Welcome to the Institute for Cultural Anthropology/ European Ethnology at the University of Münster
Cultural Anthropology/ European Ethnology is one of the disciplines that emerged from the field of Folklore Studies (Volkskunde). The discipline combines research approaches from the Social Sciences and Humanities and is currently taught at 25 universities in Germany.
The Institute for Cultural Anthropology/ European Ethnology at the University of Münster was established in 1954 and comprises two full professorships. The research and teaching focus of the Institute are the study of everyday life and popular culture in contemporary and historical perspectives. Our methodologies and objectives include current approaches from Cultural Anthropology and Historical Anthropology. The empirical research focus and expertise of our team are museum and museology, collections, material culture, history of anthropological disciplines, family and kinship.
OVERVIEW/ CONTENTS
ACADEMIC STAFF
Professor Lioba Keller-Drescher (Head of Department)
Research Areas: Material Culture, Museum and Collections, Clothing Research, Visual Culture, Regional Culture, History of the Humanities
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Professor Elisabeth Timm
Research Areas: History of Folklore Studies, Family and Kinship, Popular Genealogy, Theories of Culture, Ethnographic and Historical Methods
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Senior Lecturer
PD Dr. Timo Luks
Research Areas: Theories and Methods of Social and Cultural History, History of Social and Cultural Anthropology, History of Work, Police History
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Graduate Researchers
Maria Sigl, MSc, MA
Research Interests: Trachten/ Traditional Costumes, Clothing Research, Heritage, Historism/ Historicism, King Ludwig II
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Julius Virnyi, MA
Research Interests: Honour and Honouring, Onomastics, History of the University, History of Folklore Studies
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PROFESSIONAL SERVICES STAFF
Administrative Office
Library Team
Silvia Butschei: Administration, acquisitions, cataloguing
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Lisa Hannen: Administration, website, IT support
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Lisa Wegmann: Administration, acquisitions, cataloguing
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Which courses are currently offered in English?
You can find a list of courses offered (BA and MA level) at our Faculty here: https://www.uni-muenster.de/GeschichtePhilosophie/StudiumLehre/lehrfs.html
Which referencing style should I be using for my course work?
Exchange students may use the Harvard referencing style for any course work delivered in English.
SELECT PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH PROJECTS (available in English)
For a full list please see our staff main page (German).
Research Projects
2015-2018 Research Association, funded by the BMBF:
Latest publications in English
Timm, Elisabeth (2023): Genealogy of Illegitimacy: Peopling a Book. In: Shadow of the Tree (cache 3) (Zürich: intercom Verlag), ed. by Ruth Amstutz, Eric Hounshell, III/25-III/32. Open access.
Timm, Elisabeth (invitation and concept, 2023): Debate: Default Participation. Utopian and Dystopian Populism Challenging Research and Knowledge in Public. Statement Markus Miessen: Crossbenching, Publics, and Their Assemblies; responses: Christopher M. Kelty, Raúl Acosta, Serhat Karakayali, Nico van der Heiden and Chantal Magnin, Marcin Brocki, Dirk Thomaschke, Carolin Krämer. Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften 1, pp. 131-161. open access
Mimica, Tena; Nieradzik, Lukasz and Timm, Elisabeth (2019)): Embellyshing Pictures, Gifting Welfare: Mapping Contemporary Pregnancy Photography between Popular and Municipal Uses in Vienna. In: body politics. Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte 7(11): 229-256.
Timm, Elisabeth (2019): The single-family home between politics, consumerism, and the everyday: locating the West German case. In: Anne Caplan, Christiane Cantauw, Elisabeth Timm (eds.): Housing the Family. Locating the Single-Family Home in Germany. Berlin: jovis, pp. 12-28.
Timm, Elisabeth (2019): Confession and images. How universities present themselves with academics and their families. In: Christian Vogel, Sonja E. Nökel (eds.): Gesichter der Wissenschaft. Repräsentanz und Performanz von Gelehrten in Porträts. Göttingen: Wallstein, pp. 179-192.
Keller-Drescher, Lioba (2014): From Princess Bride to Fashion Queen: Wedding Gowns as a Strategy and Spatial and Physical Staging Act. In: Flicker, Eva; Seidl, Monika (eds.): Fashionable Queens: Body - Power - Gender. (Austrian Studies in English, Vol. 103). Frankfurt/Main, Berlin, Bern, New York, Wien: Peter Lang, pp. 37-48.
Keller-Drescher, Lioba (2013): The Promise of Things. In: Monique Scheer et al. (eds): Out of the Tower. Essays on Everyday Life. Tübingen: Tübinger Vereinigung für Volkskunde, pp. 273-287.
Timm, Elisabeth (2012): Grounding the Family. Locality and its Discontents in Popular Genealogy. In: Ethnologia Europaea. Journal of European Ethnology 42(2): 36-50.