption, migration
and mobility, and globalisation.

Karl-Heinz Kohl
Prof Dr Karl-Heinz Kohl is professor of
Social and Cultural Anthropology and is
director of the Frobenius Institute. His
regional focus areas are Indonesia and
Melanesia. Research interests include the
anthropology of religion and kinship, the
history of anthropology and xenology.

Mamadou Diawara
Prof Dr Mamadou Diawara is professor of
Social and Cultural Anthropology as well as
Director of the Point Sud Centre for Research
on Local Knowledge in Bamako (Mali), with
which the department collaborates on several
levels . His regional focus area is Sub-Saharan
Africa (particularly Mali). His research interests
include local knowledge, anthropology of
development, oral history in the era of mass
media, globalisation, and the history of Africa.

Marin Trenk
Prof Dr Marin Trenks research has focused
on Eastern North America, and in a more
recent project he has been concerned with
Thailand. His research interests include
ethnohistory, economic anthropology, and
culinary anthropology.

2.

Faculty and Staff

Faculty and Staff

Adjunct, Assistant, and Honorary Professors

Iris Gareis
Prof Dr Iris Gareis is adjunct professor
of Social and Cultural Anthropology
and has a regional focus on Latin
America and Spain. Her research
interests include ethnohistory,
anthropological methods, history
of science, identity, anthropology of
religion and the anthropology of art.
Volker Gottowik
Prof Dr Volker Gottowik is adjunct
professor at the Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology with
a regional focus on Southeast Asia
(Indonesia) and West Africa (Ghana).
His research interests include
the history of anthropology and
anthropological theory, intercultural
hermeneutics, the anthropology of
religion, and womens studies.
Holger Jebens
Prof Dr Holger Jebens is adjunct
professor of Social and Cultural
Anthropology, research fellow at the
Frobenius Institute and managing
editor of the journal Paideuma. His
regional focus area is Papua New
Guinea. Research interests include
perceptions of other and self; religion;
Christian fundamentalism and cargo
cults.

Johannes Quack
Dr Johannes Quack is assistant
professor and the head of the
anthropological research group
"The Diversity of Nonreligion"
funded by the German Research
Council (DFG) under the
Emmy-Noether-Programme.
His research interests include
popular Hinduism, medical
anthropology (mental health),
the anthropology of religion,
secularism and nonreligion, the
aesthetics of religion, and ritual
theory.
Gereon Sievernich
Prof Gereon Sievernich is
Honorary Professor at the
Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology. He is
also Director of the MartinGropius-Bau, an internationally
renowned art exhibition
centre in Berlin. In 2010, the
French government made him
Knight of the Order of Arts and
Letters recognizing not only
his contributions to GermanFrench artistic exchange,
but also his long-standing
commitment to education in the
field of cultural management.

3.

Lecturers and Research Fellows

Oliver Bertrand
Oliver Bertrand is research
associate at the Department
of Social and Cultural
Anthropology. His research
interests include Muslim cultures
in Germany, Christian-Muslim
dialogue, religious diversity,
religion and the United Nations.
Alexander Blechschmidt
Alexander Blechschmidt
is research associate at the
Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology and part
of the Emmy Noether-Project
The Diversity of Nonreligion
headed by Dr. Johannes
Quack. He studied Social and
Cultural Anthropology, Physical
Anthropology and History of
Science at the Georg-AugustUniversity Gttingen. His PhD
research project deals with
organized nonreligion in the
Philippines

Birgit Bruchler
Dr Birgit Bruchler is lecturer
of Social and Cultural
Anthropology with a regional
focus on Indonesia, the Moluccas
in particular. Her research
interests include media and
cyberanthropology, conflict and
peace studies and the revival of
tradition.
Doris Decker
Dr Doris Decker is research
associate at the Department of
Social and Cultural Anthropology
and the Cluster of Excellence The
Formation of Normative Orders.
She acquired a PhD degree in
Studies of Religions with an
emphasis on Islam. Her main
research areas are the religious
history of Islam, sexuality and
religion and gender related topics.
She has taught at the universities
of Frankfurt and Marburg on
a variety of topics. Studies and
research took her to Syria,
Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. Her
postdoctoral research project
deals with public discourses on
sexuality in Lebanon.
Roadside hawkers in Ofankor,
Accra, Ghana.
Photo: Gabriel Klaeger, 2007

10

Faculty and Staff

Faculty and Staff

Mosque in Isfahan, Iran.

