Teaching
Teaching Philosophy
I craft my classes in a way that puts authors, artists, and community leaders from many different backgrounds and experiences into conversation with each other. I also design interactive workshops as part of my classes. This way, students engage both their minds and hands as part of a larger community of learners.
Courses: Wintersemester 2023
Click on the collapsible icon to read course descriptions. For more information, visit Universität Bayreuth's Social and Cultural Anthropology site.
Technologies | Technologien
CMLife Code: 54045
The seminar is an introduction to the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). STS is dedicated to the social science analysis of the interplay between knowledge, technology and society. Technologies have not only made industrial society possible and shaped modernity, but are also closely linked to its excesses (e.g. environmental pollution, climate change, post-truth politics). Technologies also dominate and enrich our daily lives and social interactions. Based on empirical case studies we will examine different theoretical and methodological approaches to the relationship between knowledge (science), technology and society. We will address the following questions, among others:
How does science create knowledge? How can a social science analysis of knowledge (science) practices look like?
How are design, dissemination, application, and appropriation of technologies interconnected?
What kinds of societies and politics do certain scientific knowledge, technology and technical infrastructures enable?
What specific questions and challenges arise for an STS that focuses on the global South?
Introduction to Social and Cultural Theory
CMLife Code: 50045
This seminar offers an in-depth introduction to cultural and social theory that were and are formative to anthropological research. We focus on the historical contexts out of which theory arises (e.g., structuralism; feminism, Marxism, poststructuralism; postcolonial theory, posthumanism, etc.), debates about their utility and limitations, and the creation of new theory out of contemporary circumstances. We not only examine knowledge genealogies and theoretical influences but also critically examine the "canon". Co-taught with Lucilla Lepratti.
Social and Cultural Anthropology in African Studies
CMLife Code: 50555
This seminar is an introduction to the role that Africa continues to play in the making and re-making of Anthropology as a discipline. We read and critically examine ethnographies of African lifeways, societies, institutions, cultural practices, beliefs, languages, and political economy, and ask how they have contributed to knowledge production in and about the continent. We critically engage with works by both African and non-African writers and anthropologists. Finally, we reflect on the possibility that anthropology offers in ongoing efforts to reconfigure and reimagine African studies. We address the following questions, among others:
What is the relationship between anthropology and the imagination of Africa?
How does anthropology as a discipline approach the study of social, political, and environmental change in Africa?
How does anthropology as a discipline approach the study of (de)colonialism, governance, tradition/modernity, development, urbanization, gender/sexuality, and science and technology in Africa?
How is anthropological fieldwork related to movements and histories of anti(colonialism) and (anti)racism?
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