News

Guest lecture by Prof. Brković at Harvard University

02.12.2024

On October 9, Prof. Dr. Brković gave a lecture titled "Racialized Socialism: Humanitarian Imaginaries in the Yugoslav Red Cross During the Nonaligned Movement" at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. She is a Visiting Fellow there during the Winter 2024 semester. More information can be found here.

As part of her stay in the U.S., Prof. Dr. Brković also gave three more lectures at the University of Illinois, Indiana University, and Syracuse University, where she presented her new book.

New special issue of Journal for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe, edited by Dr. Alina Jašina-Schäfer (JGU) and Nino Aivazishvili-Gehne (IOS Regensburg)

27.08.2024

Dr. Alina Jašina-Schäfer, our research associate in Cultural Studies/European Ethnology, together with Nino Aivazishvili-Gehne (IOS Regensburg), has published a new open access special issue, including the introduction, in the Journal for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe titled “Migration, Post-Socialism, and Diasporic Experiences: Fragmented Lives, Entangled Worlds”. This issue critically examines the migration and diasporic experiences of people from the former Soviet Union. It delves into the complex histories of migrants, their present realities, and future aspirations. The collection specifically explores the relevance of "(post-)socialism" in interpreting the nuanced transformations within diasporic life. It examines how connections are forged, disconnections are navigated, and how past experiences are continually intertwined and reconfigured, thereby shaping the post-migration context.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111369204

New issue of Berliner Blätter, Vol. 88 (2023): Troubling Gender. Anthropological Perspectives on Gender Politics in/of Europe

22.03.2024

In recent years, the politics of gender and sexuality have turned extremely hostile across Europe. Long fought for rights and antidiscriminatory politics have come under heavy attack, while Gender Studies programs have been banned. In tandem, feminist arguments are being instrumentalized by right-wing movements and gender/sexuality are used as markers of both progress and backwardness within the postsocialist European landscape reproducing old and creating new hierarchies within the societies and between them. »Troubling Gender« brings together queer/feminist voices and ethnographic analyses from the Eastern and Western European contexts seeking to make sense of these developments and of their local and regional articulations; it examines the possibilities for solidarity across different positionalities and engages with diverse histories of struggle.

MA graduate Mara Hoffmann awarded 2023 Lutz Röhrich Prize

02.11.2023

The 2023 Lutz Röhrich Prize of the Walter Kahn Fairy Tale Foundation (Märchenstiftung Walter Kahn) was awarded to our graduate Mara Hoffmann, M.A.. Her Master's thesis entitled "The 'Sleeping Beauty of the Palatinate' - a cultural anthropological look at the fairytale village of Dörrenbach" was supervised by PD Dr. Christina Niem and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Mirko Uhlig. The Märchenstiftung's award ceremony was held at the same time as the European Fairy Tale Award in Volkach am Main at the end of September. Congratulations, Mara!

Read more in the accompanying press release (in German).

New issue of the journal ‘Volkskunde in Rheinland-Pfalz’

05.09.2023

The new issue of the journal ‘Volkskunde in Rheinland-Pfalz’ has been published, and for the first time all content is freely available through Open Access. The current issue primarily brings together contributions from students of cultural anthropology in Mainz, who present the results of their final theses in essay form. These are six Bachelor’s and two Master’s theses. There was already such a focus in 2012. The issue at that time mainly offered summaries of master’s theses that depicted the broad spectrum of research and teaching at the Mainz location. Once again, students are given the opportunity to make their research accessible to an interested public.

Volume 38 (2023) can be found at http://digitale-kulturanthropologie.de/.

New publication and volume by Milana Čergić

24.05.2023

Dr. des. Milana Čergić, research associate in Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology, together with Mehdi Belasri and Andrea Umberto Gritti, has published a new volume of the journal Balkanologie: Revue d’études pluridisciplinaire under the title "Entrepreneurs et mutations économiques dans les Balkans, XIX^e-XXI^e siècle [Entrepreneurs and economic change in the Balkans, 19th–21st century]". Among the various contributions on entrepreneurship in the Balkans is Dr. Čergić’s paper "Un businessman « poussé » par l’élite politique ou un bienfaiteur ? Négocier le succès entrepreneurial en Bosnie-Herzégovine [A Businessman “Pushed” by the Politicians or a Benefactor of Society? Negotiating Entrepreneurial Success in Bosnia and Herzegovina]".

MSCA MasterClass for Postdocs 14–16 June 2023

10.05.2023

In November 2023, the FORTHEM Alliance once again decisively expanded its range of activities and is now also increasingly turning its attention to supporting young scientists. To this end, the nine partner universities have set up their own FORTHEM Academy for Early-Stage Researchers. Over the next four years, FORTHEM will offer courses in the following areas:

1. Networking of young academics with academics from partner universities at all career levels
2. Diverse training in the form of workshops, MasterClasses, etc.
3. Trainings and activities around the topic of Open Science (FORTHEM Journal, Science Slams, etc.)
4. Setting up a FORTHEM mentoring programme
5. Reforms in the assessment of science
6. Strategy development for sustainable support of young scientists within the framework of the FORTHEM Alliance

As one of the first measures, only one MasterClass will be held for postdocs who plan to conduct their own research project at one of the FORTHEM universities while applying for a Marie Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship from the European Commission. Participants in the MasterClass will receive a detailed introduction to the topic and the application formalities, meet former reviewers, learn from successful applicants and receive personal support and a wide range of information material in the event of an application.

For further information on the MasterClass and the link to the registration as well as an overview of the FORTHEM Academy for Young Scientists, please click on the following links:

FORTHEM Academy for Early-Stage Researchers

FORTHEM MasterClass for MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships

Visiting Professor from Spain (28 April–5 May 2023)

26.04.2023

We are pleased to welcome Professor for ‘Antropología Social’ Dr. Antonio Miguel Nogués Pedregal von der Universität Miguel Hernández in Elche, Spain, as our guest. He is visiting Johannes Gutenberg University for the third time as part of the Erasmus+ programme and will be giving lectures and seminars. As a social and cultural anthropologist, Nogués Pedregal researches in particular on the topics of tourism and leisure, festivals, customs and rituals, as well as on questions of cultural heritage. In addition to heritage studies, political anthropology is another focus of his research and teaching.

Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow Milorad Kapetanović

16.04.2023

We are very pleased to welcome Milorad Kapetanović as a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow for the 2023 summer semester. Dr. Kapetanović is a Marie Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Habsburg and Balkan Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Kapetanović will offer two courses in the SoSe for Mainz students: ‘Wild Peoples: Gender, Race and Desire in the Colonial Gaze of European Ethnology and Beyond’ and ‘Feminist Approaches to Pornography: Abuse, Liberation and the Marketisation of Images’.