Gabriel Klaeger
Gabriel Klaeger is instructor
and research associate at the
Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology with a
regional focus on West Africa
(especially Ghana). His research
interests include chieftaincy,
religion, bodies at risk, roads and
mobilities, speed and informal
work.
Markus H. Lindner
Dr Markus Lindner is lecturer
at the Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology.
His regional focus is on North
America (plains, esp. Lakota). His
research interests include material
culture, historical photography,
museum anthropology, tourism,
contemporary Native American
art, and Native American selfrepresentation.
Stephanie Maiwald
Dr Stephanie Maiwald is lecturer
at the Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology. Her
regional focus is on West Africa
(Nigeria). Her research interests
include the anthropology of art,
material culture studies, memory
cultures, the Biafra war, and gift
theories.

Photo: Dominik Mller, 2012

Ronja Metzger
Ronja Metzger is research
associate and coordinator of the
BA and MA study programmes
at the Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology.
Her regional focus is West
Africa, especially Nigeria, and
Great Britain. Her research
interests include museums, the
anthropology of art and material
culture studies; visual culture and
mass media; Pan-Africanism; the
anthropology of religion.

Katja Rieck
Katja Rieck is research associate
at the Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology and
the Cluster of Excellence The
Formation of Normative Orders.
Her regional focus areas are
19th century India, 18th and
19th century Britain, and Iran.
Research themes include multiple
modernities, anthropology of
capitalism and colonialism,
history of anthropology and
anthropological theory, religious
aesthetics in colonial contexts
and discourses on culture and
religion in anti-colonial sociopolitical movements. She is
currently completing her PhD
dissertation that explores the
interplay between Western
debates on capitalism and Indian
critiques of colonialism and the
role culturalist and religious
discourses in the formation of
post-capitalist/post-colonial sociopolitical orders.

Susanne Schenk
Susanne Schenk is research
associate at the Department of
Social and Cultural Anthropology
and part of the Emmy NoetherProject The Diversity of
Nonreligion headed by Dr.
Johannes Quack. Her research
interests lies in nonreligion,
secularity, humanism, cultural
sociology, sociology of religion
and qualitative social research,
focusing on Sweden. She was
student assistant in the project
Multiple Secularities at the
University of Leipzig. Her PhD
research project deals with
negotiating processes about
humanism and religion in
Sweden.
Alewtina Schuckmann
Alewtina Schuckmann is research
associate at the Department of
Social and Cultural Anthropology
and the Cluster of Excellence "The
Formation of Normative Orders".
Her research interests include
the social construction of gender,
juridical reform, and civil society
activism in the Muslim world,
especially in Morocco where she
conducted field research in 2009
and 2012/2013. Her PhD project
focuses on social change, media,
and youth in urban Morocco.

11

12

Faculty and Staff

Cora Schuh
Cora Schuh is research associate
at the Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology and part
of the Emmy Noether-Project
The Diversity of Nonreligion
headed by Dr. Johannes
Quack. She is interested in the
emergence of secular orders,
their institutionalization and
contestation. She focuses on
the Netherlands and her PhD
project deals with secularism in
contemporary liberal politics.
Gunnar Stange
Gunnar Stange is research
associate at the Department of
Social and Cultural Anthropology
and the Cluster of Excellence
The Formation of Normative
Orders. His research interests lie
in local conflicts, identity politics
and development processes in
South-East Asia, especially in
Indonesia. He has worked in
different development projects in
Indonesia and Mozambique. He
has taught at the universities of
Passau, Vienna, and Frankfurt.
His PhD research project deals
with political transformation and
identity politics in post-conflict
Aceh, Indonesia.

Faculty and Staff

Nina Tebati
Dr Nina Tebati is lecturer at
the Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology. Her
regional focus is East Africa,
especially Tanzania. Her research
interests include conservation
and development programs,
processes of negotiation between
different knowledge systems,
linguistic anthropology, museum
anthropology and African (esp.
Kiswahili) literature.
Sonia Zayed
Sonia Zayed is research associate
at the Department of Cultural
Anthropology and the Cluster
of Excellence "The Formation of
Normative Orders". Her research
focuses on the anthropology of
Islam and gender in North Africa
and the Middle East. Her PhD
project deals with new gender
orders in Tunisia after the Arab
Spring.

