Museum anthropology / museum studies, museums in and on Africa. Political anthropology, state and governance. Anthropology, art and visual culture.

Sub-Saharan Africa, interlacustrine states of the Great Lakes area (Burundi, Rwanda, East Congo / Kivu, Uganda)

Thomas Laely is a cultural anthropologist with a focus on museology, political anthropology and African studies. He has been the Deputy Director of the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, from 2010 up to 2019. In previous years he was active in international arts promotion, 1994 – 2010, establishing and directing the International Department of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. Currently, he is concentrating on issues of the history and perspectives of ethnological museums, particularly the exploration of new practices of collaboration between cultural history museums in Europe and Africa.