More previous student training research projects
2019/20
Visibly secure: Visualization methods of the security society
Led by Katharina Eisch-Angus and Klaus Hernitschek
Fears, uncertainties, and the contradictory regimes of security: All of this we experienced during the Corona pandemic, yet there is nothing new. Whilst social orders and relations have crumbled, and the welfare state has been cut down for many years, the hype of security thrives. But how to research the ambivalences of (in)security, how to film paranoia?
For one year, as students of European Ethnology, we were on our way searching for the insecurities of the everyday. We quickly noticed how empty and meaningless public security discourse is, and how loaded with economical, moral and political evocations.
In our neighbourhoods, in alarmed houses and unprotected homes, and urban and private spaces we talked to people and questioned our own paranoia. Out came seven ethnographic essays and a short documentary film – to be on the safe side.
The Master's student training research projects 2019/2020 culminates in the joint production of an ethnographic film "'My paranoia is not without reason.” A film on the safe side" and the blog "Ethnography on the safe side" .
Within the 2019/20 annual theme: SAFE SPACES - PRIVATE AND PUBLIC IN VIEW
2018/19
The street - an urban space in motion
Led by Johanna Rolshoven and Judith Laister
Streets are spaces in motion. They are central places of urban life worldwide. They offer space for traffic, trade and consumption, for communication and exchange, for festivals, demonstrations and other events of various kinds. In a democracy, streets are central public spaces. Social power relations and everyday conflicts are reflected "on the street", both in terms of structural features and social use. Films, songs, literature and images represent the various facets of this dynamic cultural space.
In the summer semester, the project seminar "The street - an urban space in motion" focussed on the theoretical and methodological basics of cultural analysis and accompanied students' own empirical research embedded in the group, from the identification of topics to visual, acoustic and textual implementations. The aim of the summer semester project was, with professional help, to produce a wall newspaper which was presented at the public conference "Demokratie und Frieden auf der Straße" at the end of June. In the second part of the seminar, in winter semester 18/19, we worked together on a written format for the media presentation of the research results. The results were published in a special volume of the open access journal >mcsj>.
Within the 2018/19 annual theme: SOCIAL MOBILITIES - PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
2017/18
Inherited things: between symbolic and economic practice
Led by Burkhard Pöttler
Inheritance as a cultural process against the background of economic, legal and social conditions represents the main content of this project or, in other words, the "emotions and interests" associated with the process of inheritance. Both current sensitivities and historical aspects are of importance, the material side as well as the symbolic. Inherited things can have great idealistic significance for the heirs without high material value, can stand for close social relationships or a lifelong inheritance process, for example for a transfer of knowledge and skills. However, inherited items can also symbolize negative experiences or forms of oppression.
As "unearned wealth", large inheritances are the subject of political debate about their taxation and contribute to the reproduction and increase of social inequality. However, inheritances can also be unaffordable, such as a desolate house, and they can become the starting point for kinship entanglements. Unwelcome inheritances, such as home furnishings that need to be disposed of, add another facet to the issue. In the course of the project year, the plan developed to communicate the research results to the public in the form of a scientific print publication and an exhibition. The design concept and implementation of the exhibition was supervised by graduate restorer Erika Thümmel. The book was published as a special volume in the series "Grazer Beiträge zur Europäischen Ethnologie"
Within the annual theme 2017/18: ERBE_N: POWER. EMOTION. MEMORY.
2016/17
Heroes - Representations of male lone fighters
Led by Johanna Rolshoven
Representations of male lone fighters" fits in with the Institute's 2016 annual theme: "Critique of representation". Thematically, it is about an empirically tangible starting point for dealing with current social issues. The attacks carried out worldwide in the name of jihad, which is interpreted as a "war of God", confront us with the figure of the lone male fighter and hero: The suicide bomber is a social figure that has already appeared in the history of the 20th century in the guise of the kamikaze, guerrilla, terrorist, resistance fighter or partisan, among others. The figure unites a (pre-)image repertoire of attributions that are deeply rooted in culture and are highly functional here. Using critical representational analyses, male images and self-images will be deciphered using semiotic, hermeneutic and image-analytical methods and their history, contexts, functions and interpretations will be developed. The course conveys the theoretical and methodological foundations of cultural analysis. As a result, the exhibition "Heroes. Representations of Gender, Powerlessness and Power" was developed and shown in public and a book publication was produced.