Kwakwaka'wakw whale mask (1900),

Denver Art Museum.
Photo: Markus H. Lindner, 2000

Affiliated Teaching
and Research Staff

4. 

Heidrun Friese
Dr Heidrun Friese is affiliated
senior lecturer (Privatdozent)
at the Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology. Her
regional focus is on Europe and
the Mediterranean. Her research
interests include postcolonial
perspectives, identities, time,
history and memory, space
and borders, hospitality and
friendship, undocumented
mobility, transnational practices,
and digital anthropology.
Verena Keck
Dr Verena Keck is affiliated
senior lecturer (Privatdozent)
at the Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology. Her
regional focus is on Oceania,
especially Papua New Guinea and
Micronesia. Her research interests
include medical anthropology,
concepts of personhood, oral
traditions, anthropology
of religion, psychological
anthropology, migration,
identity, history of anthropology,
globalisation.

Dominik Mller
Dr Dominik Mller is a postdoctoral fellow at the Cluster
of Excellence "The Formation
of Normative Orders" and
an associated fellow at the
Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology. His
regional focus is on Southeast
Asia, particularly Brunei
Darussalam, Malaysia, and
Singapore. His research interests
include Muslim politics, popular
culture, and socio-legal change.
Ute Rschenthaler
Dr Ute Rschenthaler is research
fellow at the Cluster of Excellence
The Formation of Normative
Orders and the project "Afraso:
Africa's Asian Options". She
is an affiliated senior lecturer
(Privatdozent) at the Johannes
Gutenberg University Mainz.
Her regional focus is on
Africa (especially West Africa,
Cameroon, Nigeria and Mali) and
on Africans in Asia. Her research
interests include economic
anthropology, trade networks in
the Global South, the history of
cultural diffusion, ethnography,
intellectual property, media,
advertising, and African
entrepreneurship.

13

14

5.

Faculty and Staff

Affiliated Institutions and Study Programmes

Affiliated Institutions
and Study Programmes

Administrative Staff
Beata Drr
Beata Drr is an
administrative
coordinator at the
Department of
Social and Cultural
Anthropology.

Kirsten Lankenau
Kirsten Lankenau
is a librarian at the
Ethnological Library
at the Department of
Social and Cultural
Anthropology.

Isabel Vlker
Isabel Vlker is
faculty assistant
and administrative
coordinator at the
Department of
Social and Cultural
Anthropology.

Frobenius Institute
The German anthropologist Leo Frobenius (1873-1938) founded the
Afrika Archiv (the Africa Archives) in 1898, which was later
renamed the Forschungsinstitut fr Kulturmorphologie (The Research
Institute for Cultural Morphology). Since 1925 it has been located
in Frankfurt and been part of the Goethe University Frankfurt/Main.
Renamed the Frobenius Institute in 1946, it is today an independent
anthropological research institute based in Frankfurt.
Besides its extensive research and publication activities, the Frobenius
Institute is home to the largest anthropological library in Germany
containing over 118,000 volumes and 500 periodicals, and provides
privileged access to the staff, research fellows and students of the
department. The library is jointly funded and managed by the Frobenius
Institute and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
In addition, the Frobenius Institute organises conferences, exhibitions,
and houses extensive ethnological collections of material culture,
the worlds largest collection of rock art, and a photographic archive
housing an extensive collection of images documenting over 80 years
of anthropological research at the institute and the Department of
Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Since 1938 the Frobenius Institute has been issuing the annual
anthropological journal Paideuma, as well as several renowned book
series. Outstanding anthropological dissertations are annually
awarded with a prestigious research prize (Forschungsfrderungspreis).
In close collaboration, the Department of Social and Cultural
Anthropology, the Frobenius Institute as well as the Museum der
Weltkulturen (Museum of World Cultures) aspire to ensure
Frankfurts position as one of the leading centres of social and cultural
anthropology in Germany.

Mosque of Djenn, Mali.

