Our research focuses on a critical analysis of categories of difference and their political effectiveness. We investigate how dynamics of knowledge production relate to questions of (in)equality and processes of inclusion and exclusion. Social movements, migration and border regimes, economic justice, forms of racialization, and politics of belonging all count among our empirical fields.
LATEST FROM THE BLOG:

Racial anthropology from Germany to India
a transnational look at the scientific racialization of human diversity by Thiago Pinto Barbosa “Race” has travelled the world along with many anthropologists. Racial knowledge—as the set of thinking that apprehends human diversity through essentializing relatively fixed categorizations of people, and…
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Far-right anthropologies
by Agnieszka Pasieka Far-right anthropologies One of the things that surprised me most after I began doing research on European far-right youth activists was my research participants’ statements on how much they love anthropology. Not Mussolini, not Christianity, not philosophy, but…
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Institutional Transformation in South Africa and Germany
An Interview with Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni in conversation with Katharina Schramm Katharina Schramm (KS): In your book “Epistemic Freedom in Africa: Deprovincialization and Decolonization”, you make reference to W.E.B. Du Bois, who famously stated in “The Souls of Black Folk” that the…
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Antiracist challenges to the gun violence debate
by Mihir Sharma for Anthropology Now Researchers, activists and artists have demonstrated the devastating intergenerational effects of gun violence, among them trauma and disability/debilitation among survivors and kin of persons shot or killed. Following in the footsteps of work done by…
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Doing Public Anthropology in the Classroom
(Un) Learning ‘Race,’ White Fragility, and Mobilizing Antiracist Pedagogy in Germany by Nasima Selim Introduction On 6 June 2020, thousands of people gathered at Berlin Alexanderplatz in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. While a singular event does not…
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boasblogs: undoing race and racism
Anthropological Interventions with Katharina Schramm, Mihir Sharma, and Manuela Bojadzijev In Germany today, critiques of racism, practices and forms of racialisation, and their multiple entanglements in anthropology have gained renewed prominence. On the one hand, in academic discussions an expansive debate…
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From Bayreuth to New York: Interview with Katharina Schramm
(Excerpt from Interview with Christian Wißler) Since October 2022, you have held the Theodor Heuss Professorship at the New School in New York, a U.S. university with a special tradition: founded in 1919 as the New School for Social Research, after…
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NSSR Welcomes Anthropologist Katharina Schramm as the 2022-2023 Heuss Professor
For the 2022-2023 academic year, The New School for Social Research is excited to welcome Prof. Dr. Katharina Schramm as the Distinguished Theodor Heuss Professor in the Anthropology department. She will give the annual Heuss Lecture on November 2; register here.…
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Anthropology Lecture Series #6: Wild boar – virus – human – pig relations – in the context of the African Swine Fever Pandemic in Brandenburg
14.06.2022 at 18:30, register here. by Laura Matt Description: My ethnographic research evolves around the African Swine Fever pandemic in North-Eastern Brandenburg. On September 10, 2020, the first African Swine Fever (ASF) infected wild boar was confirmed in Germany (Brandenburg). The…
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Master of Arts in Social and Cultural Anthropology (M.A.)
The M.A. in Social and Cultural Anthropology is a research-focused master’s program which offers students an advanced orientation in socio-cultural anthropology and guides them through an ethnographic research project. At the heart of the program is the “guided research” component, in…
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Anthropology Lecture Series #5: The Genetic origins of the Cosmic Race: The constitution of time, blackness, and indigeneity in the Universe of Mexican Mestizaje
by Dr. Ernesto Schwartz-Marin 31.05.2022 at 18:30 CET In genomic science, ethno-racial distinctions are intimately tied to the construction of temporality and genetic diversity. The ways in which the construction of time and genetic diversity destabilise, challenge —and sometimes reinforce—notions of…
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Anthropology Lecture Series #4: Decolonizing the Study of the State: Max Weber, Colonialism and African Studies
by Aharon De Grassi Register here: https://t.co/xC6zf2Obao 24.05.2022 at 18:30 CET Conceptualizing the state, corruption, and patronage is crucial to understanding and pursuing justice and liberation, so how are we to grapple with problematic aspects of these concepts’ genealogies involving colonial,…
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Anthropology Lecture Series #3: : Right-wing xenophiles? : discourses on diversity in European far-right communities
by Dr. Agnieszka Pasieka Register here: https://uni-bayreuth.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Ysc–rrD8pEtQhOLinorPUPr8x5huuAZaE Drawing on ethnographic research with Italian and Polish far-right movements, in my talk I aim to shed light on the ways in which members of these movements deploy the notions of “difference” and “sameness”…
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Anthropology Lecture Series: #2: An anthropologist from the Global South Plays with Augmented Reality: Reflections on technology, public spaces, politics, and waste in Maputo
by Anselmo Matusse 10. May 2022, 1830 CET Register here: https://uni-bayreuth.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Ysc–rrD8pEtQhOLinorPUPr8x5huuAZaE The rise of new media has significantly impacted different spheres of society and calls humanities and social scientists to critically engage with new media, mostly in the context of the…
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Anthropology Lecture Series: #1: Breathing Hearts: The Politics and Practices of Sufi Healing in Berlin (An Ethnographic Book Project)
by Dr. Nasima Selim, University of Bayreuth Organized by Prof. Dr. Katharina Schramm 03. May 2022, 6:30 P.M. How do we let go of a Ph.D. dissertation written for the doctoral committee and transform it into an anthropologically informed book for…
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Pneuma: Is Language Enough?
