Institut für Ethnologie Uni Hamburg

As a visiting professor, from Feb 23 until Feb 27 2026, Julia Pauli will teach a course on ethnographic writing in the graduate program of the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

Julia Pauli has recently contributed a chapter on marriage in Southern Africa in The Sociology of Families, edited by Marina A. Adler and Karl Lenz. Find it here: www.elgaronline.com/...

Wir gratulieren allen Absolvent:innen der Ethnologie des Jahres 2025!
Congratulations to all 2025 anthropology graduates!

As the winter semester is drawing to an end, the last session of the Anthropology Colloquium will have Yaatsil Guevara González (Universität Heidelberg) with talk titled "Intimate Captivities: Affective Labor and the Border Regimes of Care". January 27 from 6-8 pm in room 222, ESA West.

I've published something new: In this piece "Property as Affect", I explore how property as an affective relation shapes the hierarchies of modern life - in its global entanglements of colonialism, capitalism, and modern statehood: doi.org/10.4324/9781....

Join arjunraj for a hands-on collaborative storytelling workshop in Dubai that explores creating narratives with others through embodied and collaborative practices.

🗓 Friday, 23 January 2026
🕜 4:00 – 8:00 PM
📍 KAVE, Dubai
👥 Age: 18+

thestoryofthings.com...

Can indigeneity exist without the state—and can it also be a weapon against it? In our next Anthropology Colloquium, Timo Duile will talk about this, based on his work on adat and indigenous recognition in Indonesia. Tuesday, January 20, 6-8 PM in room 222, ESA West.

At Tuesday's Anthropology Colloquium, Laura Ogden and Rachel Yeboah-Afari presented their collaborative research on transnational siblings, which included a podcast created by young people of Ghanaian background living in Hamburg. Thank you both so much for sharing your work and insights with us!

Julian Sommerschuh and Michael Schnegg have recently published their article "How to Be Hopeful About Climate Change" in the American Anthropologist. Read the article here: doi.org/10.1111/aman...

In next week's anthropology colloquium, Laura Ogden from the University of Maastricht will give a talk titled: "Podcasting Kinship: A co-research project on transnational siblings with Ghanaian-background youth in Hamburg." Tuesday, January 13 from 6-8 PM, Room 222, ESA West.

How to think of the responsibility of the university in a time of crises that are threatening its very existence? In yesterday’s colloquium, Katharina Schramm engaged these difficult questions in an inspiring and timely talk on: “When was the University: On the Future of Engagement”

In our first Anthropology Colloquium of the new year we welcome Katharina Schramm (Uni Bayreuth) with a talk titled "When was the University? On the Future of Engagement". Tomorrow, Tuesday January 5, from 6-8 pm in Room 222, ESA W.

Nicht vergessen: ✨ Winter-Party 2025 ✨
📅 16.12. | ⏰ ab 18 Uhr

Das Institut & der FSR laden zum Jahresausklang ein:
Glühwein 🍷, Mitbringbuffet 🥗, Musik 🎶, Spiele & gute Stimmung – Motto: Sterne ⭐

We invite paper submissions for our EASA2026 panel “Affective Governance: Analysing Atmospheres in Political and Legal Anthropology", convened by Tirthankar Chakraborty and Jonas Bens. Please submit via the EASA online system by 26 Jan 2026, 23:59 CET: nomadit.co.uk/confer... #EASA2026

Michael Schnegg and Jonas Bens have recently contributed an entry on "Atmospheres" in the Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Find it here: anthroencyclopedia.c...

We are inviting contributions to the workshop 'Ethnography and Law: Methods and Challenges in Times of Crisis', which will take place at the University of Hamburg on July 2-3, 2026. Deadline for submission is December 31, 2025. Find full CfP here: www.ethnologie.uni-h...

The new issue of Ethnoscripts Vol. 27 (2025) is out now: Think Pieces and Special Issue: ‘Jewish Cultural Heritage, Minority Agency, and the State’ and more. journals.sub.uni-ham...

In next week's colloquium, we'll be watching the film Dahomey by Mati Diop. The film, which won the main prize at the Berlinale 2024, gives an account of the restitution of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey.

New publication by Julia Pauli: Namibian Wedding Stories: Narrating Kinship and Social Class in Urban Namibia. Appears in the Journal of Southern African Studies. Read it here (open access): www.tandfonline.com/....

Tonight, Andrea Scholz from the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin spoke about her long-term collaboration project with the Macucu community in the Amazon and gave some inspiring insights into how the collaboration transforms both museum practice and the community’s relation to its cultural heritage.

At this year’s meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Michael Schnegg was awarded the Stirling Prize for his article Collective Loneliness: Theorizing Emotions as Atmospheres. We are very proud of this wonderful achievement! Read the article here: http://dx.doi.org/10....

On Tuesday, Andrea Scholz will speak about the collaboration between the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin and the Macucu community, positionality and affective relationships in research and practice, and future prospects of collaborative approaches in times of a shift to the right in cultural policy.

The Comfort of the Unmarked? Dwelling beyond the Returnee Condition in Cuba — Valerio Simoni (University of Lisbon) on how Cuban returnees navigate pressures to “make a difference” and find spaces of pleasure and dwelling. Anthropology Colloquium next Tuesday, November 25, 6–8pm

Alles, was Recht ist – Normative Konflikte und wie sie entstehen Prof. Dr. Jonas Bens erforsch am Fachbereich Kulturwissenschaften wie unterschiedlich rechtliche Fragen in Gesellschaften geregelt werden.

Hier ein aktuelles Interview im Newsroom der Uni Hamburg mit Prof. Jonas Bens über "Normative Konflikte und wie sie entstehen":

Join us on Tuesday, November 18, for our weekly Anthropology Colloquium, where Lars Frühsorge from the Ethnographic collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck will speak about the challenges and potentials of progressive museum practice.

On November 15: Presentation, Conversation and Screening of TWO MOTHERS by Giulia Di Maggio at silent green, Cupola Gerichtstraße 35, Berlin, with Julia Pauli. Feel free to join us! For more information: www.harun-farocki-in...

Next Tuesday, Leonie Benker will be our guest in the Anthropology Colloquium, with a presentation titled "Poisonous Politics: Political Atmosphere and Generational Conflict in Contemporary Uganda". We are looking much forward to hear more about this inspiring research! November 11 from 6 PM.

Maren Jordan has received the Frobenius Institute Research Award 2025 for her outstanding dissertation “Temporalities of Reproduction: Fertility Transformations across Generations in the Sultanate of Oman”, supervised by Prof. Dr. Julia Pauli and Prof. Dr. Laila Prager. We warmly congratulate her!

In next week's anthropology colloquium our student film group AnthropoMedia will be screening the film "O Mundo Preto Tem Mais Vida" by Sabrina Duran. Zica Pires, water activist and artist will be joining us online to discuss the film with us after the screening. November 4, 6-8 PM. Looking forward!

In next week's anthropology colloquium:
Tim Burger (Austrian Academy of Sciences) on "Calculating a Free Gift: Perfect Transfers and the Holy Ghost Festival on the Azores".