Photo: Gabriel Klaeger, 2005

http://frobenius-institut.de/index.php/en

15

16

Affiliated Institutions and Study Programmes

Affiliated Institutions and Study Programmes

Cluster of Excellence: The Formation of Normative Orders

The Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the
University of Frankfurt also participates in the Cluster of Excellence
The Formation of Normative Orders, a multidisciplinary research
endeavour funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
that began in 2007 and will run until 2017. Three faculty members,
several post-doctoral fellows and PhD candidates currently have
research projects running under the research clusters aegis.
The focus is on exploring conflicts over and the transformation
of normative orders and how these conflicts and transformation
processes are set off by situations of economic and social inequity,
resource scarcity, tensions between competing notions of justice and
law and order, and between differing visions of the role of religion
in the socio-political order.

Shopkeeper and
customers at a
shop in the bazaar
in Tabriz, Iran.
Photo: Katja Rieck,
2009

http://www.normativeorders.net/en/

Point Sud
The Point Sud Centre for Research on Local Knowledge in Bamako,
Mali, has since its creation in 1997 dedicated itself to strengthening
the dialogue between scholars from Africa, Europe and other
parts of the world. Alongside the research on local knowledge,
the promotion and education of young scholars from Africa,
Europe and America as well as the collaboration between science
and development projects are essential goals of the centre, and it
maintains especially close ties with German research on Africa.
In 2008, the Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main and the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) launched the Point Sud Programme
via which Africa-related activities in the humanities and social
sciences at the Point Sud venue can be funded. Financial support
by the DFG covers the costs of travel and accommodation for
participants in activities that have been granted financial support.
The programme is open to researchers of any nationality based in
Germany who are working on Africa-related themes.
http://www.pointsud.org/

Research Training Group Value and Equivalence

Value and equivalence are basic concepts in all societies, past and
present. While value is a fundamental characteristic of material things,
its embedding in a culture depends on the property of having value.
In so far as they are keenly suited to the exploration of objects and
their societal context, and have long disciplinary traditions of the
study of material culture, archaeology and cultural anthropology, the
two disciplines comprising this research endeavour, are particularly
suited to exploring questions of value and equivalence. The doctoral
candidates in this research training group conduct their PhD projects
in an interdisciplinary academic environment in which competency
in both empirical methods and theoretical approaches is required. The
group provides a structured PhD programme specifically designed for
archaeologists and cultural anthropologists and includes a practical
component that requires the conceptualisation, planning and
realisation of a museum exhibition.
http://www.value-and-equivalence.de/en/home/

17

18

Studying at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Studying at the Department of

Social and Cultural Anthropology

Studying at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

The breadth of the regional, methodological and theoretical focus areas

offered in the department allows students to familiarise themselves
with a wide variety of anthropological perspectives without having to
forgo an adequately practice-oriented specialisation during the more
advanced phase of their studies. Upon completion of their introductory
coursework, students may choose to either participate in one of the
group research projects offered at the department or to pursue further
advanced coursework.

1. Bachelor of Arts Programme in Social and Cultural Anthropology

The BA programme runs six semesters (usually three years) and is
divided into introductory, intermediate and advanced phases. The last
phase includes a module on anthropological practice in which students
conceptualise and complete a supervised independent research project
and also write a BA thesis. The departments course offerings allow
students to choose from a broad range of regional and systematic
focus areas and to combine these to suit their academic interests. The
breadth of disciplinary focus areas represented by the departments
faculty and academic staff allows students during the early stages of
their studies to become acquainted with the discipline from many
perspectives, while later being able to choose an area of specialty that
suits their academic or professional needs and interests.

The Department of
Social and Cultural
Anthropology
Student Council

2. Master of Arts Programme in Social and Cultural Anthropology

The MA programme runs four semesters (usually two years) and will
be offered starting with the winter term 2014/15. It provides graduate
students with further theoretical and practical research training that
builds on the research skills and disciplinary competencies acquired
at the undergraduate level. Upon having completed the programme,
graduates will be able to continue their academic training in a
PhD programme, or they may pursue professional careers outside
the university system. The programmes aim is to train students to
undertake theoretically informed empirical investigations by having
them conceptualise and conduct their own research projects under the
supervision of the department faculty and staff. MA projects may be
integrated into the on-going research of one of the faculty members.