On March 6, 2022, SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin-Wedding hosted PNEUMA: IS LANGUAGE ENOUGH?—a public INVOCATIONS programme accompanying the exhibition THE WIND IN YOUR BODY IS JUST VISITING, YOUR BREATH WILL SOON BE THUNDER, artist Pallavi Paul’s first solo exhibition in Berlin,…
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AG Public Anthropology
Call for contributions. We are looking for anthropologically informed, evocative storytelling from the diverse fields of work we do (public engagement/ teaching/ research/ writing/ illustrating/ filmmaking among others) and/or precise argumentation with illustrative examples related to a topic of public/political interest.…
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The Contradictions of Irawati Karve: A Conversation
Thiago Pinto Barbosa and Urmilla Deshpande An excerpt: Thiago: Umi, how did your interest in writing about Karve come about? Umi: Iru died when I was seven. The idea of a novel based on Irawati’s time as a young woman in…
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What Happens to Race When Empires Crumble?
Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity Network Meeting, 15-16 December 2021 Our two-day event seeks to connect social and cultural anthropology to the crucial activism surrounding heritage, museums, and public culture in Europe today. The event will gather together activists such as…
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RfM-Jahrestagung: Körper und ‚Rasse‘. Konjunkturen von Rassismus in Europa.
Katharina Schramm spricht auf dem Panel „Technologien; Rassismen, Körper“ am Donnerstag um 10.00 Wann: 24. 11.- 26.11.2021 Anmeldung zum Online-Livestream hier: http://www.rfm-jahrestagung.de/#Anmeldung Die Geschichten von Rassismus und Antisemitismus ziehen sich wie ein rotes Band durch die europäischen Gesellschaften. Rassistische Zugehörigkeitsordnungen sind konstitutiv für…
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Special Issue Citizenship Studies
“Claiming citizenship rights through the body multiple” Sabine Netz , Sarah Lempp, Kristine Krause & Katharina Schramm What have affirmative action policies, categorization of care needs,plastic surgery, forensic identification of dead bodies and ageassessments of refugees in common? They all determine…
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„Neue Ansätze in der Museumspraxis – Datenbanken (re)loaded“
New Approaches to Museology: Databases reloaded mit Regina Sarreiter (Foto von goethe.de) „Wir fordern den uneingeschränkten Zugang zu den Museumsbeständen afrikanischer Objekte in Deutschland!“, schrieben mehr als 200 Wissenschaftler*innen, Künstler*innen und Kulturschaffende in einem offenen Brief an die deutsche Kultusministerkonferenz im Oktober 2019.…
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Positive irritations, creative approaches and spaces for discussion – a student project on post- and decolonial theories
Background and Motivation In the summer semester of 2020 we, Vanessa and Semina (BA students at the University of Bayreuth), attended the seminar “Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies”, offered at the Chair of Social and Cultural Anthropology by Thiago Pinto Barbosa. In…
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WORKSHOP
„Undisciplining and Methodologies of Care – Rethinking the Politics of Knowledge in Postcolonial Landscapes” „Undisciplining and Methodologies of Care – Rethinking the Politics of Knowledge in Postcolonial Landscapes” will take place from 8th to 11th July 2021 on campus…
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Wissenschaftsfreiheit / Academic Freedom
,,Wir verstehen Wissenschaftsfreiheit als einen Prozess der Erweiterung von Teilhabe an Wissenschaft, und damit bedeutet Wissenschaftsfreiheit auch Ermöglichung: von Forschung, von Lehre und von Räumen kritischer Auseinandersetzung über jenes System Wissenschaft, dessen Funktionieren auch auf Diskriminierung, Prekarisierung und Ausschluss beruht. ”…
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Reportage: “Gegen die Geopolitik von Deutschland und EU formiert sich transnationaler Protest”
Protest in Berlin an der nigrischen Botschaft, 21 Mai 2021. Foto: Afrique Europe Interact “Die neue Grenzpolitik bleibt sowohl für die nigrischen und algerischen Regierungen als auch für die europäischen Migrationsinteressen profitabel. Dagegen kämpfende Aktivist*innen fordern im Interesse der Menschenrechte eine…
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Nachhaltigkeit braucht Entschleunigung braucht Grundein/auskommen ermöglicht Entschleunigung ermöglicht Nachhaltigkeit
Könnte ein Bedingungsloses Grundein/auskommen die Freiheit und Chancengleichheit eines jede(n) Einzelne(n) fördern und auf diese Weise die maßlose Beschleunigung unserer Zeit eindämmen und so dazu beitragen die begrenzten Ressourcen unserer Umwelt zu schonen? Adrienne Goehler ist dieser und anderen brennenden Fragen…
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