News Archive

From 4 to 5 December 2025 a conference entitled “Environmental Rights in Multiple Contexts – Stocktaking and Moving Forward” will be held at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Organized by Dirk Hanschel and his Max Planck Fellow Group “Environmental Rights in Cultural Context”, the conference is dedicated to the question of how environmental rights can help local communities whose everyday lives are threatened by various types of environmental destruction. The conference is supported by funding from the Volkswagen Foundation. more

On 27 und 28 November 2025 the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology will host the annual conference of the CUREDI project. CUREDI (Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe) is an initiative of the Department ‘Law & Anthropology’ at the MPI. The project aims to develop and maintain a publicly accessible database of case law involving issues related to the growing cultural and religious diversity in Europe, which includes analysis, commentary and related anthropological research developed by legal experts. more

Ikuno Naka, Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and Garima Jaju, Smuts Research Fellow at Cambridge University, talk about filming bureaucracy, waithood and the workings of the state in India. Their recent work – an ethnographic short film titled Reception Room, Wing D – was showcased as part of the UK Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival, where the film received Honourable Mention for the Marsh Short Film Prize. more

In June of this year, Julia Vorhölter was awarded funding from the Heisenberg Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a position as Head of Research Group at the MPI. Her project, entitled “Sleep and Sleeplessness in Germany – Rethinking Agency, Knowledge, and Experience through Sleep”, builds on research conducted as a research fellow at the MPI (see selected publications below for more information). In addition to continuing her own research on sleep, she will also join forces with colleagues at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) to establish an interdisciplinary lab that brings together medicine and medical anthropology. The lab will be run in close collaboration with Patrick Jahn, Professor for Health Service Research at MLU. more

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally shook our lives and its global consequences are still being felt today. There is much that has not yet been fully investigated. A lecture by Luisa Piart as part of Science Night in Halle on 4 July will explore one such overlooked story. In addition to children, the sick and elderly, and people living in precarity, there is another group that was particularly affected by the global lockdown – seafarers on international shipping vessels. Piart will present her research on their fates at 18:00 in the Melanchthonianum on the university square. The topic is also the subject of a current exhibition in the Stadtmuseum Halle. Piart will provide a guided tour on Friday, 4 July starting at 21:00. more

The research project “Transforming Human Rights,” based at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), will become a Cluster of Excellence as part of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments. This was announced late Thursday afternoon by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Science Council (WR). The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology is a cooperation partner in this project and congratulates FAU on this outstanding success. more

Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (MPI) is pleased to announce the opening of the public exhibition "in der Nähe" ("In the Nearby") in Neustadt Centrum Halle. As a unique opportunity to rediscover Halle from the perspective of its migrants, the exhibition reflects the MPI’s objective of making our research available to the wider public. Thanks to the support of Neustadt Centrum Halle and the office for the economy, science, and digitalization of the city of Halle (Saale), the exhibition will be on display from 12 May to 7 June 2025. more

The website Ticketless Travellers (https://ticketless-travellers.info/) features writings, pictures, videos, audioscapes, and drawings created by working-class residents of Delhi. Presented in Hindi and English, these narratives showcase an intimate view of the megapolis as seen through the eyes of its labourers. The project draws on 15 years of anthropological research by Ursula Rao, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, in collaboration with Ankur Society for Alternatives in Education. more

At irregular intervals we publish interviews with alumni of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. We find out where they are living and working now, what they are conducting research on, and how their time at the MPI shaped their subsequent careers. In closing they share their advice for young anthropologists and name a book that has impressed them recently. more

Financial institutions around the world have made it easier for private individuals to take out a variety of loans and use financial products to invest and speculate. This trend has affected the ways in which people purchase property, consume desired goods, or cope with financial crises. But the influence of debt and the financial industry extends also beyond the economic sphere to changing lifestyles, gender relations, and familial ties. The conference ‘Household Finance in an Unequal World: Social Approaches’ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology on 5–6 December takes a closer look at these developments. more