3. The Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology Student Council

We are a loosely structured association of anthropology students that
represents the interests of students in the anthropology department.
We also act as liaisons between the department staff, faculty and
the students and help students with any difficulties (academic or
otherwise) they might encounter in their studies. The anthropology
student council lounge is located in room IG 0.554 and is open daily on
weekdays. There is a coffee machine and a computer, as well as a sofa
and chairs where students can come to hang out and chat with other
anthro students. We're always happy to see new faces in the lounge, so
please drop by! If you have any questions regarding the activities of the
student council or regarding academic concerns you can also reach us
by e-mail at ethnologen-frankfurt@gmx.de. Also, we invite you to stop
by our blog where you will be informed of all the latest events and find
lots of helpful information about studying anthropology in Frankfurt:
http://www.ethno-fachschaft.de/

19

20

Studying at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

4. PhD Projects

Christian Straube : Copper mines in

a cultural borderland: Sino-African
encounters on the African copperbelt

PhD projects supervised by Prof Diawara

Oliver Becker: Muti Morde in Afrika:
Tten fr okkulte Medizin [Muti murders
in Africa: Killing for occult medicine]
Nadia Cohen: Afrikanisch-asiatische
Interaktionen im Cyberspace [AfricanAsian interactions in cyberspace]
Lamine Doumbia: Die Relevanz des
lokalen Wissens und die Kernfrage des
urbanen Landmanagements Eine Anthropologie der demokratischen Entwicklungsplanung in Bamako, Mali [The relevance
of local knowledge and the question of
urban l and management An anthropology
of democratic development planning in
Bamako, Mali]
Matthias Gruber: Die Fuball WM 2010 als
Entwicklungsereignis [The football World
Cup of 2010 as a development event]
Tina Kramer: Einfluss mobiler Akteure auf
die Erinnerungskulturen Guinea-Bissaus
und Portugals [The influence of mobile
actors on the memory cultures of GuineaBissau and Portugal]
Bjrn Loewe: We have beautiful policy
paper, but its just lies - Transnationale Bildungsziele und nationale Reformen an einer
nigerianischen State-University [We have
beautiful policy paper, but its just lies Transnational education goals and national
reforms in a Nigerian state university]
Alena Mehlau: Qui est le loubard?
The making of norm and identity inside
Guineas Security Sector Reform

PhD projects supervised by Prof Gareis

Dr Friedrich Ernst Beyhl: Ethnobotanische
und kulturhistorische Untersuchungen ber
Pflanzen der Gattung Dracaena
[Ethnobotanical and historical inquiries
on plants of the species Dracaena]
Katharina Friederike Klein: Diskurs der
Interkulturalitt in Abya Yala und Amerika.
Der interkulturelle Dialog der Prsidenten
Juan Evo Morales Ayma und Barack Hussein
Obama II. [Discourse on interculturality
in Abya Yala and America. The intercultural
dialogue between the Presidents Juan Evo
Morales Ayma and Barack Hussein Obama II]
Alexa Khnen: Unity in Diversity? Fremdbilder, Konfliktpotenzial und religise Identitten in stdtischen Diversittskonzepten
Westeuropas [Unity in diversity? Perceptions by others, potential for
conflict and religious identities in WesternEuropean urban concepts of diversity]
Jess Sigifredo Leal Guerrero: The
Holocaust of the Palace of the Justice:
Social and personal narratives on the
massacre of Colombias Palace of Justice
(1985) in the context of the articulation
of Colombia to global justice systems
Selma zur Linde: Hexenkult zu Beginn des
21. Jahrhunderts Ursprnge, Entwicklungen, Tendenzen [Witch cults during the
early 21st century Origins, developments
and tendencies]

Studying at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Mara del Pilar Meja Quiroga: Religion,

Aberglaube und Gender: Genealogien der
Volksreligiositt und Gestaltungen des Anderen bei Frauen in kolumbianischen Kolonialstdten [Religion, superstition, and
gender: Genealogies of popular religiosity
and conceptions of the other among women
in Columbian colonial cities]
Nadja Michler: Trickster - mythische
Grenzgnger: ein religionsethnologischer
Vergleich [Tricksters Mythical border
crossers: a comparative view from the
Perspective of the anthropology of religion]
Sarah-Lina Rubal: Scheiterhaufen am
White River: Indigene Hexenverfolgung als
Ausdruck kultureller Transformation
(18.Jh.) [Stakes at White River:
Indigenous witch hunts as expressions
of cultural transformation]
Imke Schulte-Lbbert: Nachhaltige
Armutsbekmpfung: Faktoren fr den nachhaltigen Erfolg von Projekten zur Armutsbekmpfung am Beispiel einer Mikrofinanzbank in Urubamba, Peru [Sustainable
poverty reduction: Factors for the success
of poverty reduction projects exemplified
by a microfinance bank in Urubamba, Peru]

