Research Vision

We aspire to engage in original and cutting-edge anthropological research that pushes the boundaries of existing knowledge in order to contribute to societal change.

We see fieldwork as the cornerstone of anthropological knowledge production and pride ourselves with covering all major ethnographic regions of the world. At the heart of our collective research vision lies a shared commitment to an engaged anthropology, which seeks to combine, in different and often experimental ways, a critical attention to pressing social problems and their potential solutions. We always aspire to formulate cutting-edge anthropological theories based on solid bodies of ethnography originating from creative combinations of new and old methods. Thus, our vision boils down to what we like to call The Triple E:

Engagement

Department of Anthropology's research aspires to be collaborative, critical, and consequential. People with whom we work matter to us, and we try to matter to them. We are moved by the world and want to move it in turn.

Ethnography

Department of Anthropology's research aspires to be empirically detailed and yet comparative in scope. We believe in difference, in the ethical, epistemological, and the political potential of a world of diverse peoples and places.

Experimentation

Department of Anthropology's research aspires to be methodologically innovative and theoretically explorative. We see it as our mission to experiment with our methods, our concepts, and with our modes of collaborating with other disciplines.