Course outcomes

On this page you find the outcomes of BA and MA courses which emerged from collaborative work processes of the students.

You find impressions of the various projects within the field schools in the BA and MA curriculum here: field school impressions

Broadcasting of podcast contributions from the course "Creating Podcasts in Cultural Anthropology" (WiSe 2024)

Three podcast contributions by MA students in Social and Cultural Anthropology, produced at the department as part of the course Creating Podcasts in Cultural Anthropology (lecturer: Katharina Gartner), will now be broadcast on Radio Orange 94.0 as part of the series Kulturforschung für die Ohren and are also available online via the Cultural Broadcasting Archive (CBA).

• 12.05.2026, 18:00-19:00
  Coming from far. Being Guest in Dancehall Culture
  "Kulturforschung für die Ohren"#1
  by Christina Teufl, Paula Pospichal and Marica Zvonarits
  --> https://de.cba.media/775318

• 15.05.2026, 19:00-19:30
  "de san ur zua"
  Feministische Tanzperformances im öffentlichen Raum mit dem Kollektiv KLAUS
  "Kulturforschung für die Ohren" #2
  by Elena Lach and Tirza Stock
  --> https://de.cba.media/776010

• 19.05.2026, 18:00-19:00
  Vom Hier zum Dort. Glokale Verzweigungen des Wanderns
  "Kulturforschung für die Ohren" #3
  by Hannah Büchel, Magdalena Langheiter and Dunja Zangana
  --> https://de.cba.media/777515

The course 'Creating Podcasts in Cultural Anthropology', conceptualised by Katharina Gartner, formed part of the MA curriculum in Cultural and Social Anthropology focusing on science communication (MM6). It offered the opportunity to test aural formats for communicating cultural anthropological knowledge and ethnographic research approaches from "science to the public" in practice. In particular, elements of the Anthropology of Sound according to Steven Feld were incorporated, and possibilities for public anthropology were critically reflected upon and explored in creative ways.

Working in teams of two or three, the students gradually developed ethnographic or cultural anthropological podcasts on topics of their choice, building on their fieldwork experience and preliminary studies. They were supported by the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab with regard to recording equipment and technical issues.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the students for their particularly dedicated work, as well as the VVAL and Radio Orange for their expert collaboration.

Vernissage "Stories in Objects: Exploring Artifact Histories" (18.03.-30.06.2026)

On March 18, 2026, the exhibition "Stories in Objects: Exploring Artifact Histories" opened. The focus is on hidden stories, cultural contexts, and the social lives of African artifacts, explored in the seminar "Object biographies. Collection history and changing meanings of museum artifacts from Africa" (winter semester 2025) led by Constantin Vidal.

In this exhibition, the students share their research on African artifacts, exploring the fascinating stories behind these objects and the cultural contexts they've traveled through. Inspired by Igor Kopytoff's concept of the 'cultural biography of things,' they've delved into complex histories, meanings, and power dynamics shaping these artifacts' lives.

Through their posters, you'll discover how African objects have moved from ritual spaces to museums, markets, and back again, gaining and shedding meanings along the way. Our students' work highlights the dynamic relationships between objects, cultures, and histories – and the importance of understanding these connections.

The idea behind of the exhibition is

• to share our research on African artefacts and their cultural significance with the public
• to showcase the students' understanding of object biographies and cultural context
• to foster dialogue and exchange between the institute and the community
• to promote cross-cultural understanding and appreciation of African cultures
• provide a platform for students to present their work and receive feedback.

The course instructor Constantin Vidal would like to thank his students for their dedication and for this exceptional piece of academic work, which provides a wealth of information on African artifacts.

Thinking Archives Ethnographically: Student Projects in Phaidra

The ethnographic field school "Thinking Archives Ethnographically" (winter semester 2025), convened and taught by Philipp Budka, also resulted in a Phaidra collection of digital student products.It brings together outputs developed within 15 student projects (21 students) based on ethnographic research in museums, exhibitions, and archival settings.