Martin Schultz: Mehrere der ausgezeichnetsten Chefs und Krieger trugen solche
wirklich schnen Kleidungen... Versuch
einer Typologie der Lederhemden der nrdlichen Plains vor 1850 [Several of the
most distinguished chiefs and warriors
wore those very beautiful garments An
attempted typology of Northern-Plains
leather shirts predating 1850]
Susanna Schulz: Guadalupe versus
Guggenheim? Kulturmanagement in
Mexiko als Identittsstifter zwischen
Tradition und Moderne [Guadalupe
versus Guggenheim? Cultural
management and identity formation
in Mexico: Between tradition and
modernity]
Kerstin Strieder: Liebe in interkulturellen Paarbeziehungen [Love in
intercultural romantic relationships]

PhD projects supervised by Prof Hahn

Dr. rer oek. Karl-Heinz Cless: Menschen
am Brunnen. ber Bedeutung und Ver
wendung von Wasser [People at the well.
On the meaning and use of water]
Anamaria Depner: Wie viele Dinge braucht
der Mensch? Potential und Ambivalenz der
Ding-Mensch-Beziehung [How many things
does a person need? The potential and
ambivalence of the relationship between
things and people]

Waste picker from a waste

picking family, Calcutta, India.
Photo: Nandini Sen Roy, 2011

21

22

Studying at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Sindy Form: Ethnologie in der Schule Die

Vermittlung ethnologischen Wissens in der
ffentlichkeit [Anthropology at school
The presentation of anthropological knowledge in the public sphere]

Supporters of
the Aceh Party,
Banda Aceh,
Indonesia.

David Geist: Innerstaatliche Migration

und Narrative der Abgrenzung in Burkina
Faso [Domestic migration and narratives
of distinction in Burkina Faso]
Kathrin Knodel: Der Brautpreis in Burkina
Faso, Westafrika Gter, Moral und Moderne
[Bride price in Burkina Faso, West Africa
Commodities, morality and modernity]
Anna Lefik: Sri Lanka und die Auswirkungen des Fairen Handels auf die Gesellschaft
Eine wirtschaftsethnologische und entwicklungsethnologische Perspektive [Sri
Lanka and the social effects of fair trade
A view from the perspective of economic
and development anthropology]
Wiebke Mattheus-Weigelt: Die ethnographische Sammlung der Stadt Kassel: Bedeutung, Bewertung und Umgang mit Objekten
[The ethnographic collection of the city of
Kassel: Scholarly significance, analysis and
the treatment of objects]
Nina Mller: Sicherheitskonflikte, Sicherheitskonzepte und -akteure in Nigeria
[Security conflicts, security concepts and
security actors in Nigeria]
Grace Preuss: Chinas influence on Africa:
Consumption, culture and identity in urban
and rural Tanzania
Sebastian Prothmann: Tugal walla Djolof:
Negotiations of staying or leaving among
young men in Pikine, Senegal

Studying at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Constanze Dupont: Die Integration von

H andelsgtern berseeischer Provenienz in
matrimoniale Tauschzyklen: Ethnographische
Fallbeispiele [The integration of foreign
c ommodities in matrimonial barter cycles:
Ethnographic cases]

Photo:
Gunnar Stange,
2009

Geraldine Schmitz: Market money A

study about money, commodities and gifts
on Northern Ghanaian markets
Alexander Scholz: Der ethno- und kultur
phnomenologische Kulturbegriff
[The anthropological and phenomenological
foundations of the concept of culture]
Emanuel Seitz: Argyrion, Chrysos und Chremata: Gter, Geld und Gaben im f rhen Griechenland [Argyrion, Chrysos, and Chremata:
Goods, money and gifts in a ncient Greece]
Qader Shammo: The Yezidis in Iraq
between c itizenship and marginalization
policy (1991 2005)
Judit Smajdli: Wandel und Dynamik lokaler
Identittskonzepte innerhalb einer Flchtlingsgesellschaft. Individuelle und kollektive Identittskonzepte saharauischer Flchtlinge nach
33 Jahren Exil [Change and dynamics of
local identity concepts in a refugee society.
Individual and collective concepts of identity
among Sahraouian refugees after thirty-three
years of exile]
Hanna Sotkiewicz: Mystik und Magie
der Gebrauchsgegenstnde der Tuareg
gestern, heute und als Touristenmagnet
[The mysticism and magic of articles of
daily use among the Tuareg in the past and
present, and as a magnet for tourism]

