Europe

Europe is a region of significant academic interest at ISEK - Social and Cultural Anthropology, due to its transnational relations and networks, internal diversity, and various cultural environments and histories. This continent is characterised by its substantial linguistic, political, and religious diversity. Methodologically, research on Europe is characterised by reflexivity and in-depth analysis of positionality and power relations. Moreover, the study of this region is marked by a focus on the various neo/colonial and political entanglements that characterise the continent's transnational relations and history.

ISEK - Social and Cultural Anthropology researchers specialise in various Western European countries, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK. This regional focus is valuable not only for anthropological research on Europe, but also for the social sciences and humanities more broadly. Research interests at ISEK - Social and Cultural Anthropology include transnational medical networks, modernity, institutionalisation, religious and spiritual plurality, neocolonialism, museum contested heritage, knowledge co-production, care work, psychiatry, gender, queer anthropology, urbanisation, the Anthropocene, migration, mobility and borders, humanitarianism, precarity, ethnicity, secularism, science and technology, kinship, and Christianity.

Field trips in Europe are regularly organised, as well as academic events with a focus on the region. Further information on the scholarship produced at ISEK - Social and Cultural Anthropology in this region can be found on researchers’ personal pages:

Edmée Ballif
Stefan Binder
Alice Hertzog
Olivia Killias
Paola Juan
Alexis Malefakis
Kiah Rutz
Émilie Thévenoz
Lindsay Vogt
Michelle von Dach