Social and Cultural Anthropology

The subject of social and cultural anthropology is everything human. During your studies, you will deal with cultural and social processes in a wide variety of contexts in different parts of the world and learn how to describe, compare and interpret them.

The introductory modules familiarise you with the central working methods of the subject and sensitise you to the diverse interrelationships between local lifeworlds and global contexts. You will be familiarised with the historical roots of the subject, its current characteristics and visions for the future. You will learn about exemplary fields of application and gain your first experience with empirical social and cultural anthropological research methods. For the "Introduction to specific subject areas", you can choose from the four subject areas of politics/social relations, economics, human-environment relations and religion, two of which must be chosen. These courses teach basic terms, concepts, theoretical discussions and current points of contention in the respective areas.

In the "Selected Topics in Social and Cultural Anthropology" module, you will be introduced to general ways of thinking and approaches in social and cultural anthropology using regionally, thematically or theoretically focussed topics as examples and gain multi-perspective insights into specific subject areas. The content of the specific courses varies from semester to semester and is orientated towards current research topics and the interests of the students. The courses offered in the advanced modules "In-depth study of social and cultural anthropological issues I & II" are similarly variable and serve to intensively examine thematic issues. You will learn to develop your own theoretical analyses, formulate academic positions or solutions to problems and argue for them.

As part of the compulsory elective modules "Study project" / "Professional practice" / "Social and cultural anthropology studies at a university abroad", you can set your own regional and content-related priorities and develop an individual profile during your studies. You can choose between the formats of practical research, internship or semester abroad. The exercise research can be carried out both self-organised and as part of international tandem teaching research with the Gadjah Mada University of Yogyakarta (UGM) in Indonesia.