The projects rethink archives in a broad sense, exploring how objects such as carpets or private video collections can function as archives, and how archival materials are encountered and given meaning in practice. Combining fieldnotes, photographs, video, audio, and analytical commentary, the digital products foreground archives as lived and performed environments, while their presentation within Phaidra reflects on archives through an archival infrastructure.

The collection is available here: https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/detail/o:2315516

Vernissage "Collaborative Ethnography"

The opening of the exhibition"Collaborative Ethnography" took place on January 27th 2025. The exhibition was designed by MA Students of the department under the supervison of Sabrina Steindl-Kopf. It shows the results of collaborative work in which the research participants were actively involved in the research process and contributed to the production of knowledge as equal partners.

The student's aim of this exhibition is to make the jointly developed knowledge visible beyond pure text productions. They invite a reflective discussion of the exhibition content (reproductive self-determination, BIPoC students at the department and critical masulinities*)

In winter term 2025/26 the exhibition was digitalized for PHAIDRA by Clemens Lafenthaler. 
go to PHAIDRA entry

Theater performance "My Anthropology: That's Anthropology - Performance"

On January 25, 2025, BA students presented their creative realizations, performative sketches and artistic translations based on ethnographic data. In a collaborative process, the theater stage was explored as a space for encounters between ethnography, theater performance and scenic storytelling.

The theater performance emerged from the course „Applied Anthropology and Theater“ under the supervision of Christa Markom and Myassa Kraitt. The aim was to make a part of the discussion of "being anthropological" visible through a different form of representation. The focus was on interdisciplinarity, ethics and responsibility as anthropologists. The main question was "Who are we as anthropologists?" In addition we asked ourselves "How can we translate this for the stage?"

By using techniques like storytelling, improvisation and forum theater, as well as team work and collaborative processes, the students have crossed the line between scientific thinking and artistic creation. The theater was understood as social field that served not only as artistic space but also as a place of political negotiation and mobilization in the sense of Frantz Fanon. Victor Turner's concept of social drama could be used here to illustrate how theater makes conflicts and social tensions visible and negotiates them. These performative processes offer space for reflection, but also for transformation.

CollAct - Collaborative Action Against Discrimination in Anthropology

CollAct emerged from the dynamic and collaborative course "Anti-discriminatory collaborative anthropology between students and teachers" in summer term 2024 under the supervision of Christa Markom. The course dealt intensively with the topic of discrimination.

It was the aim to create a space, where we could collect, document, share und reflect on our experiences together.

The exhibition invites everyone to participate in this transformative process. Designed as a traveling exhibition, CollAct is intended not only to provide insights, but also inspire other departments to also deal intensively with these important topics and to continue the exhibition.

In addition, we hope that such innovative courses will continue, in which collaboration is experienced as an experimental and constantly growing process. Our aim is to gradually dismantle university hierarchies and discrimination - from small structures to larger systems.

Digital exhibition: Politics of (In)visibility

In the summer terms 2022 and 2024 MA students of the department created experimental short films around the topic (in)visibilities within the seminar "Politics of (In)visibility" and under the supervision of Sanderien Verstappen.

As a background: In the first part of the course “Politics of (In)visibility”, students read theories and ethnographic case studies to think about diverse practices of seeing, showing, and concealing in the realm of the state, the media, and in the everyday life of people. From these readings, students chose a conceptual lens to conduct a small-scale research project into a collection of visual representation in the second part of the seminar.

Blog: Good Drugs Bad Drugs

In the seminar "Good Drugs - Bad Drugs. Substances and Subjects in Society" at the Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Bern (WS 2020) and under the supervision of Janina Kehr, students have studied "drugs" as fluid social substances, which have been an important field of research in medical anthropology for two decades. On this blog students present substance biographies that they have worked out in small groups. In summer term 2022 BA students of our department added new substances on the blog within a new edition of the seminar "Good Drugs - Bad Drugs. Substances and Subjects in Society".

virtual exhibition "Leichen im Keller"