Within the annual theme 2016/17: CRITICISM OF REPRESENTATION
2015/16
The Styrian gaze. Aesthetic performance and Volkskunde
Led by Katharina Eisch-Angus, Erika Thümmel and Judith Laister
42 pairs of wooden eyes meet us - and stare over us. The Graz Hall of Costumes, the last of its genre, unsettles, fascinates, polarizes. From the ambivalent connotations of wearing traditional costume to the horror of the animated artefact figure, it stages the eerily homely aspects of our time in a museum setting. Here, the contradictory legacy of bourgeois longings, the discourses of modernity and anti-modernity and the collective memory of war and fascism interplay..
The research group examined the historical "Trachtensaal" at the Folk Life Museum of Graz as a polyvalent spatial installation between applied science and art. The starting point is the ambivalent tension that arises on the one hand from the folkloristic concern of conveying Styrian traditional costume (the "homely") and on the other hand from the impressions of sculptural figurines (the "uncanny"). From here, new perspectives on interrelationships between folklore and art and on questions of searches for identity are opened up. The research results and reflections have been published as a book, at various specialist forums (e.g. conference lectures) and via an intervention/exhibition "Unheimlich heimisch. Wege zum Trachtensaal" and participatory activities to the regional and national public as well as to technical and professional experts.
Publication: Katharina Eisch-Angus (ed.): Unheimlich heimisch. Kulturwissenschaftliche BeTRACHTungen zur volkskundlich-musealen Inszenierung (=Grazer Beiträge zur Europäischen Ethnologie, Sonderband). Vienna: Löcker, 2016. 268 pages ǀ 175 color illustrations ǀ 29,80 € ǀ ISBN: 978-3-85409-806-5
Within the 2015/16 annual theme: DIMENSIONS OF THE POLITICAL
2014/15
The petrol station as a place of encounter
Led by Helmut Eberhart
The courses were intended to test the hypothesis that petrol stations fulfill a social function that goes far beyond their core task. It was assumed that petrol stations are also places of encounter, serve shopping (especially on Sundays) and function as communication centers. The idea was that petrol stations not only serve mobility, but also provide a place of stability for people in the surrounding area. In both urban and rural areas, petrol stations proved to be a sometimes fully-fledged replacement for the closed inns. The emergence of petrol stations as a center of communication is thus directly related to the so-called "Beislsterben" (dying of the pub). In the meantime, further seminars and a working group have been held on this topic. On April 12, 2019, the annual exhibition of the Styrian Folklore Museum will open on this topic.
Within the 2014/15 annual theme: ÜBERGANGSRÄUME. THE CULTURAL AND SOCIAL IN-BETWEEN
2013/14
Open City
Led by Johanna Rolshoven
The topic of the "open city" arises from the discussion about the urban public sphere and the loss of public space, which is currently one of the most pressing spatial issues in science and planning. Questions of space are always questions of society: it is about social, cultural, political, economic and legal participation - about processes of inclusion and exclusion in cities and thus about fundamental questions of cultural anthropology.
The event deals with the concept of the Open City, which is designed from the perspective of various disciplines concerned with the city. The description of the city as an open city thinks of the city primarily from its marginal phenomena and is thus oriented towards urgent social agendas.
The open city describes the city as a space of possibility in which individuals and groups participate in the development and use of urban space. It poses the question of individual access to space, networks and resources in the city as a living space and asks what contribution architecture and urban planning can make to solving social problems.
Open City" exhibition at the GrazMuseum in collaboration with Sibylle Dienesch and Astrid Kury.
Two publications have emerged from the project:
- Johanna Rolshoven / Robin Klengel (eds.): Offene Stadt. Niches, perspectives, spaces of possibility. Graz 2014
- Martin Behr / Sibylle Dienesch / Astrid Kury / Johanna Rolshoven (eds.): Offene Stadt. Concepts for urban in-between spaces. Graz: Publisher Anton Pustet 2015.