Philippe Yangala: Straenkinder in der

Demokratischen Republik Kongo: Ethnologische Analyse der Problematik der endogenen Entwicklung eines afrikanischen
Landes [Street children in the Democratic
Republic of Congo: An anthropological
analysis of the problem of endogenous
development in an African country]
Roger Yanogo: Wirtschaftsethnologische
Analyse der textilen Produktionskette in
Burkina Faso und Untersuchung zur Ver
besserung der Absatzbedingungen der
Weber [An analysis of garment production
in Burkina Faso from an economicanthropological perspective and approaches
to the the improvement of market conditions
for weavers]
Corine Yonk: Femmes camerounaises en
devenir: Cas de la femme bamilk entre
traditions et transitions [Becoming
Cameroonian women: The case of Bamilk
women between traditions and transitions]

Dirk Lang: Zur Rolle von Fremdeinflssen

in Konstituierungs- und Systematisierungs
prozessen religiser Konzepte in WestIndonesien [The role of external influences
in the constitution and systematization of
r eligious concepts in western Indonesia]
Ronja Metzger: The Face of FESTAC: Zu
R ezeption, Rekonstruktionen und Restitution einer geraubten Maske vom Knigreich
B enin (Nigeria) im British Museum [The face
of FESTAC: Reception, reconstructions, and
r estitution of a stolen mask from the Kingdom
of Benin (Nigeria) in the British Museum]
Katja Rieck: konomische Gegen-Diskurse
in postkolonialen sozialen und politischen
Bewegungen am Beispiel Indiens: ein Beitrag
zu Normenwandel und zur Herausbildung
post-kolonialer Subjektivitten
[Economic counter-discourses in post-colonial
socio-political movements in India: Normative
change and the formation of post-colonial
subjectivities]
Janina von Rmer: Pusaka-Ahnenschtze
im ostindonesischen Raum: Fremdkulturelle
Herkunft und sakrale Verwendung [Pusaka
Ancestral treasures in East Indonesia: Foreign
origin and sacred use]

PhD projects supervised by Prof Kohl

Matthias Debald: Die Indigenisierung der
Psychologie. Wissenschaft in Globalisierungsprozessen zwischen kultureller Identitt und Erkenntnis [Globalizing science:
Between cultural identity and insight. The
indigenisation of psychology]

Nathalie Scholz: Indianische Helden und NSIdeologie: Sammlung und Werke des Malers
Emil Elk Eber [American Indian heroes and
National Socialist ideology: the collection and
works of the painter Emil Elk Eber]

23

24

Studying at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Silja Thomas: Grenzgnge des Geschlechts. Ethnologische Perspektiven

[Margins of gender: Ethnographic case
material in the politics of gender]

PhD projects supervised by Dr Quack

Alexander Blechschmidt: Organized
atheism, humanism, and freethought in
the Philippines: Social practices, lived
experiences, and political dimensions of
being nonreligious in a religious nation
Susanne Schenk: Nonreligion in
Sweden Humanistic organisations
and their influence on social change
Cora Schuh: The merit of nuance
Secularism, religious minorities and
Anti-Islamic populism

PhD projects supervised by Prof Schrter

Lubna Azzam: Womens rights and gender
transformations in contemporary Egypt
Sylvia L. Bakarbessy: Humanitarian
assistance in Indonesia
Parfait Bokohonsi: Ahnen, Gtter und
Geister in der Diaspora: Zu Reproduktionsprozessen der Vodun-Praktiken im trans
nationalen (Familien-) Kontext [Ancestors,
gods, and spirits in the diaspora: The
reproduction of Vodun practices in
transnational (family) contexts]
Enida Delalic: Gebrochene Geschichten.
Das Trauma in der Erzhlung [Broken
stories. The trauma in the narrative]

Bele Grau: Frauenrechtsaktivistinnen

in Afghanistan [Womens rights activists
in Afghanistan]
Hakan Kalayci: Migration und Devianz
eine Studie unter trkischstmmigen
jugendlichen Gefngnisinsassen
[Migration and deviance A study among
juvenile prison inmates of Turkish descent]
Amporn Marddent: Gender piety of
Muslim women in Thailand
Stephanie Michel: Zivilgesellschaftliche
Frauenorganisationen im Kontext von Religion,
Tradition und arabischem Sozialismus Eine
Studie ber geschlechtsspezifische Entwicklungspolitik in Syrien [Civil society womens
organizations in the context of religion,
tradition, and Arab socialism A study on
gender-specific development policy in Syria]
Roman Patock: Vershnung und Reintegration
- Die Wiedereingliederung ehemaliger Kmpfer
nach dem Friedensschluss in Aceh im Rahmen
langfristiger Friedenssicherung
[Reconciliation and reintegration The postconflict reintegration of ex-combatants in the
context of long-term peace building in Aceh]
Nandini Sen Roy: Marginalization among a
Muslim squatter community in Calcutta
Alewtina Schuckmann: Soziale Transformationsprozesse in Marokko Gender, Medien
und Jugend [Social transformation processes
in Morocco - Gender, media, and youth]
Antonius Ario Seto Hardjana: New media
in Indonesian everyday life: New mobile
media, the construction of being and
transnational practices in a post-colonial
society and a post-authoritarian state

Studying at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Gunnar Stange: Postsezessionismus?

P olitische Transformation und
Identittspolitik in Aceh, Indonesien,
nach dem Friedensabkommen 2005
[Post-Secessionism? Political
t ransformation and identity politics
in Aceh, Indonesia, after the 2005
peace accord]
Suratno: Return to the straight path:
The de-radicalization of radical Muslims
in contemporary Indonesia

Rock Creek Wacipi, Bullhead,

South Dakota (Standing
Rock Indian Reservation).
Photo: Markus H. Lindner, 2002

Sonia Zayed: Transformation von

Genderverhltnissen in Tunesien
[The transformation of gender relations
in Tunisia]

PhD projects supervised by Prof Trenk

Stefanie Brkle: Die Sonnentnze der
Cheyenne und Lakota-Sioux [The Sun
Dance ceremonies of the Cheyenne and
L akota Sioux]
Torsten Diesel: Gewalt und Gewaltprvention bei Inuit der kanadischen Ostarktis
[Violence and violence prevention among
the Inuit of the East Canadian Arctic]
Andy Reymann: Das religions-ethnologische Konzept des 'Schamanen' in der prhistorischen Archologie am Beispiel von
ausgewhlten Sonderbestattungen des
Endneolithikums und der Frhbronzezeit in
Mitteleuropa [The religious-anthropological
concept of the shaman in prehistoric
archaeology exemplified by selected burials
of the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze
Age in Central Europe]
Sebastian Schellhaas: Prestige und All
tglichkeit: Kulinarischer Wert im nord
westamerikanischen Potlatch [Prestige
and every-day life: Culinary value in the
Potlatch of western North America]
Dirk Steitz: Tribal Gaming: Stammeseigene Glcksspielunternehmen als
Instrument kultureller, gesellschaftlicher
und politischer Revitalisierung der
indigenen Bevlkerung in den USA
[Tribal Gaming: Tribe-owned gambling
enterprises as instruments of cultural,
social and political revitalisation of
indigenous populations in the United
States]

25

26

Contact

Contact

27

Contact
Department of
Social and Cultural
Anthropology
(Institut fr Ethnologie)
Goethe-University
IG-Hochhaus Q5/V5
Grneburgplatz 1
60323 Frankfurt/Main
Germany
Phone
+49 (0) 69/798-33064
Fax
+49 (0) 69/798-33065
Email
ethnologie@em.uni-frankfurt.de
www.ethnologie.uni-frankfurt.de

Main building
Westend Campus,
Goethe-University,
Frankfurt/Main.
Photo: Peter

Content editing:
Hans Peter Hahn
Susanne Schrter
Oliver Bertrand
Dominik Mller
Katja Rieck
Gunnar Stange

Steigerwald, 2009

Layout:
Sebastian Spannring
last updated:
08/2013

Bazaar in Ardebil, Iran.

Photo: Katja Rieck, 2009